Dinner with the Pindars

Dave's cousin and his family live in Reno so we met up for a BBQ.  Dave Sr. and Paula drove over to join us too! Billy and Emily have a big dog (that is very nice) and of course our boys were seriously afraid.  One of Gannon's many allergies are dogs so they are not around them enough to be desensitized and totally freak out every time one comes close to them.  When we first got there Gannon sat on the couch to avoid the dog and fell asleep!  Thank you Billy and Emily for understanding and keeping the dog opposite of where we were.

We had a great dinner and visit with everyone.  Lyla did great playing baseball with Garrett and Gannon and was getting good at "running the bases" by the time we left.  Billy and Emily were so kind to keep the boys for a couple of hours after dinner so Dave and I could have a little "date/card playing" time together. We met up with Dave Sr. and Paula, played a few cards/craps, won a little money, and called it a night.

Boomtown

Our campsite in Reno was just below the Boomtown casino at the KOA.  We had about an hour and half to kill prior to dinner at Dave's cousin's house so we took the boys to play.  What a great little place to beat the heat and get some energy out.  It cost ten bucks per kid to enjoy unlimited activities at Boomtown.  They had a Farris wheel (the covered wagon), a merry go round (the horse wagon), miniature golf, bowling, a bounce house, and tons more.  Needles to say, we were a little late to our BBQ because the boys were having so much fun playing!

Elko, Nevada

Elko was a "break up the drive" stop and although it was much bigger of a place than we expected we ended up staying at the camp.  There were lots of basque restaurants, but surely none that would measure up to Woolgrowers so we hit a grocery store and picked up some steaks.  My simple husband said to grab a can of vegetable and I really wanted something fresh so I grabbed some zucchini.  He was sure glad I was thinking outside the can because he said it was my best squash cooking he'd had! Funny guy.  I guess a little garlic salt and he's pleased!

The campground was very clean and nice so we thought we'd take a swim in their pool.  I don't even know if you could consider it a pool!  It was maybe the size of two hot tubs put together.  When we arrived at the pool Dave was very happy that he didn't have a suit on...three fellow campers that were at least 250 lbs a piece were "swimming" with a small little boy.  Two of the adults proceeded to throw a ball across the pool (remember like a spa!) to each other, splashing everyone with each toss. The little boy waited about 2 minutes before he climbed into my lap and my kids were totally in shock of the entire experience!  The other man waited for our kids to get comfortable enough to get in the pool until he decided to try and teach Gannon how to use a noodle as a water rocket....yes placing water in the noodle, creating a U shape, and blowing as hard as you can into one end of the noodle causing water to shoot out.  PUTTING YOUR MOUTH on the noodle! Thank you please don't share your spit via a noodle with my child!!! I about freaked out and told Gannon to please STOP!  Thank god they left quickly after.  Needless to say it was quite interesting.

The ticket in the picture was Dave's sports bet that proved to be a good choice!!!

Ross Park

After a morning of spending time with Steph doing girl stuff, pedi's, lunch, and shopping, we got all the kids ready to go swimming.  In Pocatello there is a little swim place that is absolutely perfect for little ones. The small pool area was closed for chemicals as we got there and would stay closed for an hour so we started in the lazy river and then moved to the smaller kids area.  The boys were much more comfortable in the little area where they could touch the bottom and run around the play structure.

We ordered pizza and continued our fun afternoon/evening of water!

Richards Family Visit

One of my BEST friends lives in Pocatello, Idaho and she was one of our reasons for this trip! Stephanie and I worked together for a home builder for a couple of years when she was living in California and we have remained great friends since she and her husband moved to Idaho 10 years ago.  We talked on the phone for HOURS every week and have no matter how far apart we are and how different we are we completely understand each other and are there for each other even if that's means just for a chat.  We haven't seen each other since Garrett was around 10 months old and her second son Jett was 8 months old.  Prior to that we saw each other just about every year. 

It was so fun to be able to chat FACE TO FACE with Steph and to finally meet her youngest in person, Berkeley.  Steph had only heard stories of Gannon so it was fun for her to finally meet him also.  All the kids had a great time playing with each other.  It was fun to watch Gannon and Berkeley be the two little ones having a conversation and playing with each other like little buddies. 

Steph and her husband, Lowell, made a great dinner and even better dessert for us too.  Now if we only lived closer we could play and hang out all the time!

Yellowstone National Park

Our first full day in Yellowstone we woke up early, packed our lunches, and headed into the park for a full day.  Since we went in the night before to see Old Faithful we decided to take the counter clockwise loop that was recommended.  The weather was on the cool side and a thunderstorm was in the forecast so we were hoping to see lots of wildlife. 

We stopped at a pretty water fall first and then off to our first geyser of the day.  It didn't take Gannon long to figure out he didn't care to see another geyser on the trip, "they smell disgusting!" As you can see in one of the pictures he is pulling his sweatshirt over his face to block the steam.  At Mammoth Hot Springs Garrett was excited to take a nature walk while Gannon and Daddy went to view the gift shop. 

As we left Mammoth the only wildlife we had see was a chipmunk and tons of squirrels, not my idea off Yellowstone wildlife, I wanted to see some big animals!  Wasn't too long after this on our drive that we reached a parking lot full of people looking and watching something with a ranger guarding....a black bear and her cubs!  I was SUPER excited to jump out of the truck, walk up the trail to see from a better spot, which I couldn't see from.  The ranger was getting quite upset with the crowd trying to take pictures.  He quickly told us to get in our vehicles and leave NOW! Dang it we were blocked by cars behind us for quite some time so we go to watch the bears as they walked around.  It was so cool. 

After that we proceeded to see 17 bison, 8 elk, 1 coyote, and deer and her babies, and the little chipmunks and squirrels.  It was a great day for wildlife viewing. 

On one of our "nature walks" Garrett and I saw a bison laying between two geysers close enough to get a great picture, but I forgot to take the camera.  When we got back down I told Dave to go back with Garrett and take a picture.  On their way up the crowd was watching the same bison and heard something breaking branches, I guess another huge bison came out of the woods right past all the people to head down the path! People screaming and freaking out everywhere!!!  Thanks Dave for staying calm and getting great pictures!

It rained really hard from about 1:30 to 4:30 so we continued to drive on the loop until we ended up around Old Faithful, but because of the rain and a couple of grouchy kids we kept driving. 

The next day we headed back to watch Old Faithful one more time and to see the Midway Geyser.  We figured since we were 30 minutes from OF if would be a quick trip.  Well wouldn't you know we were about a mile from the entrance and a car three cars in front of us swerved into a ditch to avoid hitting the car in front of them.  Dave hit the Onstar button and jumped out to help.  Thank goodness for Onstar because most of the park does not have cellphone service.  About 45 minutes we were back on the road. 

Gannon and Garrett love Old Faithful, but any other geyser that they can get closer to may be beautiful, but surely stinks.  I figured the umbrellas would be a good shield from the steam and it worked pretty good.  The finally picture on this spot about sums up Gannon's thoughts of Yellowstone!

Bison, Bison, and Bison

West Yellowstone was full of artsy bison and of course we had to take pictures by most of them!  Maybe because they were beautiful or maybe because they were the animal we saw the most of while in the park.  Who knows, but the boys loved having their picture taken by them.