Summer of Fun Part 3: Yellowstone and Montana

Our awesome friends Tyler and Michelle came up with a great plan for some fun this summer. They found an amazing cabin in Big Sky, Montana, and invited three other families to go with them to stay for a week and visit Yellowstone. Way back when (the end of June) we packed up our little car, and made the drive. (It was actually the day after we got back from the sand dunes, crazy!)

I filled a crate with books, Cars-themed Pez dispensers, a Cars coloring book, a giant magna doodle, and other items I supposed would serve as awesome secret weapons to keep Emma entertained for the six plus hours of the drive. She discovered just about every one within the first hour and a half, but luckily, she was still a stellar kid during the drive (phew!).

Just before 10am, we pulled off the freeway in Virginia, ID, and sure enough, there was a church meeting about to start, so we attended church there. I think I counted under 40 people total in the congregation. It was a fun small-town stop.


I should have taken more pictures of our awesome cabin, it had a hot tub, deck, upstairs common room, down stairs common room, and granite counter tops in the kitchen:


Norris Geyser Basin in Yellowstone:








All four families in the cabin found a great hiking trail (you may notice, that we all have matching tye dye shirts, that was a fun activity we did months prior)




I think this photo pretty much sums up how we felt at the end of the vacation; happy, but exhausted!!

Summer of Fun Part 2: Little Sahara Sand Dunes

Since we were dating, Andrew has wanted to take me to the Little Sahara Sand Dunes. We finally made it happen this summer! Our friends Patricia and Alex (Patrick was in Mongolia for work) joined us for a fun camp out. I think the photos pretty much show what we did:








Gorgeous sunset:




The stars were so beautiful and bright, the best I've ever seen. Andrew was so clever and brought along glow sticks that we wore/tossed/played with in the dark.

Thanks Patricia and Alex for helping us have fun in all that sand!!

Summer of Fun Part 1:Backyard Campout

It has been a super loaded summer, with many fun vacations and activities. After the stress of third-year rotations, it was a blessing for our family to have some time together. (However, I'm learning that as a mom, vacations are no longer all play and no work; thank you, Mom for all you did to provide me with great vacations!)

When Andrew finished his surgery rotation, he spent a week painting Emma's cute headboard for her big girl bed. After that, we decided to have some fun. First, we really wanted to get some quick camping into our busy schedule, so we went camping in my parent's back yard. It may sound silly, but it was a lot of fun. My brother Robby joined us, which made it even better. My parents live along a creek and it was so nice to sleep to the sound of rushing water (it was just around flooding time, so it was really high). Also, they have a great fire pit, which the guys got a lot of use out of. Nothing like a can of bug spray to get a fire going!

It was a success:

Mmmm, hot dogs!

I think this girl is the sweetest thing in all the world:



I'm so grateful we've been able to have so much fun together this summer before the baby comes. Now we're looking forward to new adventures with Baby Boy!