Yellowstone!

Last week, we went to Yellowstone!  We took two days to get there, stopping at a few places along the way.  Our first stop was at Chimney Rock in Nebraska. 



Then we headed further west into Wyoming.  We saw Devil's Tower (there's kind of a cute story that goes along with Devil's Tower, google it!).



Guess what happened to me at Devil's Tower?  I set my brand new camera on the hood of the car to take a self portrait, and the wind blew it right off of the hood and onto the hot, hard ground.  My brand new camera no longer works at all :(

See all those bikes in the behind the girls?  There were tons of bikers everywhere!  Maybe they were headed to Sturgis?  We're not sure, but there were tons of bikes even in Yellowstone. 

Anyway, we stopped for lunch in Cody, WY and then kept on truckin right up to Yellowstone. 

We made it!!  Finally!  Excitement levels were pretty high at this point. 

We spent the next four days in Yellowstone, trying to see as much of it as possible (although according to a youtube video that I watched, you cannot see all of yellowstone in your lifetime.  Wow, it's a lot like the Louvre in Paris!!). 

We saw tons of waterfalls, buffalo and elk.  We saw guysers, hot springs and mountains.  The mountains are everywhere!  Why do we not have mountains in Omaha?  They are soo pretty!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Old Faithful!

 

This is a really cool hotel in Yellowstone.  It looks like a tree house.  Very cool!

Girls playing in snow on the top of a mountain.

Happy Birthday to Mike!!

Elk

Then there was a super fun hike called Uncle Tom's Trail.  Mike really wanted to go on this hike, where you hike down a huge incline, then go down a million rickety metal steps, and at the bottom is this amazing waterfall.  The kids opted to stay in the car for this one, but since it was Mike's birthday, I said I would go with him.  As we are hiking down this steep incline, we keep seeing signs that say things like "Change in altitude.  Take breaks from hiking often!  Stay hydrated!"  Of course, I am in flip flops, and I left my Dr. Pepper in the car.  But I trudged on, getting more nervous by the minute.  The hike down was fine.  No problems there.  The waterfall was so pretty, and we even saw a rainbow!

 

Then we had to go back up.  Not fun.  I had gone about 30 steps up before I was affected by the altitude.  I say this because Mike thought I was just being a baby and was tired.  But I swear, it was the altitude!  I had to take breaks all the time.  I just couldn't catch my breath.  I even thought I was going to faint at one point.  And I told Mike.  But he just rolled his eyes and hiked on up without me.  I got to the top without fainting or dying, luckily.  Then I wandered around the parking lot for about ten minutes because I couldn't remember where we parked.  I was a real mess.  Mike finally found me and even brought me a bottle of water.  It still took most of the day for me to recover. 

Our last day, we went and saw the Grand Teton Mountains.  Very pretty! 

 

We had a picnic on the lake, and then the girls got their swimsuits on and played in the water.  It was the perfect way to end the vacation. 

We got back home on Sunday, and now we are in full back to school mode!  Pictures of that to come on Wednesday!!

CWS Fan Fair

Since the Olympic Swimming Trials are being held in Omaha next week, they put up this really cool swimming guy right off of Dodge Street.  He's huge!  And probably a really fast swimmer. 

Today was Father's Day (Happy Father's Day, Dad & Mike!!), so after we stopped at the swimming guy, we went down to the fan fair at the College World Series. Nothing like sweating buckets on your special day! It was fun, despite the heat.

 Briana won those awesome sunglasses she's wearing.  She's hot stuff.

 And, check out those tattoos! 

We got to play lots of games and we got lots of free stuff.  We even got free cokes and free powerades!  Perfect for a sweltering day.  But, Mike had a good time, so I think it was a successful father's day. 

Summer Library & A Birthday Party

Briana got her first job!  She's going to be volunteering at the library this summer in the childrens department.  She had her first day last week, and she had a blast.  Of course, I wasn't allowed to stay at the library while she was volunteering.  In fact, she wouldn't even let me walk her in!

She had a very fun time with it, and she's ready to go back next week!  Yay!!
And, we had her 10th birthday party!  A fun time was had by all, as usual.

She opened lots and lots of presents (and refused to give me a normal smile in any of these pictures!).

My favorite part of the party was definitely the cake.  Briana wanted a tye dye cake, and it turned out really cute.

And, to top off the night, the girls' cousins got to sleep over.  It was pretty much the best way to end the party.

They had a blast and stayed up very, very late. 

Smiles all around!  Happy 10th Birthday, Briana!!

KC: A Weekend In Pictures

The End!

A Birthday And A Recital

My baby is no longer in the single digits.  She's 10.  10!  I can hardly believe it.  She had a fantastic birthday, complete with presents, cake, whipped cream and a brand new ipod.  The day before her birthday, Mamaw and Papaw took her out to get her a new ipod.  It was the happiest day of her life. 

She played on that ipod ALL day!  I could hardly pry it out of her hands for dance class.

Her actual birthday was almost as exciting.  She opened presents. 

She slipped and she slided.

She blew out her candles.

And, she took a whipped cream pie to the face.  That's right.  And it was all her idea!

Immediately following the birthday we had her dance rehearsal and dance recital.  Both were excellent, as usual.  Briana danced her little heart out and she looked gorgeous on stage.  Since we are only able to record at the rehearsal, I was only able to get a portion of her dances recorded (because the teacher stops the dances in the middle to fix spacing and stuff.)  So here is a portion of her jazz dance.

She's the one with the black hat on. 

Now, see if you can pick her out in this picture.  It's the entire MLDC Dance Company. 

And here she is with her dance teacher, Miss Mary Lorraine.

It was a great weekend that ended in lots of flowers.  What more can a girl ask for?

Safety Patrol Training

Briana signed up to be on the fifth grade safety patrol at school.  Today was a very exciting day for her because she had her training for next year.  We had to get to school early, and she has to stay late so she can patrol again after school. 
I had to be a bit sneaky in my picture taking so I wouldn't embarrass her too much. 

The Patio is Done!!

It's all finished up!  They came out yesterday and removed the forms, sealed the concrete and backfilled with dirt.  It looks awesome.

We are now able to walk on it, but we can't put any furniture or the basketball hoop on it till the 22nd (which will feel like an eternity).  That's why theres a big huge mess of stuff crowded on the old patio.  But, if you look past all the crap, you can see my new hanging baskets!  Aren't they purdy?  I got them yesterday and I love them.  The perfect addition to the patio!