Yellowstone National Park

On Friday, June 19 we drove into Yellowstone National Park.

That day was packed with sightseeing and fun.

This photo was taken near Yellowstone Lake.

Shakeara & Levi

The pools were amazing!

These pools drained into Yellowstone Lake.

We had a big discussion on whether these animals were Buffalo or Bison. From what we could figure out, they are called Bison - American Buffalo. So we just called them "Biffalo". This one walked right up next to the truck ...kinda made me nervous :)

Lower Falls - Probably the most famous falls in the park.

Nellysa Kelby

Nell & Kirk

Levi & Shakeara Clancy

The whole family

Clancy at Fishing Bridge

On the brink of the Upper Falls.

Nellysa & Kelby

This little chipmunk was running along side us all the way up the trail.

Nelladee at Fishing Bridge

This is the only picture I was able to get of one of the Grizzly Bears we saw. This one was just rooting around eating up on the skyline. A couple of miles up the road was another traffic jam and the ranger told us we just missed a cinnamon-colored bear going over the hill. About 30 minutes later, we were stopped again by rangers because a Grizzly Sow had just killed an elk and she and her cubs were over in the brush with their fresh kill. We would see her raise up and look around and thrash about, but I couldn't get a clear photo.

Mammoth Hot Springs

Bull Elk

Doe elk with yearlings & fawns

Nellysa & Kirk at Paint Pots

This is one of my favorite stops. I love to watch the hot water run into the river.

Clancy & Kirk

This picture makes me think of the Old West. I can picture teepee's out there.

Jackson Lake at the end of the day.

The Grand Teton's & Jackson Hole, WY

We were in Idaho for two weeks recently. While we were there, we took a mini family vacation with our kids and Levi's fiance', Shakeara. We drove over to Wyoming and spent the night in Jackson Hole. Along the way, we came across this moose in Strawberry Canyon.

These are the famous arches found on each corner of the city center park in Jackson Hole.

Two of my picture-loving kids :)

We drove out to Teton Village and rode the tram to the top of the mountain (12,000 ft.) The view was great until we got to the top where of course there was a cloud.

It was 32 degrees on top and there was snow and ice everywhere.The few breaks in the cloud gave us a great view of the valley.

Levi showing his true self (it's not too late Shakeara ;)

View of the Teton's

Jackson Lake

My favorite picture of "my mountains".

A drop of water in a leaf ... "it's neat Levi!"

Levi & Shakeara

Moose

"Really Shakeara, it's not too late" ...

Warning!!! Don't fall asleep on a Waldron road trip.

We had a great time in Jackson Hole and in Teton National Park.

Two New Future Family Members

Levi got engaged to Shakeara Peterborg in February of this year. They were planning a June wedding but some health issues postponed the wedding until a little later. We'll let you know when we find out a new date.

Levi & Shakeara met at the Singles Ward in Preston, Idaho.

We will get to meet her in a week. Can't wait!

Clancy came home from his mission in December. He started an institute class and met a girl named Julie Leoni de Oliveira. They got engaged on Saturday night overlooking the harbor in Annapolis.

Julie is from Brazil and is here on a University Exchange Program. She mainly speaks Portuguese with some Spanish thrown in and is learning English.
Clancy learned some Portuguese on his mission, so they speak a mixture of 3 languages. It's pretty interesting listening to them :)

The ring

Julie has an obligation with her school and work until February, so I don't think they've picked a date yet. We'll let you know on that one as well.

I don't think I'm old enough to be a Mother-in-law do you???

Critters, Kids, Flyers

We bought a new squirrel feeder. It is like a big slinky in a circle and you put peanuts in the ends to fill the circle. The cats sit in the front window chattering and very impatiently thumping their tails.

We have black squirrels here which I've never seen in any of the places we've lived.

Here is some live action of one of the squirrels.

One of my friends called and invited me to go on an adventure with them to the Air Show at Andrew's Air Force Base. Being the "trooper" that I am, I accompanied them on the adventure. The ironic part was that I receive random text messages on my phone and my text that day was in the form of my horoscope which read "Don't be too quick to turn down an invitation to travel even if you aren't keen on your travelling companions." Luckily I liked my traveling companions and I had a great time. They introduced me to the colossal donuts at "Shoppers" ... bad influence is what they are :)

We saw many different forms of aircraft and military vehicles and we watched the Army Parachute Team called the "Golden Knights" jump out of a perfectly good airplane and wind their way down to the "X" on the runway.

The last pictures that I have had in my camera forever are from Mother's Day. This is before church. Nellysa spoke in church on the new YW value of Virtue. She did a really good job and even tied it into Mother's Day. I was impressed.
This is Clancy's newest look. He wore his new brown suit with a pale yellow bow tie (he learned how to tie it from online instructions ... it took a while :) He also wore suspenders. Later after church he went to the airport to pick up his friends. He had his sunglasses on his head, his tie and jacket off when some girl walked up to him and asked if he was famous or in the mafia.

Cinco de Mayo

We went to our first ever Cinco de Mayo celebration tonight.
It was primarily friends from our church and it was held in our neighborhood recreation center. Everybody brought a Mexican dish to share. There were tons of kids :-) and tons of really good food, and we got to try food that we've never had before.

There was a pinata and we had some pretty wild hitters.

And finally the ultimate goal ..... CANDY!!!

Thanks for the great party!!