Our Little Family Vacation

Sometimes in this past year I have just felt really grown up..

Once such instance was when Blake and I planned a little family vacation to Yellowstone for Memorial Day Weekend..

I really love that we can travel together and that I married a guy who is so adventurous and motivates to me to enjoy life and take a break.

So right after we drove into Yellowstone Park we saw a very small herd of Buffalo way over in the distance, and I'm telling you guys.. our hearts almost stopped. haha

Then a couple of minutes later we drive RIGHT by a huge Buffalo and man we are out of the car seriously
as excited as we could be..

And little did we know..

Yellowstone I'm sure must quite literally mean the Land of Plentiful Buffalo..

 But it was still really amazing to be seriously right up close to these beautiful animals we don't see everyday..

Isn't this such a sweet picture?
While I was taking it my heart was so full of gratitude.. 

Camping, Yellowstone, my sweet Husband..

I really couldn't ask for anything more it was such a happy weekend.

We decided that we wanted to camp and use our cute tent in Yellowstone.. 

[and so apparently did the rest of the country..]

Let me just tell you.. it was crow.ded. but like always it was way fun camping with Blake.

He brought us hot dogs to roast and all kinds of yummy food [pickles.. mm.. haha] and starburts..

Then after dinner and a game of catch we decided we really wanted to take a walk and explore a little bit.. 

And lo and behold.. I bet you will never guess what we saw..

That's right folks... herds and herds of beautiful Buffalo..

One of the most interesting walks I've ever been on that's for sure.

 

& The next morning, after dreaming of buffalo, we were off exploring the park.

Blake hadn't been to Yellowstone since he was little and he really was SO cute during the whole trip and wanting to see everything.. it was fun showing him things I liked and remembered and his sweet attitude literally made my day.

This is my.. okay.. it's freezing.. can we go now? face..

Now here's the thing.. I just can't believe that these are naturally happening in the ground!?

This seriously blows my mind..

Then around lunchtime we decided it was prrooobabbly time to stop and see Old Faithful..

Now for being faithful he really was quite the tease.

I think it seriously started to go off and then stopped like
FOUR times..

And then finally.. guys.. it happened. The real deal.
& It was so cool to be able to experience it with Blake.

Then after lunch we went back to exploring..

And the craziest thing happened..

An Elk just jumped out RIGHT in front of us.. I have definitely never been that close to an Elk before..

And he was just leisurely strolling along..

Oh man. 

So you can sure bet I jumped off of that platform and closer to the Elk so that I could get a picture of course!
 
And if you were wondering, that park ranger was just not as excited as I was about me being out in the wild next to this wild animal..
He SCREAMED and waved his arms frantically.. kind of like his life depended on me getting back on that platform..

And then he marched right down to us and explained that MY life depended on me being on the platform.. I definitely felt like I was back in school being sent to the hall or the principals office.

But he was right.. I'm glad we got this little picture with the elk before he was right.. but he was right.
& He actually was very nice about it.. telling me I wouldn't be so pretty if the ground collapsed and I was in a burn unit.
Fair. Enough.

 

 

So you can bet your bottom dollar we stayed on this platform..

:)
Because look at that handsome man! We don't want to ruin this good thing we have going on here.. if the platform makes you "less cute".. then we promise to stay on the platform until the next elk comes along.

 

Oh my gosh this was definitely one of my FAVORITES.

 

It was called Dragon Mouth Cave or something like that.. but doesn't that look like there could be a dragon in there? I loved it.

 



 

And this was another favorite that we stumbled across in an attempt at a bathroom break.

We didn't get a bathroom.. but I would trade a bathroom for this site anyday.

[Well.. okay maybe not anyday.. but hypothetically speaking..]

This is the GRAND CANYON of Yellowstone.. isn't it awesome.

It's also called Artists Point.. and you can see why..

 

 

This is probably my favorite picture from the trip.. I think that the background looks like a painting.

It deifnitely melts my heart everytime I see this.

I feel exceptionally blessed.

 

Then, [yes. after a little detour don't worry we eventually found a bathroom..]

We drove to Lamar Valley and seriously entered into a very spacious.. hard to find animals.. mountain like Zoo.

Not really a zoo.. but we saw a lot of cool animals.

Pretty much the same right?

These were the coolest Rocky Mountain Big Horns, or Rams..

There were like 8 of them and they were really hard to see until you got really close to them..

Which of course we had to do obviously.

 



And then two of them started fighting and banging their horns together!

I have never been so excited to see a fight before.. It was really cool I felt like we should be in the Sound of Music or  something with a lot of spacious mountains.

Love these animals.

As we were driving away from the Rams we saw this spectacle of people..

haha

 

I had to take a picture of the people before I found any animals they made me laugh.. and we figured with all of these cameras there better be something good.

So we took a leap of faith and parked the car and hiked over here.

 



And there was something good..

 I don't know if you can see in the middle of the picture but it was a FOX

 

 

And not just any fox.. one with her little baby fox babies

[kittens maybe?]

Oh they were so cute. I was ready to take them home with us.

 

And just when we thought we had seen everything.. we looked out our car window and.. there they were..

BLACK BEARS just chasing each other and playing.

 



They seriously ran right in front of our car!

 I couldn't get the camera back out fast enough.. but they didn't even glance at us just kept running after each other.

I don't think I have ever gotten such a good view of a Black Bear.. but from a very safe.. long.. safe.. distance away these Bears were so cute and I really was shocked at how lucky we got.

 



We finished our little adventure at the artist paint pots..

[Blake was trying to get a picture of the plops of mud.. I think he did pretty good actually.. you can kind of see how they were bubbling]

 

The one more Elk, and one awesome unbelievable weekend, and definitely falling even more in love with my sweet husband..

 



 

We had to head back to real life.

I'm so grateful for breaks and the fun things in life.. and more than anything the good people in your life that you can share them with and really make everything worth while.

 

I hope everyones having a perfect Summer and getting to enjoy having a little break!



Celebrating a Happy Year.

Remember that one time that Blake and I had already been married for a year..

TWO MONTHS AGO 

[two months ago..today.. actually]

So, that means I'm averaging about a blog a month.. which would be fine..  

except oh yeah there is just a lot more going on than that in life, am I right?

:)

So luckily I have a little bit of extra time today and am going to try and catch up at least with one post, but I feel the need to blog everything kind of in order, so bear with me as we rewind a little bit..

 So we had quite the time deciding what we wanted to do for gifts for our anniversary, 

Ever since Christmas when we went to New Mexico and watched a lot of home videos... and then came back to Idaho and  watched a lot of them up here as well..

We had really been wanting to eventually get a video camera for our little family so that we could remember everything..

And I am not exactly sure how it happened folks.. but a week before our anniversary  

we walked out of the store with a brand new $600 VIDEO CAMERA..

[luckily we got it for about half that, that's where they tricked us.. but oh.. my.. gosh]

I seriously almost had a heart attack Blake had to comfort me the whole way home.

And for the whole next week I was having anxiety about our camera haha 

& don't get me wrong.. it. is. awesome.

But it all happened so fast.. we had researched a lot online and knew what we had wanted.. so when we walked into the store and a major upgrade was on sale and was the only one.. somehow I got coaxed to the ticket counter..

Anyway.. on our anniversary Blake cut the tag off! And like it or not.. we got ourselves a gift.

 

Then while I was recovering from the shock of the tag removal.. 

Blake took me to the Yummy House in Idaho Falls for dinner!

I am a sucker for Chinese Food.. it seriously always sounds good.. and we don't really eat out very often so this was quite the treat.

[I probably said that my food was good so many times Blake was happy that we didn't eat there very often..]

But it really was "yummy" haha

And THEN because last year after we were married we stayed at this seriously awesome themed hotel..

& We were absolutely dying to come back again.. 

We splurged a little bit and thought this would be a good occasion.

I was so excited.

Last year we stayed in Thailand, and this year we picked Arabia and I really don't know which one was cooler. 

It's like they let you stay the night in Disneyland.

:)

I did kind of feel like I was Aladdin..

   

Complete with magic lamps..

 [oh yeah and jetted and all kinds of colored lighted tub]

 

Camels, and all..

 

 

And then, unlike Disneyland, in every room they also have FREE chilled Sparkling Cider, 

[that I'm pretty sure Blake almost single handedly inhaled :) ] 

and yummy Cheesecake from the Cheese Cake Factory!

And then.. dun dun duh.. are you ready for this?

 

Our room had a SAUNA.. not that that's a huge deal or anything.. just.. 

our room had a sauna.

It was seriously really really cool..

[Okay you're right.. not seriously, seriously it was kind of hot but it was really awesome]

And then.. 

[yes I know I should be paid to advertise for these guys]

We had a huge pull down screen and projector so we I got to fall asleep to the Life of Pi in bed..

[No, we don't have a TV in our bedroom so this definitely felt like a vacation.. I was out like a light.]

And after getting to sleep in.. this is what we woke up to.

I really felt so spoiled. I'm ready to move into Destinations Inn and be pampered every day.

& Of course.. we almost burnt the place down while we were sleeping.. 

WE LEFT THE SAUNA ON all night and didn't realize it until we woke up.. 

I almost had a heart attack, and this picture doesn't do it justice..

But it was steaming absolutely everywhere.. haha I was dying laughing after I knew everything was okay at how we couldn't see absolutely anything it was so steamy..

It's mornings like this when I ask myself.. are we um mature old enough to be married?!

Then we went and had lunch and walked around at the Greenbelt [they are big waterfalls in Idaho Falls]

And even though it was a little colder than I was hoping it would be.. 

We decided to spend the afternoon at the ZOO.

[I lovve the zoo.. I'm excited just thinking about it..]

We saw lots of LIONS..

[Sometimes.. there is just nothing you can do to get Blake to take a serious picture.. and yes, I have to remind myself of this..good thing I love this guy]

  

The real lion doesn't look extremely amused by my [more ferocious than his] lion face..

And TIGERS..

 

 

[& yes these are leopards.. not tigers.. but they've all got to be from the same family right?]

 

AND BEARS..

 

Oh my.. when they are behind bars, safe in their cages they are just soo cuuuute..

And I don't know if you guys remember this cute little guy from when I blogged about the New York Zoo.. but meet mr. breed of panda BEAR aka red panda...

And then we saw lots of animals that are eaten by lion, tigers, and bears...

Just kidding.. that was rude.. I love these cute little innocent zebras.

I made a furry little new friend..

 

And here Blake is trying to be sweet cheer me up because it was so way too dang cold for the middle of April.. and I was ready to stay in that monkey exhibit for the rest of the trip and sit by the heater and my cute new friended monkeys.

What a good guy.

And with that coat he makes such a great Black Swan... 

For some reason the zoo is so much more fun when you try to show the animals that you really do obviously fit in with them.. 

:)

 

Then after the zoo we spent our night at the Idaho Falls Temple for my first time ever.. we ate dinner there and it really was beautiful it was a perfect end to the day.

It was so nice to have a weekend off of work to relax, be pampered, and to enjoy my sweet husband.

I got really lucky with this guy and time seems to be flying by.

 One anniversary down and forever to go..

If every anniversary is this sweet I will be one happy girl.