Josiah

Sweet Josiah

I see these pictures and my heart just melts over My Josiah. 

I am so very thankful that he is in our lives.

Sweet Slumber

Anniversary Trip #10: Day 6

This was my favorite day of all for this trip.  We spent the entire day exploring the Tetons.  If you ever have the opportunity to see these breathtaking, beautiful mountains, do so!  

We started the morning by going to nearby Teton Village.  After lunch there we headed to Teton National Park.  We took the back way in, and it was a small one-way road with gorgeous views!  Josh stopped at just about every turn in the road for me to get a picture of a new view of the Tetons.

          A moose we saw along the way 

               J.D. and Buddy

One the way back to the cabin we stopped at the Cunningham Cabin.  We had stopped here once before 6 years ago.

        J. D. and Lily in front of the cabin.

            Lily playing in the dirt floor

            The view from the cabin

It was an enjoyable day for us, and I am glad that J.D. was able to see the Cunningham cabin again to remember it by.

Anniversary trip #10: Day 4 & 5

Day 4 we just spent here at the cabin relaxing after our drive here.  We did go grocery shopping.

Day 5 was spent in Jackson.  Josiah had an infected eye so we took him to urgent care.  The doctor prescribed an ointment which we had to go pick up at a pharmacy.  Boy, was that ever a headache.  I swear the lady behind the counter never listened to me when I explained over and over and over that we were from Washington, on vacation and "no I do not have my son's insurance card, but I do have his numbers".  What a fiasco.  We did get the medicine though.  

After that we spent the rest of the day checking out the shops, buying souvenirs and looking for our next picture frame to add to our collection.

                                                          Stagecoach rides in Jackson.  

Anniversary Trip #10: Days 1,2 & 3

We left for our trip to the Tetons on Saturday.  We had a late start because Josh didn't get paid until Friday night and we had to cash his check and pays bills before we headed out of town Saturday. Our first night was spent in Yakima.

Day 2 we headed out early.  Our goal was to make it to Bozeman, MT.  We stopped for lunch at the Cataldo Mission in Idaho.  We had visited here on our trip to Leavenworth/Cour d'Alane.

We made it to Missoula and stopped there for the night.  J.D. was anxious for the next day because we were going to see dinosaur bones!

         Beautiful Montana

           Studying a map

Day 3 we was a very long day for us.  We made it to the Museum of the Rockies and spent 3 hours there.  They had more than just dinosaurs!

We first went and checked out the dinosaur exhibits.

  Longneck dinosaur legs and rib bone

Watching a video on how they find and get the bones to the museum

                  T-Rex foot

                   3 Horn

       These things were huge!

                 T- Rex skull

They also had a space exhibit which we all enjoyed too.

                  Moon rock

       Kids on a mission on mars

Then they also had a discovery center about Yellowstone.

              Lily's "bloody fish"

         All the fish she caught

             Feeding the horse

We got back on the road and got caught in a terrible lightning storm.  I have never seen hail that large before.  We were waiting for our windshield to get chipped or cracked. 

Finally we made it into Yellowstone around dinner time.  We saw a herd of buffalo and had a buffalo cross the road right in front of us, which the kids thought was pretty cool.

By this time we were all tired and just wanted to get to where we are staying, so we pushed ourselves the rest of the way.  We finally got to our cabin at 11pm last night.  Didn't help us any that the speed limit here is 45mph at night due to wildlife.  But we made it safe and sound and had a decent nights rest....at least the kids and I did.  Josh was awake until 3 this morning due to a cold he picked up yesterday.

....And We're Back!

I know that I haven't blogged since....well before the new year. I HAVE tried, honestly, but living in the location that we do, Internet is hard to come by, and even then, when I tried to use Josh's phone, blogging just never worked and I would get frustrated then just give up and try again later.  

Well, I am hoping that will change.  For Mother's Day Josh got me an iPod touch.  Right away I looked for and found the Blogger app and it was free (YAY!).  I downloaded it and am using it right now.  So we shall see if this works better!  And if it does, I have a lot of catching up to do, and you can bet that I will be introducing our latest news! 

So please, leave us a comment on this post, letting us know that you are starting to check out our blog again!

Anniversary Trip #9

Finally!  An entry about our trip to Orcas Island!  This was one of our most relaxed trips ever.  Being on an island limits you on what you can and cannot do, and this island was the perfect size for us to go sight seeing and exploring, plus taking a day to stay at the home and just do nothing.

This was the first trip in years that our destination was only a days drive.  The kids enjoyed the ferry ride and we spent alot of time outside watching the scenery go by until it got too cold and windy for our ears.







 

Watching some of the smaller islands go by


Our first full day there we went exploring.  First stop was the water falls.


 "Fishing" in the stream

Next stop was going to Mount Constitution.  This is the highest point in the San Juan Islands.  We climbed a tower to get a 360 degree view of the area, including the distant Canada.  The tower was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in 1936.  We learned alot about the CCC on this trip.

 Finding Canada on the reference map

 

The next day we went to a little beach near the house we were staying at.  This was our favorite we went to on our trip.  The beach was all rocky, with lots of beautiful rocks to find, tide pools to explore and big rocks to climb.

 Climbing on the big rocks

 Finding little crabs and snails in the tide pools

A  Bald Eagles nest was right where we were playing

 

 

After dinner we went to the other end of the island to another beach.  This one was more private.  We found out why.  Located in Obstruction Pass State Park, we had to hike about half a mile on a windy, narrow path.  We went to this beach in hopes to see starfish, but by the time we made it to the beach, the tide had come in.  We still had fun finding rocks to add to our collections.

The next day we walked on board the ferry to go to San Juan Island.  We spent a few hours exploring shops and went to a candy store to buy ourselves some goodies.

 Lily found all these horses in a gift shop. 

On our anniversary we went back to the beach near where we were staying.  We packed a picnic lunch and spent the day there just savoring every moment.

Watching the tide come in with daddy

 Lily found a caterpillar friend

Our final day at Orcas Island we went to Robert Moran's mansion, the Rosario.  Robert Moran was a ship builder and built the USS Nebraska.  When he was diagnosed with cancer, he moved to Orcas Island and built the Rosario.  The roof of the mansion is made out of the same material that the Statue of Liberty is made out of.

A view of the area where the Rosario sits

 

 

And that is about for our highlights from our trip.  Oh, except that when we left the island we had to carry all of our garbage with us since there is no service on the island.  That was interesting.