20 Months Old!

Well, he's in his twenties now. I just don't know what to do with myself.














He looks so much older recently...probably because we stopped by to see his new cousin, Caleb, who is only a 1 1/2 weeks old. So little! As Dave grew, I forgot just how small they are when they're born! Anyway, like I said, we stopped by Indy to see Josh's sister Brittany's adorable baby boy. I had a really cute picture of him, but it was on Josh's phone and seems to have disappeared. But, it kept this picture of Dave and Sophie.






Sophie was sooo excited to see Dave...I think she was looking for a better playmate than her new brother is currently!






We stayed and hung out with the new babe and Brittany for a while before heading home on Thursday. Now we're back on duty this weekend, but have Monday off. Thankfully, we have very few guys this weekend, so it's been really easy.

I never posted any pictures from Evansville, so here are a couple.




Dave playing with a cool wooden car my dad bought when he was stationed in Germany.








We always get lots of use out of Dad and Kyra's pool. This time, Dave learned to "swim" with water wings!










And then he had to help grandpa water the garden. He looks very serious about his task.





I uploaded a video from our trip to youtube. Dave reading Dora.





Almost forgot to include this one! Dave was so tired on Thursday when we made it home that he fell asleep during dinner!

Scenic Views

Here are some wrap-up pictures from our trip. I tried to post pictures of us as we went along, but I wanted to include some of the really pretty ones (mostly for my own sake so I remember in later years!).






Moose with the Tetons in the background.












View of Taggart Lake in the Tetons.









Same vantage point that Ansel Adams used in his picture of the Tetons. He had an unfair advantage though...the trees weren't as high back then!







I was really pumped about going to Mormon Row to get this picture. We started off by going to the wrong place, but Josh set us straight.










Not really scenic, but here's a pic of our cabin in Yellowstone. Highly recommended, but it was pretty tiny.










And here's the ever popular Old Faithful. Video of Oldy.







Another video...this one from the top of Lake Overlook in Yellowstone. Video of the hike.

Back-breaking Hikes

We took several hikes while in Yellowstone using our handy hiking backpack. It actually went really well-Dave seemed like he had a good time and we didn't throw our backs out.

I deleted all the pictures from our first day in Yellowstone (smooth right?), so I have no record of our hike to Stormy Point. Which stinks because it was beautiful, but alas. It was a 2.3 mile hike through the woods then out to Yellowstone Lake.

On Friday, we hiked the Overlook Trail to the top of a hill, which overlooked Yellowstone Lake. It was only a couple miles, and I do have pictures!







Dave and I by the geothermic feature we found on the hike.










At the top!









We broke Dave's back! This is from after our hike when we were walking around West Thumb Geyser Basin.








On Saturday, we took a hike in Grand Teton National Park. It was to Taggart Lake, and it was a doozy! 4 miles roundtrip.

Dave immediately fell asleep upon getting into the backpack. He slept for about 45 minutes.

Josh and Dave hiking around the mountain. If you look, you can see the trail looping around.




Tomorrow we are heading to Evansville for a couple of days, then it's back to reality! Two weeks off is such a blessing, but we're are definitely ready to be home!

Yellowstone and Teton Wildlife

We made it to Kansas last night, and are staying with my grandma. I wanted to put up a post dedicated to the animals we spotted while we were in the Yellowstone/Grand Teton area. So, here you go...

Elk chilling near Mammoth Hot Springs. They were everywhere around this area.

Antelope and buffalo in the Lamar Valley on the east side of Yellowstone. There were SO many buffalo.

Buffalo fighting with the Tetons in the background.







MOOSE! The last animal we really wanted to see. A bunch of people had pulled off the road, so of course we had to check it out. Good thing we did! Everyone who visited the Tetons the same day had to see these guys...they were still there when we left.

Buffalo in the road in Yellowstone. This happened quite often. Towards the end of the trip, we were getting annoyed with people stopping to take pictures of buffalo or elk. Not interesting enough since we saw so many.

Hope you enjoy the pictures! I'll post pictures of us sometime later today.

In Yellowstone

Well I'm updating really quick since we don't have internet where we're staying. Right now we are in Mammoth Hot Springs, getting ready to walk around. I'm just putting up a couple of pictures, hope you enjoy!







You know, just totally normal for a bear to be crossing the road.









Us in front of the falls within the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. Really beautiful colors along the canyon.








Crazy colors along the road up to Mammoth Hot Springs.

More Cody and a little car maintenance

I think I mentioned in my last post that our brakes were taking a beating going down the mountain passes. Well, we decided to take the van in to see what was up. $500 later we have a whole new brake system. Turns out we are really fortunate that we checked it out (thanks Dad and Grandpa!) because we could have run into some serious trouble had we not.

Since we were that much poorer, we decided to check out some cheaper attractions here in Cody, one being the Buffalo Bill State Park.




That one was a bit of a mistake. Not really much to do, but there were some killer views




We also went to Buffalo Bill Dam, which was pretty huge.

I think I read that it was the biggest dam in America until Hoover Dam was built. View from the top.









Dave and Josh at the dam.








-After we dropped our van off to get worked on, the dealership shuttled us to downtown Cody, where we proceeded to walk around for a couple of hours. There are cute little shops and a huge museum complex (a little too expensive for us).

In the evening, we went downtown to the Irma Hotel where they hold a shootout every night.

The bad guys getting ready for a fight. It was pretty neat, but definitely not entertaining enough for Dave. We left after only a couple minutes.

Mule deer near the State Park.

More wildlife just hanging out in someone's backyard.




Tomorrow we head for Yellowstone-only a 1-2 hour drive away. I can't wait to take lots of pictures and go on hikes!

Moving to Cody

Well, we came to Cody in search of cooler temperatures, and so far it's proving to be a good move. A storm just blew by and dropped the temp to around 70. Just fabulous!

Extremely vivid rainbow left by the storm.

If you look really close you can see the triple rainbow! First one I've ever seen.

Before we left the Rushmore area, we stopped in at the Crazy Horse Monument. There was a lot of information regarding the monument and the Native American culture surrounding it-definitely worth going to see.

Josh, Dave, and Crazy Horse.

The monument with the sculpture of what it will eventually look like.

After Crazy Horse, we took a really scenic drive to Cody. We drove through Big Horn National Forest, which includes the Big Horn Mountains. Our brakes are starting to sound a little rough after all this up and down mountains business.

The road going through the forest-it's of a canyon, kinda hard to tell in the picture though.






Our internet is awesome here, so I uploaded to videos. Dave with turtles. Buffalo Dave. Enjoy!

Black Hills-Scenic Byways and Bear Country

Monday we woke up bright and early to go check out Bear Country, which is near Rapid City. It was super exciting for Josh, who has been looking forward to this activity on our trip for over 6 months.

It didn't disappoint-we saw big horn sheep, elk, reindeer, mountain lions, wolves, and black bears all roaming about the 2 mile drive. Then it had baby animals and the grizzly bears in a zoo-like setting.

Dave and Josh driving through the park.

Bears just wandering around!

After Bear Country, we decided to drive the Spearfish Scenic Byway, which goes between the old gold towns of Spearfish and Lead. It was a gorgeous drive.

Spearfish falls, a short hike from the road.










While on this drive, we saw one of the Oakridge Boys and their tour bus outside a lodge. The guy from Oakridge Boys is in black.

Then we headed on to Deadwood. I have to say, we were kinda bummed about it. It's really commercial now with a lot of new casinos.

But we did go see Wild Bill Hickock's grave, which is right next to Calamity Jane.

Finally, we went to the Presidential Wax Museum in Keystone (we got a discount for staying at the KOA) and then on to play a free round of mini golf.

Dave wielding his putter.








It was super hot out (again), so we only made it a couple holes.

We decided to cut our time in the Black Hills a little short because of the heat, so we headed to Cody a day early to escape the heat. Looks like it worked! It's in the 80s here at least.

Mount Rushmore

Sunday we also went to check out Mt. Rushmore.

We caught our first glimpse of the faces as we were driving up Iron Mountain Road-totally took us by surprise.

We watched a video on the making of it about 6 months ago, so we knew a little of the background before going there. Since it was a million degrees outside, we decided to go on a hike involving over 420 steps.

Dave got a little hot and dunked his head in the water fountain.

We are getting really good at taking our own family portraits, but we did ask a teenage girl to take one for us. Good picture of us, but no Rushmore!






We still ended up taking our own picture, using bleachers and one of Dave's diapers to prop up the camera.

Pretty good diaper photography huh?

Black Hills-Wildlife

Dave eating Oreos in the Badlands KOA.






We left the Badlands this morning bright and early and headed off to the Black Hills-specifically Hill City. Our cabin is situated between Keystone (Mt. Rushmore) and Custer (Crazy Horse). This KOA is definitely more populated than the last one, but it has a lot more amenities (minus air conditioning).

On our way down to where we are staying, we stopped at a place called Reptile Gardens. It was way more awesome than I expected.




Turtle exhibit in Reptile Gardens. Dave obviously really likes turtles, and there was one little baby one biting at the huge turtles' ankles. Hilarious.







After we checked into our cabin, we took a drive on Needles Highway, Wildlife Loop Road, and Iron Mountain Road. It's all one big loop that leads back to Mount Rushmore.

Burros poking their heads through our window!









Dave and I with the burros.

One of the buffalo we saw along our drive. The herd probably totaled around 100, but this guy was being a loner over by the campers.