Bear World

I left out bear world on my last post! How could I?! We took my grandmother on a drive through Bear World. Bear World is a big, outdoor zoo. It's not actually called a zoo, but essentially, that's what it is. At bear world, they have deer, wolves, and, obviously, bears. You drive through bear world. All the bears are behind electric fences. It's kind of like Jurassic Park, minus the dinosaurs. You can take a tour on a bus if you don't want to drive your car through. Again with the Jurassic Park. It was actually pretty cool. The bears are free to walk around in their electric cages. The wander across the road, meander next to your car, lie in the shade, fight with each other, stuff like that. My grandmother kept saying that Yellowstone used to be that way - with the bears wandering around the cars begging for food. Behind the gift shop, they have set up little cages for the cubs. The cubs were really cute! They wrestled with each other for the spot on top of the tree stump. Did you know that bears are pigeon-toed and that when they've been skinned, they look just like a human being? (I didn't learn that second part at Bear World.)











The white spot in the picture is the wolf. That's about all we saw of him, too.

The Rest of Summer

I was going to title this "The End of Summer" but that sounds too sad. I'm sure you've all been dying to know what I did with the rest of my summer (or not dying to know, either way.) As I'm updating this blog, I'm listening to "Hard to Say I'm Sorry" by Chicago. Nothing says awkward junior high dance like "Hard to Say I'm Sorry." For all those of you that heard me say "I hate 80's music" I let my brother in law download some onto my laptop and I'm starting to feel friendlier towards 80's music now. Maybe I didn't like 80's music because of all those awkward junior high dances. Now it's "I wanna be a cowboy" - oh yeah! What a flashback. Wow.

Anyway, back to summertime. After California, we went to the Playmill, this fantastic little theater in West Yellowstone. We saw Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. It's this fun little theater-in-the-round where the actors get right up in the faces of the audience. That was the first night of our four day trip through Yellowstone Park. Incidentally, Yellowstone Park is my favorite place in the world. For the record.

You know, let me back up. We actually started this adventure through Yellowstone with me being dropped off at Wal-Mart to pick up something we had forgotten. Now, I need to explain that we traveled through Yellowstone in our friend's wonderful, brown 1974 RV. Picture this: I call my mom to tell her I'm finished shopping and she says "Okay, we're pulling up." Think movie: where you see the back of the heroine and through her eyes you see this butt ugly RV pull up and she has to get in. I hid my face, ran to the RV, and started yelling, "Move, move, I don't want anyone to see me getting in this!" I looked at my sisters (who had looks of pity on their faces) and we all started laughing. If you've seen the movie "RV", we could've nicknamed our RV "The big rolling turd" as well.

Anyway, back to Yellowstone. We got up the next morning, went to church where we saw all the actors from the Playmill because they all come from Ricks or BYU, and then ditched out early to head into the park. We spent the next two days touring through beautiful, amazing Yellowstone. If you've never been, you have to go. Take lots of film! It was SO much fun!

Monday night, we stayed in Grand Teton National Park, another visually stunning national park that you have to see if you've never been. Tuesday morning, we went into Jackson and went white water rafting. It was a blast! And our river guide was really hot. (But all river guides are really hot. I think they list that under "Qualifications" on the job listing.) Anyway, we all jumped out of the raft into the bitter, icy, freezing waters of the Snake River. (This was my sister's brilliant idea, btw.) Of course, once we jumped out "The Nick" (see hot river guide above) had to pull us back into the raft. Yeah ...... :) Anyway, once we finished rafting and then eating lunch, we headed back to IF. We stopped for square ice cream cones in Swan Valley before heading home. Oh, yeah, you also need to stop for square ice cream cones in Swan Valley. They're awesome.

Once we got back to IF, we had to clean out the RV. By we, I mean me. Everyone somehow disappeared when we got home. Okay, my mom helped a little.

We had such a great time. Of course, I've included some pictures (including the RV) for your viewing enjoyment.











Old Faithful

















The bison were everywhere. We had to wait for an hour at one point for them to move off the road.















This is Lewis Falls. I took this by walking out on a log in the middle of the river. Livin' on the edge.














One of the geysers in Yellowstone



















This is one of the geyser formations on the way to Morning Glory geyser at Old Faithful. This is also my sister.












The Grand Tetons

















I saved the peanut butter cups in my square ice cream for the very end because the peanut butter cups were the point of the ice cream in the first place.













Our beautiful RV. My beautiful family.

The Studio

Yesterday, we went to my Uncle Wayne's art studio. We saw art he is working on and art I have seen in his art books. Art looks completely different in real life versus in a book. My cousin Paul is an art dealer and has his office there. It's a cool place. There is art in the bathroom, art in the office, art everywhere! There are huge shelves in rows fillled with art - my uncle's and other people's. Unfortunately, I didn't get as many pictures as I would have liked since my camera batteries died and I was unprepared. Obviously, I was never a boy scout.

We went to see The Devil Wears Prada today. I'm not a chick flick kind of girl. But I went to the MAC counter after the movie and bought a bunch of new makeup anyway. Sigh . . .

:)

Lake Tahoe

I forgot that we stopped at Lake Tahoe on our way into Sacramento. It is really beautiful. We had a perfect day. We stopped and took pictures by the lake then went on into Truckee for lunch. Yeah, I was a little worried about eating in a place called "Truckee" but it turned out to be a very nice little spot. That's where I met my cousin Paul and his family. We had a good time. My pictures won't post right now, but I'll post them later.

Sarah

My cousin Paul told us about his haunted river house (yes, my dream home is haunted). When they were doing some remodeling, they dug up the old family grave site, including Sarah's grave. They relocated everyone, but Paul liked Sarah's 18th century headstone so much that he moved it into the house to be part of the decor. After he brought it into the house, strange things started happening . The family would hear weird noises. Closed doors would be open. Things that were set in one place would be found in another. Music would come on in the middle of the night. Paul set up a place in his basement for the guys working on his house to sleep in because the house is out in the country and it was a really long commute for the construction guys. The first night at the house, the guys all left in the middle of the night and refused to stay there again because, in their words, "We're not staying here. Your house is haunted!" Finally, Paul had Sarah's headstone redone and replaced it in the front yard. He also found a headstone of a Spanish conquistador to be her "boyfriend" and put his headstone in between Sarah and the house. He hasn't had any problems since.

Paul related all this to us - and he believes every bit of it.

California

I'm in California right now with my grandmother, aunt, and mom. We're having a great time! We're in Sacramento visiting my great aunt and uncle. We took a trip to my cousin Paul's house. It's my dream home. When I'm rich, I'm going to buy it from him and live in it in my old age.

Palisade's Lake

Well, I'm at home for the summer. I LOVE IT!!!!! These pictures are from the hike my sisters and I took at Palisade's Lake. It was beautiful. I love hiking! We hiked the upper and lower lakes. We saw 10 moose! Yep! 10! When we got to the lower lake, we started across the bridge and down the path towards the upper lake. Then mama moose ran up on the trail and turned and glared at my sister. So we turned back. We ate our lunch. Mama was still on the trail. Finally, she headed back into the lake. Then little baby moose followed her. Yeah, we almost hiked between mama and baby. We could have DIED!!! But we didn't because I'm here telling you this exciting story. Finally, a couple hikers with a gun went by and the moose left them alone, so we figured we were probably safe to go by. So we headed on down the trail. Later, we ran into more moose! My sisters were scared to walk by them. Of course, I was brave and thought we should go on by. :) (Right......) On our way back from the upper lake, a moose chased us!!! We were scared. We were scared a lot during this hike. But it was beautiful, and now that we're back safely, it seems like a pretty great adventure!

Russia

I decided that I need some adventure. I think I'm going to move to Russia.

Summertime

Summertime is here! Yay! I only have two more days of school and then I'm done for the whole summer!!! I love my job! I'm going home for the summer. I'm really excited to spend time with my family. I also feel like I'm a freshman in college again and moving back home for the summer. I was talking to my mom today and she told me that everyone that knows I'm coming home for the summer has already set me up. I think the summer project for the Relief Society in my home ward is to marry me off. Wait...my mom is the RS President in our ward...hmmmm..... Anyway, if I'd known there were that many guys in my hometown, I may have moved back a long time ago!

You know your life is boring when

1. your roommate calls you from her weekend trip to North Carolina to make sure you're taking the keys to the closet to Jace for Munch and Mingle.

2. you're excited to go to Idaho. Idaho! I mean, really, who even lives in Idaho? Jackalopes?

3. everyone you talk to says, "I just came back from somewhere really exciting" and you say "Oh, I spent yesterday organizing my bills and cleaning the dust bunnies out from under my bed."

4. the most exciting thing you have to do on a Sunday afternoon is update your blog.

Did you know that people can find your blog when they didn't even know you had one??? I think in order to do that you have to have a security clearance and work for a government agency that is known primarily by its three letter acronym. This is not me. I actually pay the people I work for to let me work there. We're hiring.