Lower Road Trip 2010

We went on a two week road trip to Yellowstone, The Grand Tetons, Estes Park (for a family reunion), The National Dinosaur Monument in UT and back home through Boise, ID. It was a wonderful trip!

I apologize about the length of this video. It was hard to capture such a fun and beautiful two week trip in less than 14 minutes. So, sit back with your beverage of choice and enjoy. :)

Our Crater Lake Trip

Our first stop on the Lower road trip was this camp site on the way to Crater Lake.  We drove to Bend and camped in the Cascade Lakes area.  It was beautiful.

Ellis getting ready for the second leg of our journey to Crate Lake.

Here is our view approaching Crater Lake.

Wow - the beauty was breathtaking!  

We had a nice hike around the lake.  However, the misquotes were eating us alive!

We stayed two nights in the lodge.  It was a beautiful old lodge.

This was our evening cocktail spot.  Unfortunately, the misquotes loved it as well.

On our way back from Crater Lake we stopped at the cabin for the 4th of July weekend.  It was so peaceful (not a single firework!).

Smores at night.  YUM!

This is Kiley's little friend she found.  Isn't he cute.

We went on a hike near the cabin to "Little Crater Lake".  We thought this hike was fitting for this trip.  It was really pretty.  However, the misquotes were worse than at big Crater Lake.

Welcome Mei!

Resa and Tim are in China picking up their daughter, Mei.  This is their first day together.  Looks like they were meant to be a family!  We cannot wait till they get back into the US and we can get our hands on beautiful Mei!!

The Protectenator

Ellis and Brock have been working on Ellis' science fair project today.  She has named the invention "The Protectenator"  This invention was inspired by an event that happened a couple of weeks ago.  At school, someone was breaking into Ellis' lunchbox and eating part of her sandwich.  This went on for a couple of days.  While this was happening, Ellis was assigned a project to make an invention that had a power source, an on and off switch, and that WORKS!  So, we decided to try to make a lunchbox alarm.  Brock, with Ellis' assistance, built an alarm with an electric bell, wire and a battery.

Here is the alarm...

Here is Ellis & Kiley acting out the attempted sandwich theft...

and the Oscar goes to.........................

The Protectenator up close....

The Sky Blues

Today we attended Ellis's 3rd grade class concert.  They call themselves the Sky Blues.  It was wonderful.  Of course I cried (Kathleen, not Brock).  Every year the third grade class puts on this performance.  Ellis was front and center!  Here are a couple of the songs they did.  

Zoo Snooze

Ellis spent the night at the zoo with her Girl Scout troop.  (Mom did also :)  We had so much fun.  We got to go behind the scenes and see the vet hospital, the animal kitchen and a giraffe eye to eye!

The troop made treats for the sun bears.

We all slept on the floor in this conference room.

Here is the sun bear enjoying the treats the girls made.

Here is the newest addition to the zoo.  The baby elephant is 3 months old.  Soooo cute!!

Christmas Tree O Christmas Tree....

It started to snow on our way to get a Christmas tree.  The girls were so excited!