Yellowstone!

We had a fun family trip this past weekend to Island Park, Idaho and Yellowstone National Park. Our wonderful friends, Robb & Amy Boden invited us to stay with them at their family cabin in Island Park. Thank so much BODEN'S! We love ya!!!

Scotty & Macee

look REAL close to see the 2 small black bears sleeping in the tree! (lower part of the pic)

Jacob at " artist paint pots" area

Elk at Mammoth Springs area...just grazing right in town among all the people

North Gate--Yellowstone

Rachel---waterfall area

Yellowstone river

This geyser was actaully more amazing than "old faithful". It was erupting for 3 hours....and still going...Also the path you walk to it, you can get much closer....about 10 feet away. It was just amazing to see!

Medicine Bow Mountains, Wyoming!

Driving from Ogden to Denver and vise/versa can be very boring and DRY looking. Thankfully this June we had lots of rain to keep the hills green. Still...a long boring drive. So this time I convinced Mark to take a "side track". We took highway 130 from Laramie deep into the beautiful fir filled forest of the Medicine Bow mountains. This was amazing...we got to the elevation of 10,850 feet! It was a gorgeous drive with snow capped peaks and glacier lakes all around. We stopped at the Libby Mountain lookout point. They had this little castle-like lookout tower. The view was spectacular! Then as we came out of the mountains, there is a cute little town called Saratoga. We met up with the freeway just a bit before Rawlings. So THEN we still had the long boring drive to Evanston and on into Utah but we could always remember our little journey into the heavens at Medicine Bow mountains.

OH...we had to stop at the Lincoln Monument too on the way to Denver. It is a really nice rest stop just outside of Laramie on the 1-80 freeway. Kind of a freakishly BIG head of Abraham Lincoln but still neat to see nonetheless.

Whintey took about a million pics of the clouds on the way there...We did see some really great cloud formations!

snow pile! mid July!

Silver Lake-July 4th

One day about 9 years ago, Mark was driving around Salt Lake City. He thought he would just drive up Big Cottonwood canyon to see what was at the end. He knew there were ski resorts but wondered what else. What he found has become a great favorite place for us as a family to go visit. It is Silver Lake....it is a small natural lake with a boardwalk path all around. (nice because we always had small kids in strollers) It is a natural "water-shed" area. We have seen so much wildlife...including moose. It's beautiful in the summer but the fall is spectacular as well!
We had a nice picnic and walk around the lake. Rachel, Molly & Macee

Whitney

Mark & Scotty

Jacob & Rachel

Macee & Scotty

the lake

our picnic site

Let Freedom Ring!

" what do we mean by patriotism in the context of our times...a patriotism that puts country ahead of self; a patriotism which is not short frenzied outbursts of emotion, but the tranquil and steady dedication of a lifetime."

Adlai StevensonLet's all be grateful for the great country we live in. Let's all not take for granted our freedoms. Be proud to be an American. Times may be tough....time to count your blessings and realize how much we truly have.

Summer time pictures

Just a few fun family photos...June 2009

Mark & Molly

silly kids....and mom

Macee & Scotty

Rachel & Tucker

Rachel, Whitney, Scotty, Jacob, & Macee ..oh and Tucker too!

Rachel & Molly

Scotty

Whitney

Jacob's fun summer activities

Jacob went on a fun camping/repelling trip with the boys from our ward. They went down to the narrows by Moab somewhere. They had fun but got on the trail a little too late and ended up in the dark. He had such great leaders that helped them out. ALSO...the young men and young women from our ward went repelling in Ogden canyon a bit ago. Jacob really enjoyed that!

Can you find Jacob? far left under the bridge

Girl's Camp 2009

We had a great time this year at girl's camp. This is my 2nd year as ward camp leader. It's been a great experience. And this year I had 2 of my own girls with me! We were offered to stay in the Bishop's cabin so we gladly acccepted. Good thing because it rained 2 of the 3 days. We all still had a fabulous time....

Paddle boats on Causey reservoir

New York City AGAIN!

I am so fortunate to have a great friend Kathleen, who works for JetBlue. She was able to take Whitney & I back to NYC for a few fun filled days! We went to a lot of the stops that Ray and I hit in March but a few more too. It rained a little but we cared not! It was great. Here's a few of the pics!

Brooklyn Bridge

Molly, Whitney, & Holly

Washington Square

Whitney in Dylan's candy bar store....

M & M store--Times Square