Halloween

Tayler Young, Preston Harris, Emma Young

Emma 2012

 Our ward had a Yw/Ym Halloween party last night.  It was fun for them to have a reason to dress up, or was that just me that thought it was fun?  Probably the latter :)  Oh well, Emma is going trick or treating tonight so it wasn't a bad idea to have a costume :)  Happy Halloween everyone!

Tayler 2012

Coast time

 I can't even remember what day we went to the coast, but it was a nice beautiful day.  George hasn't ever been to the Astoria Column on a nice day so it was good we went on this day, it was so beautiful.  We could see so far in every direction, it was amazing.

 Conference weekend George and I went to the Coast to celebrate our Anniversary.  It was another amazing  weekend.  Sunny and warm, hardly any wind on the beach.  I loved it.  We ate some really yummy food and just enjoyed no schedule.  It was a nice break.

Happy Anniversary to us :) 23 years and counting!

Day 46: Home!

I didn't take any pictures on the way home.  I know it like the back of my hand.  So I will share with you some of the things we talked about on the way home.
We couldn't wait to:
Sleep in our own bed's
Sleep on our own pillows
Not have to drive the next day
How sore our behinds were
Use our own washer and dryer

Thing's we didn't look forward to:
Getting up for Seminary
Making our own food again
Having to clean things

What we couldn't wait for the most though was to see George and of course Rocky!  As soon as we got home it was just overwhelming, soooooo nice to see George and poor Rocky was beside himself he was so happy to see us!  This trip was so amazing, so many amazing wonderful things to see in our country.  I'm so thankful Hope invited me and didn't put me on a plane back home, I know for a fact she wanted to :)  I love that I was able to experience this with them and I hope they enjoyed spending the time with me.

Day 45: Yellowstone & Jackie and Tyler

 We spent the night at the Yellowstone Valley Inn.  It was in a pretty little valley with lot's of rock formations everywhere.  We headed to Yellowstone as early as we could because we wanted to see some animals, and we figured they would be more active in the morning hours.  We were driving around a corner and this Buffalo was just walking down the side of the rode, not in the middle or in our lane or the other lane but on the other side of the white line, I thought that was funny.

 Big herd of Buffalo's, the only animals we saw while we were there.   I've been to Yellowstone a couple of times now and still haven't seen a bear.  I guess if I ever encounter a bear maybe I will be glad about that :)

 When we got to the Old Faithful area, it was forecasting the next eruption to be at 12:20, so we headed out and waited and waited.......

 and waited some more, took pictures of other waiters :)  Took lot's of pictures of the almost eruptions :)  Then took more of the actual eruption, a park ranger said that on average the geyser will go 130 feet in the air, it kept going for a good 3 minutes or so.  Pretty impressive and on a schedule, can't ask mother nature to be more accurate than that I guess :)

 We walked around and looked at some of the pools, they really do look cool.  Kind of scary to think how hot they are.  I'm glad we made it to Yellowstone, it is a fascinating area.

After Yellowstone we went to Jackie and Tyler's house.  We walked around the BYU-I campus and just enjoyed being with family.  They made us yummy pizza and Tyler made us snickerdoodles, one of my all time favorite cookies :)  It was fun to see my kid's all together and having a good time.  Tyler and Jackie are in school now and so we didn't stay long, they needed to study.  We headed back to our hotel and talked about how happy we were that this was our last night in a hotel :)  One more day and we will be home!

Day 43& 44: Driving, Driving, Driving and Mt. Rushmore

 Sunday we drove all day long.  I really missed how close all of our destinations were on the East Coast.  Monday we went to Mt. Rushmore!  I have always wanted to go here.  It is something I would say was on my bucket list if I had one :)  So I don't need to write it down when I make my list :)  It was pretty cool to see.  Very memorable.

Emma, Tayler and Hope

 This mountain goat was inside a fenced area when we first saw it, well I guess it didn't want to stay there.  I thought it was funny to see it walking through all the tourist like it was no big deal.  I guess to it, it probably wasn't a big deal.

 We also went to the Crazy Horse monument.  I didn't know it wasn't finished, it was kind of a let down.  Now when they finish it, that will be cool.  The story was interesting and it is huge, I guess all of Mt. Rushmore could fit inside the head area of the Crazy horse monument.  So that is cool, maybe I will go back when they finish.  I think Emma said I would be 105 by then, maybe we will go together in a few years ;)

Day 42: Kirtland and Chicago

We started the day off with breakfast with some of Ryley's family.  His Uncle and Aunt and Cousin are so nice.  We really enjoyed our time with them.  We headed to Kirtland Ohio.  I thought it would be cool to see the Kirtland temple even though our church doesn't own it anymore.  It was interesting to see but it was like looking at any other old building around the area.  Absolutely zero spirit there.  I was sad that we had gone to Palmyra first.  I missed the spirit I felt there at the sacred grove and on the temple grounds.

 From Kirtland we zoomed across the states and headed to Chicago.  We knew we weren't staying here long so we didn't do much.  We saw the skyline though.  Hope was telling me what she knew of the Sears tower.  Sounds scary, it was cool to see though.

Day 41: Family and Niagara Falls

We went to visit with Amanda Kinsman today.  She is married to my nephew Jordon, he is deployed to Afghanistan right now but will be home soon.  Amanda was kind enough to put her life on hold for a little while and let us play with her darling Nolah and just have a good time with family.  It was so nice to see her and we are glad we took the time to stop and see them.  We felt bad that we missed Ellie, she had to go to school early and didn't get home until later in the afternoon.  We sure do miss family.

 We headed to Niagara falls next.  Really I think the pictures speak for themselves.  It was beautiful and awesome.  I hear that the Canadian side is prettier but I was very pleased with the American side and I don't feel like we missed out on anything.  Beautiful day!

Emma and Lora