Yes - I am slow in documenting our Vacation!

I am apparently not good enough to put the pictures in order so backwards we go!



This Barn was in Idaho on our way home - we stopped to take pictures of the backside of the Tetons and I turned around and the side of the road was covered in daisies and this part looked so artsy, so I snapped a few pictures.

This is the back side or should I say the Idaho side of the Tetons.

We went back thru Idaho to Provo for the Homer and Alma Petersen Reunion - That is Ken's Mom's Parents and siblings etc. I have to say that I really enjoy ALL of Ken's family - I have no picture because we just talked and talked instead. Pat and Larry Ashby hosted this time and did a great job. We ate, we talked, we remarked how the children have grown and the family has gotten so much bigger. I imagined Grandma and Grandpa were there in spirit - Grandma making sure she spoke with everyone and Grandpa making sure all the babies got their first taste of ice cream from him. I sure missed having them there - they were responsible for raising such a great family. I also really enjoyed getting to know some of the newest members of the family, either by marriage or by birth. My blogging friend Sue is a poet I admire, she is able to use words to express things of the heart and she wrote a poem and posted it right after we got back and it is perfect.

The Gathering
©2009 Susan Noyes Anderson

The greatest joy in life is found
where love and loyalty abound.
What sweeter sight...what dearer sound,
than all the family, gathered 'round?

That pretty much sums it up for me!

This is the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone - Ken and Logan went for us (Brenn and Dallin had headaches so we stayed home). What beautiful pictures they took.

It is fun to see the water boiling on its way downhill to the river.

This is the excelsior geyser - the colors were incredible! While walking up you could see the colors in the steam coming off of the water.

Logan is a goof!

Elk resting in the meadow.

More of the geyser - Can you see the orange, yellow and blue? I was trying so hard to get the camera to see what I could see.

The water looked like a tropical sea (except for the boiling bubbles of course)

The vapors were different colors. Lots of people looking. You walked on boardwalks because the crust of the earth is really unstable in this area - in other words you could fall thru and boil to death.

Logan being the Karate Kid.

The whole park talks about how you should leave the animals ALONE! Do not approach, do not feed, etc.. These bison were about 20 feet off the path, they seemed to be sleeping. Most of the people walked really fast by or were taking pictures from a safe distance, most people. There was a lady with a baby less than a year posing maybe 5 feet from this herd, you could hear the ranger lecturing her from a ways away. I was shocked you would get that close, they are HUGE! I just have a super zoom on my camera, its just safer that way.

This was cool - it really looked like a dragon lived in the cave - the water spurted out at interval and the steam bellowed out. Wonder if its Norbert?

This is inside the Old Faithful in - the hotel was built with interesting logs - not a straight one in the bunch. Dallin said this one resembled him and his guns.

This clock is about 15 ft long. The fireplace has 4 sides and I could have stood upright inside with no problem.

The outside.

This is Old Faithful going off - we waited for another geyser for about 3 hours and then decided we should go see Old Faithful (it was about 6pm) and then go back and wait for the Grand geyser. By the time we got to Old Faithful we missed it by 10 minutes - Brenn and I did not want to hike back to Grand so we waited in the visitors center and the truck until it was time for Old Faithful again. Luckily, Grand went off and the boys were just in time to watch Old Faithful.

This is Grand geyser - it reaches 200 ft when it blows and blows for about 12-15 minutes. It goes off about every 6 hours give or take 2 hours either way. We stopped and waited for about 3 hours before finally giving up (well Brenn and I anyway). But the boys were persistent and were rewarded with a grand display.

Pretty 'Grand.'

I love how blue the sky is and how high the water goes - the trees in the back ground are on a hill and it easily clears them.

Here we are - the wind was blowing the whole day and we got a little burned. If you go to Yellowstone be sure to plan a whole day around Old Faithful and the visitors center - there is plenty to do and see.

How these flowers can grow on that sulfur ground surrounded by hot water I cannot quite explain.

Mostly our trip seemed like a last hurrah before our kids start to scatter and leave the nest. We really wanted some time (2 weeks was good) to spend together that would be just us - play cards and games, read, listen to audio books (Percy Jackson and the Olympian series, 5 books almost 55 hours, I would definitely recommend for a long trip) food, sightseeing, water rafting, etc... Well you get the picture - cement some memories for the days ahead.

When I get the rafting pictures I will post those too.

Sniff, Sniff - YEAH!!

Can you be both sad and really glad? That is how I am feeling today. I sold the last puppy today. Sweet faced Sam found a good home with Trent - who is buying Sam for his wife's birthday and they are ssooooo excited.

Stella is on her own tonight - I think she should sleep in Brenn's room. That way she can keep Brenn up and not me (oh wait - I have to irrigate at 1:45 am to 3:15 am so I will be up anyway).

Well puppies were both really fun and a lot of work - I really like the extra bucks I made but my house ate all of that up! I wish in 1 year I could see all of the pups in their homes and know they are well cared for and good dogs (whoops, a little too attached I think).

Well on to other things like trying like crazy to buy a house for Brenn.

Yellowstone Part 2

Our first full day in Yellowstone we went to see Old Faithful. Little did we know you can, and we did, spend an entire day at the Old Faithful visitors center and watching the geysers. The picture below is called Castle geyser and it erupts constantly (can you see the water shooting out?)

This is the other side of Castle geyser.
The pools look hot but not too inviting since you can see them boiling! Most of the pools had a funny cone shape at the bottom, and were really colorful. The orange you see is algae, the middles are usually really blue or maybe teal due to the heat of the water.

As you walk on the path they have created to keep people safe (the ground is not stable, some of it is so thin you might fall into a thermal area and get burned) you can see thru the trees all kinds of steam and water streaming because of all the activity underground.

This is the Morning Glory pool. My Grandma told me this was her favorite and so we searched it out and hiked (walked up the boardwalk) about a mile to see it - they say is is changing colors from a deep turquoise to green because it is cooling off due to the trash and things people have thrown in over the years. In the 1950's the geologist made it erupt to clear out the garbage and found lots of interesting things (like women's underwear).

The area is full of pools - none quite as spectacular as Morning Glory but very similar in color and the cone at the bottom.

On the path there are about 20- 25 different geysers and they can only predict about 7 or 8 of them. Some within about 10 mins and others within 6 hours either way.

We thought this baby one was cute - notice the orange algae growing as it empties into the river. I really wanted to put my hand in the river and see how much all the run off warms up the water but there was not a good place to do that.

I was fascinated to see if I could catch the bubbling of the water - it was boiling so fast and the smell was nasty.

This is at Shoshone Lake - it was a pull out to see the view and most of those were just beautiful!!

Of course the kids have to ham it up a little bit.....

On our way into the park we were stopped with construction and it started to hail - I loved the weather and have not been able to re-acclimatize to the AZ heat (115 degrees today!)

I will post more on Old Faithful in my next post and find the pictures - I was trying not to have 300 pictures in each post.

Puppy post

Being gone for 2 weeks would not have been possible with out by sweet Sister in Law Kirsten! She took care of 5 dogs - 3 of them are puppies!!

Boy did those pups grow!! They are now Fritz size - it is hard to pick them up because they are so long and heavy!!

I had to post some updated pictures - They are sooooo cute - destructive - but cute.

Innocence - I see this and wonder how they can unplug the T.V. and rip up all of the newspapers!

They are actually doing really well - they are going potty outside almost all of the time, only one accident in 3 days - not too shabby for us being on vacation!

Yellowstone - Teton National Parks

Here is a start to our vacation. We left our house on Tuesday the 30th and traveled to Montrose Colorado to stay the night with my Aunt and Uncle. I always try to go thru Ouray because I think it is one of the most beautiful spots on earth.

We enjoyed some time with Jan and Dave, the boys fished a little and then we were on our way to Yellowstone. It took the whole next day to drive to our camp ground just below the South entrance called Flagg Ranch. We spent several days exploring Jackson Hole. Fun shops to see and lots of fun things to do. We tried the Alpine slide, river rafting, and shopping.

The Cowboys!

On the 4th my kids were really excited to be in Wyoming where the fireworks laws are favorable. In Arizona even sparklers are outlawed. So when we found out that fireworks were not allowed in the National Park and Jackson was supposed to be really crowded, we (I) decided to try Dubois - Now my Aunt Jan used to live there and when I would spend summers with her we camped and vacationed a few times in Dubois so I hoped it would be as I remembered. Also their parade did not start until 1pm and that allowed us to go horseback riding first.

Logan wanted to ride a white horse - he spooked this poor horse with his sweatshirt but was still able to stay on!!

I took this picture behind me while I was on my horse! Sometimes I am really good!

Brenn and her pink Cowboy hat!

After the parade (great by the way) we went to the local museum. I have to tell you about the lady running the counter - she held a newspaper in front of her mouth because her 8 month old puppy (Great Pyrenees) ate her false teeth! We laughed with her and wondered what our 3 puppies at home were chewing up! What a great museum! Lots of exhibits and fun facts about the settlers and Indians in that area.

Then Ken and the boys dropped Brenn and I at the laundry mat and went to the res to buy fireworks! Luckily it rained really hard that afternoon so we did not catch anything on fire with our inexperience.

We went to the empty lot on main street with the rest of the town and watched the fireworks on a bluff right ahead of us and then everyone around us were lighting them too. What a good time - the only hang up was everyone was at the fireworks and we could not find a bathroom! I finally saw, in a window, a lady I met at the laundry mat and asked her if I could use her restroom, I figured that was better than being arrested for peeing in a bush!

Dallin was amazed that only 962 people live in Dubois...that is not as many as his graduating class. Brenn thought it would be fun to live there.

We wanted to thank Dubois for a memorable 4th and apologize the the gentleman that Logan almost killed with a bottle rocket.

I LOVE MOUNTAINS!! Seriously, can scenery be spectacular with out a mountain? I don't think so. There is nothing as Awesome as the Teton mountains. Really, I think that word 'awesome' was first uttered by someone seeing the Tetons.

Beautiful flowers - I cannot seem to resist that either.

More to come.....

Did I fall off the face of the earth??

No - sorry I have been soooo busy - and now I am on Vacation in Yellowstone!! We packed up the camper and sent Grandma to Colorado to stay for a week and we went where it is cooler - really its been COLD!! I will post some pictures as soon as I can. Lucky for us my neighbor (and sister in law) is looking after 3 puppies and 2 dogs and as soon as Grandma gets home, her too. I need some ideas to pay her back, so feel free to comment (you too Kirsten (SIL)).

I am keeping up on your blogs via blackberry (when I have service) but cannot seem to comment, I will catch up when I get home (tho' i am glad Lily came back to live at home instead of outside, I hear its going to be 116 and even between the A/C is not going to be cool enough!)

I do wonder how Kaden is, Julie has not updated lately...keeping my fingers crossed and my prayers said.

Fabulous pictures to come....

At least 3 Blackberrys thick!

Is this a stack of bills? NO. A stack of newspapers? NO A stack of school work? NO

This is the stack of houses I have looked at!!

Seriously! My poor mom - its a good thing she is my Real Estate Agent because no other person would show me every house! (secretly we just really like to look at houses together.)

But I think we found them - yes I said them. We found a few houses yesterday that were good but kinda alot of money (isn't that the way it goes). But were driving by this one (its not even on the MLS yet) and it had a lock box so of course we are game. It is good. 3 bedrooms, 2 updated bathrooms, a pebble tech pool, and a decent kitchen. But it is kinda small. The second one is huge - 5 bedrooms (4 really big ones and one teeny tiny one) 3 bathrooms and a nice yard, not as close to ASU as I would like but its about 3 blocks to the free bus (as opposed to 3 houses with the first one). Big difference in PRICE though. Except it really works out to about $65 a month in house payment - more girls in the bigger house and lots of more room, about double.

What to do....well you offer on both and see what happens!! With our luck we will get both and then have to decide. If that happens I may just detail it out here and you all can VOTE!!

Logan's Dream

I must preface this post with a few facts:

My family - Father and siblings - have always had very vivid, usually strange dreams. Lots of de ja vu - and even some really creepy ones. I do not watch horror movies for that reason alone.

This I have passed on to my children. We have always enjoyed the mornings of relating the past nights dreams, all except poor Ken who never remembers his dreams, we think this is really sad.

A few months after Ken and I were married I had a really, really real dream that he took a second wife (a friends wife in fact (she was tall and I am short there in lies the insecurity) yes that is you Clarissa) with out telling me!! I came home from work to find out it was a done deal - did I mention my dreams are REALLY vivid? I woke up mad and hitting my husband - it literally took a couple of days to forgive him. Over the last 21 years he has gotten use to me waking up mad because he was a JERK in my dream - eventually I am able to separate the dream state from reality, well mostly.

This brings on the reason for my post. Logan (14) came to me last night just hopping up and down to tell someone his 'really cool dream'. Now I am used to this but immediately I knew this dream was different. He had a really big smile, not the usual confusion, and he told me he had been dying to tell someone about what happened in his dream. I am going to copy out of his journal so it is in his words - it's just that cool of a dream.

"The part I remember is that I'm with a group of people and we are on this golden cloud. I am the same age as I am now. I'm talking to my friends Jackson Buntrock and Rachael McCue, they are the only ones there that I know. Its not a very big group and the golden cloud we were waiting on was kind of like a waiting room. There were chairs everywhere and people from everywhere around the world. Jesus calls me up and I get interviewed. I do not remember any of the questions or anything. The next thing I do remember is I get passed and then Rachael and then Jackson. I leave them and go looking for my great grandparents, Grandma and Grandpa Petersen and Grandma Cole and to meet Grandpa Cole. Then I got woken up. I was smiling during the whole dream. I felt love everywhere. It was the one of the most amazing experiences of my life."

When he was telling me I asked a few questions.

"Were you nervous to interview with Jesus?"
"No, I was excited."

"How do you know you passed?"
"Mom, Jesus loves me, of course I passed."

Then he told me his friend Rachael is not Mormon, but she passed. Then he said, "Well, she is a really great person."

We then had the conversation about how we are ALL Gods children and He wants all of us to be with him. His did not make the supreme sacrifice for only those chosen few, I know He made it for everyone everywhere.

I was also touched that he was searching out his Great Grandparents, that he knows they will be there waiting and happy to see him.

After I encouraged him to write it down - I only copied the dream, he wrote 5 pages about this experience. What a lucky, lucky, really blessed boy I have.

As I am writing this post - and helping Brenn find bagels in the freeze - she tells me of her dream last night. Aaron Beihl (a boy she dated and is not person non grata) she is at his house doing something with his dad and they have Rhodesian Ridgeback puppies too - one with a pink collar that looks just like Stella (her puppy she is keeping) and but with a really strange name and she was suspicious they had stolen our puppies. That is normal for our house.

Do you know who John Connor is??!!!!

I have a confession to my posterity....I love Science Fiction. Particularly movies and television shows.

One of my Favorite of all time is the Terminator movies - yes I know they are action packed and a little violent. I got hooked in the early 80's with the first one and have really enjoyed the series (including the Sarah Connor Chronicles on tv). Last night we

FINALLY

went to see the Terminator Salvation (I was so relieved it was not rated R, since the first one I have repented and not watched R rated movies (yes, I had to wait for T3 to show on tv)) for family home evening. Yes, we are stellar parents. Actually we planned it and all three kids ditched us. So Ken and I went ahead with the plan not knowing you have to have 3 in your party to get the family night discount at the local theater. Oh well, I thought it was worth it.

What a great movie!!

Ok - I know critically the story was under developed and not too much plot but the homage paid to the previous movies was spectacular!! I really enjoyed the whole movie - Ken was kind to me and let me laugh and explain the parody's. Really, I believe the director, MCG, who ever that is must love the other movies as much as I did (ok T3 was not as good).


I could go on to describe the little details used from the other movies but I won't bore you - but "I'll be back" someday and I will rent all 4 - download the clearplay edits - and make my children watch a marathon!! WHEEE!!!

Loved IT!!

PS - yes I watch Sci-fi channel all day on Saturday while I clean and iron just to see the movies!!

PSS - Yes - you are related to me!!

Logan to D.C.

Logan went to Washington D.C. for a school trip. They had a ball!

He was very impressed by the monuments especially Arlington Cemetery

They were there over Memorial Day and I know it made a big impression on military service and sacrifice. He knows my Dad spent 20 years in the Air Force and My Uncle Rick served 2 tours in Vietnam. He told me the Wall memorial was a sacred place and it bothered him that some of the other groups were not as reverent as he thought they should be, what a great kid!!

Logan and FDR

He told me he needed at least another week to see all he wanted to see. He went with a group called Close up and they had kids from about 5 other states in their group too.

What a great experience for him!!

This is for Shelly - look I am finishing up old business.

My Front Bathroom is done! Isn't it beautiful?

This is my tile Guy - Dominic - poor Brenn she was gone most of the time he was here!
This is the downstairs shower - it is almost finished too!

Does this look like a tired nursing mother? She really doesn't let them nurse much anymore because they are so big and greedy! Isn't this the cutest thing?!! They are growing even faster than my boys! The sleep of the innocent! They are not so innocent when they are awake, they have sharp little teeth and are ferocious on any bare toes.Most of my pictures are blurry - they are constantly on the move!

If you are interested the puppies will be ready to go in about 2 weeks. There are only boys available (for $500).

My house still hates me. On Tuesday as we were leaving the wind whipped and took a good part of my shingles with it! I cannot believe this last year. I just keep thinking that pretty soon it will all be new and I won't have to worry about it anymore.