Of Course My Camera is Broken

This would have been a weekend to fill the memory card for sure.

Friday night Jeremiah and I went to a Night of Mystery party. I had a blast! (I think Jeremiah did too, but I really had a great time.) Our party was pirate themed. Jeremiah was a treasure hunter and I was a merchant. It was so fun to dress for the party. Jeremiah bedecked himself with a sword, guns, a treasure map, a compass, a bandana and an extra large money-clip earring. I dressed in a peasant-top, a bandana and several layers of jewelry as my "wares." There were about 30 people at the party and it was so stinkin' fun. Jeremiah and I have never done anything like that, we didn't even really dress up for Halloween last year. Maybe someday I'll be cool and host one of those parties myself.

We also visited Yellowstone National Park this weekend. My in-laws had reserved a condo for the weekend and invited us along. I was so glad that they did! Jeremiah and I have a wish list for the summer and we were able to check-off "Visit Yellowstone" right off the bat. I hadn't been there since I was a kid and it was a fun experience to share with my kids. We saw over 80 head of bison, about 10 elk, some geese, a couple of chipmunks, 2 grizzly bears and 3 wolves. (Although we had to wait to see the bears and wolves in the reserve.) We even had to stop to let a small herd of bison cross the road. Isaac warned us not to get too close ,"or the bison will try to head-bonk us!"

We drove along Firehole River and checked out the Falls. We also stopped to walk along the paint pots on the boardwalk. I loved seeing the bubbling mud, the deep-blue pool surrounded by orange deposits and trying to sound scientific as I explained to Isaac what was happening. (I'm super glad that there are diagrams posted nearby!) Isaac clung to Gabriel and Clarissa the whole time. I'm so thankful that they were willing to put up with that and help out with the kids.

We also, of course, watched Old Faithful shoot an impressive fountain of water into the sky. Kenley kept saying that she was scared and would smash her face into me, only to peek out half a second later. After it was finished all she could say was an astonished, "Wow." The thing that was most fun about the trip was seeing the joy on the kids faces as they marveled at God's creations. Many exclamations of awe erupted from their little mouths.

They of course were also very pleased to return to the condo, which Isaac dubbed "Home Faithful", to swim in the pool. And I was more than pleased that the condo had a generous wading pool that kept my how-to-swim-ignorant children safe and happy.

On Sunday we made cakes in mugs to celebrate Gabriel's birthday. (That's a great little trick. Mix one box of Angel Food cake mix [it has to be the kind that you only have to add water] and one box any other flavor cake mix. Put 1/3 cup of the blended cake mixes in a mug and add 3 tablespoons water. Mix until frothy and then microwave for one minute. They pop right out and viola! Single serving cakes!) Then we went to the Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center. We got to watch while they hid food for the Grizzlies. There were two bears out and we had fun watching "Sam" knock a bird feeder out of the tree on his hind legs. Then we watched a wolf gnaw on a elk hide for a while before finally heading to the city park for lunch and then getting on the road to go home.

The party didn't end though. We ended up staying up until 11:30 playing games at our house. It really was the perfect weekend!