Yellowstone and... O-H-I-O!

The weekend that school got out we headed to Yellowstone national park with Ash and Karleia. We left on a friday when I got off work at 6. It was a rough start because Karleia had to still take a final and needed to finish packing. Ash drove with us and that took some rearranging so there would be room for her in our car. Ha on the way to our campsite we saw a buffalo running beside this tour bus on the opposite side of the street and it was so funny hearing Ash flip out! She liked screamed.."OH MY COW!" and then was like wait I should have said buffalo! Poor Connor was done with the car ride by the time that we entered the park and cried the hr and a half it took to get to the campsite. By the time we got there he was absolutely hysterical. We stayed at Grant village. When we checked in the worker told us that there is a grizzly bear that comes through the campsite every 2-3 days! That really freaked me out seeing how we were sleeping in a tent! We got the tent up and a fire going as the sun was going down. Fire roasted hot dogs never tasted so good! I was pretty worried for Karleia since she was driving by herself, in the dark, no service and wild animals everywhere! She didn't get there until almost 1 am! but luckily had no problems, she didn't even see any animals the whole way.

We did a lot of site seeing on sat. we got up had breakfast and then went to see old faithful. While we were waiting we decided to hike along the paths and we really had a lot of fun. We forgot the stroller at the campsite so I had to carry Connor and let me tell you he gets heavy fast! He was chewing on the carrier so the straps were soaking wet and that was against my chest all day.. pretty nasty. We took some pretty cool pictures while it was shooting off. We also went to the visitors center that was by Madison and the stopped at some picnic tables for lunch. After we went and looked at the geysers. Its crazy how colorful and pretty they are and at the same time how bad they reek! That night we made hobo dinners and then stumbled across a bear safety class that was taught by one of the rangers. It was actually really cool! We learned the hot spots to see them and how to tell the difference between grizzly and black bears.. it's all about the hump vs the rump!

Sunday morning we woke up at 545 to drive up to Hayden Valley to see some bears. We waited and waited and didn't see a thing. A few people said they spotted a mama and cub bear but by time we looked they were long gone. We were so disappointed and tired! We decided to check out the upper falls before it became to crowded. It was really pretty! We took more pictures! Ash and I had on matching shirts and hats that we bought the day before so random people when they passed us would say, "look there is a set of twins". We checked out a few more gift shops as we were heading north. Later we hiked the stairs that took us to see the grand canyon of Yellowstone. As we were coming back from the trail we noticed a few people were looking across the street. I figured they were just looking at a buffalo or a deer but no! BAM! It was a bear!! We finally saw one! It was only a cub but still it made the entire trip! Some of the people were not very smart getting like 10 feet from it to take some pictures. I stayed a lot farther back than Adam, Ash and Karleia but I had Connor and honestly, i was scared to get any closer! We then got ice cream and headed back to camp. Everyone but me took a nap and then we went to the visitors center for grant village, it wasn't very cool but it taught me a lot about the wildfire! We just spent the rest of the night hanging out.

Monday morning we had to leave pretty early because I had to be at work by 130. We thought that by taking the south exit would save us time. Boy, were we wrong. We were off roading it on windy dirt roads in two little cars for 57 (or so) miles! These roads were so tiny that a few times we were almost rammed into by on coming traffic (HUGE trucks and a whole boy scouts troop)! It sucked more for Karleia who was following us because she was eating our dirt the entire way. Luckily Connor slept most of the trip! It was a great weekend and we all had a ton of fun!

SO Aug 7-15 we were in OHIO! We drove to Utah on the 6th and Connor cried the entire trip. I thought that was bad until we tried putting him to bed that night. It was his first night ever sleeping without a bassinet or crib. He woke up every 30-60 mins screaming hysterically. It took every bit of strength and energy that adam and I had to rock, and comfort him. The next day at the airport was rough because we were all on about maybe 3 hours of sleep. Connor did EXTREMELY well on the plane! He loved the lady beside him on the first flight (the aisle separated adam and i). He slept during take off on the second flight and then we just kept him playing and distracted by the little tvs. My parents picked us up at the Akron airport. We just handed Connor over to Mom and he was a little scared until she started talking. All of my siblings adored him and he got a ton of attention! Shannon refused to be called aunt Shannon because she said she was not old (she's only 4) and i felt so bad for Larry because he had mono.
Sunday we went to church with my family and it was good seeing people in the ward. One of the nicest things was I was able to stay in all the meetings because my grandma, mom and sisters were holding Connor! After church we went home and ate, then we headed to the grandparents. We visited Grandma K first and by time we got there Connor was asleep. It worked out though because we had time to visit and the when he woke up she had time with him. My dad had Connor laughing pretty hard while we were there and it was funny because Connor was chewing on dad's dress shirt. Later we went to my Grandpa and grandma's house and hung out there. Connor ate some baby food and I think that his uncle benny took about 50 pictures of it!
Monday was a pretty relaxed day. My parents wanted a picture of all of there grand kids so we did that. They turned out pretty cute. Later we went swimming at home and let me just say, Connor LOVES the water. He was splashing and kicking! It was really cute but wore him out quickly! That night I started out watching a movie with Ash, Adam and Larry but i fell asleep a few mins in and just gave up and went to bed.
Tues, I got a new phone! After later realizing it was cheaper at wal-mart and having worked a few things out it was only 97 cents! We then went home and after lunch we went swimming again. That night we had my parents 25 Anniversary party. There was a lot of people over and it was too much for Connor. He was really fussy and was only ok if he was with me or Adam. The party went really smoothly and my parents enjoyed it so thats all that matters! Wed was the day that we went to Adam's house. They came and picked us up at my house. We then went and up graded his phone and he got the same one as me. Then we had lunch and hung out at his house. It was nice because his siblings got to play with Connor. Thurs we went out to lunch at Golden Corral with Adam's family and then to fun and stuff. We all had a lot of fun! We rode the go-carts, played a game of laser tag (at one point I almost hit ken in the face with my gun bc he scared me coming around the corner) and played a game of mini golf. That night Adam and I went to see the movie Inception. It was a good movie and was our last date night without Connor until my sisters come back to Idaho! Friday morning Adam went shooting with his dad, Ken and Josh. We hung around the house and then later meet with my family to see Shrek the Final Chapter or whatever it was called. Connor was really cranky during it so I was out with him and then my mother in law took him so i could watch the rest of the movie! I appricated that! We all went out to dinner at Hometown buffet. Our siblings get along so well, it makes it nice. We went down to massillon on sat for the fun fest. Everyone had a good time. Adam, Ken and Larry stayed home and played video games. After we went swimming and had pizza. Then we headed back to Stow. The Swingles came over to see Connor. It was good seeing them. Adam and I were in bed by like 10. We had to get up at 4am. Our flight left at 6 and Connor slept most of the 2 1/2 hr flight to Denver. We had little time in between flights and made it just in time to board the plane. He slept all but the last 15 mins of that flight! I was so worried the weeks leading to our trip about flying with him and he was such a perfect angel! We made it back to Rexburg by 230 and it felt nice to be home! We had a GREAT time visiting our families and for our brothers and sisters to meet their little nephew!