Yellowstone: The People

Yellowstone in October -- I'd expected it to be colder.  Which explains the entire rubbermaid tote of every weight parka, coat, jacket and sweatshirt for each of my children.  Turns out, the mornings were a bit chilly, but half way through our first hike, we'd be stripped down to a light jacket or just a long sleeve shirt.  I made the mistake of wearing a long sleeve shirt our first day, and I thought I was going to melt under the oppressive heat :-)  Who knew it'd be near 70 during the day in October in Yellowstone!? Our last day we had a bit of rain, but all in all, we couldn't have had better weather!  

We stayed in a cute condo in West Yellowstone -- super clean and only a few years old, and with three bedrooms and two baths and a full kitchen, it really was a 'home away from home.'  The best part had to be that Greg and I had our own room with Isaac, while Aunt Lacy and Uncle Cody shared a room with my girls (a Queen size bed and twin bunk beds in one room) -- my suggestion for all vacationing parents is to find other people to room with your kids :-)  Ellie loved that she had her own 'low bed', as she called the lower bunk bed, while Cody slept up on the 'high bed'.  She was endlessly amused by this -- well, until bedtime, where her and Annie did freak out for long periods of time before going to sleep.  They were hard to get to sleep being overly excited and overly tired, but they both stayed in really good moods throughout most of the day, so I can't complain.  

Our first day we drove the first half of the day to get to Yellowstone, then headed into the park in the early afternoon (right as my sister in law's labor was picking up and we lost cell phone reception, of course!)  Within a few miles we saw our first few bison -- I think all of us were re energized upon seeing the animals; suddenly all the driving had a purpose beyond just making Ellie angry at us.  :-)  We went straight to the 'Grand Canyon' of Yellowstone . . .

Annie & Ellie (way) in front of the waterfalls

Cody, Annie, Grandpa Robert, Ellie and Grandma Karine.  One of the reasons Greg and I keep opting for family vacations with a number of other adults has to be for this -- there's no way Greg and I could do 'one for the money, two for the show . . .' for both of our girls at the same time (and carry the baby) if it was just the two of us!  :-)  Having tons of other people to play with is so much fun for the girls, and it's a huge reduction in work for Greg and I!  We commented a couple times how we don't know how we would've done some of the bigger hikes without all the extra arms to take turns carrying kids.

It was surprisingly warm, but when we went and hiked down to the Lower Falls, it was COLD in the shade.  Here's Ellie wrapped up in Grandma's sweatshirt.  As I was walking up, she was completely bundled up in it, up on top of this rock (to the side of the path) . . . only when I got closer did she poke her head out and yell, "Boo!"

It was really hard to narrow down pictures!  I posted about 150 or so on Facebook, but tried to limit this post to about 25.  It was really difficult to pick and choose which pictures 'made the cut'.  Each one was a memory, or a reflection of my family at their core -- how we function, what our personalities and relationships are like, just how freakishly close we are.  It basically came down to trying to get a sampling of pictures that included a bit of everyone (with a bias towards my children, of course).  So, here's a sister picture of Star, me and Lacy (this is the day before Talina and David got there, so she wasn't there yet).

Isaac with Daddy.  Isaac did SO amazingly well this trip.  He slept and ate and was chill.  I only remember him fussing a few times, and all out crying for just a few seconds after being put into a car seat (less than his big sister Ellie!  She got to where she'd freak out and scream when we'd strap her back in each time :-)  The child developed some car seat PTSD after so much time in the car!  I mentioned once, "You know, it would've been nice to do Yellowstone back in the '50s, just with the kids thrown in the back of some massive car, standing on the seats for a better view, not strapped into anything!"  My Dad responded, "The '50s?!  Try the '80s!  How do you think we vacationed with all you guys!"

Annie and Star up at Mammoth.  You can see why people guess that my girls belong to whichever of us are holding them!

Lacy and Cody.  This trip was made especially memorable for all of us because it's Cody's last family vacation for awhile.  He leaves in just over a week for Argentina to the LDS Missionary Training Center, and then will be in Uruguay for the next two years.  It's just starting to sink in for all of us, I think.  I cried the other day when I got a picture message on my phone that my Mom sent of his missionary name tag that arrived in the mail.  I can't believe he's really going to be gone for two years.  I'm so excited for him -- what a cool experience, being immersed in a new culture and learning a new language and doing something really good with his life for a solid two years -- but the selfish part of me has a hard time not thinking, "But I want him HERE!"  He's SUCH a hands-on Uncle -- he plays with my kids multiple times a week.  Down in the mud, or chasing after Annie as she rides her bike around the block, or teaching them how to play 'steamroller' on the trampoline.  My kids lives will be less fun, and less full, without him here.  But, it's one of the reasons I take hundreds of pictures of them with Cody -- at Yellowstone, at the Dinosaur Museum, in the sprinklers, in the sandbox -- they'll be able to relive a lot of their memories while he's gone!

Lacy and Annie walking across the rocks in the river!  My girls LOVED having Aunt Lacy there -- since she's away at school (or living abroad or back East or off on her latest crazy adventure) the girls don't get to see her as often as they like!  And, turns out that Aunt Lacy is a baby whisperer, as she could get Isaac to sleep better than pretty much anyone but me!  Meaning she got to lug him on a hike or two!  :-)

Ellie wearing Annie's Yellowstone Park Ranger vest (under her pink coat, obviously).  Annie got this vest from Grandma Ruth last time we went to Yellowstone -- last August with Greg's whole family.  This trip had a lot more animals, because it was October and not summer, but August involved camping and campfire, which the girls missed A LOT!

My little boy with his Mommy!  This kid just melts my heart!

See, heart melting as we speak!

Grandpa Robert with Annie.

Sad, tired Ellie cuddling with Uncle Cody.

Isaac and I again -- funny, 'cause I'm realizing there's a hugely disproportionate number of pictures of Isaac and I in here!  We show up in fewer pictures than pretty much anyone else (except maybe Greg), and yet I'm using almost every one of them here on my blog post.  (Well, we do have dozens of him in the carrier, asleep and covered in blankets -- but very few of him with his face showing and awake  :-)  Have I mentioned that this kid was an ANGEL on the vacation?!  I'm still so thrilled with how well it went bringing a three month old along!

Everyone but my Dad (who's taking the picture) on this rock.  We took pictures of the girls last year in August on this rock, so I dragged my whole family back into the woods to get pictures there again this year :-)

Ellie fascinated by the wonders of Yellowstone.  Once we really clarified that it was all steam and not smoke (she's kind of scared of smoke and fire after the fire near our home last month), she loved it!  And, if you asked her why it stunk she'd promptly respond, "Hydrogen Sulfide!"  (And no, Greg didn't tell her that (people's first thought) . . . it was actually our chemist, Aunt Talina, who taught the girls that.  Ellie would walk around waving her hand in front of her nose going, "Eww, hydrogen sulfide, stinky!")

Annie with Daddy.  Annie actually walked an amazing amount this trip -- including up almost ALL of the stairs at the Uncle Tom hike down to the falls (which is wickedly impressive to anyone who's ever done it!)  We were all so impressed with how much of the walking and hiking she did on her own.  But sometimes, we'd speed things up with piggy back rides!  (The other 'hurry 'em along' tactic we used with the girls was 'hiding'.  The girls would run up ahead of everyone, hide behind some tree or rock and jump out (usually with Grandpa or Cody) and say, "BOO!" and 'scare' everyone.  This 'rushing ahead' thing worked well to step up the pace.  Otherwise Ellie was collecting every rock and stick she could find.  And that takes FOREVER!)

Me (holding Isaac), Star, Cody, my Dad (who wanted us to hold him up, but Star and I refused to hold his legs) :-), Lacy, Annie and my Mom

Sibling picture!  Me, Lacy, Cody, Star and Talina.

Ellie found Grandma HILARIOUS.

Another family pictures.  Dang, I'm realizing now I grabbed the wrong one!  My Dad was in one of the pictures we had a stranger take for us, whereas he's the photographer in this one.  Oh well, imagine him over by Greg or something :-) 

Ellie slept on a couple hikes.  This was easier for Greg than when he just had to hold her in his arms for long stretches!

Ellie and Daddy (on the drive home, thus the yellow Fall colors in the tree.  Turns out, there are NO Autumn colors in Yellowstone, 'cause the entire park is nothing but pines.  Still amazingly cool and all that, but not gorgeous and colorful like our drive home through Northern Idaho was!  That is possibly some of the prettiest landscape on the face of the planet!

This is kind of out of order now -- 'cause this comes from my other camera that we gave to the 'other van' to take pictures with.  So this is back to our first day, with Cody, Annie and Lacy above the Falls.

The girls being tossed over the rails by their Aunt Lacy, Grandma and Uncle Cody (who I believe is also blowing raspberries on Annie's belly!

One of my favorite pictures -- this was when my Dad ran up ahead to 'hide' from the girls.  Annie thought this was hilarious.

Talina with Isaac

Uncle David and Annie making faces on a stop on our drive home.

David and Ellie -- Ellie was pretty tired on the drive home, but she was refusing to sleep much!

All in all, it was an amazing vacation.  By the time we were pulling in our driveway, after a whole day in the car with Ellie freaking out, I was all, "I NEVER want to do that again!  At least not until our kids are out of car seats!"  :-)  Which is the same thing I said last year as we pulled in after our long drive.  But, in the end, the vacation was well worth the hellish drive home :-)  The kids enjoyed themselves, Greg and I loved it, and I got to spend most of the week with most of my favorite people in the world!

Yellowstone: The Animals

We had a LOT of pictures from this trip.  1020 from the awesome camera, 320 from the great camera, and who knows how many on the old camera that we let the two little girls take and run around and snap pictures with to their hearts content. I haven't uploaded those yet, so I have no idea how many pictures they took. 


So, it was hard to narrow down.


But I thought I'd start off first with a few pictures of animals.  We saw a LOT of animals.  Hundreds of bison, tons of elk, and bears.  BEARS!  How freaking cool is that?!

(Most of my favorite pictures are, obviously, of the people who were there -- but since I'm still working on those pictures, we'll do animals now and people later.)

Our first day there a park ranger told us about a fresh bison kill South of the Canyon area.  Apparently the wolves had been on the bison carcass all day, but the bears would be coming out soon to get their share.  We apparently got there right as a bear came down, approached the carcass, than ripped off a solid half of it and ran back up into the trees with it.  A few people in our group who got there first saw the bear make the run for the tree line.  Greg and I only saw the carcass that was left over -- that gross lump above the stream, covered by birds.

 This big guy we ran into quite a few times -- he liked to hang out in meadows, along the river, smack dab in the middle of the lane . . .

We saw a ton of bison -- from lone bisons hanging out off the side of the road, to small groups blocking our paths, to huge herds in the meadows and crossing main roads . . . 

Big enough to nearly block our view of the approaching minivan -- that's big.

I feel like this guy and I had a connection -- I mean, dang, eye contact and everything!

Just walking right alongside our vehicles.

We weren't going anywhere for a minute -- but we weren't exactly antsy too either -- it was so cool to watch this herd with their babies cross the road all around us.

Ellie was fascinated by the bison right outside her window!

On one of our hikes we couldn't go any further this direction since a small group of bison picked the pathway as their hang out spot.  We turned around and went back around the other side of the loop.

These bison were up above the path we were walking, when they suddenly decided to make a beeline for the same exact walkway we were traveling.  We had to pick up the pace to get down the mountain before they beat us to it -- they ended up right behind us.  Everyone was kinda tense for a minute until we got the kids further away from the herd.

We watched this coyote try to catch his lunch in this field.  He kept pouncing, but we never did see him get to eat.

Mama bear on one side of our cars (That's Talina in the front seat of the blue car right next to the bear)

And Baby bear on the other side of the road.  You should've seen the idiot in the Mini Cooper who got out with his camera and started snapping pictures of them while standing DIRECTLY BETWEEN Mom & Baby.  Genius.)

Three Months Old (a week and a half ago)

I took these pictures of Isaac over a week ago, a few days late for three month old photos, but close enough.  But I was a blogging slacker leading up to our vacation, so I'm just getting around to posting 'em now. 
If I hadn't already known it, our vacation would have cinched it -- Isaac is by FAR our easiest baby.  He's mellow and easy going, and only cried and fussed a few times despite spending most of his waking hours in a car seat the last four days.  I think he truly discovered the amazingness of his own hands on our trip . . . I mean, he'd play with 'em and look at 'em before then, but with hours of nothing to entertain him but a few toys and his hands he finally really 'got' what his hands are used for.  He'd suck on 'em, pull on 'em, reach for toys and burp clothes.  He seemed endlessly amused by his hands and all the things he could reach.
He's strong and solid and wants nothing more than to be able to pull up and sit up on his own.  He is quick to smile and easy to entertain.  Him and I can sit and 'chat' endlessly -- he coos and gurgles and babbles and laughs along with me for as long as I can make time for it.  My house is kinda falling apart, 'cause this kid is such a conversationalist!  I'm finding great joy in my third child -- with the two older girls able to entertain themselves for longer stretches, I can indulge in just hours of basking in baby glory.  I'm loving it.  

He's not a great sleeper, but he is a really good napper.  He usually gives me a couple hour stretch, usually multiple times a day (with a short nap or two mixed in) for naps.  Night time kinda sucks though.  At three weeks old this kid could sleep a 6-hour stretch, but now if we try and make him sleep longer than three hours without nursing he screams and freaks out until Greg and I break down and just let him nurse already, rather than try and get him back to sleep sans nursing.  Meaning he wakes up every 2-3 hours all night long.  Surprisingly, I'm not finding it exhausting this time around.  I can easily pick him up and get him nursing and we both fall back asleep within minutes and it hardly disrupts my night.  Don't get me wrong, I'd take a good 6 hour stretch of sleep and be thrilled, but surprisingly I don't feel like I need it.  Which is a huge relief. 

I'm an Aunt, Again!

While we were out of cell phone range in the wilds of Yellowstone, my sister in law, Liz, finally went into labor.  Well over a week overdue.  Since Isaac was born a full week overdue, while my family was all out of cell range in Mexico, I'd joked with Liz that her baby was waiting 'til he had some family out of communication too.  Sure enough, Liz's contractions stepped up pretty much the time we were driving into Yellowstone Wednesday afternoon.  But, and Liz can blame me for this one, we came back into town that night (where our cell phones worked) and Liz's contractions fizzled out and it looked like another false alarm.  That is, until her water broke during the night and she finally (at ten days overdue) got to go to the hospital.  Around the time we were entering the park we got the message that Liz hadn't had the baby yet though, and the pushing phase was taking (a lot) longer than normal.  (Poor Liz).  That baby was bound and determined to be born while we were out of range, I guess . . . he's just like his stubborn cousin Isaac!  We were able to get cell reception later that afternoon while in Mammoth, where we joyfully learned that my chunky new nephew had been born!  At 9 lbs. 13 oz., 22 inches long, this kid may even make our massive Isaac look average.  He knows how to make 10 days overdue look good!  It took a little while, but he was given a name (a first, at least . . . last I heard, middle name was still up in the air).  

So, meet my third freakishly cute nephew -- Ian.

Pretty darn cute, huh?

Liz is looking amazingly gorgeous for a woman who just pushed for over 5 hours!

 This one just melted my heart!  So sweet!

That just about seals it -- I have three of the most adorable nephews in the entire world!

Now if only I could talk 'em into moving to Utah!  :-) 

Good work Liz!  Now get some sleep!

Yellowstone

We got back from Yellowstone late last night.  (Really late.)  I believe my children now have some form of carseat-confinement-PTSD or phobia or something.  After several days of lots of car time, then nearly a full day in the car yesterday, my girls would wake up from a deep sleep in their car seats and just start screaming bloody murder . . . not fully awake, but struggling against the restraints and screaming for SEVERAL minutes before falling back asleep.  My poor brother Cody was really wondering why he picked our car to ride home in :-)
Other than the mass amount of car seat time, it was actually a pretty ideal vacation!  Most of my family stayed in an amazing condo (three queen size beds, sofa bed, twin bunk beds, two full bathrooms and at only $150 a night, pretty much the best deal in history . . . ten of us stayed in the condo, Talina and David got a hotel room nearby), we enjoyed the park for several days, with average day time temperatures in the mid- to high-60s.  T-shirt weather in Yellowstone in mid-October!  Awesome!  We saw hundreds of bison, lots and lots of elk, a wolf, a coyote, some deer and a mom and baby black bear.  The kids loved it (except that whole carseat thing -- turns out that Ellie can scream the words "La out of La's car seat!  Let La out!" over and over again for huge stretches of time.  ("La" being what she calls herself -- and uses for the words me, my, I, or mine.) 
I now have approximately 1200 photos to sort through from the three cameras we took.
I promise I won't post 'em all :-)

 

Haven't posted in a few days -- and didn't have much to say really.

But I thought I'd post this.  Just 'cause.

Last Week in Pictures

Aunt Talina and Isaac last Sunday

Annie & Ellie in their new Jeep.

Ellie is a crazy driver.  We're not sure she 100% gets the correlation of the steering wheel and the direction the car goes.

Grandma Karine & Isaac on Friday night.

Annie shocked by something.

Sharing secrets

Who's tallest?

Squished faced hugs

Isaac waiting for Conference to start yesterday morning.

Happy babies -- Isaac on the left (or top), Ellie on the right (or bottom)

 

Hand chewers -- Annie on the left (or top), Isaac on the right (or bottom). 

Random videos from yesterday morning (Ellie's singing the ABCs.  Having a toy in her mouth makes her a bit harder than normal to understand) :-)

 

A Little Miracle

I don't have any nieces yet. A couple of unbelievably adorable nephews, but no nieces. So, you can imagine how excited I was to find out one of my closest friends, Jessi, was having a little girl. She was due about 2 months after I was, and Jessi and I were having fun being pregnant together and planning for our children (maybe not their actual wedding, but at the least, their inevitable friendship.) :-) This was Jessi's first baby, whereas she'd been spoiling my children for years, so I was looking forward to passing on boxes of girl clothes and buying frilly baby things again. We were enjoying being pregnant together -- meeting up at Village Inn for hours of talking about Hypnobabies and childbirth and pregnancy and babies and children and parenthood and all the ups and downs. Everything was going so perfectly. Jessi had just had her ultrasound and had her first glimpse at her perfectly healthy little girl. When just a few weeks later, her blood pressure started giving her problems. I was very 'Pollyanna-ish' about it -- just one of those pregnancy things, I'm sure everything was fine. But Jessi's midwife was, fortunately, a bit more reality-based and long story short, Jessi ended up in the hospital. She was able to come home soon though, and I chalked it up to a fluke. They just needed to figure out the appropriate blood pressure medicine dosage, and everything would be perfect. A few weeks later though, more tests and ultrasounds were showing that both Jessi and the baby were in trouble. Jessi's placenta wasn't doing it's full share of the work, and baby Quinn wasn't growing as quickly as she should. At the same time, they were still concerned about Jessi's blood pressure. She was hospitalized again, this time for good, so that they could watch her and the baby closely until she gave birth. This was early May. Jessi's due date was August 27th. I was horrified that this was happening to people I cared about so much -- the reality of the situation was scary. Which is probably why I tried to go a little longer in "Pollyanna" mode. Jessi was pretty much just waiting until the day the doctor's would tell her the baby was no longer being sustained by the placenta and would need to be born early. That could be weeks away, or tomorrow. I focused on the weeks away. I brought supplies to the hospital to make a paper chain -- since Jessi wasn't counting to a due date anymore, we decided we'd count 'up' instead . . . a paper link for each day she was there, seeing how long she could get the chain before her baby had to enter the world too early. I brought something like 60 pieces of paper all cut up for the links. Jessi probably wanted to slap me. :-) I was a little overly hopeful and naive at this point. Jessi and I joked about having our babies on the same day -- July 4th. I said I was willing to hold on an extra five days (my due date being June 30th), even if it meant my parents would be out of town, if she'd just hold on a couple more months. When I'd think about it though, all I could of was how even by some miracle Jessi could stay pregnant until the 4th of July, she'd still be having a preemie born dangerously early. This was mind boggling to me. But I prayed, pretty much around the clock, that Jessi's baby would be able to stay inside her Mama as long as possible. But, it was only a day or so later that the ultrasound showed the inevitable, that it was time for baby Quinn to come meet the world. I was walking to the park with my kids in a wagon when I got the text that they were doing the c-section that day. I lost it. I burst into tears, and hit the sidewalk. I sat there next to my kids' wagon, just sobbing, while my children stared at me like I'd lost my mind. Jessi was 25 weeks pregnant. To the day. At best, they would be expecting a one and a half to two pound baby. But because Quinn's growth had been compromised due to the failing placenta, I got a text later that day. She weighed one pound. At this point, I very idiotically assumed the text had cut off, and I texted back to Jessi, "How big was she? The text cut off, one pound and what?" (Sorry about that Jessi! I felt really bad when I got the text back that she weighed exactly one pound . . . I hadn't meant to come across as shocked (which I was) and forcing you to repeat it . . . I just couldn't believe that the text hadn't just somehow magically cut off the ounces.) In fact, Quinn wasn't even quite a full pound, weighing in at 15.5 ounces.

This is where Google becomes your best friend and worst enemy. A one pound baby's chance of survival. It's all over the internet. You can find many stories of people whose children survived. You can also find touching tributes to micro-preemies who didn't survive. You can find lists of complications and dangers of being born so early. I got the first pictures of Quinn from Jessi -- she was so incomprehensibly tiny. And beautiful. I marveled at this perfectly formed tiny baby.

Quinn's little foot at 2 days old

It was terrifying -- I can't even imagine what Jessi and her family were going through. I cried often. I prayed even more. I couldn't stop thinking about them. For days, Jessi and I texted each other. She wasn't at a place where she was ready to talk to people in person, but she kept me remarkably up to date through phones/email.

Quinn's footprints at 2 weeks old

Those first few weeks went so very slowly. Quinn was so little, and barely gaining. I can't even imagine what Jessi's world was like during all of this -- blood transfusions, arterial lines, Quinn's belly not wanting to work. Jessi waited weeks to hold her baby. Amazingly though, Quinn didn't suffer from any serious complications common to such tiny, early babies. No brain bleeds, no serious bowel issues. And then she started to grow. And grow. And grow.

The first time I saw her in person she was two and a half pounds. And over 13 inches long.

Quinn around the time I first saw her in the NICU

She was so small, but so perfect and beautiful, that staring at her through the isolette, it was easy to imagine her being a full size baby that I was looking at from farther away. I was so amazed by her. You really feel like you're in the presence of a tiny, living, breathing miracle.

She is strong and fiesty and full of personality. Always has been. She loves her binkie, and has become a seasoned pro at nursing. She smiles. Such gorgeous smiles. She's the best dressed baby in NICU. The girl sports the best looking bows around. And she's long since grown out of her entire preemie wardrobe.

Her due date came and went last month. She was officially a full term baby now (at 15 weeks old). She reached an impressive 6 lb. 7 oz. and was 17 and a half inches long by her due date. 

Around the time of her due date

Another due date-ish picture

But the NICU stay was far from over.  There were several more weeks of growing and maturing and getting ready to be released to the anxiously waiting arms of her Mom & Dad.

Only now, a month or so later, weighing in at over 8 lbs, little Quinn is home with Mommy & Daddy tonight. 

It's about time, and I couldn't be happier for them! 

Still in the hospital, but close to coming home

Still in the hospital, but showing her true (and right) colors!  :-)

Home Sweet Home -- Quinn in her own bed!