Home Means Nevada

During our travels we also got to spend time with my family in my home state, Nevada.  We decided to take an impromptu snapshot of the whole family. Back row, left to right: Whitney,Chris, Landon, me, John, Wendy, Heidi, Hollee and Carlos

Front row, left to right: Gavin, Dad, Ashlyn (she insisted she be by Grandpa), Mom, Zaylee, Zoee and Rocky

Ashlyn with Aunt Wendy - Two Divas Unite!

Who looks this cute chowing down on watermelon? 





Zaylee loves her Carlos!

John always grills us up a delicious steak dinner when we come to visit.



John with his beautiful girlfriend Laura.

Landon, Rocky and Ashlyn enjoying some watermelon in the backyard.



Island Park

For our last full day we took it easy hung out around the cabin and went for a walk.  Landon feeding the ducks and a muskrat.



I love this one of Marcus and Gavin.  The boys were excited about this toad they found.

This shot was actually taken on our drive home.  Those are the Grand Teton Mountains in the background.
Gorgeous!!!  We also added Wyoming to our list of states we have visited.  Landon is holding his stuffed buffalo Chris got him.  Chris is a sucker for stuffed animals and always wants to buy them for the kids.

Marcus hitching a ride on the Chris Express.



Picking wildflowers.

Marcus came with Ashlyn & I to pick flowers.  Marcus loves having his picture taken and posed himself for this one.  I asked him what he was going to do with the flowers he picked and he said he was going to give them to Whitney. :)  I think he had a little crush on Whitney.  He wanted to sit by her at the movies and kept asking her to jump on the trampoline with him among other things.



Ashlyn & Landon spent a long time rolling around & giggling in this zipped up sleeping bag...something to tease them with someday.

Boys and sticks. . . they go together like PB&J.



While we were there Landon made the mistake of standing at the end of the boys makeshift catapult when a large rock was dropped at the other end...took a 2x4 to the underside of his chin.  I was worried his split lip would bust open again but thankfully it did not. Bit this tongue and scraped up his chin.  He also took a tumble down the stairs of the cabin and developed an infection in a toe.  We had to make another trip to the doctor to have his stitches removed from his lip and get an antibiotic for his toe.  I took him and it was not fun taking those stitches out...Mom cried too.

Once we got back to Garland, Landon had what we think was a spider bite on his finger and required yet another trip to the ER.  He was put on a stronger antibiotic.  Once we made it to Mesquite he started to have an allergic reaction to the antibiotic and broke out in hives.  Poor little guy endured lots of health problems during our travels. 

Day 2 @ Yellowstone National Park

On day 2 we started off in the canyon area.  Ster & I took Preston, Isaac,Whitney & Gavin on Uncle Tom's Trail.  More than 300 steps lead you about 500 feet down the canyon.  It was considered a strenuous trail so Chris generously offered to let me do it while he and Nat kept the littlest kids occupied.  Whitney very carefully and slowly held onto the handrail the whole way down.   

We made it to the bottom and it was well worth the view!

Nature in all her beauty.

Marcus & Ashlyn

.  Ashlyn was in heaven having all those Pierce boys around to tease. :)



This is the photo that will not be gracing our Christmas card this year and exhibit A for why most men do not make good photographers.

Notice Gavin holding onto Landon?  Gavin was very worried about Landon while were there...Chris... not so much.  This canyon is know as the Little Grand Canyon.

We headed up to the higher elevations and that is when we started to spot more wildlife other than buffalo.  First we saw a black bear and then this grizzly bear.  We stood about 50 feet away, which made me nervous but Chris said we didn't need to be " the fastest gazelle in the herd...we just had to beat the slowest." He was pretty sure we could all outrun most of the other tourists.

More team effort and lots of encouragement to get Ashlyn up the stairs.

                                                          

                                                          Hot Mammoth Springs Area.

Mr. Incredible...pushing two kids and packing one around on his back!



There was a lot of grumbling and complaining for me to get all these kiddos to take this shot.

Sharing the road with the Mr. Buffalo.

Some Elk.

Mr.Beaver eating his fish.  I had never seen a beaver in person before and they are a lot bigger than I thought.  We only spied this guy because we had to pull over after Ashlyn puked in the car.  Probably not the best idea to feed the kiddos then drive along winding mountain roads.



I could have spent at least another week at the park going on all the trails and seeing all the sights...hopefully we make it back someday.



Travels Continued

Next stop on our travels was Garland, Utah.  We arrived at the Pierce homestead on July 19, 2011 also known as Father's Day/Sterling's birthday.  Chris cooked up a Cajun style shrimp boil for the special occasion.  There was a huge pile of shrimp, red potatoes and corn on the cob but the 12 of us quickly ate it all up.  Poor Chris got some of the hot spice in his eye.  It swelled up and took a good two days to look normal again!  The sacrifices he makes for his loved ones tummies.

Ethan & Landon aka the Daddy Clones and Double the Trouble!

The next morning we loaded up and made our way to Island Park, Idaho where Natalie had reserved us a homey & cute cabin for our stay.  I was so excited to finally make it to Idaho! Over the years we have had so many awesome friends from Idaho. I wanted to get out and take a picture in front of the Welcome to Idaho sign but Chris would not stop.  BOO!!!   After arriving we unloaded and then set off to do a little fishing.  The boys repeatedly went fishing during our stay and much to Chris's dismay were unable to ever catch even one fish.

June 21, 2011 we started off our day at the Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center.  Here is Chris with all the kiddos.  Notice the Weaver kids in pants and sweatshirts?  Highs were in the low 70's so we Arizonans though we were freezing up there in Montana.  There was still lots of snow on the mountains due to a long winter.  We also added Montana to our list of states we have now visited!

Here we are at the West Yellowstone entrance to the park.  Chris & I both love the outdoors, camping & hiking so we were super excited to be at Yellowstone for the first time!  We were not expecting to get stuck in traffic but all those buffaloes like to cause traffic jams by using the roads as well.  That was my only complaint too many people and traffic jams.  I was just itching to ditch the kids and go back packing in the back country.  I would love to just leave civilization behind for a few months and get lost in the wilderness. 

Landon spent most of his time being packed around by Chris and the small miracle was that he LOVED it!!! I was pretty worried about him because so many of the hikes are on wooden walkways with boiling water & mud and fragile rock formations and such.  He is gnawing on the rope handle something he seemed to enjoy throughout the park as well.

Yep, Landon on these walkways would not have been a good idea! 

Yellowstone was fascinating and beautiful! I loved reading in the brochures about the history, geological forces and scientific explanations behind everything.  I wish I had read some books about it beforehand.  

Left to right: Natalie, Ethan, Marcus, Preston, Isaac and Sterling

Ashlyn is not an active child and was soon complaining she could not walk anymore so her Daddy pushed her around in a stroller even though she is close to 6 years old.  Her Daddy is guilty of babying her a little too much!

Me and the kiddos in front of the Old Faithful geyser.  We got pretty lucky and only waited about 25 minutes before she blew.  The average interval between eruptions is 90 minutes.

The Prismatic Pool. 

The kids wanted a picture of the sign with the warning about bears.  We didn't see any bears on this hike but we did find bear fur.



I think this one was the Sapphire Pool. 

Nat and Ethan admiring the view. Isn't Nat a cute pregnant lady?!   After four boys and a surprise pregnancy the Pierce family is finally getting a Princess at their house!  Chris painted her room pink while we were there.  Ashlyn was green with envy and had a little meltdown...why is everyone getting a girl baby but us?  Once again I had to play the but they don't have any girls at their house card.

Boys being boys...throwing rocks into the river. ( By the way that is steam not smoke that you see in many of the photos).