Something from Sara

Tyler gave Chris a hug after he opened his present. I thought that it was really nice.


Brooklyn gave him a Magic 8 Ball. He took it to school for show and tell and when he came home he told me that three of his classmates were going to invite him to their birthday parties (in March and April btw) just so that he could get them a Magic 8 Ball.

This is the cake that I made for Tyler. It is 5 layers at the tallest point! I was so proud of myself, because it looked just like it did in the magazine that I copied it out of! And it wasn't that hard to do. I would also like to thank my mom and her cake frosting expertise. She suggested that I freeze the cakes before I frosted so that it didn't tear the cake apart. It worked like a charm!

This was my idea. An 8 on the back so that I could remember that I made it for Tyler's 8th birthday.

He's wanted a bathrobe for as long as I can remember. He puts on his fleece jammies and then the fleece robe over them, and can hardly get it tied around all that fleece. But he likes it, and that is the important thing.

Chris helped with the clean-up. I finished up the rest of it today.

The cake almost didn't make it to the finish line. It wasn't tipping over so much as smashing the bottom layers.

Happy Birthday Tyler! #8!

This year Shane and I celebrated out 10th Anniversary! Can you believe that it has been 10 YEARS? Well I wanted to go somewhere great, just the two of us, on a romantic second honeymoon. The closer that it got to our anniversary, the more that I realized that that was just not going to happen for us, and I started to worry that Shane didn't want to celebrate at all. :( So when my dad came to me and said that they wanted to go to Yellowstone the weekend of September 16th, and would Shane and I like to go with them, I said "YES!" At that point, I would take anything I could get. So we called "Dorit" at the Rustic Wagon campground and made us some reservations. Then we hooked on to our trailers and pulled them up to Montana. We made good time getting there. (Dad thought that we might have been going a little too fast.) Anyway, we didn't pull in until around 9:00 pm, but we made it safely. The next day, we went to see the Park. Minutes after we entered, and after driving by several (hundred) signs that say that the animals are wild and you shouldn't get too close, we came across the first animals of the day. How close is too close?

Later we went and saw the geysers. I liked the Dragon's mouth best next to Old Faithful, and the blue-ish ones. It was pretty cool.

Here's the opening of Dragon's Mouth. I should have taken a video, so you could hear it "growling."

We went and saw the upper and lower falls. I'm trying out a new hairstyle...how does it look?

Here's Mom and Dad. They had a pretty good time camping with us.

Here's a picture of some elk out by the river. Can we say "SUPER ZOOM?" Sometime, when I get lots of money, I'd like to get a bigger lens for my camera so that I can take pictures of things far away.

These Buffalo weren't far away. They were just off the side of the road.

This guy was close enough that we could have touched him. We didn't though because we like to follow the rules:)

Remember how I said that the pictures were out of order. Here's the big bull and some of the rest of his herd, that goes along with the first picture.

We made it to Mammoth Hot Springs around lunch time and were happy to find that there was lots of elk there. They were just coolin' it in the shade. There were two really big bulls there, and lots of rangers keeping people back. Apparently there are a lot of really stupid people who go to Yellowstone and don't know how to stay back.

At the Upper Falls Overlook, Tyler and Brooklyn found some rocks to climb on and had a pretty good time.

I thought that this picture of Chris was SO CUTE! I love his little face. This is hiking down to the Upper Falls overlook.

Brooklyn LOVES to go on hikes! Who would have thought? Anyway, we found out in Yellowstone that Baby Erica also loves to hike, and doesn't like to miss out on anything.

Here's Grandpa and the kids waving at Nanny Nancy and Aunt Suz. Did I mention that Suz and the girls came too? Well they did, it was lots of fun.

That first day was pretty rough on the little kids. They totally crashed in the car sometime on our way back through the park.

The next day we went and saw Old Faithful. We walked around the trails there and took LOTS of pictures. This one is Castle Geyser.

Here is Old Faithful! I'm glad that we went later in the season, because it was plenty warm for us to be outside, and yet there was not quite as many people to have to deal with. We had a great view of Old Faithful going off and that's all that really matters.

I think that this one is called Depression Geyser. I love the blue ones because the color is so pretty.

Dad needed a drink bad and all we had was Dora sippy cup. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

Dad and Chris were playing Hide and Seek. They're pretty good, I bet you have a hard time spotting them.

At lunch Dad got a phone call and wandered off to take it. I thought that it was fun that he just happened to lean up against this sign.

After Old Faithful, we had to head out. We left via the South Entrance and headed for Jackson Hole. I love driving past the TETONS. They have to be the most beautiful mountains in the USA.

After we arrived we found that we were there the same weekend as Ben Franklin. Lucky.

Here's our Family Picture by the Antlers. Everybody's got to have one of these.

Here's Suz and the Girls. I've got one of my mom and dad too, but it wasn't that great. They like to close their eyes when they smile, and the flash goes off.

So that was our trip to Yellowstone. We had so much fun. And even though it wasn't really the romantic second honeymoon that I had planned I was glad that we got to go. And that we got to take such great company. One more thing that I'd like to remember. I mentioned Dorit earlier. When Shane was on the phone with her making our reservations, she told him her name was "Dorit. You know like Doritos, without the O's" She actually said that. I wish that we could have met her.

If you've never been to Yellowstone, but you'd like to see Old Faithful go off, here's the video that I shot with my ipod, it's not great, but it's all I've got.