A Glimpse into my Life.

Just a few of the critters we came across on our trip to Island Park.

No idea what type of birds these were, but we sure saw a lot of birds.

There were little frogs galore!

Oh wait, that's not a critter. I just love how happy he is fishing with his Bumpa and his sister!

I can't remember what the snake was eating, but it sure must have been good. It might have been a frog or a fish. I can't remember now.



And last but not least...Here is my fish. It was an 18 inch Cutthroat Trout. I must mention, I caught it in the rain! We were sopping wet by the time this big boy was reeled in!



Bump said it was probably part something else because of the way it looked. I think I need to call him so he can remind me. Anyway. Rynie caught the fish two days before, on his little Spiderman rod. You know the kind, 6 lb line, about 3 feet long, usually come with a plastic casting fish to practice with. Bump helped Rynie get it in, and they got right up to the little docking spot (for reference it's where they were cleaning the fish in the other post) and it snapped the line and got away. We had one disappointed little guy. Two days after his almost catch, I caught the fish, and this time we got it in. It still had the line rigging in the corner of it's mouth from two days before so we knew for certain it was Rynie's fish since I tied the line and it looked the exact same as the one that was in his mouth. We took a few pictures, took the hooks out, then released him since he was so big.



Rynie was one happy guy to see 'his' fish again!

We ran like crazy for most of Summer, so now that it's cold and we've slowed down a bit, I have a few moments to put up some of the pictures. We went up to Island Park, Idaho for a week with my family. We rented a cabin and it was right on the river. We had an incredible time together. Dutch celebrated his first birthday, we caught fish and learned how to clean them, caught frogs, saw a snake eating a fish, float in the river and canoe, and we didn't even leave the cabin for most of that!

Bumpa teaching Rynie how to fish.



Once he caught his fish, Rynie learned how to clean it so I could cook it for his dinner. We also had a lesson on how we don't catch more than we need and can eat so we don't waste and so we are responsible steward over animals.



Little Miss even got in on the catching of fish. She ran away, literally screaming when we asked her to clean her fish and then eat it.



I even got in on the fishing action. You'll have to wait for the next post to see what I caught!



We needed to teach my mom how to canoe. Thankfully, she learned fairly quickly! She says she knew what she was doing, Jake and I disagreed.



Bumpa Black Cow and Baby B. Hanging out on the back porch, watching all our prowess at the canoes.



Hubby, Jake, Rynie, and Little Miss taking the canoe out for a spin. Literally. ;)



Dutch going for a morning crawl. He wanted to see all that water. We really were that close to the water.



Our early morning buddy. Mama Moose was out every morning in the same area (about 100 yards from our cabin) and some mornings we were lucky enough to see her calf in the tall grasses as we paddled by.



More critters and scenery soon. We did go up to Yellowstone, but that'll be another post!

We went up to Salt Lake City to visit Temple Square over the Holidays. It's the first time we've taken the children up to see the lights and I think they enjoyed it.

City Creek Plaza right across the street. I really liked the lights and how they reflected on the water. It was a nice way to start out the evening.

It never ceases to inspire and amaze me every time we go to Temple Square. I always intend to go back more often and usually end up not being able to as often as I'd like. The peaceful Spirit is always calming and wonderful.

This is the best shot I could get of our family. We're all mostly looking the same direction, our eyes are open, and no one is making too awful of a face. Not sure about how my coat is making my skirt look like goofy pants though. Huh.

I love visiting the Temple, even if it's just to walk the grounds with my children.

I found a draft post in here and couldn't believe how much Rynie and Little Miss have grown! I honestly hadn't realized how much they've both changed. Yes, I know in my mind they have, but in some ways, seeing the day to day makes it not as noticeable as when you see the pictures from a few years ago.


I love that they still play together. These two are quite the adventurous buddies. When one does something, the other usually follows suit pretty quickly.


This is a pretty typical scene at our house still. Although, now they both try to feed Dutch whether he wants them to or not.


She still makes messes, although now they usually involve spilled cups and bowls.


He still thinks he's part mountain goat. In fact, I've had to replace two curtain rods and he's now learned that curtains are not to be climbed.

We took the kidlets up to Temple Square to look around since they've never been there before.

On the way up to Yellowstone, we stopped at Bear World in Rexburg, Idaho. It was pretty interesting, because by stopping by there before we actually got to Yellowstone, the kidlets got to see some of the predators that live in Yellowstone, but are sometimes hard to see.

All I could think about when I saw this bear is: "Look for the bear necessities, the simple bear necessities, forget about your worries and your cares..."

This is why my daughter now rawrs like a predator. As long as it's a bear, cougar, lion, dinosaur, etc al. she gets it right. If you ask her what a cow, dog, cat, horse, bird, or frog says she still rawrs.

They had a couple of wolves in with the bears, and they didn't seem to mind eachother too much, except when it came time for food. Then the wolves didn't want to share.

This little guy decided to get a little up close and personal. I think we're BFF now, or at least my car is his BFF. We sustained only a few scratches to the paint, and a few on the driver's side hubcab. Not too bad, considering he tried to open the driver's door to the van and since he couldn't, he decided to try the passenger door. I hate pictures where you see the reflection from inside, but it was the only one where you could see what was going on, and they don't allow you to drive with your windows down for obvious safety reasons.

Uh oh! Caught by the wildlife keepers! Time to book it! I seriously thought he was going to take the side mirror as a souvenir!

Rynie captioned this one: "I'm love it because the bear is sitting up saying I'm here, I'm here!"

It was really interesting to watch the bears come up to the feeding truck and be fed. Some of them would even wave at the people on the truck that were feeding them.



Some albino elk!

So today I was getting Rynie ready for his preschool end of year program. We were running a few errands since it didn't start until 10:30 and we were ready shortly after 9:00. At 10:15 my mom called me and told me Jake had another seizure and was on his way to the Emergency Room. I immediately started to head that direction and called Honey to see if she could take Rynie to preschool or at least take him to her house. She met me by her house and since I beat her there, I had Rynie and the car seat unloaded. She took him to preschool and even figured out my camera to take some pictures! Go Honey! I usually have a bit of a hard time with the camera. Pink Princess just had to come along for the ride. Thankfully she ended up sleeping for almost all of the adventure in ER land.





I drove as fast as I dared (which isn't too fast since I'm a chicken) to the ER and got a hold of Hubby's brother to have him text message Hubby since he was in an important meeting. Hubby called and he and his brother came up to see what they could do to help, then they went and moved Jake's car from the parking lot on campus back to his apartment.

The ER Doctor said that since Jake has already had one seizure, they would release him to my care, but he cannot drive, have caffeine, or stay up late. He has all the other restrictions that he had after the first seizure in place also. Brenden and Lyndsey came to the ER when they found out and it was nice to have their support also.

Jake had a bite to eat then went and took a 3.5 hour nap. Poor kid needed it. My sweet sister in law, Kelli, came over to help me straighten up (Okay, read massively sort through things and clean) my house and she is such a lifesaver. We went through so much stuff and there is a huge pile for the recycle bin and for DI. Bo and Anika were pretty darn good considering they were trying to be quiet so Jake (Or Jackie as Bo called him) could sleep.






Then we got a phone call from Jake's friend Joe, who is helping Jake with cows, and he said he couldn't find the two bulls. To make an insanely long story short, I had to change out of my cute skirt that I was wearing earlier and into some jeans and a pair of sneakers. I ended up chasing cows a couple of miles through the marshes of Utah Lake, went swimming in the canal twice to keep up with the bulls and to keep them from backtracking up the canal, and found out the canal level reaches up to my armpits.

There are some really huge fish in that canal. Think 4-5 inches 'tall' and about 2 feet long. You could see them fighting along the banks. When I was going through the marshy stuff, I kept feeling them swimming through my legs and bumping my shins. Kinda creepy. I did have the pleasure of seeing the herd that Jake's bulls were mixed in with all dive into the canal at the same time and become submerged and then pop up and start running. It was hilarious!!!

It took quite a while because Jake's steers and bulls (We just decided to put all the cattle in the main pasture for simplicities sake) to where they needed to be. Some random stranger lady saw us from the freeway and decided to come and help! And she actually knew what she was talking about. I am so incredibly thankful for our friends and family who came to help out tonight and also those that helped Sunday with our adventures.

Thanks again to all our friends and family for their help.

P.S.- My WIFD Day 3 outfit was a cute, below the knee skirt that was a black and brown hounds tooth pattern with a brown long sleeved shirt. Skirt from JCPenny's and top from DownEastBasics. I had some dangly little amber earrings and my hair twisted up into a coronet for the top and the bottom half hanging down in curls. I had some little ballet flats to complete the look.

Good night everyone, I hope tomorrow is adventure-less.