fun weekends away

Bear LakeA couple weekends ago my niece, Amiya, who lives in Bear Lake got baptised. It also happened to be the same weekend as Raspberry Days so we thought we'd take a couple days off and make a trip out of it. We got up there Thursday night and went on a fourwheel ride with my Dad, Grandma Betty, her husband Gene, Terra and Marc first thing Friday morning.
Ryan and I used to love going on fourwheeler rides when we were dating and before we had kids. Now we're usually take the girls for rides, so it was fun to go with everyone just us two. We took the boat out the next day and did some tubing and swimming in Bear Lake.We also went to the Raspberry Days Rodeo which is always a fun one! I love watching the kids chase the cow and ride the sheep.It was also fun because my sister Terra and her daughter Amiya were both apart of the rodeo. Terra was apart of the opening ceremony with the American flags and Amiya competed in the PeeWee barrel racing. I tried getting pictures but they didn't turn out.Saturday was Amiya's baptism. She looked so pretty in her white dress. I forgot to get a picture so this is one my dad took after she was baptised with her cousin Savannah.We all met at Lakeside Pizza after to celebrate! It was fun because all the sisters were there which is really rare!Another fun weekend at Sara's favorite place! Hopefully we can make a few more visits before summer is over.

YellowstoneThis trip really was a blast! I've never been to Yellowstone in the summer (at least not that I can remember, maybe when I was little) My family usually goes in the winter to go snowmobiling. But it was a lot of fun to see what it's like during the summer. Ryan's Uncle Brent plans a trip every year and we were invited to join them. They planned plenty of hikes for us to go one which were really fun. I feel like I haven't been on a hike forever. I loved seeing all the different hot springs. Sara was really into it too. We took this first hike over to Old Faithful and were able to see it go off right from the trail. (That's Sara with Old Faithful just getting done.)
We were all starving after our first hike so we headed over to this shallow river to eat our lunch. All the older girls were getting in so of course Sara and Della wanted to. They were loving it.
It really was so pretty everywhere we went.
Brent wanted to take us on one last hike before we headed back to the cabin, and I'm glad he did. I've seen pictures of this one but I've always wanted to see it in person and we were able to hike up high enough to get the perfect view. The picture doesn't do it justice. It really was awesome! The next day Brent scheduled a river rafting trip on the Snake River in Jackson Hole. I wasn't able to leave Lia since I am still nursing, so Ryan and I stayed back with the girls while they went. We thought it'd be fun to check out the live habitat of the bears and wolves, so we did! Here are Ry and the girls waiting for the bears to come out.
And here are the bears. The girls thought it was pretty cool at first, but were over it after a few minutes. Our last full day there we decided to tackle Uncle Tom's Trail. A hike 300 and some odd stairs down to these pretty waterfalls. If you're wondering how the girls did it, they didn't. We did it for them. Mark carried Sara, I carried Lia, and Ryan carried Della.
This is pretty much how each of us looked most of the time. I had Lia in that front pack the whole time, but nothin' I'm not used to after being pregnant. Here is the whole clan after we made it back up the stairs and to the top of Uncle Tom's. We were pooped!(left to right, top to bottom) Me & Lia, Ryan, Hanna, Nik, Savannah, Lexi, Emery, Rachel, Jesse, Della, Sara, TJ, Ashlee, Cathie, JuJu, Kent, Mark, Brent and Shaaron
Thanks again to Brent and Shaaron for such a fun trip!