Updates!

Posted by Amber

So I just finished the posts about our trip for our anniversary. To read it chronologically, you'll need to scroll to the third post and work your way backward. Point is, though, I didn't want anyone to miss out on any of the posts. And since I didn't do a proper post about the Hadfield cabin trip, here are some pictures from the night we went up. (I love Grandpa's lessons!)

Grandma and Camile

Family!

Cousins (and John and Chloe :) )

Two suckers on a stick, anyone?

Jenn, Me, Matt, Grandpa, and Grandma

(I love Photoshop - hate trying to make a vignette with Elements, though.)

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August 11, 2009

Posted by Amber

From Promontory, we headed out to Ogden where we stayed at the Days Inn. It was kind of cool, they had an indoor pool that was sort of in an atrium idea. Our room was on the second level and faced the pool. Only downside, there were no windows to air out the stuffy chlorine smell! That night, we went to Café Rio and picked up some dinner. I then spent a good while reading some more of The Beckham Experiment. Matt was wanting it, and I knew he would need entertainment, but since we got his car back (I can't drive stick), I had been reading it aloud to him.

On our actual anniversary, we woke up and headed down to breakfast in the lobby. After which, we packed our things and checked out. We left the Days Inn at Ogden to go to the zoo. We were going to go to the Dinosaur Park, but Matt decided it would probably be lame, and this way, we wouldn't have to rush from one thing to the next. It had actually been about two years since I had been to the zoo, since our honeymoon. First, though, we had to stop somewhere to get batteries for the camera. We asked Matt's phone where a Walmart was, and it didn't lead us to the right spot. Instead, we found a Smith's. We then asked the phone how to get to the zoo from where we were, and it led us down alongside the mountains. (We passed a Walmart a few blocks later.) True to form, there was construction, so we were slow moving heading toward I-15. I suppose it was a good thing we didn't go to the Dinosaur park.

We did eventually make it to the zoo. It was so much fun! They had so many babies! Golden Lion Tamarin twins, six or seven Meerkats, a Snow Leopard, and a Giraffe! Babies are so cute! Now we're just waiting for the baby Elephant to come play! Matt really liked the Fossa at the Madagascar exhibit, too. I try to make it a tradition to go to the bird show (because I love it!), but we were late, so we stood at the fence on top to watch. I miss them doing the falconry demonstartion. That was my favorite! The birds seemed to be inattentive, even Poco messed up his routine. The owl wanted extra flight time, and the little birds that run across the stage doing a funky wing pose were even struggling. It was still fun, though!

This poor guy has a little cast on his leg.

Baby Golden Lion Tamarins!

Fossa!

Matt at Elephant Encounter.

These naughty squirrels were stealing all the sunflower seeds for the wild birds. They would even climb in the zoo's bird cages to forage for more. Greedy buggers. :)

Wouldn't be complete without a bird picture.

Baby Meerkats!

Just chillin'

Mama and baby Snow Leopard!

Baby Giraffe!

Red Panda

Penguins

Zebras

It was too hot for the bears, too.

Gorrilla

Nope, I'm not an Orangutan. Both the Gorilla and Orangutan size comparisons had the additions for the various stages of life and sexes.

After the zoo, we headed home. Matt opted to drive straight to Payson, where we picked up Bhuvan. We were going to do the rest of our laundry too. (I had left our towels, sheets, Matt's lightweight riding jacket, and his white hoodie at my parents'.) However, when we got to my parents' we found my step-mom had done our sheets and towels, so we decided to bring it all home and do it this weekend instead.

That was our trip. We were sorely in need of a getaway. It makes me hope Matt gets this Primerica business up and going so we can have a lot more freedom to take trips like this in the future - along with having no set time constraints per se. Oh the joyous thought of not having to work! I really want to take a week off next summer to visit Dave and Natalie again ;) Afterall, Matt needs to see Yellowstone properly. But then again, there are other places he needs to see still (Grand Canyon, anyone?), and I really want to visit Mesa Verde again. Looks like we have lots of travels ahead of us!

No trip is complete without a picture of Bhuvan in the car. :)

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Trip continued

Posted by Amber

From Jackson, we headed into the Grand Teton National Park. Matt was really hoping to see some bison - or something at least, but our National Park adventures were pretty animal-less, unless you count some birds and chipmunks. We decided the Grand Tetons were more "car friendly" than Yellowstone. You could see most of it from the car, that is. To see anything cool at Yellowstone, one has to walk. :) We first stopped at the visitor center, perused the gift shop, and watched another movie. :) Then we headed toward the gate to pay them our $25 entrance fee to both parks.

The actual Grand Tetons

A view of Jenny Lake in the Grand Tetons

Matt at Jenny Lake

Me at Jenny Lake

We knew there was construction in the park, but we didn't really hit any until about 4 miles away from the north entrance, and then it lasted 8 miles. There was literally no road. Lots of dirt, and dirt mounds pushed to either side. So much for trying to see any animals through the trees. Worst of all was a litte bit outside the park. They had it cut down to one lane, so there was a makeshift red light that we sat at forever. I was so incredibly bored. Fortunately, we found some actual road and made our way into Yellowstone. Again, no large animals to be seen. We got to Old Faithful around 8pm, and it wasn't set to go off again until around 9pm. We went over and listened to some of the ranger's talk, but then decided to leave. Afterall, Dave and Natalie were expecting us sometime that night :)

Old Faithful about an hour before it was scheduled to erupt.

Matt had never been to Yellowstone before. I have only been one other time, so I at least had some idea of the cool things it had to offer. The sun was quickly setting, and we did want to get to Dave and Natalie, but I also didn't want Matt thinking Yellowstone was lame (remember, he wanted to see bison). He didn't get to see Old Faithful erupt. All he could see from the car was steam rising from the ground all over. When we got to the Firehole pool drive, I made him turn off and take it. He got to see some of the cool colors the area creates before it got too dark. We got to see some little geysers too:

Matt at Yellowstone.

Us at Yellowstone - you can see it was getting rather late :)

There was construction in Yellowstone too, but fortunately, we were headed for the west gate, and the construction was between the west and north gates. We finally made it out to West Yellowstone, where I finally had service to call Natalie :) Dave gave us directions to his grandmother's cabins in Island Park. (Natalie had called earlier and asked if it was okay we stayed there, since the hotel they live at was really busy and needed the room we were going to stay in for dirt cheap. Of course I said okay. The cabin was free! ;) ) We made it in what felt like the middle of the night, but was probably only 10:30pm-11pm. We visited with Dave and Natalie for a bit, then they showed us to the upstairs cabin where we were staying. It was so nice! Barbie stove and all :) After changing and getting a bit settled, we walked back over to Dave and Natalie's. They put Nora to bed and we watched Walk the Line. It was like 1:30am before we went to bed. Needless to say, we didn't head back into the park the next morning :)

Instead, after finally waking up, I wandered out onto the balcony, and there was a little squirrel right outside Dave and Natalie's door. It knew I was watching it because it didn't move. I decided to walk to the side of the balcony to get a better picture, and it took off! I got Matt out of bed, and we walked over to have breakfast with Dave and Natalie. (Thanks for the breakfast burritos, Dave! They were so good!) We ate and chatted for a bit, then we headed back upstairs to get ready for the day and to pack some. Then we went back to chat some more. It was so fun to just hang out without any care for the time or schedules. In fact, the whole trip was kind of like that. It was beautiful! Natalie and I perused the Ikea catalog her parents had brought up, and we just lounged around. Finally, we headed back to the upstairs cabin to finish putting everything away so we could get on the road.

My favorite picture of Nora.

We were going to stop in Idaho Falls for lunch, but we opted to head on to Pocatello instead, where we lunched at our usual Burger King. (I told you, I've been to Jackson too many times - I have traditional stops!) After lunch, we headed down to Malad, where my Grandpa Wilson grew up. I'd been feeling left out since over the last year or two, some of my extended family has been going up to Malad with Grandpa. If they'd just let me know, I'd totally come! So we stopped anyway. I've always driven past and thought, "That's where Grandpa is from," but since I've always been with the band, I've never stopped. We parked and wandered around, coming to the veterans' memorial, where I knew Grandpa's name was because my cousins have a picture of him pointing to it. Well, I didn't have Grandpa, but I took a picture of his name anyway :) Then we wandered around some more while I took pictures of the things I found fascinating. When we got back to the car, we drove around a little bit, then headed back to I-15.

The plaque with my Grandpa Wilson's name on it.

Matt sitting outside the American Legion building in Malad.

We headed out to Promontory, Utah. I first recall learning about Promontory Point and the golden spike in fourth grade, when we did a program with that historic fact having its own song (I was a narrator in said program), but I didn't have a clue where that was. Of course, I googled it, discovered where it was, then found the necessary information to take a trip there. I had been feeling a little bad that I lived in Utah, knew this part of history, and had never bothered visiting. (Don't feel bad if you're in the same boat, it's in the middle of nowhere.) The visitor center closed at 5pm, so we were speeding along back country farm roads. My Matt is amazing :) He got us there with 20 minutes to spare. The ranger lady was nice, too. Since it was so close to closing, the replica trains had already gone, and she didn't bother charging us. Again, since we were in such a hurry to see the actual center, we didn't stop at the sign until on our way out.

Part of a display at Golden Spike National Historic Site.

Golden Spike National Historic Site

Us with the choo-choo

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2nd Anniversary Trip

Posted by Amber

On Saturday, August 8, we headed to Evanston, WY. We were running a little bit late, so Matt ordered us pasta bread bowls from Domino's for dinner. (We ended up taking Matt's car.) I had never had one before. It was so good! We didn't stop in Heber or Park City, but just drove through to Evanston. We saw a deer on the way, somewhere in the Middle of Nowhere, Utah. Matt initially was going to take I-15 to I-80, but I told him that wasn't the plan. Now he is a huge fan of going through Heber. It was pretty :) Evanston was frigid when we got there. We stayed at Motel 6. Matt took a picture of the sign on the door while I was checking us in. Mostly it needed to be edited. He found it amusing. :) When we got to the room, I immediately turned on the heater. I've decided I'm a fan of 1 bed rooms. They're the same size as a 2 bed room. . . . but with more space!

This was the lovely comforter in our room. :)

On Sunday, I made Matt get up and go to church. :) Even though I packed him some dress pants, he opted to wear jeans (less changing required). He figured he could get away with it in Wyoming...and he was right. Sacrament was alright. They had some ladies from the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers speak. After sacrament, we went to find some breakfast. We ended up at McDonald's. When we walked in, the first thing I saw were two saddle stools. Then I saw the sea of saddle stools in the kids' play area:

I was so entertained :) The adult side was pretty schwanky, though. We sat next to a wall waterfall. Behind us there was a fireplace with some leisure chairs. Even the raised tables had raised upholstered benches.

After breakfast, we stopped across the way to get gas. Apparently (I wasn't watching or paying that much attention), Matt came out of the stall in front of some guys in a truck. They clearly felt Matt had cut them off. They pulled up next to us at the driveway entrance and were yelling at us. Matt then proceeds to make our right turn, and the come right along next to us. Even though we needed to go left, Matt made to make another right, since the truck was in our way of getting across to make a left hand turn. They caught on that we were turning, and tried to run us over. They successfully blocked the road in front of us, then the both of them got out of their truck and started heading toward us. I thought we were going to die. I was so glad they didn't have a gun, cuz I wouldn't have put it past them. Matt yells at them, then backs up, turns, and heads the opposite direction. We ended up going past Walmart and around the other side of McDonald's to get to the road we needed to take. I decided that getting angry, and maybe even yelling at other cars from the confines of my own is not at all considered road rage. :) Seriously, I thought we were going to die. I am appalled that they had the nerve to cut us off. They seriously could have hit our car! (As you can see, I'm still not over it.) Anyway, after that eventful start, we headed out on the road again.

We saw some other deer-like creature (I'm not sure what it was) on our way out to Fossil Butte National Monument. We stopped there, browsed the small gift shop, watched part of a Discovery Channel bit on Fossil Butte, and looked at the fossils and fossil replicas they had on display.

As we were leaving, I saw this cute little guy on the sign. He let me get pretty close to him.

We didn't stop on our way in, so I made Matt stop on the way out.
Here we are with the Fossil fishy.

After Fossil Butte, we headed further north. We were going to stop in Alpine, WY for lunch, but there wasn't much there, and Jackson was only 30-45 minutes away.

Arch in Afton
Welcome to Star Valley.
The Snake River on the way to Jackson - a route I am more familiar with than I should be :)

We stopped at Wendy's for lunch. Coincidentally, that is the last place we had lunch before leaving Jackson last year :) After lunch, we headed to town square, then wandered around a few of the shops. It was actually quite fun to just wander. Matt found a store he wants to come back to when he's rich. They had all sorts of cool things, like giant crystal rocks and petrified wood. They had some amber jewelry, and I told Matt he should get me some (cue saleslady :p). She was talking to us about the jewelry. She said that the earrings were pretty cheap, they started at $50. HA! In my world, $50 for a pair of earrings is outrageous! Like I said, it's a store for when we're rich.

On the shed at town square in Jackson.

Outside one of the shops

I thought this little guy was so cute!

The famous arches at town square.

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Ta da!

Posted by Amber

Now you see the background that was inspired by the dotted paper. :) For the header, I originally had made the bottom frame with our picture in it. Later, for a different background (also way cute!) I did the frame with our name. Matt liked the other variation of it, but this one looks way cute on this background. I obviously couldn't pick one or the other, so I combined them! Dumb Blogger doesn't allow transparent backgrounds, so there's some edging visible, but it's not too bad. I'm also quite proud of the fact that the ribbon the frames are "hanging" on actually came from a ribbon frame that I dissected for my own purposes :) The bow on top is also a corner piece that had some extra long and uneven tail-age, which I rectified. I'm slowly learning how to use Photoshop Elements. :) I'm also trying to learn how to create my own digiscrap elements and papers. So far, I have a screw head I'm rather proud of, and various striped papers. I have some other cool ones too, but I messed up on the size. :/ Maybe I'll show you some of them...