The Blackburn Family

Matthew and I had originally planned to go to Washington D.C. for our anniversary trip, but we had been investing in getting all our emergency preparedness/camping supplies together and so we decided to take it all for a trial run and enjoy the beauty of the mountains and animals at Yellowstone.

Matthew had researched and found the best tent he could find and we saved $100 on it by finding it for less at Cabelas vs. Sportsmen's Warehouse. It's a SpringBar Klondike (?) tent that is really easy to set up, has lots and lots of room with the best part (besides it being waterproof) being that Matthew can stand up straight in it :-) a definite plus for him. It served us VERY well and I'm glad we have it. It will last us a very long time.

Thanks to Mom and Dad Garner, we were able to leave Evelynn with them in Rexburg on the night of the 22nd and we got into camp around 10:30 at night, quickly set up the tent and then in the morning Matthew pulled out our grill where we had a yummy bacon, hashbrown, sausage, cantelope, hot cocoa breakfast! Nothin' like the smell of bacon sizzelin' in the mornin'!
It was a great way to start off our camping trip. We were camping at the Madison campground about 14 miles in from the NorthWest Entrance. Great place to camp!

Here's another view of our tent. It was really nice to have the leveled out gravel spot for our tent to sit on. No pinecones and hard rocks poking into our backs! Woohoo!

Our first morning camping - please excuse the no make-up look now and throughout the rest of our pictures! Lol - After all.....you're not supposed to have to worry about all that when your camping, right!?!?!

Our first day in Yellowstone we decided we wanted to take it a little slow and easy so we went on a nice bike ride (Matthew bought me a bike so we could start riding together) and it was a great trail (an abandoned roadway) We didn't realize that we were on an incline on the way in until we turned around and started biking back and found how easy it was to bike back.....a fact my legs and patootie were VERY grateful for since I'm just getting back into the whole bike thing.

We ran into this very mellow buffalo on the trail. It was a great shot and he didn't seem to mind his nap being inturrupted.

On our way back down the trail we saw him again only he had shifted so his rear was to us. We thought it was a little humorous and snapped another shot. His bum is just about in the water.

Here's the buffalo again in the background and Matthew thought he would include his own patootie in the picture as well :-)

We drove around and went on various trails between Madison and Old Faithful and saw great geysers, mudpots, forest and scenery.

A mudpot.

Here Matthew and I are patiently waiting for 'Old Faithful' to be....well....Faithful :-)

Waiting.....

It's thinking about it......

Thar' she blows!!!!!

Still as Faithful as ever :-)

Matt and I had a good chuckle over this couple who were obviously "enjoying the sites" of the Old Faithful Lodge. They were zonked out the whole time we were there. Every once in a while the man would jerk, raise his head, and then settle back in to his afternoon snooze. We probably shouldn't laugh too hard since that's probably an accurate picture of our vacations at some point in the future :-)

Maqtthew sitting back and relaxing in one of the many comfy chairs at the lodge.

Oh so beautiful :-)

Sitting was very nice after we had been walking, and walking,.... and walking,......... and walking in the sun.

Just a bit of the beautiful scenery we got to enjoy......very relaxing!

Me and my sweetie!

At the end of our very busy and fun filled first day of vacation we returned back to camp where Matthew built a lovely fire! There is nothing so beautiful as a warm fire when camping. Here Matthew is pounding his chest and re-inacting the scene from "Castaway" saying..... "I, I have made FIRE" :-) This is where I swoon and say, "My Hero!" Lol

We ran into a herd of Elk and did exactly what we would always roll our eyes at what everyone else would do....that is, pull over and take a picture next to the animals. Oh well, you just can't visit Yellowstone and leave without one of the "classic" pictures. Otherwise the trip would't be complete and we wouldn't really be "tourists" :-)

Matthew stricking a "GQ" pose as we looked over the valley with lots of smoking geyers.

We really are actually enjoying ourselves here...you just can't tell 'cause we were focusing so hard on getting both of us as well as the background in the picture.

The following are just a few examples of the lovely views we enjoyed.

Before you look at the next picture I HAVE to tell you a very funny story. Matthew will want to strangle me for telling it, but here goes. We had been driving between Norris and Madison campgrounds whch is only 14 miles, but there was road construction going on so we had had to wait for a while to get through the one lane road section and we were ready to be done driving. Then we came upon on of the common sites of Yellowstone....a LONG line of vehicles creeping along past and stopping in the middle road blocking everyone's progress when one of the the various random buffalo, elk, bird, squirrel, dandelion etc. was seen. (please note a slight bit of teasing sarcasm in that last sentence) Anyway, we had come across an inordinate amount of said slow traffic and so when we once again found oursleves creeping along Matthew stated "There had better be some bulls ahead.......(and here he paused to find the right word).....(and that word was).....COPULATING" :-) He meant to say "BUFFALO FIGHTING" but somehow things got a little mixed up. We laughed long and hard about that one since bulls copulating would derfinitely be something that would stop traffic. Sure enough there were actually some buffalo ahead....and thankfully they were just innocently eating grass :-)

Here were a couple of adult buffalo, a couple new-born calves and what looked to be a "teenager" buffalo.

It really did seem like people in Yellowsotone simply would forget how to drive when they saw an animal. They would literally stop in the middle of the roadway and people would be meandering randomly,not realizing they were walking right into traffic because they were so focused on what they were seeing through their camera lens. Silly people!!!!

On our second day in Yellowstone we went on a horse-back ride that was very enjoyable. Matthew and I got lucky and were the first two in the "horse" line and so we got to see more than just the horses behind in front of us :-)

Some of the lovely scenery again.....

Matthew on his horse "King Arthur" :-) Isn't he handsome!?!? My husband.....Not the horse!..... although King Arther was certainly a faithful steed.

Scenery again......I know most of you may not care much about the scenery we saw but this is acting as our journal so it's included for our sake :-)

It was an absolutely beautiful day with clear skies and just enough of a breeze to keep us cool and most of the bugs away!

A picture of my lovely self while capturing all those behind us.

Our trail leader took our picture for us. My horse was named Cheyenne and she tended to be somewhat of a narcoleptic (sp?) munching ride :-) If she wasn't trying to slow down for a quick nap then she was reaching out to snag a bite of all the lovely flowers we passed. She was actually good to ride......I just had to remind her every once in a while that I was the one deciding where and when we would do things......at least she let me think that for most of the ride :-)

Back at the Corral....and feeling just a touch bow-legged!

My knight and his white horse :-)

It was a really enjoyable and relaxing way to spend the morning.

When we got back to camp we saw we had a little visitor. Matthew found our cold cereal and fed the little fellow the tastiest dinner he had had in a while!

I caught him with his tongue sticking out :-) kinda' cute!

There were two little boys in the neighboring camp and Matthew invited them over so see the ground squirrel. They came over with their cheese crackers and before we could say anything one of them tossed his whole cracker at him. The ground squirrel LOVED it!

.....and just like a human little kid (Katie I'm thinking of Isaac and his suckers!) he ran and hid with his new found treasure!

The next morning we were on our way to our White Water Rafting adventure when we looked over and saw a coyote (at least that's what I think it is) on the side of the road. We followed along and got to witness him catching his breakfast......hopefully it wasn't the little ground squirrel we met the night before!

Here he had picked up the scent or sound of breakfast.....

treading softly........

Oooops....where did it go?......

....come on!....Breakfast has got to be here somewhere~!......I can smell it......

And.....I GOT IT!!!! Oh yum!.....

Standing proudly over his kill........

.......starting at the wrong end....but then, is there really a Right end?!?!......

Getting the last bit down........

And lickin' his lips!

We got so involved with watching the coyote and I had miscalculated the distance from camp to our white water rafting trip and we almost didn't make it! Matthew might have stretched the speed limit just a touch and we came in a few minutes before the group was ready to leave. I'm really glad we made it!

Matthew and I are the two in front with the yellow helmets.

At one point a wave came up underneath my side and I just about knocked Matthew out of the raft. Luckily he has strong legs and stayed inside!

and SPLASH!!!!!!! Yipee!

It really was fun. I was just a little nervous at first but loved every minute of it!

It was the Gallatin River that we rafted and it was a full day trip so we stopped half-way down for deli sandwiches, chips and cookies and got back in. Between being a little saddle sore from the day before and having to have my legs jammed in to stay in the raft.......I was ready for the ride to be over when we finally reached our destination but was still really glad to have had my first white water rafting experience.

Alex was our river guide and he commented that Matthew had really given him a work-out since he really had to paddle strong to counter-balance Matthew's strong strokes in front. That's my man :-) I guess the rest of us girls were puny with our paddles!

At the end of our rafting ride.

WSe were tired when we got back, but we really wanted to try out our dutch ovens we had gotten and so we heated up the charcoals and I made potatoes, BBQ ribs and Peach Cobbler. It turned out surprisingly well for our first attempt at dutch oven cooking.......even if we did end up eating after 11:00 p.m.! Next time we'll know to start a little earlier. We made dutch oven pizza too which turned out a little burnt on the bottom, but the toppings were still scrumptious :-) Lol

Some scenery we saw on the way up to Montana to attend church.

Gibbon Falls between Norris and Madison

Another buffalo.....

Plains between Norris and Mammoth Hot Springs

Sheepeater Cliffs

We had meant to take a shower at the Mammoth Hotsprings Hotel where the old Yellowstone Fort was and changing before going to church but once again I underestimated the time it would take to get there so we showed up at church about five minutes late with no shower having been taken. I changed in the truck on the way there and since we got there a little late we assumed that everyone was in church......but then we forgot to take into consideration "mormon standard time" so Matthew was standing next to the truck changing his pants when the poor innocent music chorister pulled into the parking lot, catching Matthew in his skivies! Luckly we sat in the back and didn't have to make eye contact with her during the Sacrament Meeting although we caught her looking our way and smiling a little :-) It was a small building with one central room for Sacrament meeting and four or five smaller rooms directly off of the main room. It was a nice meeting and we noticed there were several other disheveled campers who weren't all that fresh either. Luckily we got to go back to the hotel and we enjoyed lovely hot showers afterwards.

The enourmous gateway at the North Entrance to the park.

The elk truly appreciated the nicely mowed lawn at the medical clinic.......

and in front of the civic buildlings :-) Most of them didn't even bother to stand when eating.....Why stand when you can lay down and eat the grass around you!

Liberty Cap at Mammoth Hot Springs

A view back into Mammoth Hot Springs Valley with the old Fort

Travertine at Mammoth Terraces

This was on a trail that Matthew and I thought we could bike. We had only ridden our bikes once and wanted to get them out again......not the best idea! We didn't know how steep the trail was going up and coming back down. By the time we were done we were both hacking and coughing. On the way up Matthew's chain kept getting jammed and I had to walk my bike most of the way since I wasn't used to knowing when and how to shift my gears. Then it was a hair-raising ride on the way down where I though I would biff it into the nearby rock and brush.....but we made it back in one piece........and thoroughly soaked thus effectively nullifying the benefits of the shower we had taken just minutes before!!! Oh well :-)

More of the Mammoth Terraces

Scenery on the way back to camp.

One of the back trails we randomly decided to take and were really glad we did. Just nice to get off the beaten track......ok, it's still beaten.....just not AS beaten :-)

There's a funny story with this one too! We were on our way up the trail to see the Petrified Tree and we passed a little girl walking with her mom who had obviously had enough of trails and trees and such because as we passed she said "This had better be worth it!" We had to laugh because we were almost feeling the same way. Many times we would pass cars parked where the wife and kids would be sleeping in the car and the dad would be out walking up to the site and taking pictures to document that they had at least "been there" :-)

Matthew and I at the Petrified Tree.....proving that we BOTH had gotten out of the car to see the tree :-) It was worth it......just to have heard the little girls comment!

Matthew being goofy with my many attempts to get us both in the picture!

Just a cool tree with moss.....

The Yellow Stone that Yellowstone is known for.....

The canyon wall......

One of the many thunder storms that would roll in. We would have one daily and it kept things cool and fresh. Very nice!

Matthew "enjoying the scenery" :-) See!....I told you the couple at the Old Faithful Lodge weren't too far into our future! Lol

South Falls of Yellowstone

Again....we BOTH got out and walked the trail ;-)

The canyon....breathtaking!

another shot.....

And now the North Falls......In between Matthew picked this Stetson hat as his souvenier for the trip :-) Very nice!!!

Yep........you guessed it!......Us :-)

On our last night of camping we were tuckered out! We had seen just about everything you could see and loved it all. I'm doing the "I, I have made fire" dance where I had built a fire using most of the rest of our wood. It was fun sitting back, relaxing, watching the coals die down and making s'mores our last night of camping. We had planned to go fishing early the next morning back in Idaho with Dad, but by this time we were worn out and we decided that it would be best and more enjoyable if we did the fishing trip after Ben and Jen moved down and we could enjoy it better then being not so worn out.

It's not officially a camping trip until you've had s'mores!

Our last night at camp! A great vacation!

We got back to Rexburg in the early afternoon where we enjoyed a lovely sit down meal at AppleBees with Mom and Dad. It was nice to know we wouldn't have to clean up after ourselves! We gathered up Evelynn who had given Mom and Dad a run for the money and traveled home where Matthew became suddenly energetic and put up another shelf in the garage and many screws to make space for all the new camping gear we had. It was nice to be home and get back to our "schedule" but it was nice to have the break and get refreshed.....ready to delve back into the grind of everyday life.

We were so grateful to Mom and Dad for being willing to watch Evelynn for five days and make it possible for us to have a nice time.....just the two of us~