Labor Day Weekend

This past Labor Day Weekend, we headed to Yellowstone with the family. We left Friday afternoon, spent the night in West Yellowstone and in the morning we went entered the park.

Our first stop was Grand Prismatic Spring (please excuse the spelling). I like that spring. However, this year, it was a bit dry.

The kids really enjoyed walking/crawling around it and also looking at nature.

Our next stop was Old Faithful and the Old Faithful Lodge.

On our way out, we got stuck in a traffic jam. A group of elks were hanging out and that attracted a lot of attention. So, off we went to see them.

Afterwards, we arrived to Mack's Inn. The kids enjoyed wading in the river, trying to catch small fishes with their nets, paddling, and even some fishing.

After dinner, Newel and Arden went back to the river for some fishing.
It was getting late, dark, and we wanted to celebrate Troy's birthday, so I went to get them. This is what I first noticed on Arden's leg as they were walking out of the river. They didn't catch a fish, but they did catch a leech. I was a bit surprised to see a leech stuck on Arden. I almost couldn't believe it. For a moment a scene from one of the Rambo movies came into mind, when Rambo is being tortured and they pull him out of some watery torture chamber and he's covered in leeches. I know they're not really dangerous, but I was still a bit nervous about him having that stuck on his leg.

Arden was brave the entire time. He was more concerned about the safety of the leech than himself.

Here are the videos of the leech removal. It's a bit dark, but I thought my parents would enjoy seeing this clip.

After the leech was removed from Arden (and safely placed in his fish tank) we celebrated Troy's birthday.

The following morning we went back to Yellowstone and did some easy hiking. We went to Tower Falls.

Walked to the river.

After lunch we were on the road again, to Mammoth. On our way to Mammoth, we made a potty stop. It was a picnic area by one of the rivers. It was a beautiful spot. Since we weren't going to make it back in time for church, we had our little family/church service. It was really neat. We were sharing our testimonies about Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father. We asked Arden if he wanted to share his testimony. And he did! It was so neat. He said Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love us, he is special and all of us are special. I was so impressed. I didn't know he could do it, what he knew and what he felt. He was also quite reverent. It's neat to see your children grow and learn. His testimony strengthened me.
Lately, Arden has been surprising/impressing me a lot.
After we arrived to Mammoth, the weather was a bit yucky, but the place was still really neat.

What amazing beautiful formations.

I don't know how some people can think that all of this beauty of our earth was just mere 'coincidence.' Whenever I'm outdoors and see all of the beauty around me, whether it's the ocean, a lake, a mountain, a hill, or the formations in Yellowstone...I don't believe they are just a 'coincidence.' I know there is a Creator who made all of this for our enjoyment.

The rest of our trip was great. Arden always has a good time with his primas. We all got home safe. You would think these guys would be sick of each other after a weekend together, but as we were leaving Kristen's house (we went over to her house to drop off some of her stuff, including Beatrix who rode with us on our way back home from Yellowstone), Arden and his primas were sad to part. We promised them, they would see each other again, very soon.