In front of the Grand Canyon of th Yellowstone with the lower falls

Bridger in front of his namesake mountains

On the way up Mount Washburn. The distant mountains in the background are the Tetons, at least 60 miles away.

Relaxing on a rock in front of the Grand Teton

Ansley with a Lewis, Clark and Seaman at Sioux Falls

On a hike in the Badlands

Never climbed a ladder like this before!

Home

Hey, everybody!

Luke here. We got home safely last night at close to nine. Our next-door-neighbors, the Coxes, were waiting for us on our front porch! Fun, huh? We had a great time for about an hour and a half to two hours, and then we all went to bed.

Home at last! Kind of hard to believe, but we're home. It feels great to relax after a long trip.....NOT! We still have to clean up the tent. That thing can get so stinking muddy... oh well.

Well, I'm going to let everybody else type now. Have fun!

Luke

Hi Guys,
My favorite things on the trip were horseback riding in Glacier and getting to see all the cool animals. We got to see mountain goats, bighorn sheep, elk, a bear, a pika, a marmot, ground squirrels, lots of prairie dogs, bison in 3 states, pronghorn antelopes, and ospreys.
I'm looking forward to seeing you soon now that I am home!
Ansley

I really like all that we did and it was alot of fun. I enjoyed the hiking and watching the wildlife. I got to wade in some mountain streams and throw rocks in Glacier. They have alot of smooth rocks.
Case

The trip was great. The hikes and views were awseome. I'm glad to be home but I do miss Yellowstone, Glacier, and everything else.
Bridger

Well, we did it. We ended up camping for about 2 weeks and everyone did well. Thankfully we had no major tent catastrophes. It was good to get back to Montana, I really enjoy it there and love being in the outdoors. Hopefully we made some good family memories. Thanks for keeping up with us and the comments and the prayers. I thought that I would post a few more of our favorite pictures that did not make it into the blog before. Sue may add 1 more post.

Russ

Indiana Dunes and Lake Michigan

Hey, everybody!

Luke here. Yesterday we went to Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore on Lake Michigan. It was amazing to see how BIG it is. After all, we'd never gone to a Great Lake before. It was like looking at an ocean; we couldn't see the other side, even with Dad's birdwatching binoculars. Another surprising thing was how HUGE the Indiana Dunes are. In the first picture, you can get a general idea of how big they are. (Those little specks in about the middle of the picture are us. Click on the picture to enlarge.) We were going to wade a little, but the water was FREEEEEEEZING!!!!!! I just felt sorry for all the people with swimming suits on!

Well, we should be home today! :-) Hard to believe that after all this time on the road we'll get to relax, without all the soreness from long car rides!


Well, I'll write later!

Luke

Waterpark Fun!!!!!

Hey, everybody!

Luke here. Yesterday, Dad took us to this place called Wilderness Lodge. It's, like, the most incredible hotel EVER!!!!!!!!! It has the biggest indoor waterpark in the world, not to mention all of the outdoor elements. They have the only water half pipe that I know of, and a huge whirlpool ride, and an indoor wave pool, AND over a dozen different slides and multiple lazy rivers!

Well, after having fun with that on Thursday night and Friday morning, we hit the road again. We got to a hotel near Lake Michigan and spent the night, and today we should be going to Indiana Dunes and seeing Lake Michigan. Should be fun.

Oh, by the way. In the last post, someone asked who "the boy in the cowboy hat" was. Well, as it turns out, Ansley decided to buy a cowgirl hat in Montana as a souvenier, and has barely taken it off since. I guess in that picture she kinda looks like a boy. ;-) Sorry for the mix-up.

Well, I'll try to write later!

Luke

North Dakota

Hey, everybody!

After Glacier, we started heading for home. We stopped in Billings, Montana, where we visited some of Mom and Dad's friends, Jay and Catherine Conner, from their Montana days. Just a short way from Billings, we stopped at Pompey's Pillar. This is a big pillar of rock, containing the only physical evidence of the Lewis and Clark trip-- William Clark's signature and date carved into the rock. (Click on the second picture from the top to get a better view.)

Just inside the North Dakota border is Theodore Roosevelt National Park. This area in the badlands of North Dakota was beautiful in its raw, undeveloped state, and was brimming with life, including bison, wild horses, and prairie dogs. Lots and lots and lots and LOTS of prairie dogs. Ansley and Mom loved these cute little.... barking rodents.

After this, we drove awhile through North Dakota. Talk about flat! Bridger saw the wheat fields and said, "Let's just build a hundred soccer fields!" Ha, ha. He also mentions how he wants to compulsively throw his frisbee just to see how far it will go. Mom and Dad say that they met a friend in Montana who was from ND. He said that he was fourteen before he realized that it doesn't really snow sideways; only in ND. When you see how flat it is and how far you can see, this isn't very surprising.

That's all for now. I'll write later!

Luke

Glacier National Park

Hey, everybody!

Luke here. After Yellowstone, we got to stay at a HOTEL!!!!!! After the freezing night temperatures and limited showers, we felt spoiled rotten. Showers, laundry, a pool, and billiards- what more could you want out of life?!

After that brief respite, it was back in a tent for our stay at Glacier National Park. Funny how a place like Glacier can be 20 degrees warmer than Yellowstone, huh? (Apparently, Yellowstone is having unseasonably cold temperatures, while Glacier is having unseasonably warm.)

Well, I guess I'd better let someone else write some. I'll write later.

Luke

P.S. We read the comments about wanting more pictures with Mom in them, so we tried to put one on today. However, there were technical difficulties, and after several minutes of messing with that one picture, we decided to try again later. Sorry!

I got a neat hat and sweatshirt at Glacier. We got a buffalo burger after driving through the park that was really good. I also like riding a horse for the first time.

Case

We hiked to Hidden Lake high up in the mountains and saw alot of mountain goats and even some bighorn sheep. The mountain goats would not even get off the trail and we had to hike around them. Then we got to go horseback riding and I had a horse named Simon. We got to ride across a bridge and see some waterfalls. This was my favorite thing to do in Glacier. I miss you everybody and will see you real soon. Molly, the hikes were hard and cold at times but they were fun.

Ansley

We hiked to a lake called Lake Avalanche. It was a 4 mile round trip so it was a bit long but not too hard. When we got to the lake we skipped some rocks and Dad taught me how to fly fish a little bit. The water was turquoise and it sparkled. The lake was pretty big and had three waterfalls flowing into it. On the return hike we climbed up into a big hollow tree. Ansley really liked the tree.

Bridger

Hello again,
We've been having trouble getting on wi fi to post our pictures. I'm on the hotel computer. Today we're going to try and see a place where William Clark carved his name on a rock and visit a park in North Dakota as we head for Fargo. We'll try again tonight to post some pictures and do some writing.
Russ

Hi All,
We had a good time in Glacier. Are heading to Billings tonight. We've been so busy it's been hard to get the kids time to write. We'll try and see if we can post some pictures and get the kids on tonight. Thanks for all the comments!
Russ

Hi,


We're now in Missoula and heading for Glacier tonight. I hope that we can get everyone back into the tent after staying in a hotel last night. Yellowstone and the Tetons were great and brought back alot of great memories. We tried to give the kids a glimpse of the parks, but we could have spent at least a week more. We did 2 big hikes, 1 into a lake in the Tetons with a great view of the Grand Teton and 1 up to Mount Washburn, which I did with our dads and Butch 20 years ago when they came to visit. We did not see any bighorn sheep this time like we did 20 years ago, but hopefully we can see some in Glacier. Between the two, we hiked 10 miles in 2 days.

The unexpected thing was how cold it was in Yellowstone. We did not expect it to be warm, but it was 60 or less during the day and in the low 30s at night. One night it hit 28 degrees, which was a little tough since some of our sleeping bags are probably only rated to 40 degrees. We dressed everyone in sweats and added blankets and did ok, but everyone was missing hot water and hot showers as they had none in the campground. We went 3 days without showers, and the guys wanted to go for the whole 5 days, but Sue threatened to fly home so we paid for showers at one of the visitor centers. I also got to go fish for a couple of hours and caught a nice rainbow trout in a stream flowing through a beautiful meadow near Old Faithful. 1 more week left and we'll be back!


Russ




Hey, everybody!

Luke here. I know it's been awhile, but we haven't had Wi-Fi for awhile. The time at Yellowstone was incredible beyond words. We saw things that I couldn't even imagine until I saw them.

We hiked a lot while we were there. My personal favorite was the Mount Washburn hike. It was a 6 mile round trip, and we got up to over 10,ooo feet! We saw a few unusual animals like a pika and a yellow bellied marmot.

We saw a ton of amazing, famous things, too, like the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, the Upper and Lower Falls, Old Faithful, and even a Grizzly Bear (from a loooooong way away). We'll tell you about these things in detail later!

Later!

Luke

Mount Rushmore Pictures

The Great Faces

The Avenue of Flags. It shows all the state flags and when the states joined the union, as well as all of our providences and their flags and when they were established.

Wall Drug picture

Of course, we had to go to Wall Drug to get ice cream, just to say we went.

Badland Pictures

Minuteman Missle site pictures

The outside of the door to the Control Room. This door only opened every 24 hours as the men came and went from their shifts.

The inside of the Control Room

A picture of the tour

5th-7th days out

Hi Everyone,

We head into Yellowstone today. It's been a good trip so far, but tiring at times. Everyone seems to be doing well and having fun seeing new things. We may not have internet access for 5 days so there may be a delay before our next post. It's an adventure!

PS- Sue is doing laundry and wants to add something later. She says she is fine.

Russ

Hey, Everybody!

Luke here. Sorry we couldn't write for a few days, but we didn't have Wi-Fi until now.
We went to Mount Rushmore on the 24 and 25. It was AMAZING!!! The faces of our presidents were so inspiring, so incredible! I can understand how it took 14 years to make it!

Luke

We went to the minuteman missle site which is a deactivated nuclear missle silo in South Dakota. It was really cool. We took a tour inside and under the main building. It controlled ten missle in a rough circle around the base.

Bridger

I really liked going to the rodeo in Cody, WY last night. They had all kinds of events. My favorite was barrel racing. I also liked the bull riding. I even got to go into the arena and chase some calves to try to get a ribbon off of their tails!

Ansley

My favorite thing so far was the creation museum. I really liked the movie in the planetarium about the stars. I also liked the missile site like Bridger. We got to see alot of buffalo in Custer State Park and they even walked on the road. I got to climb on some rocks and jump off into Sylvan Lake. The water was cold!

Case

P.S. We are going to post other pictures from the past few days separately.

4th Day Out (Badlands)

Hey, everybody!

Yesterday we did all kinds of stuff! First, after driving for awhile, we went to this thing called the Corn Palace. It was pretty cool. It was like a huge building with all these murals made entirely out of corn! They had murals of the St. Louis Arch, Davy Crockett & the Alamo, and even the space shuttle! It looked pretty impressive.

Then we drove some more and finally arrived at the Badlands. IT WAS INCREDIBLE!!!!!! There were all these huge rocks that were scattered around like a giant had pitched them out randomly, and when the sun hit it just right, it looked like someone had painted a beautiful pink stripe along all the rocks. We went on a couple of hikes, and laughed at the sign, "Beware of Rattlesnakes." Ha, ha.

Well, I have to go now. We won't have access for a few days, so we'll post again in a few days.

Luke

P.S. We didn't have time to post pics today, so we'll have to give you the shots in a few days.

3rd Day Out

Hey, everybody!

Luke here. Sorry I didn't get to post yesterday, but we got in kind of late.

It was a killer day yesterday. Early in the morning, we headed for the St. Louis Arch. It was amazing! It was so tall, when you were up in it, you were above every skyscraper in the city! After we went up in that, we visited the museum of westward expansion. It was really cool to learn all about Lewis and Clark and buffalo herds and stuff. (The Creation Museum is still the coolest museum I've ever been to, though.)

After that, we drove for 8 hours!!!!! I hear that that's not that long really, but it was pretty hard for us. Well, at least we stopped at Golden Corral for dinner. :)

We got into the campground at about 10 o'clock. We're in a cabin, and not a tent, though. Sort of kills the term "campground" for me, but it's pretty cool that it has Wi-Fi.

We're barely in South Dakota today. We're going to go hiking in the Badlands! (I'll be sure to try to get pics.)

Well, I'll write later!

Luke

Hey, everybody!

Luke here. We went to the Creation Museum today. It was INCREDIBLE!!!!!!!!!! It was, like, the most incredible museum I've ever been to! It showed all the evidence for a young earth, how dinosaurs fit into the Bible, and even how the myths of dragons came about. It was so cool!!!!!

Anyway, we left the museum at 4 or so and drove for 5 hours, not including a stop for dinner. Now we're at a hotel in Indiana (not as good as the last one, but not bad) getting ready to go to bed so we're not totally exhausted tomorrow.

Well, I guess I'll write tomorrow!

Luke

P. S. My sister Ansley is going to blog some today, so heeeeere's Ansley!

Today we went to the creation museum. My favorite parts were going to the petting zoo, and seeing a video about the stars and galaxies. We had alot of fun.

Bye everbody,

Love, Ansley