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

1st Day Out

Hey, everybody!

Luke here again. We got out of the house a little late, but besides that the day has been fine. No forgetting stuff (like toiletry bags :D ) and no problems so far. (Thank you, Lord!)

After visiting my mom's parents and celebrating my dad's mom's birthday with lunch at Cracker Barrel, we headed for Ohio, where we're going to visit the Creation museum tomorrow. I've heard that it's AWESOME, especially the astronomy part. I'm really looking forward to it.

Anyway, after driving for about 4-5 more hours, we stopped at a hotel. It is amazing! There's a flatscreen TV in every room (We're watching a soccer game), and they even have WI-FI! (Thank goodness, or I wouldn't be able to post this.) My mom said, "Maybe we should just forget the whole trip and just stay here for three weeks." Ha, ha.

Please pray that we'll have safe travel and a fun time tomorrow.

Luke

Hey, everybody!

Luke here. Me and Bridger just got back from summer camp today. Now we're packing for our trip out west which we're leaving for tomorrow! It's gonna be great, if not a little crazy. :) Our entire house is a wreck. We're rushing everywhere and testing everything and packing as many clothes as we can fit. I think that we'll have everything ready by tonight, and I hope I don't forget anything... oh well, even if I do, we'll be fine. I left my toiletry bag at home during summer camp, and I survived.

Well, I have to get back to packing. I hope I can do this thing every day on the trip, but it might not work out.

Later!
Luke