Animal Lover...

So - Mindy Eyre posted on my comments to the post below that her and Marty were just talking the other day about how Greg and I are so good at seeing the animals in Yellowstone - It reminded me of a story and I just HAD to share: You see, when I go to Yellowstone with Greg's family, I always make the joke that because I am such an animal lover that I am "one" with the animals, so I know where they are at because they tell me! I don't know where it started, but it had been going on a couple years and they just laughed at my joke and said - okay Jackie, whatever you say. So every year they tell me to use my powers to find the animals - but they never believed in my powers ;) - Until a couple years ago... After all day without seeing hardly anything, they were teasing me to tell the animals to come out and I said - okay here goes (I put my hands to my temples and closed my eyes for a dramatic effect) and said - "K, I wanna see a bear, and not just in the distance, I wanna see a bear in the road, right next to our car." I am not even kidding, it was less than 20 seconds later, we turned a curve in the road and had to come to an abrupt halt as we waited for a big ole' black bear to walk all the way down the road (crossing a bridge), walk right next to our car, and then cross the road right behind our car. My brother and sister-in-law were in awe! So to continue the joke, I kept saying things like - I wanna see a wolf, a moose, etc.... In the next couple hours, we saw three wolves circling an elk (to attack), a couple more bears (but definitely more in the distance), and then on the way back to camp, we saw a moose just off the side of the road. His family never lets me live that down and now they firmly believe in my powers!

I really do have all the luck - but don't tell them that! ;) Have a great time in Yellowstone Mindy!

Wow!

So - I know you are all thinking what a slacker I am not having time to post in over 2 months! Wow! Well, you are all right - I am a slacker. ;) I have just been enjoying summer nights too much and been so busy! Greg and I celebrated our 5-yr anniversary on July 15th, so for the 4th of July, we took off for a week of camping. We went to one of our favorites, Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. We had the BEST time! It was so nice to just relax together and have no agenda or timeframes - in fact, we didn't even make any plans - and the biggest suprise of all - Greg didn't even bring his laptop and even managed to turn off his cell phone for part of the time - Wow!!! We went to dinner and a play in West Yellowstone one night, kayaking at Hebgen Lake one day, we rented a boat on Yellowstone Lake another day, went hiking in the Tetons and even had time to eat dinner at the Yellowstone Lodge that we have always wanted to (as well as roasting marshmallows and hanging out at the campfire)! If you know me at all, you know that I am horrible with taking pictures, in fact if it weren't for Greg, I wouldn't even take a camera anywhere - I think I might be the least girl-like of any girl I know (mostly when it comes to pictures)! But I did manage to take a couple, so here they are (looking as staged as ever...;)):

(the only picture of the two of us - seriously we are horrible at pictures) - this was in the boat on Yellowstone Lake.

This was also in the boat - when Greg nearly flipped me out of the boat. If you can see, I am pointing to myself since I am soaked clear through all my clothes - He hit a big wave and the boat flipped really fast somehow and the whole side of me went into the lake and Greg pulled me back in by my one foot - it was great fun, but SO cold on the way back into shore.

Fantastically cheesy picture - the best kind!

So this is a Grizzly Bear right off the side of the road. See where the pavement ends and the flowers are? - That is where we were standing a couple minutes before (with a group - we weren't the only crazies) - but a ranger came and yelled at us since clearly that is a bit close to a freakin' Grizzly bear!

Other than that, just regular life in the summer: working and then doing stuff outside after work to enjoy all that sun. Greg is really busy at work right now, so he is working around the clock with that and school. I am busy trying to put my house back together after our remodel - I know, it has been forever! I will have to take pictures of the remodel that we did and put them up - maybe that will be one of the next blogs I do, once I finish putting my furniture back in it!

See y'all later! I hope everyone is in good health and doing well...