Jellystone and Camping

We have had a very busy past couple of weeks so I'm going to try and cram it all into one post. Last weekend, the 18th and 19th we went to Nancy's family Ranch near City of Rocks in Idaho for a family reunion. We had a really good time with family and enjoyed some really great food and fun. We ventured out to City of Rocks on Saturday to find a place to rock climb and ended up helping my brother Eric tow their jeep back to the Ranch. All went well though, Travis and Eric were able to fix it, and Eric and Nicky got home just fine. They have been at dental school in Virginia the last four years so it was especially nice to be able to do fun things with them during the Summer months. Here are a few pictures:

Helping set up the tent
Enjoying a sucker by the stream
Uncle Eric in his "house"

This last weekend, Travis had some business in Island Park and we left Tuesday to spend the rest of the week up at the river. My cousin Holly was there with her 2 girls and Brenner had a great time with them. McKenzie is almost 3, and although her and Brenner loved to be together, they tormented each other constantly. Holly and I were on gaurd at all times trying to keep the peace. Uncle Steve built them a little playhouse and they had fun climbing up and down the ladder to the loft.

It's funny because I have been going there since I was pretty much zero, but we never really went anywhere outside of Ashton and "The River" area. It wasn't until a couple of years ago that I actually got to go to Yellowstone and see Old Faithful and the whole deal. So this time we decided to go again, since we heard rumor of a grizzly bear hanging around, and I wanted to be able to tell Brenner that we did visit Old Faithful when he was a little boy. Shocking, he was ornery and slept through most of the drive there so he didn't see the animals we had been telling him about. When we pulled into the parking lot at the Yellowstone Lodge he looked around and wailed "Animals!" Like he knew he had missed them and was really upset. He was quickly soothed with the promise of ice cream, and thoroughly enjoyed a custom built cone of his own.

Brenner and Travis also got the fishing bug and now are both addicts. Travis is now a fly-fisherman, and Brenner has his very own Sponge Bob pole with a bug-looking thing on the end for him to cast and reel in. We had to go buy him his own because Kenz had one and it was a BATTLE. He knows how to share just great, but has a very small amount of patience when it comes to waiting his turn.

Here are some pictures from the trip: