july: Yellowstone trip!

Our church youth group chose Yellowstone as their destination for a Super Activity trip last summer and Chuck and I snagged invites to go, despite neither of us technically being in youth-related callings anymore :). Chuck was recruited to be in charge of all things food and I tagged along because I've never been to Yellowstone before and when I asked my kids, "Do you want me to stay home with you or do you want to hang out with Grandma Pam for three days?" they all voted for Grandma ;). 

We met at the church briiiight and early Thursday morning and piled into vehicles. Chuck and I called dibs on the backseat of Brother Robertson's truck with Bishop riding shotgun. There's a chance Chuck had been up late into the night doing food prep and there's a chance Bishop isn't a "morning" "person" so they both opted for naps off and on during the drive.

A few hours later we pulled up to the beautiful Rexburg, Idaho temple! Sooo pretty. And sooo windy there ;). Most of us headed in to do baptisms and encountered a temple worker who possibly terrified all of us initially but turned out to be super nice (just terrifyingly organized haha) and -- I kid you not-- a former Nampa 2nd Ward member like a million years ago.

I love being in new temples and feeling the same incredible Spirit of the Lord in each of them. I also love watching the youth be so enthusiastic about the temple and working hard to be worthy to go there.

Okay these pictures made me laugh because as most people that have taken a selfie with me know, I usually have to pause and take my hair out of the ponytail and occasionally switch sides to see if I look better. Luckily Chuck is very patient with me haha:

Post-temple lunch at a church pavilion next door: delicious create your own salads (Chuck's is pictured, onions are gross). The kids all ate and ate and then headed over to BYU-Idaho for a campus tour, while Chuck and I stayed behind to clean up (and I might have taken a quick rest on the grass). Other highlights: Brother Robertson's grandson meeting up with him for lunch and a visit and me getting to sneak into the Rexburg D.I., although it sadly yielded no treasures :(. We gathered the whole gang again and got back on the road to head to our campsite!

Oh man, this is where a) blogging sooner and b) paying attention would help. We camped somewhere outside Yellowstone... but that's all I got. It was really nice! We got all settled in and tents put up and a volleyball-type game broke out, which I studiously avoided. The youth were all so great with each other; I really enjoyed just watching them interact and goof off. Dinner was jambalaya, which turned out excellently because Chuck is a rockstar. 

After dinner we sent a small contingency out fishing while some others opted for a walk - Chuck and myself included. We found a way cool cabin that's been preserved. It's open during the day but we had to suffice with peering through windows haha. 

Back at camp we all gathered to celebrate Noah's birthday! Such a cool kiddo. 

(let's pretend I didn't duplicate pictures here; these collages may have been compiled last night at like midnight...) And then it was time for a movie on the big screen!! For everyone else. I went to bed because I'm lame haha.

The next morning we awoke to moose wandering suuuuper close to our campsite! Like running through it! Way fun, especially since some had been spotted the night before on walks but I'd missed them.

Despite the excitement of the moose sightings, we were all moving a liiiiittle slow Friday morning. Some hearty breakfast and staring at the fire helped though - along with the brisk morning air ;).

Aaaand then we were off! We were very blessed to be joined by Sister Eckert's son Tony (pictured checking the map with Brother Robertson), who very generously donated his time and expertise as a former Yellowstone Park Ranger to guide us around!

Let's face it: pretty much every view inside of Yellowstone was postcard worthy. I don't know if we just went on the perfect day or if the sky is legit always that perfectly blue, but it was amazing!

We drove into the park and around for a bit before stopping at this cool place which possibly had a specific name. There was a real steep trail that one could hike down if one was crazy, which it turned out applied to several people in our group haha. Chuck and I stayed up top and admired the water from there. Brother Fleshman was one of the explorers and apparently admired the water much more closely ;).

I got Bishop and Chuck to do a thumbs up picture which clearly meant I had to pull out their Woodbadge picture from a couple years ago for a side-by-side.

We piled back into cars and headed for our next destination: the top of a way cool waterfall. It definitely had a name... probably something size-related? Little Falls? I think it was something mild-ish sounding, leaving me unprepared for how crazy cool/terrifying/intense/awesome it was. I am way scared of water but also slightly mesmerized by waterfalls... every time one of the youth leaned over the railing to get a closer look I had a slight heart attack but then I totally wanted to lean over it too! Crazy.

Just hanging out on the rocks with the cutest photobomber around, Seth ;). Also, I did a double take when I saw the picture of Chuck sitting on the rocks soooo clearly I had to find the bottom right shot of him doing the same thing on our Oregon coast super activity trip back in 2013!

Group shot of all the 2nd Ward youth that were able to make the Yellowstone trip:

Andy, Llyam, Lee, Seth, Cameron, Naomi, Tyson, Mya, Noah, Sariah, Maysa. I'll say it again: these kids did SO well on the trip. No drama, no fighting, tons of bonding and friendshipping and fun. So great!

We drove around and were able to see the waterfall from a higher perspective - so weird to look down at where we had just been a few minutes ago!

Our next adventure was to see the 'Lower Falls' - name courtesy of this nice sign I took a picture of haha. Also courtesy of this nice sign: a legit warning that should be taken seriously. This staircase was no joke. If I didn't have heart or breathing problems beforehand, I definitely acquired a few on the way. I saw people going up and down it carrying children and I was like, "Nope. Not gonna happen. We'll bring the kids when Carma's like 8 and can't sucker her way into getting a lift on here."

Turned out the view WAS pretty spectacular - the rainbow!!!

Of course I managed not to get a solid picture of the waterfall in its entirety, but there's a nice one of me and Chuck blocking it!! The picture area was pretty crowded, so we were in and out (with Chuck taking time to serve as photographer for a couple other random groups of tourists). Chuck and I didn't hike down together, but we stayed close for the hike back up (he may have been worried about my breathing and heart and questionable endurance...) so enjoy the sweaty selfies as we took a few breaks to rest up the stairs.

I got Tyson to take a picture with me!!! Oh I love that kid. And some other random pictures from around the staircase hike.

Have I mentioned yet how beautiful everything was there???

We drove around some more and found a good spot to settle in for lunch - croissant deli sandwiches with chips and apples and cookies on the side, yummm. We also had an excellent devotional - the youth leaders took turns sharing spiritual thoughts at mealtimes which was way cool. 

Bison! We saw quite a few on our travels. No bears, though, which was a great disappointment to Seth and possibly a relief to most of the rest of us ;).

Our last big stop was Old Faithful. Pro tip: if you get there and there's a million people waiting, pick it up a little and hurry over because it is about to blow! We honestly got there two minutes before she erupted:

Of course the people who had waited for an hour got better seats/pictures than us, but that's fair. I like Jason taking a selfie haha. 

Educational info:

 Way cool lodge/hotel area and Sister Eckert with her new blanket. Have I mentioned how awesome Sister Eckert is?? Very awesome.

Just walkin' along with my sweetheart:

 Again, not much of an outdoorsy girl but EVERYTHING WAS JUST SO BEAUTIFUL!!!

 After Old Faithful it was time to hit the road and bid goodbye to Yellowstone... at the same time that every other tourist left the park too? We were at a standstill on the road for a while... Andy came up and visited so that was fun.

We finally made it back to camp, where Tyson pretty much passed out on his chair so that's a good indication that we wore everyone out :). We all rallied to put dinner together (chili and hot dogs). Chuck and I sneaked away for a romantic date down the road to pick up more ice haha.

After dinner Bishop gathered everyone for a fireside; Brother Benjamin bore his testimony and shared some experiences with the group and I'm grateful to have been there. I have so much respect for men and women in the church who sacrifice time and energy to be Young Men and Young Women leaders. Teenagers have a lot going on, and the more adults who care about them and reach out to them the better! Oh, also there were s'mores ;).

The next morning we ate breakfast and broke down camp and hit the road! We stopped in Burley for lunch and Brother Benjamin caught a fish, the second for our group this trip (Brother Fleshman caught one by our campsite). Chuck took a nap, Bishop Swenson talked his way into the driver's seat of Brother Robertson's truck, and we all talked a bit o' politics without anyone getting terribly offended or me getting dumped out of the truck to hitchhike home to Nampa, so I called that a win!

I've thought at times about how we don't give Heavenly Father enough credit as the master scientist, but this trip really reinforced to me what a talented, creative artist Jesus Christ is. If I was tasked with coming up with trees, I would probably make one basic model and stick it all over the place. Jesus made so many different trees with varying shapes/branches/seeds/purposes/etc. SO cool. Animals - same thing. Flowers, ditto. It was so wonderful to spend a couple days with my best friend/cute husband Chuck and other awesome adults and youth from the ward and be away from the powerful lure of the Internet and just admire nature and grow spiritually.

 Of course, all of this wouldn't have been possible without my amazing mama! She took these pictures one morning as they got ready for swimming lessons. I am so appreciative of her willingness to stay with my kids and take such good care of them while Chuck and I gallivant off on these little adventures (spoiler alert: one is coming up in like eight weeks! Not that I'm counting down!). I try to remember how fortunate we are to have such awesome, loving, free childcare. Thanks Mom!!!!!