West Yellowstone!

A little snow and they clear out

Its snowing (the view from the back of the trailer) if you click on this and enlarge it you can see the snow

Moose inside of the park

Sunrise over Firehole canyon

Woke up this morning and its snowing here in West Yellowstone, cleared the campground right out, They left in large droves which is pretty cool to have the whole place to ourselves, well OK us and 10 or 15 others. The snow won't last and very seldom sticks this time of year, Odin and I went for a very long walk in it, This is perfect weather for him, and I didn't mind breaking out my snow boots.

We got a late start out of Roosevelt on Wed, and add to that the road blocks between Vernal and the Gorge (looking for the jail escapees). We decided not to push into Rock Springs and just pulled off at Firehole canyon and got some sleep, which turned out to be pretty cool, I woke up about 6:30 and took the dogs out and took some pretty incredible pics.

I drove the truck on Thurs from Green River Wyoming to Driggs Idaho.(pretty cool huh) this being my first time and there is no damage to truck or trailer, It actually wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I only had one close encounter and that was with some sheep in the middle o f the road when I came around a corner, but I got her shut down in time, lol. Did a little bit of backing but that's going to take more practice (because everybody knows I suck at backing even in my car) anyways we got into West Yellowstone about 4:30 and had our choice of sites. There were maybe 50 campers in the Grizzly RV park (this is one of our favorite parks) Odin was so excited he loves it here also, we always stay on the south fence as it adjoins the national forest land to the south with great trails for walking the dogs, Odin had his first run in with a porcupine here last summer. The weather was perfect when we arrived in the seventies and wonderful,

We grilled some steaks and just hung out, took the dogs for a walk We have to be a little cautious right now as the Grizzly bears have been seen all through the area and even in town, Which just adds a Little excitement when walking the dogs, lol,

Friday morning Odin woke me up at 6:30 and wanted out side really bad, Which turned out to be pretty cool, because when I opened the door to let him out I could hear the wolves howling, This was a first for me and something I have always wanted to hear, So I made coffee and stayed up, would of loved to have sat outside but it was really freaking cold so I sat in the doorway of the trailer with the furnace running. Not sure but I think it kinda freaked Odin out as he was really nervous acting ( puss dog) and Just went pee and came right back in, It made my whole day though.

Friday afternoon we drove into the park, Its so nice as all of the crowds are gone and the few that are here are die hards like us they don't mind the cooler weather, (snow)and the fact that most of the facilities in the park are closed. Seen this moose (see above pic) within the first 10 minutes in, the elk are in rut and really pissy(meaning you want to keep your distance) Seen a black bear with cubs, didn't stop for pics as there was nowhere to park and we never just stop in the middle of the road, had a 35 minute shut down of the road for an accident (probably somebody stopping in the middle of the road for pics hehehe) which meant we didn't get into Mammoth before dark so we didn't get to watch the big bulls fight hopefully tonight!

Well that's about all from here from now, Its finally stop snowing and warmed up so were going to venture out and go for a ride.

Odin and last Friday

So I haven't written much about Odie as of late, but he is still here and still very much the baby even with the rescued puppy and Baby Elizabeth around. He just claimed them as his (this means the other dogs are not allowed to go near them) and then is still determined to be the baby of the house. He's very vocal about it.

Some back ground then on Odin,

he's a hunter and catches birds out of the air.

he catches grass hoppers and eats them,

he loves to chase the cats.

he fetches naturally with out being taught,

he loves to go in the truck and will stay in there for how ever long you are going (even to the detriment of his health we have to physically remove him in the heat)

he jumps like a deer.

he talks and actually tells you no when he doesn't want to do something
he's one of the most beautiful dogs I have ever seen.

he has one blue eye and one blue and brown eye

He's very intelligent (almost to intelligent for his own good)

that being said

Odin can never be let of leash without being in an enclosed area as if something comes by that sets of his hunting instinct he is gone and he will not come back.

We do not have a fenced yard so when Odin was 7 months old we purchased an electronic fence with a collar and he has done very well with is as long as we remember to turn it on.

Now to Friday Odin has been so good with his collar (we had actually turned the setting down on his collar) that we have become quite complacent about him being outside without being watched every minute.

Now the other part of the puzzle is we have a herd of deer who all summer have been wondering through our property. Ever since the kids started the fire in the gulch in front of our house the grass that's has grown there is very tall and very green and the deer love it so much there willing to cross through Odins territory to get to it.

On Friday morning Odin had been out all morning and I had checked on him from time to time but at 9;30 when i went out he was gone! now he has gotten away before (chasing the deer is just to much for him) but he has come back with in just a small amount of time

On this particular day I called and called and waited and no Odie Finally by 10:30 I called Mitch and he came home and we looked and looked and no Odie anywhere.

I was a little freaked, usually when he hears the 01 Dodge he comes running, we even drove it up and down the gulch and that didn't bring him back. I called the dog catcher to see if maybe she had picked him up and he was in Jail, and she hadn't seen him.

So we spent the next 3 hours looking everywhere. needless to say we couldn't find him.

On our property the gulch runs to west of us and has running water in it year around lots of grasses and vegetation and there are a all kinds of wildlife. We have even had beavers come up and chew the trees.

It runs for probably 60 miles and only in a few places does the road run along it so he actually could of been anywhere for 60 miles. My biggest worry was somebody would shoot him because he looks mean and that's what people do around here to dogs running wild.

Needless to say he did finally come back on his own, and now he is grounded. We have turned up his collar and he has to be watched a lot more closely at least until the deer move to their next spot.

And finally!

Here's my week in review!

Monday
Mondays are always crazy around here, The shop is insanely busy as everybody who had problems over the weekend tend to show up first thing Monday morning and they all need it fixed now. plus its pay day for the guys and they tend to get really upset if they don't get paid ( who knew). Had to run to Vernal (35 miles from here, if we need anything this is where we have to go) after work to pick up some food coloring and Chelles birthday present I wanted to buy her a tricycle and I found the perfect one. It has a handle on the back so that you don't have t o bend over to push them ( where were these when my kids were little)It was almost 7:00pm by the time I got home and still had to figure out dinner Luckily I had made chicken and dumplings on Sunday and had left overs ( its always much better the 2ND day anyways) I am always happy to see Mondays end

Tuesday after work came home and baked Lachelles birthday cake and threw it in the freezer in preparation for decorating on Wed, Kolby Danielle and I decided to assemble Chelles tricycle. Now its been a very long time since I had to assemble anything let a lone a 2year olds toy with something like a 100 pieces, but we did finally manage and hopefully for Chelles sake we did it right. Brenda stopped by with Chelle and we had a few moments of scrambling to hide her bike . Chelle loves the new baby and wants to hold her and kiss her (see earlier post of pics of the 2 of them)


Wed Left the shop early to come home and decorate Chelle's cake, Was supposed to go watch Chevelle Play soccer at 5:00, but by the time I got the cake decorated, dinner done and everything in the truck It was 5:40 and had to be to the park by 6:oo for the Party. Other than missing the game the evening was great, it was 7:30 by the time we got home and collapsed into the glider rocker.

The rest of the week was equally as crazy ( will get into that later) and was glad to get to sleep in till 8:00 am on Sat. After my morning coffee I went out to clean the fifth wheel as we are getting ready to leave on the 27th for ten days(more on that later as this is already way long) and I hadn't cleaned it from our trip to the Gorge, OK it wasn't as bad as that sounded. I had already brought in the dirty cloths and emptied the garbage it just needed vacuuming, swept, and mopped and I decide to wash all the rugs and the bedding as everything was full of sand from the lake. So now all I have to do is add some warm cloths and the perishable food and we are ready to go.
Sat afternoon we went looking for a spot to Elk hunt ( see pics above) the last few years we have been going north into the mountains and it is always cold. last year by the second week we were camping in the snow, So we are kinda of thinking of going south into the desert. There are elk there and It would be warmer. We found a really great camping spot down in the cedars, sighted in the guns while we there and got rained on a couple of times. It was great even with the rain. I found a tip to an arrowhead and did a lot of walking hopefully we end up there but who knows.

That brings us to today at which I have done very little, downloaded the pics of my camera, put a roast in the slow cooker for dinner and basically have sat on my a** hopefully I will be well rested as tomorrow is Monday!

Baby Elizabeth!

This is the sweetest baby in the world!

She's doing very well, Ash had her into the doctor on Thursday for her 2 week check up and everything is fine. She weighed 8lbs 8oz so she's gained almost a whole pound in 2 weeks (and yes I have been spoiling her every chance i get)

Kolby's birthday

Friday was Kolby's birthday, woohoo she's seventeen now I would post pics of her party but we haven't actually had one yet! As the kids have gotten older and no longer wanted to have the traditional birthday party. We started doing a birthday dinner for them they get to choose what and I cook. So Kolby has deciced that she wants enchiladas and a ice cream cake. So now to why we haven't had it yet, Danielle's birthday is on the 14th and hers is on the 21st so they wanted to have there birthday dinner together, and Danielle is out of town till Sunday night so we are waiting till he gets back and do it all together (which is cool just one cake with both there names on it). With Danielle this brings the total Sept birthdays to 4 almost one a week for the whole month!

Wed the 19th

Lachelle hitting the pinata

Opening presents

Lachelle is a huge Dora fan (yes I made this)
Cake time!

OK have had a lot going on this week and I'm going to do this in several post!

On Wed the 19th we had Lachelle's birthday party as this was the only time we could all get together ( her actual birthday is on Sept 30th) and have one big party versus two or three small party's. She had a ball, she's a very big Dora fan and everything was themed around that. I didn't do an actual count but I think there were around 30 people in attendance. All of the kids had a wonderful time, Chelle loved the playground the best, lol(who needs presents when you can play on the slide) The weather was perfect for a party at the park.

Yes I made the cake I am actually getting back into cake decorating some and have finally started collecting the equipment to do it!

.........................................................Grandma's girls

Baby!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------a very content baby!

Ash had her in for her check up yesterday every thing was really good no jaundice, and almost back to her birth weight

Elizabeth!

Elizabeth got to go home yesterday! the swelling in her nose finally went down enough for her to breath without any help, Ash was very happy, both seem to be doing good at home?
I have been printing pictures all morning had 560 saved, Haven't printed any since our trip to Durango in March, I did go though them and ended up with about 190 keepers. Changed out my Picture boards so have a whole new wall to look at. Plus freed up a whole lot of room on the puter. Guess that give me more room for Elizabeth pic!

An Introduction!

Here she is!

Introducing!

Elizabeth Katherine

Born On September 5Th, 2007 at 5:18 pm

She weighed 7lbs 15oz and is 20 inches long

She is pretty bruised as you can see from coming nose up instead of nose down, and they have been giving her oxygen because she's having a hard time breathing through her nose, (due to the bruising and swelling) There keeping her a extra day or two til the swelling goes down, but other than that she's wonderful. as you can see she likes being spread out and with no blanket and she already sucks her thumb, I hope to have new pics tomorrow as a lot of the bruising has went away. oh mom and dad are doing great also! (click on any pics to make them bigger)

The waiting game!

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So here's how far the garage has come,

We have been home the last two weekends as we are awaiting the arrival of Ashley's baby, so as you can see we have got a lot done.

I am having serious Yellowstone with drawls, as everybody knows this is the time we are there and have been for the last 8 yrs, were kinda talking maybe going up around the 20Th even if its just for a few days. but we will have to wait and see.