Yellowstone Trip

Mark's last day at Microsoft was the 13th and he doesn't start his new job until the 25th, so we thought we'd take a short trip to Yellowstone. There were lots of amazing things to see and we had a great time, even though we got pretty tired of being in the car on the way home.

The girls had a pretty sweet set-up in the car.  Once we got to the park they didn't watch movies as much so they could enjoy the scenery.  Joy enjoyed the scenery probably most of anyone for the whole trip.  On the way to Rexburg (where we stayed the first night), she gleefully pointed out every cow and horse and barn and other features.

An elk by the side of the road

Yellowstone Lake

We rented a motor boat and spent an hour touring Yellowstone Lake as a family.  This was one of my favorite parts of the trip.  There was almost no one else on the lake and it seemed like we had it all to ourselves.

Pretty Joy on the boat.

One of the small islands on Yellowstone Lake

Joy "helped" drive the boat for a minute.

It was such a beautiful day, the perfect weather for a boat ride.

Pretty BethAnne and pretty Grace.

Sweet Mark.  It was his first time driving a boat and he did it like a pro!

On the way to our hotel on Wednesday night, we came across a herd of bison near a stream by the road.  They were so close that we could hear them grunting at each other.  

Undine Falls near Mammoth Hot Springs.

Tower Falls, I loved the rainbow in the spray.

One of our favorite things to see in Yellowstone was all of the wild flowers.  I just started noticing them the first day and it became a game to try to find them in all the colors.  We ended up seeing them in every color of the rainbow (except maybe green, but the stems and grass are green).  We saw red, orange, yellow, blue, lavender, magenta, pink, purple and white flowers.  It was amazing.

(if you click on this picture you can see the different colors better- blue, yellow, purple and white in this patch).

This picture is better viewed larger also.  It is a bunch of new trees growing in a forest of tall, burned and bare, tree trunks.  It was neat to see the resilience of nature.

There were many breathtaking views throughout the park.  We were able to drive all of them main roads of the park, so we saw some things we hadn't seen before.

A bison right next to the road sunning itself

                The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, very cool.

So, that was our trip.  We're looking forward to Suzie coming to visit and our Baker family Logan reunion.  See you soon!  Have a great weekend!  Love, Aubrey

Spring Portraits

We had some family Portraits taken in June.  I knew we would want some current ones for our Adoption Profile.  We've started the adoption process and we are working on our home study and profile.  We're almost done, we've been on a fast track in order to be considered for a baby that is due on my birthday (August 25th).  It seems like everything has just fallen into place.   We have felt a lot of peace and direction as we have gone through this process and we are excited to see where it leads.  It looks like Mark's last day at Microsoft will be on Friday, the 13th.  Despite the ironic date, we think it's a blessing overall.  Mark's severance pay should cover many of the adoption costs.  Mark will start his new job at Balihoo on July 25th.  During his week off, we'll probably go to Yellowstone for a couple days.  It will be nice to have a vacation, we've been pretty busy lately.  I hope you are all doing well.  We're excited to see everyone in a few weeks.  We'll keep you all posted if anything interesting happens.  We love you!