Camping With Cousins - July 26-28

Brandon, Rusty and I had tried to figure out a weekend during the spring that would work for a camp we could all go on.  This was the weekend that worked for everyone.  Brandon went up early and reserved the spot for everyone.  Mindy's parents (James and Jan) and her  brother Cory Reese and his wife/kids also camped with us. My dad brought up his new/used camper too.  LeGrand came up for the camp and Wayne/Debbie and Jeff Brothersen stayed just up the road.  We were camped over by Fairview Lakes up Fairview Canyon.  It was really nice to catch up with Jeff because before Grandpa Tom Brothersen's funeral a couple of weeks earlier, I had not seen Jeff for over 10 years!  We had a ton of fun with Brandon and Mindy.  It rained a bunch on Saturday night and Sunday morning which foiled our plans of leaving early Sunday morning to be back in time to make our 1 p.m. church.  We ended up saying a little while till it dried out enough to get out of the camp, and I got Karen back in just enough time to get to her young women's lesson.

July 15-20 - Yellowstone!!

What an amazing week we had as a family at Yellowstone National Park!  We saw everything from bears and wolves, to Elk and Buffalo.  We saw some of the most amazing scenery in the world.  I especially loved the Yellowstone falls (lower falls of the Yellowstone river) with the different hikes you can take to view it from different areas.  Taking 3 kids down the hundreds of stairs on the Uncle Tom's Trail was a bit never racking for Karen, but we made it and we have the pictures to prove it!  The entire trip was amazing.  We stayed at the Grizzly RV park in West Yellowstone and would enter the park everyday during the morning hours.  We'd stay in the park until dark and then head back to the trailer for the night.  Most nights we wouldn't get back to the trailer till around or after midnight. That is how much fun we were having. 

I couldn't believe how much driving you have do when visiting the park.  Each day we'd put on about 120 miles or more, but it was worth it.  We did a lot of hiking.  I think we went on about 15 different hikes.  One of them was with a Ranger since we needed to do that for the Junior Ranger program that the kids were doing.  Kaylee and Konnor got their official Junior Ranger Badges (Kase is an honorary one since he was too young to do the official one). 

I made this fun video that gives you an idea of the fun we had:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmCV-xPSNJM

I had to hike about a mile and climb a hill for this pic, but it was worth it.

Bottom of Uncle Tom's Trail.  Can you say EPIC Stair decent?

On a hike, Yellowstone Lake.

July 4th - 6th Camp - Strawberry Ridge/Indian Creek

This camp really began on Monday the 1st when we pulled the trailer up to drop it off.  There are really about 3-4 good spots up here, but they go fast so you have to be planning early to get one of these spots.  We dropped the trailer off on Monday night and then came back up after work on Wednesday the 3rd.

We really liked this area (although we had a ton of biting flies around).  I did a ton of riding and made another video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uv52s7PjeDc

On the 4th of July we drove down to Mt. Pleasant for the Rodeo and the Fireworks (that's how much I love my wife).  We drove back up to the camp that night and Grandpa Keith came up on Friday night and stayed with us too.  Since it was such a beautiful area, with not very many people running around, and tons of places to ride dirt bikes and 4 wheelers, we decided to bring the extended family back to this area next month.

It was a REALLY tight fit to pull around this area and get backed into the spot, but we made it!

All 3 kids cruised this hill countless times.

I installed a spark arrestor on my silencer.

There are tons of amazing trails in this area!