She loves Him

Bailee went and stayed with Matt's parents for a week in Blackfoot a few weeks ago. While she was gone, I think that she realized how much she loves her brother. Despite that he goes in her room when she doesn't want him to, plays with her toys, doesn't play with her when she wants him to and a whole list of things that bug her. There were a few times when I talked to her on the phone that week that she asked to talk to Owen. One of those times he was asleep and she asked me very sweetly to give him a love for her when he woke up. It just melted my heart. I am so glad that they love each other .

Dumb Blonde (moment)

Ok, so I was uploading all of our pictures from our Yellowstone vacation. I watched ALL of the pictures flash on my screen as they were "uploading". Was so excited to get them on the computer and on the blog. I recently learned that it is better for your SD card to format it rather than delete the pictures and so I formatted the card. Up to this point I had made TWO dumb blonde mistakes. 1) assuming that the pictures were on the computer since I saw them flash up on the screen 2) formatting the card with backing up the pictures. Oh man! What was I thinking! Here is what happened... My new camera makes HUGE picture files and I had used up ALL of the memory on my computer loading just the first two days worth of pictures (along with the rest up to this point) so only about half of the pictures really made it on the computer. I can laugh now about this... but it is only because we had loaded most of the pictures on Kelly's computer before we parted ways on our vacation. So they were able to burn me a CD. Plus I have had several weeks to get over my BIG DUMB BLONDE MOMENT. So needless to say I will not be posting any more pictures of our trip until we get more memory for our computer, and it will be a lot more memory. I know that I can put them up off of the CD, but I want to do some editing magic and can't do that with out being able to save as I go.

Family Vacation Part II

On Thursday we headed into Yellowstone National Park. Matt took me there for my first time on our Honeymoon, it was fun to go back and take the kiddos. Matt's parents, Steph and Jack met us at the cabin on Tuesday night so they could come with us. We decided to do the lower loop for the first day.
On our way into the park we got the wonderful opportunity to see a nested Bald Eagle. The nest was fairly close to the road, we saw two or three others, but they were not nearly as close. This was the first time I knew that I need a lens for my camera with a better zoom (hopefully for our next trip).

Our first stop was at Firehole waterfall. I love waterfalls, they are so beautiful.

Steph and Jack

Our next stop was to see a herd of Bison, Bailee wasn't too sure about them, but it was amazing to be surrounded by them. It is hard to imagine that this is a small herd compared to what used to live in our country.

The wildflowers were beautiful and were everywhere. All the rain we had in June made for a lovely scene in the mountains.

Our next several stops were at some of the many beautiful and strange looking thermal features throughout the park.

Bacteria Mat

Boiling mud

Owen made us laugh several times on the trip because he would often point out the window and say "Oh Wow!"

Papa, Owen, Bailee, Jack and Maama

Our sweetie, Bailee has some sensitive senses. She does not like loud, bright and especially doesn't like stinky. The thermal features commonly smell of sulfur...she didn't like that.

The colors in some of the springs are so vibrant. You see things in nature of Yellowstone that you don't see anywhere else.

The Grand Prismatic Spring

Emerald Pool

Sunset Pool

All of our many stops led us to our main attraction for the day. Old Faithful. Unfortunately because of where we were siting we mainly saw steam.

Owen and Matt

Matt, Terry, Owen and I went for a walk on a 3 mile trail to see some other geysers while Debbie, Bailee, Steph and Jack rested. We were lucky to be on the other side of Old Faithful when it went off again. We had a better view on this side.

I had so much fun taking pictures with my new camera. I took about 600 over the four days, but this is one of my favorites.

Three Generations of Hansen Explorers

One of our favorite attractions in Yellowstone is this Sapphire Pool. I love the blue color, the water is so clear that you can see how deep the spring is.

My silly husband.

Old Faithful is as far as we got on the lower loop, the kids and adults were all getting tired so we headed back to the cabin where we had dinner then smores while we waited for Kelly to join us.

Family Vacation Part I

Tuesday, June 30th we headed over to Island Park, Id. Steph and Kelly were able to get us a cabin to stay in while we were there.

We found out that our friends the Neilsons were also going to be in Island Park for the week and planned an afternoon with them. On Wednesday we met them at my favorite place in Island Park, Big Springs. We had hoped that the kids would be able to feed the fish, but the seagulls had taken over the area and all of the fish were hiding under the bridge. It was too bad. WE did however get to still see some interesting things while we were there. We saw a Mother duck defend her ducklings from one of the aggressive seagulls. We also saw a muskrat who came to get in on the bread that was being fed to the seagulls. Big Springs

One of the large trout in the clear spring water.

The Muskrat

Seagulls, they were everywhere.

Cute little Jack

We didn't tell Bailee that she was going to see Bethany for two reasons, I wasn't going to make the same mistake again and have her asking over and over when she was going to see Bethany and because we thought that it would be a fun surprise for her. These two girls were so funny together. They were once again shy at first and then had so much fun together. After our trip I talked to Bailee about what she liked...she never once said anything about Bethany, I was surprised. I asked her if she liked seeing Bethany and she said "no" (in a pouty way) I was surprised again and asked her why not. She said "because I just have to say good bye again." Our sweet little girl has realized that each time she says good bye to her friend now, it is going to be a long time before they get to see each other again. It breaks my heart that she has had to learn this at such a young age. She really loves Bethany and had so much fun with her, but just hated that she had to say good bye again.

Buying fish food.

Feeding the Seagulls

After we left Big Springs Matt, Bailee and Matt's dad went for a canoe ride in the river. It was about five miles and took them about two hours. The water was so shallow in some parts that Bailee got out and walked along side the canoe. In other parts it was so shallow that they actually had to get out because it was dragging on the bottom of the river.

The Park and Good Company

A few weeks ago I my friend Amy invited us over for lunch and to go to the park. It was so fun. Chantelle, the kids and I spent several hours with Amy and her niece, Alyssa. The kids loved the park in Amy's neighborhood. Of course after we had been there only a few minutes, Bailee told me that she needed to go #2. Luckily my friend, Ashley lives around the corner from the park...what I lifesaver. Something to laugh about later...Bailee and I making a mad dash across the park and around the corner to the Dopp's house. Every day is an adventure with kids. Amy and Alyssa

Bailee and Owen on the Seesaw

Beautiful Alyssa

Owen

Balance Beam