Fourth of July Celebrations: Independence Day and Mother's 80th Birthday

We spent a wonderful day celebrating the Independece of our country by going to a parade first in Lewiston.  Bob, Christina, and I met Anthony and Trudy, Jane and Eric Larsen (Elise's parents) and Tom and Elise, Savannah, Olivia, and Emmett.  We sat together and enjoyed watching the parade, but most of all catching all the candy being thrown. We walked aroung the food and craft booths. It's fun to be a part of the excitement of the crowd.  I went to be with Mother while Dad was at dialysis.  When I got home I finished helping Bob, Christina, Anthony and Trudy do touch up painting of walls and doors. Then we went over to Mother and Dad's for Mother's Birthday celebration.  Elise had made this wonderful cake in the shape of a bat, with cupcakes for softballs.  Mother enjoyed playing softball as a teenager.  On the bat was a corral with horses in it to represent the horses she loved and cared for while growing up.  Then there was a mother sitting in a throne holding a baby, to represent the Queen of a mother and grandmother she had.  The dolls long locks represent Mother's "Shirly Temple" curls she had as a youth.

We only put 8 candles on.  One for each decade. We had a great time visiting. We each brought a pot luck dish and had a great meal.  We played yard games and had a great time shooting of fireworks.  We all brought so, which made for a good show!

Summer vacation with just Bob and Me!

Bob and I went on a vacation June 6-11 to Yellowstone National Park; Billings, Montana; and Mt. Rushmore National Memorial.  We had a great time.  It does say "Summer Vacation", but as you can see it is still very cold.  It rained and /or snowed everywhere we went.  That was part of what made the experience even more exciting to see.  I love to see the parks at different seasons of the year and be able to enjoy all the beauty that nature has to offer. Our first stop was just to eat lunch at the Grand Teton National Park.  We parked at a picnic area by Jenny Lake.  Below is a picture of Bob standing by the lake.  As you can see snow is still heavy on the ground.  The parking lot was just barely plowed enough for a few cars to park.  The next picture is of a moose grazing by the lake.

                                                                                                                

 Then we drove on up into Yellowstone.  When we passed Fishing Bridge turn off and drove on through Hayden Valley we saw lots of cars pulled off the road.  We stopped to see what was going on.  There was a grizzly bear way out in the field. Our neighbors, Paul and Heather Dobson, from Richmond were there. We watched for a few minutes then headed on to our cabin in Canyon Village.  The cabin was nice.  Clean and very simple.  Rustic atmosphere. No TV or computer hook-ups.  After all we should be out experiencing the beauties of the park, not staying inside.  We took a drive along the North Rim of the Canyon that evening.  The next picture is of the Lower Falls in the Canyon.  On to the next picture which is of our cabin.  This is Tuesday morning.  As you can see it is snowing. I like taking pictures from the car window.  This is on our drive over to Norris Geyser Basin.

We then took the scenic one-way drive along Firhole Canyon Drive.  It is so pretty. This is Firehole River.

This is a view of the Canyon wall.  The color is so breathtaking.  That's why I wanted to share this one.

Just like hundreds of other features, I liked this one "Blue Mud".  Found at the Norris Geyser Basin.

Along our drive we spotted an Elk eating across a small stream.  Beautiful nature all around. Possibly a 4 point.

We walked a long a nice trail to view Gibbons Falls. Just awesome!
Of course bison are a main attration at Yellowstone.  Always have to get a picture of them!  :)

This is one of the "few" pictures of Old Faithful I took.  A must see evertime we go.

The Ranger had to close this trail because of the Elk.  Here are three of the burly bunch.  Still trying to shed their Winter coats.  But, hey keep them on!  There is still 16 feet of snow in some places!

Another bull elk further down the road!

This is Yellowstone Lake taken from Fishing Bridge.  Most of the Lake is still frozen over.  It was raining heavy while we were walking along here.  Our umbrellas really got used a lot.

This beaver doesn't seem to mind the rain, working hard at building.  If you look hard you can see the rain hitting the lake.

After we left Fishing Bridge we spotted a grizzly bear running.  We followed in the car until the bear got trapped here.  There were so many cars, that I don't think the bear was able to go where it wanted to go.  See how close we got.  Whoops!  Probably closer then we should have!

Grizzly running away from all the comotion.

I love this picture.   We were all ordered by rangers to get back into our cars, so just before I got in, the bear came running by and I snapped one last picture!  She was so close!

We continued our drive after that fully charged from seeing the grizzly bear so close and for so long, when just a few miles down in Hayden Valley we saw another grizzly mama with her two cubs.  They were digging in the ground to find food.  We sat and watched them move around for probably an hour.  It was so fun to watch the cubs dash after there mother when she found food.  Then she would move to another spot.  The cubs would venture around digging and charging and just seeming to have a good time. Look hard between and below tha snow and you can see them.

This is a picture of the snow at Dunraven Pass.  It had just been opened that morning. We took it over to Tower Fall.

This is Tower Fall.  We took the path to go down and view it at the bottom, but the trail had been washed out.  We were able to see lots of other great sights though.  There was a herd of Elk on the other side of the river, a goose and her gooslings and birds. I got this picture of this pretty yellow bird.  Definetly a good time to see nature.

This is the very top of Tower Fall as it winds it's way around the mountain.

Two deer ran across the road as we were leaving Tower Fall.  Had to get a picture of them.

Across the road, zoomed in to get up close and personal!

We left Yellowstone Wednessday and drove to Billings Montana.  Beartooth Highway was closed because of snow conditions, so we were detoured another way.  That highway and climb and windy road with all the fog and rain was scary enough.  I wonder what Beartooth Highway would have been like?!  This is the Church of Jesus Christ of Later-day Saint Temple.  The next picture is the other side of the Temple.  Bob and I enjoyed a session there.

After going to the Temple we drove on down to Mt. Rushmore National Memorial.  We stayed at a hotel in Hillside, South Dakota.  It is a small tourist town. We went to the lighting ceremony at the Memorial.  It started at 9:00 pm.  It lasted about 45 minutes.  We sat through pouring rain (again) as we listened to this touching patriotic program.  The fog was setting in rapidly.  The drive back to the hotel was tense as we drove through rain and fog on the windy mountain roads.  The next morning was beautiful and sunny.  We went back to the memorial.  We walked the Presidential trailhead, a 1/2 mile loop that takes you to the base of the mountain, past the Sculptor's Sudio and back to the Grand View Terrace. The memorial itself was just amazing, add the beauty of the area and it made for a wonderful visit.

This part of the entrance of the Memorial.  It is called the Avenue of Flags. It has the 56 flags of the states, districts, commonwealths and territories of the U.S. and on the columns when they were admitted into the union.

This is a view from the base of the mountain.  Look at that beautiful deep blue sky. The rare time we saw it like that! Then there are the steps that you have to climb on the trail.  This is somewhere where National Treasure-2 was filmed.

After visiting there we went to Keystone, South Dakota.  Another small tourist town.  We went down an Alpine slide, ate lunch and then we were on our way to Custer State Park.  The drive there was very interesting.  The road did more then 360 degree turns, it split down the middle and then met up again.  There were one lane tunnels that you had to honk so other drivers would know you were coming, and the view was beautiful. So cool!

Upon entering Custer State Park we were told to look out for wild life.  Who would have thought we would have to look out for these!  They were standing in the middle of the road.  When we slowed down so as not to hit them, they came over to check us out ;)

There were tons more bison here, too!

We saw this Antelope in Custer State park, but our drive through Wyoming produced "millions" more. 

This is a memorial that is being built for Crazy Horse.  It will be the biggest one when it's done.  Since Mt. Rushmore was built on sacred Indian ground there has been much contention between the Indian nation and the US.  So, this is being built to honor all Indians.

We went through Jewel Cave National Mounument.  It was nice, this is a picture I tried to take of what they called "cave bacon".  It didn't turn out well, but I like how it looks. 

We then drove home.  When we got to Bear Lake we drove around it.  The water level is very high.  It is good to see the lake being filled again.