Boy, girl, boy,... What's next???

We had our gender ultrasound today, and we are happy to announce that baby Yerkes #4 is going to be a Girl!!!!!

Salmon, ID

It has been about four years since we have visited Salmon, ID, but it is a beautiful place that will always hold a special place in my heart. I am really missing my grandpa today, after spending a weekend full of reminders of how much fun he was. He was the kind of man who really knew how to have fun, and really worked at it. He made sure his family had plenty of enjoyable memories together in the great outdoors, and Brett and I are trying to duplicate this in our own family. We were fortunate enough to get invited to spend the weekend with my Uncle and a few of his children up at the beautiful ranch. And boy did we ever have fun. I still can't believe all the fun we packed into just a couple of days.

In a nutshell we went 4-wheeling, fishing, canoeing, jet-skiing, rafting, went to the stock car races, ate tons and tons, climbed trees, skipped rocks, saw lots of wildlife, played with two friendly geese, and just had fun. Here are some pictures and fun stories about our little getaway:

Our trip started out with some excitement, we almost ran out of gas, we rolled into Salmon on fumes, with Brett putting the car in neutral and coasting several of the last 30 miles. Haha we kind of forgot that once you pass MudLake, there is nothing til Salmon. We felt like errant teens, but we learned that we can get all the way from our house to Salmon on one tank...barely! 

 The boys loved the 4-wheelers. They would wake us up about 8:00 each morning asking if we would take them for a ride. Brett learned how to ride, and Dave was quite a sport giving the kids little rides around the ranch with all 4 kids piled on back. At one point their bums hurt, so they had him put life jackets on the rack on back so they could sit on it. Haha he took them to feed the horses, and they loved going to the back of the field to see a dead cow. One morning Brett and I took them for a ride, we saw a beaver, and later named it Justin. We also saw a muscrat and snakes!

I think the kids would have been content to just ride the 4-wheelers most of the trip, but we did many other fun things.

We took the canoe out on the pond at Grandma's ranch and saw all the turtles lined up on the logs. The kids thought that was pretty cool. Aerin's 2 geese followed us out onto the pond, but they are pretty young, so after a while they got tired and kept pecking at the boat, so Brett eventually scooped them up into it and we gave them a ride back to shore. We also canoed up at William's Lake, and tried our luck at fishing off the canoe, but didn't catch anything.

Lexi and I went for a ride on the Sea-Doo up at the lake, but it wasn't running very well, so Brett did not get a chance to go. Later Dillan went, but I think he had just as much fun climbing on it on the trailer as riding it out on the lake.

We ate a lot of yummy food on this trip, which I chopped up and prepared (marinated, etc.) at home before coming, so it was fast and easy. The day we spent at the lake we decided to cook hot dogs and braut-worsts over a fire, but the brauts weren't cooking very well, so we improvised. Haha what do you think of our makeshift boiling pots? haha

We also did a lot of fishing. Dillan loves to fish. We did not catch anything during our day up at the lake, but the next night Dave and Brett took the boys to a kid's fishing pond near town, while Lexi and I had a girl's night back at the house. They caught 5 fish! Dillan was so excited, and kept asking us to cook them. I let him bring them home, and figured I would let the chefs at Brett's work figure out how to make trout taste good.

We had a lot of fun playing with my cousins. Trey came up with Dave, and Benson, and then Aerin and Matt are living up there. Derrick loved having a little buddy, even though they fought. He kept saying stuff like, "Don't be mad at me, you are my best friend." Dillan sure liked Benson too, and said to Dave, "You are so lucky you got Benson in the divorce." haha I guess we better talk to him about how that works when people get divorced. Lexi was in heaven to have Aerin there, and they talked about hair, and Aerin kept getting her geese out for Lexi to play with. It was pretty exciting for her.

One of our nights there we went to the local fair grounds to watch the stock car races. It was a new experience for me. I had to laugh when they had one stand designated for families with a big sign that said, "no drinking, no smoking,  no profanity" on it, those things were fair game in any of the other stands, but not around the families. We saw many a mullet, and some pretty fast cars. Dillan got a T-shirt the announcer threw in the stands, and was pretty happy about it, even though it was a 2XL.

Our favorite thing we did, which I have no pictures of was floating or rafting down the river. We used the old Unisco raft of Grandpa Simmons' which Dave now owns, and started at Carmen bridge. We floated down to the farm with the kids in tow. Derrick got a kick out of using the bail-out bottle to spray Aerin and Trey as we floated. Lexi loved it, and once Dillan got over his fear he had a great time. Once we got to the ranch, we left the kids with Dave, and moved a car down to the next pick up point, then the adults went for a longer raft ride. It was fun, but the water was SOOOO cold. Brett jumped in, but I was too chicken.

All in all it was a fabulous trip, I am so glad we decided to go last minute and made it happen. I am so grateful to Dave for the invitation and accommodations, and so blessed to have my little family!

Yellowstone 2012

 

We decided to take a small family getaway to Yellowstone! We drove about 6 hours to West Yellowstone, MT. The drive went perfectly, the kids were great. We got there and enjoyed an awesome resort, did some swimming, ate some yummy food, and got some sleep. 

The next day we decided to drive the lower loop of Yellowstone. We saw Moose, Bison, Elk, lots of different birds, and tons of geysers and mudpots. 

It was freezing, so when we got to Old Faithful, the kids were not all that happy about being outside, so we decided to watch the geyser erupt from the indoor viewing area. It was nice. And the kids loved learning about the fractures, pressure, and mini earthquakes that cause the eruptions. 

The next day we visited the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center, and enjoyed what it had to offer. It was fun to watch the bears, and the kids loved playing. 

We then did the other loop, and it was awesome. We saw bears, we enjoyed the beauty of nature, and saw the falls, etc. We also enjoyed the resort each day, and ate lots of yummy food that we made. 

All in all, it was an amazing vacation, just long enough to be restful, but short enough to not be such an interruption to our life. The kids were great in the car. We played games, told stories, saw beautiful nature, and enjoyed the lovely family time.