Rodeo, Garden and Yellowstone

Lots of updates to post and I’m doing them all at once! First of all, we went to the Evanston Rodeo a few weeks ago and it was FREEZING. It is always colder up there, but that day was just insane and we almost froze to death. We weren’t super prepared because I didn’t realize how cold it was until we got to West Jordan so we borrowed stuff from Dan’s parents.

The rodeo was still fun and Dan can never get enough rodeo so it was a good time.

My garden is thriving! It’s insanely huge and everything I planted has done well. I harvested quite a few peas and they were really good. I will plant more peas next year and also trellis them. The parsley and cilantro was insane and I didn’t know what to do with it so I froze some and hopefully can use it for salsa later! My zucchini is huge and my onions are a few feet tall as well. We have had tons of lettuce and spinach all the time too! I have loved it and I can’t wait for fresh tomatoes!

We had our annual Yellowstone trip with the Hill family last week. This year we camped and had 3 trailers and a few tents. Almost the entire family was there for 2 days (except for Joe in Bulgaria and Ben was still in Mongolia). A total of 27 people with 3 more on the way by the end of the year! 13 kids 10 and under made for constant entertainment. Yee haw.

Setting up Mark and Carrie’s tent.

We stayed at a campground in Yellowstone this year and we were right by the river. We spent one day playing in the river. It was cold but fun!

Some of my adorable nieces and nephews. They were tons of fun and there was always someone doing something hilarious, crying, or arguing over something. I loved it.

My Sarah. She is like my little stalker. She always sits with me and I just adore her. She is the tiniest little girl but has a huge personality and we just love each other. Can’t get enough of her. We took this same picture but I had sunglasses on and she wanted another picture without my sunglasses.

We had lunch at Old Faithful and we parked ourselves by one of the walkways and enjoyed lunch.

This picture is so stinkin cute. Matt (the first kid) is obsessed with grandpa and was sitting on his stomach and then Mia, Addy and Sarah decided to join in on the fun. They are so dang adorable.

Dan and I rockin our matching wolf shirts (from our Labor day trip last year) at Yellowstone lake. Those wolf shirts summoned the wolves again this year and we saw some SWEET stuff!

Some of the kids played in Yellowstone Lake. The water was freezing and it was windy! I don’t understand how they can do that!

Some of the family at the falls.

A better view of the wolf shirts. You are welcome. I’m about 15 weeks along here and you can’t tell too much except that I just look a little chunky in the waist area!

We found an awesome area to have dinner and Julie busted out their camp chef and roasted some hot dogs. Julie is due at the end of July with a girl, and Carrie (just to the right of Julie) is due at the end of September with a boy!

Enjoying dinner in the forest. There were signs everywhere saying the trails around there were closed because of bears. Awesome. Luckily we didn’t lose any children to the bears.

There were some deer right by our dinner. Dave got really close to them.

The kids had a blast roaming around the forest and there was a huge dead tree that they loved climbing on and jumping off of. There were only a few minor casualties after this picture.

We had a blast in Yellowstone with the whole fam and Dan and are pumped to go back again over Labor day together. It will just be us and we had to go back after having a great time last year. It’s so gorgeous there and we saw a ton of animals including a pack of wolves hunting a huge herd of elk! It was so incredible to see them splitting up the herd and chasing them around. We also saw a bunch of bears! It was awesome.

Finally, we had a 16 week doctor appointment yesterday and my doctor does ultrasounds at every appointment so he can tell the gender. He was almost positive it is a… BOY!!! The umbilical cord was all wrapped up so he looked for a while, but he said he was pretty sure it was a boy. So things could possibly change, but we are super excited! I have no idea what to do with a boy, but I can’t wait!! Dan is just excited he will have a permanent friend to take camping and play with and a slave to mow his lawn. He is crazy.