Yellowstone!

We finally made it to Yellowstone on Wednesday. It was sunny when we got there, but cool. In fact, it was cool or cold nearly the entire time we were there. I wore 3 shirts, a jacket, coat, scarf, and two pair of socks most of the time, but that's just me and my cold-blooded self! I think we were there the 2nd or 3rd week the park was open for the season and there was still a lot of snow and a lot of wind. Thankfully, we stayed in cabins not tents and we spent a good amount of time driving to different sites in warm cars.

I wish I could make this one bigger. These are all 16 cousins - ages 13 to 15 months. They are all such fun kids and we wish we lived closer to some of them.

The cousins from Arizona were thrilled with the snow. Spencer was just thrilled to have more kids to play with and to poke with sticks.

Alan made a new friend in cute, little Gwen whom we hadn't ever met. He won't admit it, but Alan secretly loves little girls.

We didn't see as many different animals as I thought we would, but we did see a lot of buffalo. We got stopped on the road several times by herds walking up the road. It's a little scary when these huge animals are brushing up against the side of your car.

Once we got there, I was wishing I had done a little research on Yellowstone. I thought it was just a big forest and had no idea that most of it is a huge volcano. We saw a lot of these steamy, geyser basins. They stank like sulfur, but made the little hikes much warmer. Some of them were the most beautiful colors.

Alan and I discovered that Spencer's at a hard age for hiking - too big for a backpack and too little to walk very far. So, Alan wound up carrying him on his shoulders for the majority of the hiking.

All of the hiking completely wore him out. He fell asleep like this several times.

Alan's wonderful parents, Darwin and Debbie. They definitely did something right to have raised such a great family!




Alan's parents and their 6 children:
Alan, Geoff, Debbie, Eric
Darwin, Alicia, Caralee, Danielle




Alan with another cute niece, Kimmie. He somehow became the piggy-back-ride giving uncle.




The white smudge behind us is actually one of the prettier waterfalls we saw. Well worth the hike in the wind.




After lunch one day, Spencer started kicking something around and told Alicia it was a rock. We don't find cow pies lying on the ground in our suburban neighborhood very often, so he had no idea that's what it really was. He thought it was hilarious and kept right on kicking it when Alicia told him it was cow poop.




Mammoth Hot Springs was one of my favorite spots. The colors of the rocks were so unusual. I wish I had taken my sunglasses off for the picture. I wore my sunglasses a lot, not because it was sunny, but to keep the dust out of my contacts.






Fastest hamburger fry on record. It was COLD and windy at dinner time this evening. All 29 of us pulled up to the campground; unloaded tables, chairs and food; cooked burgers and hot dogs; ate; packed up and were gone in about 40 minutes. I was grateful that Alan has so much camp cooking experience from scouts. He knew how to do everything and I didn't do a thing. (Besides planning the menu, shopping for the food and packing it that is. ha!)




Here is the official family picture in our official 2011 reunion shirts (there are 29 buffalo on each shirt!). The sun came out long enough for all of us to take off our jackets and coats for the picture. Spencer was the only one being a stinker. He refused to take off his jacket (just like in our family pictures last fall) and then covered his face during the picture. Everyone else looks great though!




We didn't have a good meeting place for the whole group, so each evening after dinner, we all squeezed into one of the cabins. We had a talent show, birthday party, Minute to Win It competition, and a craft in there. I was very impressed with all of the talents. Spencer isn't much of a performer and covered his face again when it was time for his talent. Maybe he'll be less shy in two years.




Trying to get an Oreo from our foreheads to our mouths without hands for Minute to Win It. I was laughing too hard to even get close, but Alan and several others did it. Spencer thought this was the best game ever.




Showing off the key chain Aunt Caralee helped him make. Thanks Caralee and Alicia for coming up the craft!




One morning, we took a boat tour of Yellowstone Lake. The boat was covered and heated so we were all comfortable. We rode around for about an hour while a ranger gave us some of the history of Yellowstone and told us about some of the wild life. This was another one of my favorite activities. It was very interesting.




The most famous site in Yellowstone, Old Faithful, was not my favorite. Along with the fact that the geyser didn't shoot nearly as high or for as long as I thought it would, Spencer had a huge meltdown while waiting for the geyser to go off because Alan's shoulders finally got too tired to carry him anymore. He screamed and cried and we couldn't do anything to distract him or calm him down. When Old Faithful finally did go off, Spencer closed his eyes and wouldn't even look at it. Funny now, but not so much at the time.




I was surprised that with all of the snow around, there were only a few places you could build fires in the park. We finally gave up trying to find one and just roasted our marshmallows for s'mores over our camp stoves. S'mores are the best!




All packed up and ready to leave. That's one of our cabins in the background. We stayed at Canyon in the Frontier Cabins. They weren't really traditional cabins, but were 6-8 rooms hooked together in a row. Dani and Scott were kind enough to share a room and split the cost with us. Thanks for putting up with our noise and our mess guys!



Last, I want to give a huge thanks for Caralee. She planned the whole reunion and bought all of the food for the group meals. We had a such great time! Yellowstone was great and am glad we got to see some neat things, but the best part of the reunion was seeing our family. I find it ironic that family is such a HUGE deal in the LDS Church, but so many LDS families get spread out because their kids go to BYU and marry spouses from all over the country. We love and miss all of Alan's family and hope to be able to see some of you again soon.

Rasmussen Reunion - Part I

Alan's family held their biannual reunion in Yellowstone National Park this year. All 29 of us were there. It was so fun to see everyone again. Since every one of Alan's siblings lives in a different state, reunions are the only time we get to see some of them.

The actual reunion only lasted 3 days, but we made a longer trip out of it to spend more time with family and for driving time. Alan, Spencer and I rode with Alan's parents to save gas money and to have some extra company. We'd never taken Spencer on a road trip like this before, but he did better than I expected him to. The lap desk and dollar store presents I got for him were definitely worth the money. It also helped to have 4 adults and a laptop to entertain him in the car.




We first drove to Missoula, MT to stay with Alan's sister, Danielle and her family. Missoula is gorgeous this time of year, but I don't think I'd like it much during the winter. Ryan (16 months) was so good at sharing his toys with Spencer and they became good buddies during the week.







Next, we headed to Powell, WY to stay a couple of days with another of Alan's sister's (Caralee's) family. Spencer found another good buddy in Carter (4) and they spent almost the entire time we were there playing with Carter's trains in the loft.




Story time with Grandma!




Spencer helped a few of the other cousins gather rocks to make "houses" in the backyard. (Such fun, creative kiddos!) Spencer had no idea what the rocks were for, but he sure felt important!




The dads took the kids to the park in the evening. Looks like the men weren't sharing the swings very well!




Most of the family met at Caralee's before Yellowstone. This is us just about ready to head out. Caralee only lives about 2 hours from Yellowstone so it was the perfect meeting place. It also works out well that they have a big, beautiful, new house for their 6 kids so all of us could stay there!

Live Like Your Dying

These two videos are from my clogging performance last week. We aren't professionals by any means, but I have a lot of fun with this group. You can't see me that well on Foot Loose, but that's a good thing because I had a safety pin stabbing me in the foot for about half the dance. Ouch!

Foot Loose

Growing Up

Spencer did so well sleeping on a regular bed at Grandma's house while Alan and I were away that we decided to keep that momentum going and finally move him to a toddler bed at home. He was thrilled and has done so great with the transition. As Alan was putting him to bed one night last week, he said, "Daddy, thank you for my toddler bed!" Since Spencer hardly ever goes to sleep during quiet time anymore, he's exhausted by bedtime and goes right to sleep. Quiet time isn't as quiet anymore since he can wander around and play with toys, but he does a great job of staying in his room for a three-year-old.

I surprised myself when I got a little emotional after the crib was all taken apart. My baby is growing up so fast and I don't know if we'll ever use that crib again. I sure love my little buddy though. He makes me smile a lot.

Just Another Year in Paradise

Alan and I were lucky enough to have a night away for our 8th anniversary on Monday. Darwin and Debbie (Alan's parents) let us stay at their beach house in Lincoln City and Debbie sacrificed her day off work to keep Spencer for us. (Thank you a million times Darwin and Debbie!) Spencer was thrilled to get to stay with Grandma and had the time of his life I think. He cried when we came to pick him up.

The weather was rainy, windy and cool so we didn't spend much time on the beach. But, it was so relaxing not having to worry about anything and just getting to have fun together. We haven't had a night away from Spencer ever, so it was a much-needed vacation.

I had packed a picnic lunch, but it was way too cold to eat outside so we drove to a cool look-out point and ate in the car. Neither of us had ever been to the Devil's Punchbowl or Cape Foulweather before and they are both appropriately named. We decided 10 minutes of walking around in the foul weather was plenty.





I was only wearing my sunglasses to keep dirt from blowing into my contacts. It wasn't sunny.




Here I am demonstrating how cold it is. You shouldn't have to wear your winter coat on Memorial Day.




This picture doesn't do any justice to how beautiful the Oregon Coast is. It's nicknamed the Emerald Coast because the vegetation is almost shockingly green this time of year.




We spent the rest of the day shopping at the outlet mall, having dinner at the casino buffet (the only bad part of the trip for me), and relaxing at the beach house. The best part was probably getting to go on a run together in the morning. Running together is how Alan and I first became friends so it's always special when we get to do that. The rain had stopped for a few minutes and the beach was almost deserted since it was a Tuesday morning. The sunrise and the color of the ocean were gorgeous. I was really wishing that we didn't have to get home so we could have just ran all morning. Not that my knee injury would have allowed that anyway, though. It was lovely.

It was so great to remind myself what good friends Alan and I are. We didn't talk about all of the little things we have going on - we just enjoyed out time together and it's been way too long since we've done that. I recently read the journal entry I wrote about our wedding and it reminded me how excited and in-love I was 8 year ago. Both the excitement and the love are still there, but they have evolved into much deeper emotions. The experiences we have had together and the memories we share have created a much stronger bond than we had when we were first married. I'm so blessed to have found the perfect guy for me and I can't wait to spend another year in paradise with him. I love you Alan!