Yellowstone 8.18.10 {waterfalls}

On our last full day we decided to hike to some waterfalls. As we pulled into our parking space at the head of the hiking trail, we saw this Buffalo just standing right in front of our truck!

Grandpa carried Liv on his back

The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone

Hay, me, and Debi

Look how powerful that water is! It was crazy to be that close.

I kept Liv a little further back

A view from higher up...

...and now a little closer

We ALL made sure to keep hydrated.

Simmm-ba

Then we drove to another trail head to hike over to Tower Falls.

Just some cool looking wormwood.

The overlook

So we kept going when all the sudden we saw this beautiful river.

Kept going and the trail ended at this river, which was awesome, but we were all a little confused since we thought we were hiking to a waterfall.

Apparently, the trail to tower falls was closed. For some reason none of us really thought about the fact that the sign said 'Tower Falls overlook' and then had a board nailed to cover the part that most likely said 'Trail to Tower Falls'.

This river was beautiful though. I think I probably wouldn't have enjoyed the falls as much as I enjoyed skipping rocks (lets be honest- for me it was more like throwing rocks into the river while watching B skip rocks) and dipping my feet in the water.

B thought it would be a good idea to get on that rock.

On the way to get ice cream, Livy woke up (she had been napping with grandma and grandpa in the truck while we were hiking to the river), had her milk, and was happy as can be!

Milk running EVERYWHERE!

Old fashioned Yellowstone tours! We didn't take one, we just took a photo with the cool bus.

Livy wanted to eat everyone's ice cream, and then tried on Grandpa's sunglasses :)

The day ended with a bear hunt.

While B was out perfecting his ladder ball skills, a man came over to tell him that he had spotted a bear about 50 feet away. Naturally, he came in to round up the troops to go find that bear! In all honesty I thought it sounded like fun, but Pat and Debi had already missed the river hike to stay with Livy, so I thought it would be best this time for me to stay with her. As exciting as it sounded, the thought of stumbling upon a wild bear also frightened me a bit.

Unfortunately, they didn't find that bear.

Fortunately, we took one last dip in the hot tub!

Yellowstone 8.17.10 {our 3 year anniversary}

{My handpicked bouquet of wildflowers from B}

Brady was so cute. He just completely surprised me right before dinner and said come with me really quick and grabbed my hand. He kissed my cheek and walked me toward the street. I was kind of confused because we were about to sit down to dinner, and I kept saying 'we can't go on a walk right now, we're about to eat'. He just kept walking, and finally I saw this handpicked bouquet tied to a tree.

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The day started perfectly = we got to sleep in while the grandparents took Livy for the morning!

She loved this massage chair, especially because she figured out how to press the buttons to make it start. She LOVES buttons.

By this day she was in love with the doggies!

This was a homemade dollhouse that was in the cabin. She loved it too! She just climbed right in and enjoyed herself. This photo cracks me up.

We had a cabin day and just relaxed, played air hockey and foosball, drove out to the lake, played ladder ball, and enjoyed the company.

Debi picked a wildflower bouquet too, Haylee made us some cute 'Happy Anniversary' signs, and Pat grilled up some delish chicken! Debi was so cute and insisted that we do not help clean or lift a finger since it was our anniversary.

So we decided to go on a little walk, just the two of us.

We found these giant milkweeds and made a few secret wishes for our next year together...

And we ended the night with a campfire and s'mores under the stars.

Sweet and simple and pretty much perfect.

I am so thankful for these three years that I've spent with Brady.

I'm thankful for his love and support.

Thankful for his even temper.

Thankful that he made me a mother.

Thankful for his happy smiling face always.

Thankful for his willingness to look past my shortcomings.

Thankful for what a loving father he is, and how tender he is with his little girl.

Thankful for the good, hard working man that he is.

Thankful that we found each other.

Thankful for our journey together.

Yellowstone: 8.16.10

The day after we arrived at our pretty cabin, we drove into Yellowstone to see some of the hot pots, natural geysers, and bacteria pools. And now here are endless photos of our day.

I loved all the colors! I've never seen bacteria as pretty/cool as this.

We ran across some grazing Elk

That cute thing loves her cute daddy.

This geyser just happened to be erupting while we were there. It was really cool to see.

As usual, Livy was her darling self and charmed all that passed. She would wave at everyone as we passed, but only Asians would wave back, which I thought was really sweet. I found it endearing that several people wanted to take her picture. One guy even tried to do so without me knowing as he slyly walked by; however, he had an SLR camera and I could absolutely hear the click of the shutter as he aimed that camera directly at her and clicked. It was funny, and I loved the attention she was getting with her floppy hat.

In the photo below you can see the water starting to bubble. I thought it was fascinating to think that this steam and heat was escaping from deep inside the earth. I'm a nerd.

As we were driving from one set of pools and geysers to the next, this buffalo crossed the street literally right in front of our truck. We got a pretty cool video of it and Brady, his dad, and Haylee jumped out of the car to get some photos. They got a lot closer than this (as you can see in the photo two posts down).

Liv and Grandpa Hansen

Here's trusty Old Faithful:

I just thought this tree was cool. Apparently Liv didn't agree.

So awesome looking.

Later that night, we put Olivia in the hot tub with Haylee in just her regular diaper (we have a cute video of that too). Her diaper was HUGE afterward. Obviously the diaper would absorb as much water as it possibly could, it was just hilarious to us to see. BTW- not pee all down my shirt and shorts, obviously water from my water baby.