Family Visit and Jess's birthday..and the MOOOOOSE

We LOVE Risk...yes we're nerds. Amanda whipped our trash...this time.

This past couple of weeks has mostly consisted of preparing for the much anticipated arrival of Michael’s family (and playing risk) minus Nancy and Nathan. Unfortunately they couldn’t make it up which totally stinks. But such is life. They’ll have to come visit us for sure once we graduate and move somewhere hopefully with mountains and cooler weather. We, the attending parties of the Wilson family, were joined by Kurt and Mitzi Cox. They are our close family friends that moved to Orem, Utah from Denton several years ago. It has been a staple to visit them whenever we are in the great white north. This time they decided to join us for a few days on their way back from Seattle. 

Saturday consisted of us working and getting off super early because it was super slow. We then met up with Mike’s family and gave them a tour of the Mammoth Hot Springs area including the hot spring terraces and the hoodoos. That night once everyone was in town we went to dinner at the Ironhorse Bar and Grill. Despite the insanity that took place the food was amazing and we all had a great time. We were joined that night by Tommy and Patsy Smith, our friends from Sopchoppee, Florida (yes, that’s a real town). After dinner we went back and crashed pretty hard.

 

Sunday was much like a regular old Sunday, we went to church and then enjoyed our regular Sunday drive in and around Yellowstone. The talks at church were really good as well as the lessons that were presented in the various classes. The spirit was definitely in attendance on Sunday. After church we got ready for our drive that we had ahead of us and we all piled into Patti and Sharon’s rental car that wasn’t big enough…but we squeezed in anyway. All 7 of us were crammed in and we drove to Red Lodge, Montana on the Bear Tooth Highway. The road passed the 12,000 foot mark in elevation and the scenery was beautiful. The entire drive was amazing including the waterfalls and the blonde colored black bear we saw just off the side of the road. We didn’t get back to Gardiner until after 11:00 but it was a great day with some amazing scenery. It was totally worth it. Kurt was hilarious cracking jokes left and right while his sweet wife constantly said, “Kurt!! Not on Sunday!” I have since adopted this phrase but I use it every day. Kurt was telling a story and said the word “underwear” and Mitzi promptly said (everyone with me now) “Kurt!! Not on Sunday!” She was joking, of course. But she has just the right voice for one to wonder if she really is a little embarrassed by Kurt’s jokes. Mike said the word fart and she asked me, “Jess are you so embarrassed right now?” I explained that of course I was because it was Sunday after all. Later Mike showed him the app called Google Sky Map (pretty cool). Kurt was mesmerized and pointed the phone down and said “Hey! There’s Uranus down there on the floor!”  The funniest part was his look after he said the sentence, realizing what he just said. Those two are some of my favorite people. 

Patti took this shot...but I thought it was pretty cool.

 

 

Monday we drove to Bozeman to drop our car off to get fixed. Here is the story, if you didn’t read about how it got damaged. Kurt and Mitzi joined us in a city named West Yellowstone. This city consists of a bunch of shops about Yellowstone while not actually being in Yellowstone. We hung around town for a while and said our goodbyes to Kurt and Mitzi. We were then off to West thumb Geyser. Fishing cone was pretty cool and so was black pool. We then went to Old Faithful to see some geysers. It was pretty fun watching Old Faithful go off and even more fun watching Sharon watch it go off. I could tell she was totally in awe (but who wouldn’t be) of the geyser and the height of the gushing water. 

 

Tuesday was pretty eventless for us because we worked until 6:00 while they went on the tour called Yellowstone in a day and saw FOUR stinkin bear. J We did have dinner with the fam and Kirby and Allison at the Cowboy Café…the one with the cowboy out front. That was some good barbeque! Brisket sammich was delicious. We tried to go animal watching as we drove around Lamar Valley, but didn’t see much…except bison…lots of bison. 

Wednesday we had to drive to Bozeman to get the car and drop off Robin at the airport so that took most of the day. We did have dinner at the Mammoth dining room that was pretty good and they sang happy birthday to me.

Thursday was the best day EVER!! After we left to go to the lake we were driving along minding our own business when on the side of the road was a GRIZZLY! The first one I’ve seen here in Yellowstone. It was super cute just digging for food in a log. Every time I’ve seen a bear I’ve, forgotten my camera, got a blurry picture or was being hunted by a bear I trying to take a picture of, but Thursday was the day I finally got a good shot of a bear. I knew it was gonna be a good day. We decided to go to my favorite place, Artists’ Point and it was just as breathtaking as it was the first time I saw it.  We got to the lake and took a Scenic Cruse around the lake and got some cool history of the lake and some amazing views. On our way to Tower Fall we got caught in a bison jam (spread it on your bread…that one’s for you Robin). Apparently it’s rut so the males are pretty aggressive. We didn’t see any of them fighting but they were huffing and puffing while standing in the middle of the road. We FINALLY got to Tower Fall and it was super pretty (and crowded). Our next destination was to Roosevelt to ride on a horse drawn covered wagon to eat some yummy steak. Sharon (sneaky girl) told the man that was singing cowboy songs to us that it was my birthday without my knowledge. He sang me a personalized birthday song that we didn’t record…shoot…that was pretty funny in front of 200 strangers. When we got back to the car, we decided to drive up to petrified tree to see if there were any animals up there. Guess what we saw??? YUP a MOOOOOSE!! It was love at first sight. He was so beautiful! My first moose, ON MY BIRTHDAY! I felt so blessed. When we got back, I thought “man this was a good day”…Until my favorite girls yelled from outside, “hey birthday bear, come outside”. I walk outside and there they were with a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and sprinkles on top with candles formed into a “J” lit singing me happy birthday. It was the perfect end to a perfect day. 

I took this shot. :)
This is the first Grizzly I've seen here. 

 

What Truman Everts ate while being stranded for 37 days...looks tasty...

 

My birthday Mooose!