Yellowstone National Park

Last week Kyle recieved an e-mail from his buddy (Ken) who lives in Seattle asking if we would like to go to Yellowstone with him. I will be honest, it was a little bit of short notice for me, and I wasn't all that excited to go, but we decided to be spontaneous and went! It was a fun trip! I am glad that we decided to go!

We left on Friday morning around 11. After a few road blocks due to the pioneer day parade we made it to the freeway and were on our way. It only took us about 5 hours to get there, so that was nice. We were expecting a longer drive, but it was nice. We camped in the Targhee National Forest just south of Island Park, Idaho. We set up camp, which included our new tent.

Our other tent is a very nice and very cozy tent.

It is a great backpacking tent, lightweight and small. But the top is all mesh and we thought that it wouldn't be warm or dry enough (there was a chance of rain in the forecast) for this trip.

Kyle set off to REI and purchased the Kelty Yellowstone Tent.

It was kind of a pricey piece of camping

gear, but it was worth it. It rained for a good part of the day and night on saturday. We were in

Yellowstone all day, so I was nervous that all of our stuff was going to be soaked when we got back to camp. But the tent did well, and not a drop

of rain was inside our tent when we got back!

So, we camped on Friday night and woke up very very early on saturday morning to head into the park. Ken promised us that if we woke up early we wouldn't be dissapointed. We got into the park around 6 AM. We made our way to Old Faithful one of the first things because we wanted to go before it got too crowded.

Honestly, we were

a little dissapointed. Because we went early in the morning it was still cool, and mostly all we could see was steam. Luckily while we were walking around later we were able to see it spout off again and were much more impressed.

Because we got to the park before most others we did see a lot of wildlife. We saw a bald eagle perched on a tree, a lot of bison, and a couple of bears. We weren't able to get any pictures of the bears because they were too far away by the time all the other cars in front of us moved along.

Kyle and I had both never been to Yellowstone, so it was a fun trip. Thanks for inviting us Ken!

Here is a slideshow of some of the other highlights of our trip, enjoy!

THE SLUSH

Party Slush (AKA Bekah's Slush)

12 oz. apricot nectar

12 oz. pineapple juice

12 oz. frozen orange juice

3 bananas

2 c. sugar

8 c. water.  

1 (2-liter) sprite

Combine all ingredients except sprite.  I usually mix the apricot nectar, pineapple juice, orange juice, and bananas in the blender then dump it in a large bowl and mix in the sugar and water.  Pour into a 9x13 pan, or two 1-gallon ziploc bags and freeze.  

Remove from the freezer for 1-2 hours before serving, mix with sprite, and enjoy!

Out With the Old, In with the New

WE ARE CAR OWNERS!! A couple of weeks ago I was in a car accident and totalled Kyle's car.  

(I hit some black ice, swerved, spun, and hit the cement wall....)  I got a couple bumps and bruises and had a sore neck for a few days, but luckily I didn't really get hurt.  There were six other cars that hit the ice along with me, but I didn't collide with any of them.  

On a happier note, we had some money from the insurance and we have been keeping up on other bills fairly easily, so we decided that we could afford to get a new car!

At first we were looking at getting a mazda 3 hatchback, but then we found this great deal at the Larry H. Miller Used Car Superstore in Sandy.  

2008 Subaru Impreza Hatchback

WA-HOO!

So, it's been a while...

Kyle and I have been really busy with school and work.  I started school again in January, and Kyle has been working hard finishing his last semester of actualy classwork.

I began the nursing program at Stevens-Henager College in January.  The program is 18 months from start to finish including pre-requisites.  I had a lot of classes that I have taken before so the program will only take me a little over a year!  When I am done with the program I will have an associate's degree and be able to take the NCLEX test to recieve my RN license. 

I am also still working at TOSH.  There is an open house on saturday to show off our new inpatient floor!  And there is going to be a Jazz player there, Paul Milsapp!  You should all come and see it, I am really excited to be in a new facility!

Our New Family Member

For Valentine's Day Kyle decided that he needed another cat.  So we made our way to the Humane Society and found this cute little kitty!  Of course Kyle needed to name him Cosmo.  He is really cute, and he keeps Mali entertained.

Our Spring Break Trip

This week is Kyle's Spring Break, but I still had class.  I was lucky and was able to get off of work and we took a long-weekend-quick-trip down to moab.  Kyle had never been there before and I have only been there once, but never to the Delicate Arch.  It was a beautiful weekend of perfect weather.  We left friday afternoon after I got off of work and came back on monday afternoon.  It was a great get away, and just what we needed.  We stayed at a little motel called the Inca Inn.  It was small, and nothing special, but perfect for us.  The owners are a swiss couple and the women would make bread from scratch every morning for breakfast, it was great!  Here are some pictures from the two days we spent in Arches National Park.

Me crawling through the Crawl-Through Arch in the Fiery Furnace area.

(That is it's real name!)

The North and South Window

These two pictures were previously the Wall Arch.  This arch fell last August.

Kyle holding up the Balanced Rock

The Delicate Arch, we made it!

A few of the many petroglyphs that we saw.

We also went on a hummer trip the morning before we came home.  It was cool, and since we don't have a jeep, hummer, or any kind of off road vehicle, this was the only way for us to see what we saw.  We went on a trail called Hell's Revenge.  

Here you can see the hummer's shadow and the black 

that you see on the rock is the rubber tracks 

that we are about to follow!

There are two of them!

I finished kyle's gloves/mittens.  Both of them!  I have been known in the past to make one glove and never finish the other one.  I am turning over a new leaf to be a finisher!

more knitting

I completed sam's hat and it turned out much better than the first one. I couldn't quite figure out how to make the pattern i put on the other one work for this size and sam said he wanted a thicker pattern so I decided to go with the diamonds. 

I also have started working on some fingerless gloves for kyle that have a mitten flap to go over the fingers.

My Latest Project

Sam told me that this year for Christmas I could knit him a beanie with earflaps.  He said emerald green with some kind of white design in the middle.  So I found a free pattern on the internet, ordered some yarn (100% merino wool), two skeins in green and one in white.  Today I got the yarn in the mail and it was my day off so I got going.  I started working on the pattern, and I even checked my gauge to make sure that it would turn out right.  After having to change my needles a few times to get the right sizing I started on the real thing.  Here is the finished product:

I think that it turned out really good!  And I even looked up on the internet how to do the crochet edging.  The only problem is that the actually beanie part (not including the ear flaps) is about six inches tall.  So I think that this one might have to go to David or Josh until I can figure out what exactly went wrong.