Help!

Sometime during the summer, I lost Eli outside somewhere. I looked around and called for him and he replied "Help! Help!" I found him on the side of the house on top of a ladder.

Corwin and Eli.

While in the car, Eli and Corwin rode in Grandpa's truck, while Riley, Jared and I rode with Jeron and Oly. Grandma said she sure enjoyed the conversation between the two. She told me a story of their conversation.
Eli said "Corwin, I want to tell you somefing."
Corwin said, "Nope, Sorry."
Eli tried again. "Corwin, I want to tell you somefing."
Corwin said, "That's too much."
After much more persistence, Grandma asked him what he wanted to tell him. Eli said, "I want to tell him about the fire trees." (Meaning about the Yellowstone Fires years ago.) I don't know why that was so important, but that's okay.
Allthrough out the day, we were looking at maps and saying, "Okay, we are here and we need to be here." Corwin, looked at the map and did the same.
Corwin and Oly were walking around Geyser Basin and he said that it was stinky. Oly noticed a bird and pointed it out to Corwin. Corwin then replied, "Stinky Bird."
Corwin sure took to Oly, not that I blame him, while at Yellowstone. When offered to take anyone's hand at the geysers, he took hers. Oly is works with kids all day and therfore, she is really good with them, Corwin is no exception.
Uncle Jeron, on the other hand, loves to fib to children. While on a hike with Corwin and Eli, Jeron was sharing with Eli, the joys of poop. He told Eli what buffalo chips were and that deer poop was jelly beans. Eli was looking around for some chips and was about to partake in the "chocolate jelly beans." Good thing Oly was there to stop him.
While on the same walk, in order to avoid frustration in the future, Oly and Jeron made up some rules. Rule number 2 was stay close. Corwin walked ahead to go to the house. Eli ran up to him and told him to remember rule number 2.

Scenery Shots with People

These shots were taken with people at Yellowstone. These ones with Riley and Uncle Jeron were at a place with stinky pools and geysers. (Hence the silly expressions on their faces.) The one behind Riley and myself is spewing red water.
These next several pictures below are at Mammoth Hot Springs. We have been to Yellowstone before and it is interesting to note that the changes that occur over only a few years is dramatic. In fact, they had to close off some of the path and reroute it because the thermal activity was so dramatic. Notice in the background that the colors are grey. In previous years, it has been white and several other colors.
Either my brother Jeron is really good looking or I'm a good photographer. Maybe both.
Corwin was such a pleasure to have with us at Yellowstone. He never fussed and walked the whole time without complaint. We were kind of worried because he would be without his mom and dad for the whole day, but he proved to be just fine.
Mid-Day Nap! At one point or another, each little one took a nap.
Why did I take a picture of an outhouse? Well, it's not an outhouse, it's a tool shed. Uncle Jeron told Eli that it was a little house and he needed to knock on the door.
The water falls are my favorite part of Yellowstone and this is my family at Lower Falls. The one above is Grandpa and Riley at Upper Falls. Riley sure took to Grandpa that week.
Eli was taking his nap at this time and Jared stayed with him in the car. That is why he is not in the picture. Above is the group at the Dragon's Lair.
The few pictures above are the geysers around Old Faithful.

Scenery Shots

These are some of the better scenery shots that we took. Scroll below and see all of them. The first one is of a geothermal pool and it looks like a dinosaur nest (according to Oly.) She drove an extra 10+ miles and hiked out in the rain just to get a picture. Because of the effort, I thought it would be worth posting.
The other pictures are Mammoth Falls, geothermal activity along the roads, Old Faithful, Yellowstone Falls and a coyote.

I do too have hair!

We were at a tourist shop and found this indian braid of black hair and couldn't resist the urge to pose for a picture, since Riley has no hair.

Rainy Day

During our time there, the weather didn't hold up at all times. Therefore, we had to entertain the kids indoors. They had these mats and we built forts. It was nice for the kids to get a quiet box to themselves, or a great big one, or even a tunnel. Riley had a great time in the tunnel, whereas Corwin and Sophie enjoyed a box to themselves.

Fire is Powerful

Eli was asked to give a prayer for the food. When he prays, instead of saying the opening in full words, he usually slurs them all together in one "Hevnfaderanksday" or in other words, "Heavenly Father, Thank you for this day." As he was blessing the food, he got side-tracked and blessed the fire, several times. He would say "Thank you for the fire, bless the fire and fire is powerful." He certainly learned about the power of it as he got burned a few times. The first wasn't too bad as he picked up a coal off of the Dutch Oven and threw it into the fire. Fortunately, he is still in this "band-aids fix everything" phase and he felt better after we put burn ointment and one band-aid for each finger on the injured hand. Unfortunately, the other burn was worse than the first. He walked past the fire burning stove and brushed his arm against it. It was so bad, that it blistered and oozed. That burn needed a band-aid. Several days later, on our way home, he rubbed it while in the car and screamed horribly for a few minutes. We pulled over and tried to find a band-aid and couldn't find one. we pulled over and Jeron, Oly and I were looking everywhere we could for one. A policeman pulled over and we asked him for one. He did have one and we were on our way again. The moral of the story is, band-aids fix everything and policeman save the day.