yellowstone

Ok,

So. At the very end of the summer, after all the wedding stuff, my family turned right around and went back to drop my sister, Marie, off at BYUI for her Freshman year of college.

We packed her stuff up in the car (oh my gosh, I don't know how my Dad and I organized it well enough to fit all 5 of us, our own dufflebags/backpacks for our week long trip, AND Marie's hoard of stuff. ;D)

But everyone still had a roomy seat in the car--except Bryan. I seriously should have taken a picture. Poor kid. He was scrunched in the back with boxes beside and behind him with his knees pulled up to his chin. Whew! You can imagine what 10 hours would do to him. Let's just say he was sorely tempted to kiss Utah ground when we reached Springville for our overnight stay before continuing on to Rexburg, Idaho.

I ended up staying in Springville (Bryan praised heaven for my goodness) and drove with Sarah and Brent the following day. We met our family in Rexburg, helped Marie move in, met her roommates, helped her shop, and participated in the orientation activities. And then we left her--with 5 boys already gracing her apartment. Not sure if I should be worried or not....

;D

You can judge for yourself:

Not that you can tell, but that's supposed to be fried cookie dough. *Shiver*

One of these days, I won't be surprised if we get a call telling us she broke her clavicle. I can hear her now. "I didn't do ANYTHING! I was just reaching for a textbook and it broke!!"

I love Marie. It looks like she's having fun her freshman year and I am consummately jealous! 

Well, considering how excited she was about school, Marie did not mind our family leaving her and taking a mini vacation without her before we headed home. So instead of turning around and completing the long drive back to LA, we masochists decided to tack on a few more hours of car driving so that we could enjoy Yellowstone.

Bryan blowing off some steam:

Enjoying the waterfall. The big one. Not the bigger one.

New Faithful:

 Scenery:

Waiting for Old Faithful to be faithful:

Living up to it's name:

Whew. Pretty spectacular, huh?

Yep, they walked right across the road.... a few different times...

 We did the whole loop (I use the word 'whole' loosely) in one day, coming back to West Yellowstone to our hotel room where me and Bryan slept on the floor because all 6 of us were in one room (Mom, Dad, Sarah, Brent, Bryan and I).

On our drive home, we stopped again in Rexburg (we didn't bother Marie), and visited the Rexburg Temple:

And then we drove home. All in all, I think we were in the car roughly 50 hours in a matter of 5 days.

But it was awesome, if I say so myself.