Yellowstone National Park

-Mt. Haynes-

Yellowstone Grand Canyon:

-Yellowstone River-



-Upper Falls-

-Lower Falls-
I have seen a lot of waterfalls, but both the Upper and Lower Falls were both the most intense and powerful ones I have ever seen.

Upper Geyser Basin / Biscuit Basin:

Midway Geyser Basin:

Madison River:

Lower Geyser Basin / Fountain Paint Pot
(our favorite area)

If we had one goal this summer other than having Ellie join our family, it was to visit Yellowstone -especially to see Old Faithful. So we finally made it happen on Austin's 27th birthday! We rented a hotel in West Yellowstone, Montana (about an hour and a half away from our house) and after checking in and eating a delicious pizza dinner, we made the 5 mile trip to the West Yellowstone National Park entrance and entered into Wyoming. Upon entering and paying the $25 park pass and driving through I became unimpressed. Oregon is such an incredibly beautiful state, that the first section looked so much like it that I felt guilty spending money to see something we essentially were surrounded by in Oregon, but the deeper we got into the park the more stunning and amazing it became. We spent that first evening in the park with the goal of getting to Old Faithful, but we were so enamored with all the geyser basins leading up to Old Faithful that we didn't make before the sun went down. We spent the chilly evening mostly at the lower basins and paint pots. It was amazing (and amazingly cold).

The next morning we woke up early, ate breakfast at the hotel where we were surrounded by foreign tourists (mainly of the Asian decent, but tons of English and Australian folk as well). Austin and I cracked up while reading all the signs the hotel put up around the dining area, one translation in English and the other Chinese, one read: "do not stick metal tongs in the toaster" and the other more hilarious "do not microwave hard boiled eggs". Austin and I were laughing that it must have happened enough times to warrant a sign for both, dare I say, common sense scenarios? Gah, could you imagine the smell of hard boiled eggs in a microwave?! I could gag and laugh right now just thinking about it.

 Anyway after breakfast, we made our way back into the park to make our date with Old Faithful. We got there and had about an hour to kill before Old Faithful was due to erupt. We spent that time wondering about the museum and gift shop where we bought Maisie an adorable stuffed buffalo who we named Buddy (I wanted Buffalo Bill, but both Maisie and Austin refused). Finally it was the time we were waiting for, Old Faithful was about to blow. We anxiously waited while freezing our tails off and then it went off. I mean it was cool and all, but Austin and I were both kind of underwhelmed by it. We are still happy we have seen it though- it's just there are so many awesome, more beautiful and less crowded geysers/ hot springs worth spending more time on, but we are thrilled that we finally crossed it off our bucket list. The rest of the day we drove towards Canyon Village and stopped many times inbetween. We also made friends with a buffalo who came right up to our car. My window was down and no joke if I reached out I could have touched him, but we read that a surprising amount of people die per year in Yellowstone from bison/buffalo so I decided to keep my arms in the car.

The trip was so much fun and I am so glad we got to go on a fun adventure as a family of 4 before the summer ended. Until next time Yellowstone!

The most random status update

I just happen to check Facebook to see this status update from the husband....

Never a dull moment with those two.

Daddy/Daughter Backyard Campout

Austin and I are starting to prepare for our upcoming move to Idaho, so we have been going through all of our stuff to organize, sell/donate or replace. While digging through a pile of stuff in the garage, we came across our tent that we bought shortly after we were married hoping we would be an outdoorsy camping couple. Well, the tent has yet to be used for "real" camping, but Austin did set it up for a daddy/daughter campout a couple of weeks ago. The two of them were so cute and excited for their "camping adventure". Before it got too dark, I snuck out and took a couple pictures of the camping duo.

Arnie- Maisie took it upon herself to give the cat a name.

I told her she could pick two animal friends, these were the lucky two.

And if you were wondering if she ever fell asleep, I made Austin provide proof...

In the car...

Maisie became super slaphappy while we were driving to who knows where. She was saying incredibly silly things. For example, she saw a bunch of geese in a field and than proceeded to say she wanted to eat them all (should i be worried?). Then the giggle fit began as she kept repeating "Eat the geese? Yummy geese!" 

Anyway, Austin keeps his phone on a GPS holder thing in the middle of the car console which is perfectly centered in front of Maisie, so Austin was trying to take a no hands video of her evil laugh, but he instead took this picture...

Ever wondered what the Lee family looks like while driving in the car?
Well there you have it.

Excuse the no makeup and messy mom hair but that's how I roll 90% of the time.

And Maisie's face? Pure silliness.

Winchester Mansion Tour

The weekend after Austin's 25th birthday (and our last weekend in California) I planned a little day date to the Winchester Mansion. Austin and I have both wanted to go since the day we moved to Santa Clara and seeing how this would be our last opportunity in who knows how long, we decided to go.

I remember watching documentaries on the Winchester legacy with my dad when I was just a little girl. I was so fascinated with the whole concept of the supposed curse placed on the Winchester family by those killed by the "Gun that won the west".  For some reason though, I thought the house was located east somewhere, so I was pleasantly surprised when I found out we lived only 15 miles away.

A friend of ours who has two littles watched Maisie for a few hours while we did the Grand tour of the mansion, grounds and basement. I was disappointed about not being able to take pictures of the inside of the house because it was so interesting. So many odd twists and turns, doors to no where, staircases to the ceiling, posts installed upside down, imported German chandeliers and Tiffany lamps and stained glass windows from New York. It was a lot of fun to see.

Need more info about Sarah Winchester and the famous mansion? Click here. It's very interesting.

Here are some pictures of our little date:

Oh and on every Friday the 13th they do night flash light tours... How awesome would that be?!

Fun fact:

Sarah Winchester gained 20 million in inheritance money from the loss of her husband and mother, but then with all her shares of the Winchester company (33% I believe), she received $1500 every day for the rest of her life. Todays equivalent would be $22,000 a day. Nuts right!?

The Falcon

Our last day in Oregon I had an agenda and that agenda was to make/buy/plan something special for Austin. You see, the next day (the day he flew back home) was not only Father's day, but it was our third anniversary. Double whammy right? What am I supposed to do on limited funds (I had to use cash or he would see the bank account) and with only $12 that doesn't get you too far. I decided to go the crafty/homemade route and idea after idea I would shut it down. I didn't want it to be corny.

 I just wanted it to be special.

I was taking a diaper out to the trash and conveniently parked outside was the Falcon. This is Austin's first baby and I guess mine too seeing how I married in. Oh the Falcon. This car was where we had our first kiss (and many more), where I would sit in the middle of the bench seat because the passenger side was just too far from Austin, where we would read O'henry stories for hours, drove to graduation in, where we would talk about what we hoped the future would be like, drive the long winding roads to the coast in, it was even involved in the proposal (even all the way in AZ) and what we drove to our honeymoon hotel after our wedding day. We were invincible in that car. The world was ours and when I think back to those days of being in love so young, you bet the Falcon is a pivotal character of that story.

Just this week we talked about how we are going to fix it up one day and drive it every Sunday.  One day it will be our leisurely Sunday car. Funny, seeing how it use to be very opposite I.E flying down damp dark streets to make curfew.

I knew I had to do something with the Falcon and driving it down to California wasn't an option so I decided to give it some much deserved love. Maisie and I scrubbed (lets be honest Maisie was more enthralled with the bubbles than "daddy's car") until the Ford Falcon baby blue (that's really the name of the color) sparkled. I am pretty sure I broke my finger doing so too. Note to self: steel edges hurt if your soapy pinky finger collides into one. Yeah, I heard it crunch.

1st step: balloons. Fill the car with multicolored balloons. It took two days to recover from the headache/dizziness of blowing up said balloons by mouth.

2nd step: Doll Maisie up. Yellow striped dress and pigtails. Need I say more?

3rd step: Take pictures of Maisie on top/in/around the Falcon.

Final step: print/frame give to Austin.

I guess the very last step is sharing them here, so lets get to it.

Here's to having the best husband and dada ever! We love you so much!

xoox,

-your girls-