Carliann & Benjamin: July 2017

Yellowstone & Palisades: May 26-29, 2017

Campsite at Warm Slough

Last year we went camping with Ryan and Katelyn Stucki at Bear Lake and had such a good time we've made a summer camping trip into an annual tradition! This year we decided to meet up in Idaho, and visit Yellowstone and the Walkers. Idaho did not disappoint. It wasn't my first time in Idaho, but the first that I can really remember. We camped at Warm Slough, just outside of Rexburg.

It was kinda rainy, but the clouds parted right as we got to our campsite and the weather was perfect for the rest of the weekend.

This campsite was free!

We played frisbee and catch with a baseball while our tin foil dinners cooked in the fire.

Yellowstone National Park

Yellowstone was a lot of fun. There was a lot of traffic going into the park as we got there around 10 am, but because we have a national park pass, we could take the express lane.

I love this picture because it was only afterwards that I realized that there was a bird on the back of the bison!

We didn't really explore a ton of the park. Really only made it into the thermal areas near in the western side. That's the best part anyways! We got to Old Faithful at a perfect time and only had to wait about 15 minutes for it to blow.

I remember the blast being bigger when I was younger, but we read later that the height can vary.

It was super windy! Not really... It took us a few tries to get this picture.

Carli really is a good photographer! We love our DSLR that we got last year and have put it to good use.

Some of the geysers go off hundreds of times a day, and some won't go off for years at a time. Some are predictable, and others are not.

It is awesome that you can see a visualization of the temperature change going down into this thermal spring because of the various species of bacteria that thrive at certain temperatures.

Bison were the most exciting wildlife we saw. This guy was hiding in some trees right off of the trail.

After an awesome day at Yellowstone, we drove into town and ate at Big Jud's, and stayed the night at the Stucki's place in Idaho Falls. Ryan has a calling in a single's ward so we went to a BYU-Idaho single's ward for church on Sunday. After church, we drove out to the Palisades to visit the Walkers at their cabin.

Palisades & The Walker's Cabin

We LOVE Amy and Jon Walker. They were such a stellar senior couple in the city of Omsk, Russia while Ryan and I were district leaders of the two districts in the city. To give you an idea of how awesome they are, they brought the attendance of youth night from 3 to just under 30 in their time there. The youth of Omsk love them, as I'm sure everybody who gets to know them does!

Their cabin is a kid's dream. This is the 3 story tree house that Jon has built over the years.

Oh, and there is a hanging bridge from the tree house to the top of their shed that spans over their parking area.

We spent some time at their archery range. (Parking area)

As is the Walker's tradition, they took us up Blowout canyon so that we could add a rock to their pile. Every visitor that comes visits this place and makes their mark. Each of those rocks represent a person who loves the Walkers!

Just up the road from their cabin is this view that we went to watch the sunset. Places like this are my favorite! Not cities, or manmade landmarks, but natural beauty. We're so lucky to live in this world!

We went back to the cabin and all sat around the fire talking, listening to Ryan play the guitar and singing.

We took a break from the fire to go back up blowout canyon, up to a meadow to see the stars.

The next day we had breakfast, and made our way for the reservoir to kayak. Here's everyone!

We decided to kayak across and back which ended up being a lot farther than we thought it was, but it was a lot of fun!

Ryan and Katelyn picked out their Christmas tree.

It was an unforgettable weekend! On our way back to Idaho falls, we stopped for square ice cream, but ate the square off before we could take a picture.

Big thanks to the Stuckis and Walkers for all of the fun!

Zion National Park: May 12-13, 2017

This trip was pretty spur of the moment. We knew we wanted to go to Zions at some point, but didn't actually decide to go until the day before. We called up Curtis and Shannon and invited them and they were able to make it! Way to still be spontaneous even with a child!

It worked out perfectly. There was still a few campsites left when we got there in the evening, and we both arrived within 10 minutes of each other. Here we are cooking breakfast on Saturday morning. It was Kolby's very first camping trip! After breakfast we broke camp and headed into the park.

Waiting to go through the tunnel.

The first hike we did was "the Watchman". An easy hike just a couple of miles round trip near the entrance to the park that had some pretty nice views. Kolby rode along in his backpack!

Cacti!

We went to the visitor's center and then rode the shuttle up the canyon to the Grotto trailhead where we had a quick lunch break before hiking the trail. It was awesome!