Brighton & Juston Graduate!!!

So these summer posts are a bit out of order. Graduation was before girls camp!

We went to Idaho for Brighton and Justons graduation. It was a CRAZY busy weekend!e left on Wed. July 20. It was an "interesting" morning. I had to take Tevin to the Dr. before we left and the only time was early that morning, also- Slate was not able to come with us because he was going to be leaving for scout camp before we got home so Jamen had to take him over to Darci's. Needless to say- Lorin was not thrilled about our late start. We finally got on the road about 10ish. Do you know how long it takes to drive from LV to Rexburg, Id? F.O.R.E.V.E.R!!!! It was a pretty good drive though. I think that is because no one had to talk to each other because they were all into their electronic devices. Hmmmm- whats wrong with that picture? And actually I have to say- when I am a passenger in the car- I fall right to sleep. (Sure makes the trip go a lot faster I must  say!).It took us about  12 hours to get there. And we were starving. Brighton and Juston met us at this little sandwich shop, College Avenue Deli. It was owned by a really young kid, I was impressed that he was the owner. He looked like he was about 18-19 yrs. old. It was really yummy. I think everyone licked their plates by the time we were done. And we got 2 free funnel cakes to top it off! MMMM! We got to stay at Brighton and Justons apartment that night because I had only booked our hotel for thurs- sat. It was really fun to see where they had been living. I wish I could've seen it before it was all packed up. I bet it was really cute!

We got up Thurs. morning and went to Yellowstone National Park. It was so cool! I haven't been there in years! On the way there we stopped at a gas station and they had Huckleberry soda. Lorin loves huckleberry so we got him one. It was pretty good. He liked it anyway! I had forgotten how beautiful and big Yellowstone is. It seems that the expanse of it goes on forever. Just after we had entered the park we saw a bunch of people pulled over so we stopped to investigate, it was a couple of female elk lying in the grass across the river. They were beautiful. Lorin started making some weird "elk call" to attract their attention. He must be part elk because the kept looking at him. It was pretty exciting! We kept driving and found these Hot Pot things with a wooden trail around it so we got out and walked. They were pretty amazing. Some of them were pools of boiling hot mud that bubbled up from somewhere deep in the earth. Others were the pools of gorgeous Sapphire blue water that made you want to go jump in and swim. (Too bad you would have been deep fried or caught some sort of heebie jeebie bacteria) They were beautiful though. On the way bac Brighton (pregnant girl) had to pee. There was a bathroom but the line was so stinking long. All the boys went into the trees and were done in 2 minutes or less. (I am pretty sure they said they saw a sign saying it was ok to get off the trail and pee on protected land) That is so not fair! I am going to have to chat with the guy upstairs about this whole man/ woman body issue when I get up there! Peeing, having babies, losing weight quickly..... Whole nother topic- sorry! Anyway we are standing there- dying of the horrible stench wafting our way on the breeze. Holy crap! And I mean seriously! We are getting to the front of the line and we realize that (there are only 2 bathrooms) one of the bathrooms have been occupied for quite sometime. No one has come out of it for a long, long time. Hmmmm- what are they doing in there? Are they dead? Did they fall in? All valid questions I might add! Finally it is just Dakota and I. The door to the long time occupied bathroom open..... it is an old, old did I mention old oriental guy. (I bet it smells good in there!) Being the thoughtful, considerate mom that I am, I didn't want Dakota to have to wait any longer- I pushed her forward into the door. She couldn't thank me enough! Those bathrooms turned out to not be flush toilets. Just holes in the ground with a toilet on top. Delightful! I think we all needed some sort of tetanus shot after that experience!

We continued our journey and ended up at Old Faithful. We just missed it. We saw it going off in the distance. But the good thing about that is that we got the VERY front row seats. We did have to wait about 1 1/2 hrs though. Lorin went back to the car and got the cooler so we made some really yum sandwhiches. (Yes, it was me that made them!) In fact they were so delish that everyone had 2! Jamen and his friend Emily Delbosque, went and got ice cream. It looked soooo good. We decided to get some after we had walked around. We got to see Old Faithful go off. It was just as spectacular as I had remembered! It seemed to go on for a really long time. Then as it was finishing up- there was another one behind it that went off that was even more amazing! We went walking around. There are miles and miles of trail. You could walk for hours and not see all of it. Impressive! It was really pretty toasty out. We were all getting hot and sweaty. Lorin and Tevin had gone off on this other hike so we didn't know where they were. We walked back to Old Faithful. We were just in time to see it go off again. Lorin had a spot of cell service and called us. They were up on this really high observation place and could see all of the geysers that were going off. They said it was pretty amazing. Juston found them with his camera and took a distant picture of them. Then he zoomed in on it. We could totally see them waving at us! His camera was the bomb! After we watched it again we went inside of the lodge to get some ice cream. I don't know why but I guess I looked at the sign wrong and thought it was $1.00. I was going to get a HUGE one! Bummer when I found out that it was really $3.75 for a small! But it was so good! Nice and cool after a hot day in the sun. I think it would be fun to go up there and stay a few days and just check it all out. One day maybe, one day. We had to get back because we were supposed to be meeting Justons parents at 7pm for dinner. We started driving and then we saw some more cars pulled over---- what is it? what is it? We were like sheep- following the crowd! It turned out to be a very impressive male elk. He also was across the river which was probably a good thing because Elk boy Lorin was trying to get as close as possible and was making the elk mating call again. (He is actually pretty good at that weird noise!) We got some good pictures because of it anyway! We got back in the car and lo and behold, 5 minutes later we see--- something- I don't know what it was. Wait- Juston to the rescue- he took a picture of it. Turned out to be....... an Egret! Yay! An Egret! That was a fun side trip! Driving, driving- more cars- pull over. What is it this time? HOLY CRAP! It was a giant buffalo lying in the grass on the side of the road chewing its cud. Pictures? Yes please. I was a bit nervous (not as much as Brighton though, she was a chicken pants!) Lorin on the other  hand was dying to go pet it. I think he would've tried if I wasn't freaking out on him. We got some really cool pictures with the buffalo so close in the background. Even Brighton got out of the car and came and took one. It was cool! We drove again and the next time we stopped it was because there was a whole herd of buffalo out in a meadow. They are pretty scary all in a group like that. We walked out towards where they were to take some pictures. Lorin is now called "Buffalo man" He should probably get a second job as an animal caller! He made all those buffalo that were lying down, get up and face us. Hmmmm, wrong call I think! I ran away! And yes, I made Tevin run too. He didn't want to but I made him. I am not ashamed! Needless to say- we did not get back in time to go to dinner with his parents. I really felt bad about that. They are such nice people. I am glad Brighton has such good in-laws! We were going to go to a place called Big Judds for dinner- they have G.I.A.N.T. burgers. But we got there at 9:05 and they closed at 9:00. Totally Rude! Lorin did convince them to sell him some huckleberry ice cream however so he was happy! We ended up going to a yummy pizza place called Craigo's. It was an all you can eat pizza buffet. That had every known to man type of pizza and if they didn't, you could ask for whatever. They also had a pasta bar and a salad bar. And then to top it off, they had dessert pizza. Have you ever had oreo's or cookie dough on a pizza? I am pretty sure I was in heaven! It was so good! When we were done we went and dropped B&J off at their apartment so they could spend some time with his parents. (It was pretty late) Then we went and checked in at our hotel. Days Inn. Lets just say it definitely wasn't a 5 star hotel. MMMaybeee a 1 1/2 star. Maybe. It was an adventure, imagine a place with painted over wallpaper. 3 towels (for all of us) and kinda creepy- oh ya, that is where we stayed. My fault. I booked it. There wasn't a whole lot of choices. They did have a pool and a working TV though! Tevin was happy!

To be continued.........