Fun, Family, and Furries.

I am so happy to be back in technology land! I know it's important to unplug and get away from the phones, computers, nooks, and what not once in awhile, but I went cold turkey over the weekend and I missed you all!

Our Fourth was wonderful. The hubster had the whole day off for the first time in 5 years. We did the parade, had a barbeque, went to Brave (again), and played with fireworks. It was fun. Lily went nuts pretending to play in the water. She's a little skittish about sprinklers. Sage couldn't decide if she liked all the sunshine or not. She slept through the whole entire parade. I couldn't believe she didn't wake up from the noise. 50,000 people make a lot of noise.

With all that went on that day, it was just a coming attraction for Thursday through Sunday. It was our yearly Redneck Family Reunion. This is one of the highlights of our summer and this year was even more so! Normally we camp out in the middle of nowhere (so no one can see our silliness!!!) and commence with the Redneck Olympics. Our Olympic games test your seed spitting skills, how well you can toss a toilet lid, and other forms of athletic hilarity. This year, we did things a bit differently. We rented cabins, and yes that's plural on purpose. There was 33 of us! Together we all spent the weekend in Island Park, an area just outside of West Yellowstone, Montana.

The beauty of this was that there was SO MUCH to do. River floating, wandering around town, Yellowstone National Park, Playmill Theater, the list could go on for days. Every time we turned around someone was going on an excursion of some sort. Also, no one knows how to cook like my family. YUM.

I think my favorite part of the trip was going to the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center and seeing the bears and wolves. I went once with a big family group, and went back later with Nic because he missed it the first time around. If you're in the area, go. No excuses! :) All of the animals are rescues. It's really amazing what they've done there. I had a special soft spot for the bald eagle, Isis. She was beautiful.

Sage got a kick out of the grizzly hide they had out to touch and feel. Lily was too busy running around like a wild woman to let me get a picture of her.

Lily loved seeing "Annie Get Your Gun" at the Playmill Theater. She was ecstatic when she got to hug the actress who played Annie. She chattered the whole ride back to the cabins about how Annie was a famous person and she got to hug her and "Mom! Did you know that Annie Oakley was a REAL person in the OLDEN days???"

We also went to Old Faithful and saw some buffalo in Yellowstone National Park. It was so overcast, the pictures I took of the geyser melt into the sky. Bummer! I saw a mama elk and her baby, but we were moving too fast for me to get a picture of them.

The weekend flew by too fast! I felt like we were packing up to go home five minutes after I got there!  Hubster and I want to go back and spend some time there on an anniversary trip or something to see what else we could get up to. Lily asked if we could go back next weekend. With the proximity to Yellowstone Park, it would be easy to live there happily for a year! :) With Yellowstone Park practically in our backyard as it is, we really should get over there more often and play.

Hope your Fourth of July weekend was lovely and as full of family and fun as mine was!