New tricks everytime!

Laying out by the pool... needed a break!

Watch out- this girl is dangerous with this water gun!!!

4th of July

We started our vacation with Parades and lots of them....since we were in Utah we got to celebrate the 4th of July on Saturday and Monday...

First, we started off Saturday with the North Ogden Parade, then off to the park for all the activities it was a HOT day so we went back up to my parents house and swam to cool off, have a B-BQ then back to the th of July celebration ending the night with FIREWORKS!!!

Not much candy was thrown out at this parade, but it was LONG

Monday, we were off to another 4th of July celebration... Nothing is better than a small town parade -short and sweet! After the parade we went back to the Gertsch house and made our own fish pond and face painting B-BQ, and the kids got into a water fight... Night time we all sat in the backyard watching the fireworks- couldn't ask for anything better than this... no crowds/no traffic

Farr West Parade was a success "Lots of Candy"

We Made It!

Departure time 7:30am- Arrival Time 10:40pm

Let the vacation begin: 4 weeks

First Stop Mammoth

First Stop: Mammoth.....Aw www so nice to get out of the car and STRETCH...

If I remember right the last time going to Mammoth (Years Ago) it was "right around the corner." We parked down in the Lower Terrace to see all there is to see- this was A BIG MISTAKE, it was the LONGEST walk with 3 kids and ALL of us in flip flops.... I think it was about 1 mile, but without having the PROPER shoes it felt like 10 miles.

. . .

Next time I will be going up to the UPPER TERRACE.

. . .

Old Faithful

Can I tell you how nice it is to stop and stretch...

. . .

We made it to Old Faithful and found out it just went off so we had 90 min till the next explosion we went to all the gift shops, got a bite to eat and waited.

Now it's time to hit the road.... again

YNP Wildlife

Wolf

Chip

Buffalo's and their babies


Traffic Jam

We saw Many Buffalo

Elk

Black Bear

Mama Elk

Snake

. . .

.

Yellowstone National Park was a SUCCESS....

Verdict is in.... YNP

The verdict is in... Yellowstone National Park. Not sure how long it will take us, but it will be well worth it if we get to see some animals.

HERE WE GO...

Happy Father's Day

Finally, a nice day that we can have a cook out and couldn't ask for a better day... Father's Day! We had some of our friends come over to Celebrate Fathers day and cook Dutch Oven. Oh, the food was soooo Yummy, we made cheesy potatoes with bacon and Steve's cherry cobbler.

Looking up at the sky watching the clouds moving in different directions, I had to take a picture because I thought it was... DIFFERENT. "Mmmm, that is wierd." I said. Our friends are from North Dakota so they are use to CRAZY storms, then we got on the discussion of the difference between Billings and Utah and Dakota to Billings... (glad I don't live in North Dakota) We got a few rain drops and discussed how can we have rain and a thunderstorm when it has been such a nice day and how CRAZY this weather has been this year.

Storm came rolling in.... FAST
*WARNING: Severe Thunder Storm*

Went dark- thunder and lighting shaking our house, about this time one of our friends brother called him to let him know that he was on airport road and can see the tornado was coming in our direction. This is when we got the kids to the basement.

Down Pour with Rain and then Hail. We had so much rain so fast, Steve had to go divert the water so it wouldn't go into the window wells or build up in our backyard. We had waterfalls/dirtfalls coming off the Rims, lots of Rocks falling off the cliffs in our backyard.

. . .

Steve, got hit with MANY hail bombs... Helmet next time!

Bam, Bam, Bam, Bam, Bam, Bam

Golf Size Hail... Sounded like a machine gun hitting our house.

"THE TORNADO"

. . .

. .

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We were watching the news and they said "the Metra got hit and several buisnesses were leveled. This is 1/2 mile away from our house where it hit.

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1 1/2 hour later the neigborhood looks like this:

This is our only outlet to get in and out of our neighbohood.

. . .

"Island Trapped"

The small creek turned into a "Mad River"

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Our friends called and said they just recieved a phone call to evacuate Alkali Creek area (this is the area we live). We didn't, we weathered the storm and knew if we needed too we would just climb up the Rims.

House's being flooded, next road over.

Luckly, no one in our neighborhood got flooded.

FYI.. We are standing on someones yard the middle of the "River" is the road, the creek usually runs under the road, but their was sooooo much water from all of Alkali Creek it just made it own path..... We had to take a picture of the girls and the FLOOD and the girls wants everyone to know how "Stinky it is and we need a GAS mask."

Across the Road from our house

Drainage system can't hold anymore water.... Luckly we live on a slope.

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We are very lucky that we didn't have to much damage a few split windows, few shingle issues, but I am not complaning there are many houses/car with hail damage and house basements destroyed with mud and water.

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Wow, I have never been in a disaster like this. There is nothing you can do, just let it hit and then clean up duty after. I think this is a little motivation to be prepared and get my pictures in a safe place.

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*After pictures coming soon*