good idea, not a great result

 

trying to take family pictures

 

My nephew, the balloon eater

Today we babysat Ty, an autistic neighbor, who brought a bag of balloons. After he left, we had a few inflated and deflated balloons lying around. Preston picked up a pink deflated balloon, and put it in his mouth. I immediately went over and started fishing in his mouth. It was not in there, and I didn't see it leave his mouth! I picked him up, and he started mildly crying. At least he didn't choke on it!

Allie loved seeing Anna and Lizzy. Today she told us that we would see them again, that they would be at church and Grandma Ebbert's house. She loves having "friends".

Unfortunately, we don't have Preston and his family for much longer :(. Allie keeps telling us Dave and Gawgo won't take her cousin to Tennessee. Despite the times they hit and don't share, they have fun with each other. It will be sad when they no longer have a playmate at hand.

Shu-hua wanted to see the great American Buffalo. There seemed to be less than normal, but they were still plentiful.

 

Playing with G'ma's walking stick

 

Preston with his monkey leash and

 

Preston stared at any kids playing with balls at our campground and they would eventually share with him.

 

A petrified redwood. Rick hopes to hike to a place with more of them next time we go

 

A black bear, up close and personal

 

We saw three coyote pups playing

 

These trees are the same age as Mark, naturally reseeded during the fires of 1988.

 

As always, plenty of elk

 

beautiful pools

 

mud pots

 

The brink of the lower falls.

 

Dave got a workout carrying Preston down a steep trail, I guess it was back up that really was tough.

 

Shu-hua looking into the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone

 

The brink of the upper falls

 

We saw lots of Eagles this time

 

you never get tired of watching Old Faithful

 

Yellowstone

We spent the early part of this week in Yellowstone. Ya-ping's sister wanted to see it, so we went. We stayed in a commercial campground in West Yellowstone because there were no reservable spaces still available in the park. We had a great time, as you can tell by the pictures. I used my slow cooker for dinners since we had an electrical hook-up. That was so nice. It meant that dinner was ready when we returned to the trailer each night. I will definately do that again.