Remember Me?

I have been gone for quite some time! All of July so far! Now, THAT'S what I call a long vacation!
And I really have been on vacation that long!
I've been travelling off and on the past few weeks...
In fact, in June and July, I've visited 8 states!

My family just got back from a trip to Yellowstone (after a quick weekend away to Mike's brother's house for a family get-together with Mike's side of the fam).

It was really a beautiful park. (A really BIG park, too!)

We made a quick stop in Cody, Wyoming for a fun play day learning all about Buffalo Bill. One day we took a road trip to see the Grand Teton Mountains at the National Park there.

Yellowstone had PLENTY to see! (Yes, we saw Old Faithful...but there was plenty more to do!) The thing that struck me about Yellowstone, was that since the park was so big, there was such different terrain in different areas of the park...

Not only was there this lush landscape, but many places were steaming glaciers and mud pots that had boiling mud and sulfur in them. You had to walk on wooden boardwalks and there were warning signs all over that cautioned if you stepped off the boardwalks, you could fall through the crunchy ground and be boiled to death or scalded by the steam that may come up through the earth!

The last few days of our trip, we drove to South Dakota and camped at Custer State Park. We saw Mt. Rushmore and visited the Badlands. We even took a trip to Deadwood, SD and took in the history there - apparently, it's an old gold mining town. And, on the way back to Wisconsin we had to stop in Wall Drug - because everyone has to know "Where in the world is Wall Drug?" and we stopped at the Corn Cob Palace...my hubby was shocked that I had never heard of the place. It's apparently an American landmark that EVERYONE knows about (but me)...a "palace" whose exterior is built out of corn cobs. Hmmmm...how did I not hear of this???

I won't make you look at all my vacation photos...today. Hah! I'll spread them out over the upcoming weeks! lol...No - I have some great animal pics I'm dying to show you...but, another day...so you won't tune me out... :) Today I showed you my scenery pics. My pictures of mountains...while I'm buried under this mountain of laundry that can only be created by being gone for 18 days with your family camping...with no washing machine... :)

Oh, and in case you were wondering...YES - we were at Yellowstone when that man got killed by that grizzly. In fact, we almost decided to camp in the SAME campsite the SAME day that tragedy happened!!!! But, for some strange reason we decided to move on and check out the next campground over...My girlfriend texted me right away when she heard to tell me that she and another of my friends were praying for me (because, of course I started an MS flare up RIGHT BEFORE we left). And, yes - I have some pictures of bear...but, God must have answered their prayers because we have pictures of bear CLOSE UP...but from the seat of our car! (My hubby blames our lack of bear encounters *he was hoping to get some good camera shots - men!* on my friends' prayers)

Okay...now I'm really off to do my laundry...and to catch up with you all and your blogging...please leave a comment! I've missed you all!