On Sunday last week, YuLing and her family came to visit us!  YuLing and Kevin met when they were both missionaries in Taiwan.  YuLing still lives there so it was a rare treat to see her and to meet her husband and 8 yr-old son.  We had a great time eating, visiting, and taking our traditional Sunday walk together.  Lots of Mandarin speaking floating around our house that night!

On Monday morning, we had a ward breakfast to celebrate pioneer day!  The food was yummy, there was a good turnout of ward friends, and the kids played pioneer games.  Good times!

On Tuesday, I took Cali and Chey to the optometrist and found that Calianne needs glasses!  They both had piano lessons that day, Bethany went to the dentist to get her other two cavities filled, and Megan and Mariah went to the reservoir for Young Men/Young Women's to ride in canoes and try out paddle boards.  Afterwards, Sarah took all of her sisters to see Finding Dory and stayed out late.  Ben wanted to stay home with me!  Sweet boy!

On Wednesday, I finally got the last things unpacked from our trip the week before.  Mariah ran 11 miles for Cross Country (they started 2-a-day practices) and got invited to go the Folk Festival that night.  That night, Kevin and I escaped to Salt Lake City for a quick night away to celebrate our anniversary (22 years!) before he had to leave for a business trip to Florida Thursday morning.

On Thursday after saying goodbye to Kevin, I did some visiting teaching, and took the kids to the library.  Thursday night we had Relief Society and Cali and Chey came to babysit.  Afterward, Cali, Chey, Beth, and Ben helped me pick a bucket of apricots from our neighbors.

Friday, I went on a hike with my friend, Robin.  2.7 miles up the mountain to a lovely, pristine lake, then 2.7 miles back.  It was gorgeous!  Then I took Meg and Mariah to the doctor for sports physicals and then collapsed for the rest of the day.  Sarah and Megan worked together that night and Cali and Chey went to a party for their friend, Logan.

Saturday, I delivered bread for the Relief Society, made 5 batches of apricot jam, and finished my book that was overdue at the library but couldn't return because it was the last in a trilogy and it was so good!  We had pizza for dinner and the kids continued to be great kids and we can't wait until our dad gets home Sunday night!

We had a great week of vacation!  And I took a crazy amount of pictures.  So . . . this post will be mostly pictures with some explanations.

W took a walk on Sunday.

Church was at 5:30 at Jackson Lodge.

Monday morning we did some swimming and canoeing.

We went into Jackson Hole for a little shopping and we saw a bear!

Ben rode a buffalo and got a Sheriff's badge with his name on it.

Then we found a bookstore and you know, it was hard to leave.

But we had to, because we were headed for a chuckwagon dinner!

And a performance by the Bar J Wranglers!  It was a highlight of the trip. 
The kids loved it and we had to buy a CD and the book and get autographs!

On Tuesday, we took a hike to Leigh Lake.

We did a little more swimming there, too!

Meg didn't want to take off her shoes.

"Rock Hopping" is a new favorite family sport.

Kevin, Mariah, Grandma, Bethany, and I went on a longer hike.

There were very tall pine trees.

Gorgeous!

Gorgeous, too!

We found everyone waiting for us at String Lake.

This sign made me laugh, and eventually wish for more of them!

Sarah's rainbow rock collection.

On Wednesday, we went into Yellowstone!

We stopped by the gift shop.

And had a picnic at Bridge Bay where Grandma and Grandpa Gazdik always buy us fudgsicles!

This is the bridge Kevin jumped off when he was a boy.

These are kids he was able to have because he survived the jump from the bridge.

Grandpa and buffalo!

Grand Canyon of Yellowstone at Artist's Point.

 

Hiking down Uncle Tom's Trail=327 stairs!

Almost there!

They made it!

Me, too!

Kevin, too!

Then to see the hot pots.

Ben and Grandma counted hats blown into the water=9!

Pretty colors and a wind that blew hot and then cold and then hot again!

Ah, and then the lovely Old Faithful.

And the lovely Beth.

Thursday morning we spent the morning swimming and canoeing again.

Another beautiful day, but we needed to have lunch, pack up, and hit the showers!

We found the Skinners for this year's reunion snuggled under the trees by Idaho's Pallisades!

Our three teenagers dressed alike and got photo bombed by their younger sisters!

Beth and Ben loved playing in the creek right nearby with their cousins.

Dad took us for a walk.

Megan found her dream home.  Mariah showed us how small it was!

 

We spent seven consecutive nights in our tent this trip.  A new family record!

The Skinner men cooking breakfast--a reunion tradition!

Our mountain home.

Kevin must think I look good riding dirt bikes because he took one
look at me on the motorcycle and pulled out his camera!

The rest of the family spent the day on the lake, swimming on the dock and taking turns in the speed boat skiing and tubing! This is the only picture I have though and it's of Beth and her cousin Natalia!  They had a great time together!

 

On Saturday, we went on a raft trip down the Snake River through
Big Kahuna and Lunch Table.  This isn't us, but we probably looked like that.

 

 

Before we got on the boat.

This is actually us!  We got VERY wet!

I'm not sure who took this picture of my grizzly man,
but it's a good record of his beard after a week!  After the raft trip,
we had dinner with all those Skinner families and then drove on home. 
We had a fun time but we were beat and happy to see our own beds!