Huckleberry Finn

Ah, late summer in Idaho is so pleasant! The weather is finally perfectly warm, and it's sunny almost every day. The days are long, nights are cool, and everything is green. It can't get much better than that.

In August, Tamera, Kareena, Nicole, (sisters-in-law), our friend Melina, and I went huckleberry picking. There were tons this year since we went a little earlier than last year.

The smell of the berries is so sweet. This year I made syrup and huckleberry/blackberry jam. With the leftover pulp from the syrup, I made huckleberry muffins. They came out purple! Huckleberrying is becoming one of my favorite Idaho activities.

Other Summer Activities

One evening in July, the sky was an amazing orange and red color. We found out it was from a forest fire south of us. It felt like we were in a sci-fi movie.



For our anniversary, we invited Rob's siblings to join us at Rigby Lake a few miles south of us. It was a nice day to be in the water.

In August we went to Utah and drove out to the Manti temple. It was beautiful. It still has most of the original designs and decorations from when it was built. There were so many intricate details and bright colors everywhere. We had to park above the temple and walk through the grass trying to find the front door.

Some random sheep on the grounds. See the top of the temple?Then we finally went to see The Lion King! I was so excited. Hearing the music live was amazing. The costumes and props were incredible.
My cousin Jenny Jo and Aunt Anne got to join us.

The Capitol Theater was so old fashioned and pretty.

Ready to enjoy the show!

Arizona Trip

A day or two after Yellowstone, we hopped a plane to Phoenix. Rob got to pick the vacation since I'd been on a few without him. We flew right over the grand canyon both times.
We stayed at his grandma's house where she keeps the temperature at 80! Even I, who likes heat, was uncomfortable. But we always have a good time with her and Grandpa Joe.

We didn't want to just sit around all week, so we planned some fun things to do. We spent the 4th of July at his aunt and uncle's house and visited with the family. I thought it was so weird that they can't ever do fireworks there. Those Phoenix-ans are missing out on the best part of the 4th!

Rob took me to an AZ Diamondbacks vs. Chicago Cubs game. My first MLB game and it was a lot of fun. I had no idea everyone sang songs during the 7th inning stretch, complete with organ music! I was hoping we'd get on the "kiss camera" but we never did.

We had to eat hot dogs!

The best part was that we were in an air-conditioned dome for the entire game. The worst part was the drunk guy behind us who was so loud!
We drove up to Sedona to see our friends Nate and Kim on vacation from Hawaii (funny phrase), and to go to slide rock. It was beautiful up there and slide rock was a blast! I want to go again and again. It was entertaining watching everyone slip and fall on the mossy rocks. They don't just fall, they land flat on their backs. Somehow no one breaks anything. We saved $20 a car by hiking down the cliff.

We also got to see some old friends from my student teaching days-Melanie and Joseph. And Rob's APX days-Nate.

We met up with his cousin Brian at the Cheesecake Factory. We had gotten food poisoning at lunch at a Mexican restaurant but didn't know it yet (can you tell how sick I am in the pic?). I could barely eat anything at the Cheesecake Factory and I don't think I can go back for a while. I was puking and you know what-ing all night long. Then Rob was all day long.

We were so sick and tired but it was our last day with his grandparents, so we went to eat with them at their "old folks" restaurant. We were the youngest customers in there.
It was a great vacation, minus the sickness. I couldn't eat Mexican for the rest of the summer.

Bear Country

As we walked into the campground, I saw this sign and wondered, "What would it be like to actually see a bear in Yellowstone?" Little did I know...

We took our 2nd annual Potts family camping trip to Yellowstone this July. This time the whole family was able to come (Jimmy came during the daytime). We went up the night before and stayed in a cabin in West Yellowstone. We had been wanting to stay in one of those cabins for 6 years and finally did it. It was pretty nice, actually, and cheaper than a hotel. We ate yummy Mexican food at The Grizzly Claw restaurant. We also drove into the park to scope out possible campsites for the next day.
Tony's family came up with us. This is his camper trailer he bought for cheap. It serves its purpose but is something to look at. Rob's up top taping a garbage bag over a hole so they don't get rained on.
The next day we couldn't get our first choice of campsites in the A loop of Norris Basin, so we went up to B loop and found 2 right next to each other. I wanted A loop because it overlooked the meadow and stream, but things work out like they should.
We set up camp and waited for everyone else to arrive. We found lots of buffalo droppings and a ranger told us they like to eat the grass around the tents so don't be alarmed if something is rubbing against our tent at night. A nice thought to fall asleep to. . .
As we were all resting that day, we heard gun shots going off and a ranger came to tell us a grizzly was in A loop and to keep the kids close. Rob, Tony, and I went to look. The rangers were keeping everyone back so we couldn't see the bear, but we did learn it had meandered right through the campsite we had wanted.
We went back to camp and the shots kept going off. Finally, everyone else arrived and we finished setting up. We ate a yummy dinner and dessert and made s'mores. The rangers told us that we would have to sleep in our vehicles or hard-shell campers that night because the bear wouldn't leave.
Rob and I went down to a hill overlooking the meadow and just as I got back up the hill from taking this picture, another grizzly came charging across the meadow. Talk about scary! We hurried and told the rangers and went back to camp.
Kareena and Matt slept in their mini van with their family of 7, Tamera slept in the cab of the truck, Jim and Kay slept in the back of the suburban with Kohl in the front seat, and Rob and I shared a twin bed in Tony's camper. It has beds for 4, but we fit 8 and a puppy.

That night one of the bears ripped up someone's tent for their cosmetics bag. We also heard the bison in our camp. Rob and I were the last to go to bed and when we were putting out the fire and lanterns we could hear the bison grunting and coming close. I wanted in that trailer, fast!

The next day was spent driving around Yellowstone. We've all seen Old Faithful and most of the popular sites so we explored the upper loop. It was gorgeous up there and we got to do some short hikes.

Mama elk and calf

CoyoteWe heard rumors of a mama bear and 3 cubs eating an elk so we stopped by and got some pics. We also saw another grizzly in a meadow on our way to camp.

That night the rangers told us we couldn't even get food out so we decided just to pack up.
When we were almost out, 2 brown bears crossed the road right in front of us. I couldn't believe that none of us had seen more than 1 bear in all our various trips to Yellowstone, and this time we saw 8!All the bear sightings and attacks that happened this summer didn't make me too keen on camping in Yellowstone anytime soon.

However, it was a fun time being together with the family.
(I actually started this post in July! Oops.)

Happy Anniversary!

I am so happy today because it is our 6 year anniversary. It's cool because July 23rd was on a Friday that year too and the weather was just as perfect.

We don't really buy each other gifts for our anniversary because we usually go do something fun (hotels, resorts, theme parks, shark diving, temple work). We bought tickets a long time ago to see The Lion King in SLC in August as our anniv. present. We are both excited to go!
As for celebrating it the day of, we're working in the temple tonight (perfect) then we might go to the Drive-In theater. Tomorrow we're hopefully going kayaking and then dinner and maybe a movie. I was just relaxing today and got a ding dong at the door. (Well, it wasn't a knock.) I opened it to find a delivery man with a beautiful bouquet of flowers in our wedding colors.
I must say I have the sweetest husband. He's always surprising me and treating my like a queen. I am so spoiled. Rob, I love you so much and am thrilled to spend eternity loving you.