Camping in Idaho

Last Thursday, the girls and I went to Southern Idaho to camp with our CHI adoption group. I felt like quite the outdoors woman, putting up the tent with only the girls (mostly Olivia) to help. We ended up having a GREAT time and loved the campground and enjoyed the company of other families who've adopted from China.

It's so good to see all the cute little children having fun together and it's also good for the parents to be able to talk to other parents who've adopted. I was especially impressed by a couple who are in their fifties who adopted 3 adorable girls after their 2 adult children had moved on. Even though it wasn't a popular choice, they did what they felt in their hearts was right for them. That takes real courage! But now, they've bleen blessed with these three beautiful girls to fill their lives once again with the laughter of little children. They are great parents.

Kirk is off to Startalk Chinese Language Camp!

Outside the apartments

Kirk will share this apartment with 3 other students.

Today we took Kirk down to BYU for a 3 1/2 week "intensive language learning experience". It is a camp for high school students and has 63 attending with 20 different states represented. Evidently, it is well known as a fantastic program that is in its 3rd year at BYU. The Chinese language is one of the critical languages according to our government, so they provide funding for these students to learn Chinese in hopes they will have excellent language skills at a young age.

Isaac, Kirk's cousin has been a top students at the Arabic camp at BYU and is staying in Jordan this summer continuing his studies. I guess our boys are blessed with learning languages.

Heading home...

On our way home, we stopped at the lake at Grand Teton National Park for a picnic lunch. (Our 5 plus 3 of Doug and Cheryl's boys are shown.)

We had a fantastic time visiting Yellowstone! It was fun being with our family and hiking every day. I still don't have the pictures downloaded from Mike's laptop, but hopefully I can add those soon.

Wind and Rain

We went to a few places today, but in reference to my title...
My brother's tent had a few technical problems while being here. Monday while we were out at Yellowstone, there was a windstorm and it broke two of his tent posts. We were able to use some duct tape and tent pegs to splint them, but they aren't quite what they were. So, the past couple of days he has broken his tent down while we were out. So, of course, today it rained and a tent on the ground without the rain fly taut has water problems. He had to take most of their bedding to a laundromat in town and we've been using the machines here at the KOA for quite a while. The kids are around the fire we built and I'm outside using the power outlet and freezing my fingers just to do this. I have the pictures on my computer, but I'm not ready to take the time to upload them yet. We have some really good pictures of bison, elk, and bears. But they may just have to wait until we get home at this point. I'm not used to such a slow connection and I think I'd be out here until tomorrow morning before anything actually uploaded.

Doug and his family are leaving tomorrow and we may leave tomorrow or the next day for the Grand Tetons. Or home. Whichever hits our fancy.

All for now. Too tired of waiting for my battery to recharge and it's really cold now.

Edit: Hear are some photos and a video. Enjoy:

Day 1 report

We went on the lower loop yesterday and had a great time. We saw a lot of animals and if I can upload the buffalo video, it was cool. A large herd on both sides of the road. I'll let the pictures tell much of the story of yesterday also.

A couple of notes, we saw the dragon's lair cave that Eliza and Stephenie really liked. It makes odd noises and steam just comes out along with some water in a stream. You could believe a dragon lived in there.

Also, Grace talked a little about last summer and the earthquake in China. We asked if this was her first time in a tent and she told us no... She lived in a tent after the earthquake for much of the summer. She told how they felt the earthquake and then "pretended" that the school fell down and the housing was destroyed. I think they weren't too sure if there were going to be aftershocks or what. This is one of the first things she's really talked about of her life in China. I think her language skills are getting so much better that she can tell us things easier now.

To Isaac in Jordan-- We're all having a great time and wish you were with us. Have a great time there and come back to tell us everything.

For everyone else, Isaac is my nephew who is living in Jordan (and other places) this Summer. We are camping with his family here in Yellowstone. So, if you see an interesting flag on the list, it may be that he looked at our blog.

Video of Buffalo crossing the road. Why? To get to the other side, of course! If you watch in the mirror near the end, you may notice the Park Ranger trying to get people back in their cars. More injuries are caused by "interactions" with the buffalo than anything else.

In West Yellowstone

We left after church today for Yellowstone and we got here a couple of hours ago. The tent has been setup and the kids are cooking hotdogs over the fire. Everyone is happy and we plan on having a really good time. We are going into the park tomorrrow morning and hopefully take some pictures.

It's cool to be outside by the tent with my laptop and hitting the Internet from the KOA. It seems odd to be "roughing it" and also be connected at the same time.

I have the cables for the camera, so maybe I'll be able to upload them tomorrow night. As long as I have power. I guess I can hook up to the power at the office or maybe near one of the cabins.

Enough for now!

Happy Fourth of July!

Happy 4th of July!!!!!

Olivia and her rose...she's so proud of it!

Yes, like everyone else, I've been to busy to blog much! We've recently had the upstairs carpet cleaned and added a new carpet to our office downstairs. It wouldn't have been so much work, but we'd used that as kind of a storage room for years. Next, we are going camping soon to Yellowstone! I wonder what Grace will think of sleeping in a tent? We've tried to prepare her, but this will be our first time away from home since she came home from China. I think she'll be fine, but I do expect some whining when we go hiking. She's good at that!


Have a great weekend everyone!