Hello, hello!
The past few days have been filled with many more firsts and exciting moments for us girls! After we updated our blog from Boise, we went downstairs and enjoyed some tea and chatting in the family room with Jeff and Laurie, sounds normal enough, right? Well, Zipper was sitting under a chair looking out the window when Shannon noticed a light scratching noise outside, she turned and looked and was met by a huge buck with fuzzy antlers on the other side of the glass! Zipper had known it was there the entire time! Laurie said sometimes the deer and elk like to come up and eat the sunflower seeds or drink some water. It was so neat! Then we went outside to catch another glimpse of him, but were pleasantly distracted by the beautiful, starry sky. We saw the milky way again!
We heartily ate the fresh fruit and quiche Laurie had laid out for us in the breakfast nook. We sadly departed our little haven on the mountain and took off for Helena, MT to see Aunt Alice. To get an idea how sparse regular highways are let me begin to explain our travel over these last couple of days. It took us about 9 hours to get to Helena because we traveled on these two lane "highways" that wind and dip like a river through this magnificient countryside. The drives do not lack in beauty or natural wildlife, but when you just want to put on cruise control, it can get frustrating. There is no such thing as a direct route because of these big structures called mountains. It is truly breath-taking and we try to caputre these sights on the video camera and our cameras, but I think it is hard to do it justice.
The past few days have been filled with many more firsts and exciting moments for us girls! After we updated our blog from Boise, we went downstairs and enjoyed some tea and chatting in the family room with Jeff and Laurie, sounds normal enough, right? Well, Zipper was sitting under a chair looking out the window when Shannon noticed a light scratching noise outside, she turned and looked and was met by a huge buck with fuzzy antlers on the other side of the glass! Zipper had known it was there the entire time! Laurie said sometimes the deer and elk like to come up and eat the sunflower seeds or drink some water. It was so neat! Then we went outside to catch another glimpse of him, but were pleasantly distracted by the beautiful, starry sky. We saw the milky way again!
We heartily ate the fresh fruit and quiche Laurie had laid out for us in the breakfast nook. We sadly departed our little haven on the mountain and took off for Helena, MT to see Aunt Alice. To get an idea how sparse regular highways are let me begin to explain our travel over these last couple of days. It took us about 9 hours to get to Helena because we traveled on these two lane "highways" that wind and dip like a river through this magnificient countryside. The drives do not lack in beauty or natural wildlife, but when you just want to put on cruise control, it can get frustrating. There is no such thing as a direct route because of these big structures called mountains. It is truly breath-taking and we try to caputre these sights on the video camera and our cameras, but I think it is hard to do it justice.
On our drive through Idaho, Montana, and even Wyoming, many of the skylines are interrupted by huge billows of smoke from forest fires. So, despite the long and beautiful drive, we made it to Aunt Alice's house by around 7 p.m. Aunt Alice and her friend Mary were there waiting for us in the family room. We were greeted by about 50 smiling faces when we walked in the door, two human smiles and about 50 doll faces! Aunt Alice has quite the extensive collection of dolls! She has some that resemble royalty, Mother Theresa, some that she has even made herself! Her house was filled with interesting artifacts that she has collected throughout her life and many moves! Seeing as she is 89, she was not able to run about the house with us, but was very sweet and helpful in giving instructions as to where food, towels, etc. were and how we should prepare things. She had a meal all planned out for us and we heartily ate, excited to be using the good china and cut-glass glasses. Aunt Alice is known for her cut-glass colletion as well as her dolls! We sat around after dinner finding out about her life and her journeys before calling it a night and heading to bed. It seems Aunt Alice is a fellow Roswellian and believes there is more to Roswell than the government lets on! :)
Back around Internet access --
Sunday morning we woke up after sleeping in real beds (horray!) and attempted to get ready for an 8:30 church service with Aunt Alice. As I ran downstairs to jump in the shower, she warned that we were not going to make it, but I assured her we were becoming pros at running around and getting ready. Monica got started on breakfast and before you knew it the four of us were en route to the church, oxygen tanks and all (for Aunt Alice). We wheeled her into the service and were yet again greeted by smiling faces, all eager to see "Saint" Alice, as one of the men referred to her. After the service we went out to the garden area for tea and cookies; we met several of her friends and she lovingly introduced us as her three nieces from Philadelphia. When people responded with an astounded and somewhat questioning glance she clarified by stating that I was her real niece and she adopted the other two :) It was very sweet! After Aunt Alice loaded us down with provisions for the road we sadly headed out yet again after a short visit.
Aunt Alice had a neat windmill made by one of her students from 35 years ago sitting in her front yard. Monica took a really cool picture of it.
On our way to Yellowstone we attempted to finalize our housing arrangements for the night. After some adjustments, we decided to drive extra tonight after Yellowstone so we would have less to drive the following day. Let me say now, that our plans are always better and shorter before the follow through...I'll get there in a minute though.
Yellowstone was beautiful! We saw geysers, rivers, rolling hillsides, etc. etc. Yellowstone is sooo massive and each bend offers new beautiful sights to see. And yes, we have frequently broke out into song with Poccahontas's "Just around the Riverbend!" I will let the pictures speak for themselves. They are beautiful. We saw lots of wildlife, too. It was funny because we would be driving around and then you would hit a point in the road and everybody is breaking and rushing to pull over and grab their cameras. So, we always had a heads-up about animals. We saw elk, herds of bison, and deer. The herds of bison were honestly feet away and crossing the street while we were trying to exit. There were literally a hundred of bison along both sides of the street, but unfortunately it was dusk and our cameras could not capture it very well. And of course we had used the rest of the battery power and DVD to record Old Faithful -- but believe me, it was pretty amazing.
The picture of the pretty clouds are actually smoke clouds coming from one of the 2 huge fiers happening around Yellowstone. We tried our best to make the clouds look nice with the sunset. Putting the beauty of Yellowstone aside, it is a monster to get out of when the exit you need is closed because of fire and there are herds of bison blocking your way! It took us two and a half hours to get out of the park! So, then our not-so-bad-drive to the next campsite took so incrediblely long! We were honestly on these ridiculous no-where roads that yet again just wind back on themselves and you look down the cliffside or drive right along intimidating rockside. It was quite the adventure yet again. Needless to say, when we finally collapsed into our tent (which we put up with only Shannon's night light in ten minutes yet again) it was a happy silence for all of us. 
Next adventure: Mount Rushmore and whatever else South Dakota has to offer!
PS - Thanks for all of the comments, we are so glad that everyone is able to check in on us and it's nice to have support!!
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