Today, our nephew Wyatt was baptized in Salmon. It was a great experience for him and we were able to Skype in Mom and Dad from the Philippines to watch. How cool is technology nowadays! 🙂 After the baptism, we went over to Carla’s and Scott’s house for an afternoon of eating and relaxing. We had a great time visiting with family and friends.
This morning we slept in, relaxed, had some breakfast at the hotel, and did some shopping in West Yellowstone. At about 11 we drove down to Rexburg and got there just in time for Brittany to finish up her last class of the week. It was great to see her, although it’s really only been a month since we dropped her off. 🙂
After doing a little shopping for her to get her pantry filled up, we grabbed some lunch and started the drive up to Salmon, ID. It’s only about 2 1/2 hours from Rexburg so we got there pretty fast. We’re up here in Salmon for Wyatt Nelson’s baptism. It was great to see Carla and Scott and their family, and the kids are having a blast playing with their cousins!
Today we drove from Jackson Hole to Yellowstone! We couldn’t get enough of the beautiful drive up next to the Teton range! The mountains are just stunning!
Along the drive we also had a rare moose sighting so we had to stop and take a bunch of pics. 🙂 Moose tend to be shy and stay in the trees and low river areas out of site, but not this one!
We finally arrived in Yellowstone probably a bit too late (stopped too many times to enjoy the views along the way), but that wasn’t going to stop us seeing as much as possible! 🙂
We had a GREAT time spending the entire day driving around the park, seeing all sorts of mud pots, geysers, and other types of things. The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone is always one of our favorites and is so beautiful! It was a little on the cool side, but the day was gorgeous and perfect for sightseeing! Below are some pics we took throughout the day…
The boys had never been to Yellowstone and Kirstyn doesn’t remember much from the last time we came, so it was a great experience for all! We love getting into the outdoors. This is a great time of year to visit the park, because there are not as many tourists around. The animal population is a little sparse, so you don’t see as much wildlife, but that’s OK with us. We’ll trade that for being able to park at sites and not have to worry about tons of people making a ton of noise! 🙂
When it got dusk, we left the park and drove to West Yellowstone where we stayed for the night. We had great luck with the hotel there as well. If you’re ever in West Yellowstone, the Stagecoach Inn is the place to stay! It’s on a national historical register and the furnishings are awesome! The whole inside of the place is filled with stuffed wildlife…
We were really tired and couldn’t determine what we wanted to eat, so we just went and got huge ice cream cones for dinner! 🙂
Tomorrow we’re off to Rexburg to pick up Brittany and then on to Idaho!
Today we left on a family extended weekend trip up to Jackson Hole, Yellowstone, and Idaho for a baptism. We had a wonderful drive together up to Jackson hole together. It was really beautiful once we got out of southern Wyoming and up into the mountain areas! The hotel we stayed at there in Jackson was wonderful! It’s called the Parkway Inn and came highly recommended from Trip Advisor. The inside was very quaint and rustic and the room was great! We even had our own little patio to relax outside on. 🙂
We walked around Jackson and enjoyed the evening. The highlight was a pizza dinner at Piny G’s, a Diner’s Drive-ins and Dives recommendation. We just HAD to go there! 🙂 The pizza was amazing and unique. The boys really loved the “Abe Froman” sausage pizza, and the girls loved the “Funky Chicken” pizza.
The owner was there tonight and we had a chat with him about how he got started here and the whole Diner’s Drive-ins and Dives experience. He was really nice. We got a picture with him!
While the girls explored more of Jackson, the boys and I went back to the hotel and went swimming. It seems like that’s the only thing the boys want to do when we stop at hotels. 🙂
Tomorrow we’re headed off to Yellowstone!
Jackson Hole. Pizza, etc.
Today Kirstyn had a huge marching band competition at Sports Authority Field in Parker. Were there all day feeding, setting up, taking down, performing Pit Crew duties, etc. They are sounding GREAT!
We felt bad for Kirstyn, though! That girl is really a go-getter and has such monster determination when she wants to! She went to the competition in her boot, then right before they marched, she wrapped up her ankle nice and tight, put on her marching shoe and went out there and nailed it! It hurt so bad during the performance, she had tears running down her cheeks, but you couldn’t even tell she was injured! Right after they finished, she put her boot back on, walked up for lunch, and then put ice on it. Poor kid!
For the finals performance, she did the same thing again! It was in a lot of pain when she got home, but we were really proud of her for pushing through this and not, in her words, “letting her band down” by just standing there in the front with her boot on. 🙂 Way to go Kirstyn!
Today we went to the airport and picked Angela up from her trip to the Philippines! It’s great to have her back home! She had a GREAT time! The only bad thing was that she put all her pictures from most of her trip on a USB key she bought over there and when we tried to get them off, we couldn’t! 🙁 YIKES! Well, we do have all of Carla’s and all of Angela’s are on her mom and dad’s backup hard drive so we’ll get them in July when they come home. 🙁 Here are a couple of pics from her trip…
There are hundreds more that Angela would want to post here, but these will have to suffice. Many others will end up in our family album we do! 🙂 Glad to have you back sweetie!
Today we had a bit of a scare… Kirstyn was singing and dancing around the house while I was out mowing the lawn and she rolled her ankle really bad! I didn’t hear her yelling, but I happened to look over at the sliding glass door and saw her laying on the floor trying to get my attention! I ran in and took a look. We thought it might be broken, so after a couple hours of watching it, we took her to the emergency room where the did x-rays and the works. Poor girl! Turns out it’s a severe sprain (almost torn). They gave her a boot and told her she had to wear it and try to stay off of it as much as possible (but to use crutches to get around). She was devastated as they have a couple of BIG marching band competitions coming up! 🙁 She’s bound and determined to march regardless, so we’ll see how it goes!
One funny thing that happened while we were there is that the x-ray technician working at the hospital that night actually recognized Ben (she did his head scan when he cracked his skull) and asked him how he was doing! 🙂 That’s what we love about living here! 🙂 He told her his head was all better and that we now have covers on the window wells. 🙂
Today we had a busy day and it seemed even more busy without Angela with us! 🙂 She’s having a great time over there, despite the oppressive heat and humidity.
Today was General Conference and we were excited for that. Turns out that Zach’s soccer coach’s (Jason Robbins) dad is a General Authority (member of the Seventy) and he gave a talk during the morning session. It was really great! After the morning session, we went to Zach’s soccer game. I had a chance to talk to Jason about his dad’s talk and that was enjoyable. 🙂
Zach did a great job playing today. He’s getting better and better every week. He’s not the star of the team, but he really enjoys playing and doing this is helping him become more active and agressive which is great for him! 🙂
The game was out of town in Westminster and so it took us about 90 minutes to drive up there. After the game, we dropped by Sam’s Club up there, picked up some groceries and ate hot dogs and then came home and watched the recorded second session of General Conference. The boys and I then watched the Priesthood session together at home. I was surprised that they sat and watched the whole thing with me even though they didn’t have to. What good boys!
Tonight Kirstyn had a choir concert at CV. She’s in Versailles this year and as usual, the choir is really good. Unfortunately, I didn’t record the entire concert for Angela to listen to when she got back. 🙁
Great job Kirstyn, you have a great voice that we all love listening to! 🙂
Today, I took Angela to the Denver Airport where she met Carla and they both took off to the Philippines! They got stuck in Tokyo and had to stay there overnight because of delays and such, so they didn’t get to Manila when they were supposed to, but they were able to reach Mom and Dad Hobbs and let them know they were OK but would be late! They are so excited to visit Elder and Sister Hobbs and spend the next 10 days with them! Angela will have to post some pictures and write about the experience when she gets back! 🙂
We’ll miss you!
This morning I got back from Chicago via Amtrak. I was lucky I did that as yesterday there was a fire in the Traffic Control building for the region and planes all over the area were grounded all day and some still are. The train was full of people that needed to get home but couldn’t fly due to the outage! I looked brilliant to all those people at work who told me I was crazy for taking the train! 🙂
I had a great time in Chicago! I went to the High School to drop a plaque off to Mr. Schneider from Brittany and he was so appreciative! I also saw Mr. Devany and had a great conversation. I then drove all over and took pictures of everything! 🙂 Only stuck a couple here. Our house is still there! 🙂 One of the highlights was eating at Portillos and having a cake shake!
I went to church and it was so great to see everyone there! The ward has shrunk a bunch, but it was so awesome to see and talk to everyone that was there! Most everyone wanted to know why Angela wasn’t there with me. 🙂
Work was great as well! It was good to see everyone face-to-face. After work hours every day I went and saw friends relaxed and enjoyed the old stomping grounds. I also went by Menards and bought a bunch of bags of chocolate covered nuts to bring home to Angela to take to the Philippines with her when she goes next week!
Right after I got home, we went to Zach’s soccer game. He played really hard and I think he has found something he likes to do and is pretty good at! 🙂
Right after the game, we ran to the car and drove as fast as we could down to Colorado Springs where we went to the Boise State vs. Air Force football game at the Air Force Academy! We had a TON of fun! We met the Pocock’s there and cheered for Boise State!
Unfortunately, Boise State lost, but we sure had a great time! We really love going and doing these kinds of things with friends! Thanks for the invite, Camille and Patrick! 🙂
Tonight Kirstyn played the halftime show at the football game. I was still gone but Angela said they really did a great job!
Go CVHS Sabercat Marching Band!
