Austin decided that we should have a backyard campout. We got a great deal (10 bucks) on this fire pit through craig's list. We roasted dogs, brats, and smores, then Austin burned 150 ft of baseboards in the new fire pit. Austin told a scary campfire story to the boys about "THE MOSS MAN." Luke was terrified. Of course when we asked him to go get something from the house later that night he refused citing the fact that the Moss Man was going to "get him"
Happy campers: Jensen, Heather and Eliza.
Luke was an awesome helper. He set up all of the tent poles, pushed them into the tent and then plugged in the tent poles. He also towed all the firewood over from the chopping block to the fire pit.
roof warrior: Four of our friends were SO awesome and came over and helped us re-roof the garage the Saturday after we got back from Idaho.
this guy's got a rap sheet a mile long
this is the finished product!!! It took about 12 hours! Thank you so much to all who helped.
For how much time all of these kids spent in the car over the three days we were at Yellowstone, they all did really well.
Austin got some shadowing experience in with his favorite podiatrist in Boise, Dr. Lowe. He shadowed a 3 1/2 hr lapidus fusion surgery, and loved it.
all of the "buddies" got back together one more time for a romp through Yellowstone.
(Benson Montano, Luke Kramer, Asher Montano, Jensen Kramer)
The rainbow that projects over the mist generated by the Lower Falls in the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. This is the scene from one of the 300 plus steps that take you down "Uncle Tom's Trail"
This is the view from the lower viewing platform of Uncle Tom's Trail. The lower falls are twice as tall as Niagara falls!
A family photo taken...well almost a family photo taken at the the lower falls of Yellowstone. Where's Luke? well, when Austin went to pick him up for the picture, it caused Luke to drop his toy airplane down into the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, which in turn caused him to have a complete meltdown. Austin tried to go down and retrieve the plane, but Heather would not allow this. All was forgiven with the promise of a new plane. The most amazing thing about the whole hike to the lower falls was that Jensen walked back up all 300 steps all by himself! All of the people coming down were amazed. We were most amazed.
Our great friend Carina was such an amazing hostess and tour guide! We were so grateful for her family letting us stay in their cabin near Yellowstone. Carina's father has a rough airstrip at their cabin, and on the last morning before we left, two random airplanes came to land on the strip. It's an understatement to say that the boys loved getting to see the 2 planes these guys flew in on.
We were really glad to have taken a 2 hr. detour to see this, the first National Monument of the United States: Devil's Tower. In the middle of a beautiful nowhere near Gillette Wy, Devil's Tower juts straight up a quarter of a mile into the sky. It was really amazing to see. Turns out (they think) that this was the core of a volcano where the exterior was worn away over time and the hardened lava core was left behind. Either that, or like the indians tell it... a bunch of girls who were playing one day were trapped on a steep hill by a grizzley bear who tried and tried to get up the hill but only managed to carve grooves in the side of a growing mountain.
We happened upon this great place in Rapid City SD on the way to Mt. Rushmore. Its the Dinosaur Park. Absolutely free, and really cool. Definitely the highlight of our kids' day.
Finally made it to Mt. Rushmore. Just amazing.
A quite disturbing phenomenon has been noted about our son Luke...When he sleeps, he looks exactly like Jay Leno. Yikes!
*on a side note, the first 3 pictures were taken with a 7.1 mpxl. camera we got from walmart for 39 bucks. The rest of the pics were taken with my camera phone. Which look better?
