This & That; Nuts & Bolts



Bryce Canyon



August, 2012

OK, so we have been home 1 1/2 weeks now and I have to say that our trip still consumes much of our thoughts.  We have been journaling, picking out pictures for the albums we are putting together, telling stories, visiting with friends who did their own cross-county trips...just remembering.  I am thankful that we have these 3 weeks to readjust before school starts, but I would go again tomorrow if we had the chance.  I loved being away from commitments, responsibilities, schedules and I loved just being together.  We realize this trip was a gift, and we are so thankful for it.  I pray that our kids will always love this summer and our time together. 

My last blog I wanted to just write down favorite things, places we were....funny mish-mash stuff.  So, here goes. 

1.  We were gone for 37 days and covered 10,100 miles IN OUR MINI-VAN (which did awesome, by the way).

2.  National Parks that we visited:  Badlands, Mt. Rushmore, Garden of the Gods, Mesa Verde, Zion National Park, Bryce Canyon, Death Valley, Yosemite, Redwoods, Mt. Saint Helens, Mt. Rainier, Glacier National Park, Yellowstone. National Parks we visited:  Badlands, Mt. Rushmore, Garden of the Gods, Mesa Verde, and Yellowstone

3.  States we traveled through:  Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, South Dakota, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana and Minnesota.

4.  Quote I said most often "To the right".  When we were hiking, it is proper etiquette to stay on the right side of the trail to make it easier for other hikes.  I don't think we ever really got this down.

5.  Breakdown of where we spent the nights:  2 weeks with family & friends, 2 nights driving through the night, 1 week camping and 2 weeks in hotels.

The best priceline was in Colorado Springs where we got a Residence Inn Suite for $60.  Our most expensive camping was in Cannon Beach at $40 (but VERY nice bathhouses and laundromat-which was good in the rain!)  Our cheapest camping site was for $16 at Rocky Mountain High outside of Glacier.

6.  Everyone's favorite places:  This was hard to determine but these are top favorites and not in order

Dave:  1.  Redwoods in Jedediah Smith  2.  Zion River Walk  3.  Boiling River in Yellowstone  4.  Base Camp on Mt. Rainier (Camp Muir)

Tracy:  1.  Mt. Rainier  2.  Bryce Canyon  3.  Zion River Walk  4.  Lake McDonald @ Glacier

Joshua:  1.  Monterey Bay Aquarium  2.  Garden of the Gods  3.  Yellowstone (the blue hot springs  4. Badlands    5.  Air and Space Museums we saw  6.  Bryce Canyon   7.  Grand Canyon

Christopher:  1.  Zion Riverwalk  2.  Yellowstone  3.  Oesul Falls, Big Sky, Montana  4.  Monterey Bay Aquarium  5. Bryce Canyon

Jonathan:  1.  Yellowstone  2.  Redwoods   3.  Grama and Grampa's house

Annika:  1.  Redwoods  2.  Zion Riverwalk  3.  Mt. Rushmore  4.  Grama and Grampa's house


Lake McDonald- Glacier National Park



7.  Animals that we saw:  moose, mommy moose with baby, blue-tailed skink, marmots, chipmunks, rock squirrels, big horn sheep, mountain goats, prong horn deer, elk, grizzly bear, black bear, sharks and all sorts of marine animals, starfish, anemones, hermit crabs, banana slugs and their ugly cousins, bison, rattlesnake, lizards.  We only missed seeing a scorpion and wolves.

8.  We averaged 2 meals a day.  Here are some of our favorite meals:
Dave:  Yosemite Lodge and Campbell's steak and crab meal
Tracy:  Pizza Ranch Pizza, Campbells, New York strip and sourdough bread over the campfire, The Spaghetti Factory, Fish and Chips & Joshua's Clam Chowder at the Driftwood.
Joshua:  Clam Chowder at the Driftwood and The A&W Diner in LasVegas
Christopher:  Gaslight (SD), Driftwood and A&W Diner
Jonathan:  Buffalo Burger in Yellowstone and A&W Diner
Annika:  pizza in Iowa

Most expensive meal was at Yosemite Lodge and the most reasonable (besides the grocery store) was at the Spruce Goose Museum (because they accidentally gave us the wrong food and let us keep it).

9.  Injuries and boo-boos (thankfully there were not many!!)
Dave:  burned his leg starting the campfire at Riffe Lake, big scratches from thorn bush at Bridal Veil Falls,  cracked his elbow on Chris's head :)
Joshua:  Fell at Oesul Falls and banged up his hip on a rock
Christopher:  lots of scrapes from surfing in the Boiling River, bleeding in the Badlands
Jonathan:  Fell on snow at Glacier and ripped up his side, allergic reaction to Salt Water Taffy
Annika:  scraped her tummy bad in the Badlands, Fell on the Golden Gate Bridge and scraped her shoulder and hip, cut her toe open at Mt. Saint Helens, fell off the bridge at Bridal Veil Falls (WA)



Zion National Park


10.  We did many workouts to keep the boys in good shape for football.  Some of the best were:

• Hiking up to Camp Muir on Mount Rainier - 5,000 ft. of vertical climb, 8.5 miles 90% on snow.  
• Bright angel trail at Grand Canyon - 45 minutes down and then run back out of the canyon - many disbelieving looks on the way back up. 
• Timed 1.1 mile run at 8,000 ft. elevation in Big Sky, Montana (with cousins Ellie and Ben). 
• 500 rope jumps and 100 body weight squats with push ups and sit ups - many locations such as Big Sky, MT and St. George, UT. 
• 6.5 mile hike at Beehive Basin in MT. 
• 1.7 mile run across the Golden Gate Bridge.
• Run to, along, and back from the Puddle jump trail in Orange City, Iowa.
• Many other hikes in Bryce, Zion, Rushmore, Yosemite, Mesa Verde, Death Valley, Garden of the Gods, and Washington state.

11. Favorite Activities during the summer:  hiking, swimming, scuba-diving, bouldering by waterfalls, climbing up Redwoods trees that had fallen over, hanging out in the hot-tub, just being together!!!!!!

Thank you for following our blog, for your prayers and encouragement and for all those who gave us places to lay our heads.  We are so thankful for this summer and all the memories that we have!



The Barretts at Ousel Falls



Home Sweet Home!!!!!

Saturday, August 4th into Sunday August 5th, 2012

Our morning started with the wonderful smell of bacon cooking...mmmm!  We had a wonderful breakfast with my mom and dad.  Thank you Dad for the yummy waffles that you made!  Thank you mom and dad for giving us a wonderful place to stop and rest. We so wanted to stay longer but know that it will be nice to give Dave a day before going back to work. 

We were actually on the road by 7:30am.  Remember that rain that I told you we would bring to Iowa...well, it was here and it seemed to follow us for the next 3 hours.  We had some intermittent breaks but by the afternoon we seemed to be in some full-blown thunderstorms with driving rain!  Not so much fun for driving in.  I tried to take a nap in the afternoon as I knew we were going to be driving all night, when Dave woke me up to read the alert on his phone- TORNADO WARNING in our area!  What?  I didn't even know where we were, how could they know there was  tornado where we were????? :)  We had the laptop going, the radio (which was on the emergency broadcast system) on, trying to figure out what to do.  Do we stop, do we keep going?  I was checking out all the trees, the overpasses, the ditches trying to figure out what we would do with our family if we spotted the tornado while on the highway.  Not a good feeling. 



Trying to navigate the map and come up
with a plan. First, to figure out where
we are!



Fortunately, we came upon a Visitor's Center and stopped to get some shelter- along with many other people. Supposedly, a funnel had been spotted 2 miles away.  I never did find out which way it was going for sure.  Well, we stayed there for about 10 minutes and then it started clearing to our West, which was good I guess but we were going East with the storm and it still did not look good.   So, we (reluctantly) got in the car and followed the storm.  The tornadoes appeared to be going a couple miles north of our highway but we still had plenty of driving rain.  We stopped for the tornado at 6:30pm and we were in TORRENTIAL downpours until 11PM!!!!!!!!  



Here is the storm on radar that
we are driving ALONG with!  We are in
the red.



 See the HUGE red area- we were right in the middle of it, going at the same rate.  We didn't dare stop for food as it would put us even farther back.  It was a lot of rain.  So...yes, we did bring rain to the Midwest but we didn't think it would just stay WITH US the whole time.  SIGH!  The kids were troopers as it was a bit tense at times and I know they could have used some breaks, but they never complained.



Our odometer at the end of the trip!



It was VERY nice once we got out of the rain.  Dave drove for a while and I was able to finish up the trip.  We arrived at home at 5:40am and were SO thankful to be here safe and sound. Thank you LORD for an INCREDIBLE trip!!!!  We brought the kids in and they fortunately fell right back to sleep.  The air conditioner that wasn't working when we left in June...it is still not working, but my sister had come over and opened the windows for us.  It was comfortable and we didn't have a problem sleeping.    We slept until about 11am and then spent the day unloading the car and slowly unpacking.  SO...Nice...TO...Be...HOME!!!!!

Our day ended with one more SWEET surprise.  Our good friends, the Lockwoods, are home from being missionaries in South Africa.  Michelle and James stopped by to bring us some food and say hello!  Oh, what a blessing!  They did not plan to stay long but a couple hours later we finally hugged and said good-bye.  We are thankful for the blessing they are to our family and are so praying for their adjustment to being back in the states.

We have so much to be thankful for from our trip:  family, friends, safety, good health, the chance to take this trip, and kids who enjoyed doing this crazy adventure. Thank you so much for your prayers for us and your interest in our trip. We love you all and thank God for the ways you have touched our lives.  We loved being on our trip but it is good to be home!


We were welcomed home by a wonderful sign from our great neighbors,
The Schreibers





On the Road....AGAIN!

Friday, August 3,2012    On our way to Iowa

We were on the road by 3:30am and we had a beautiful night to travel by.  We had a long day ahead of us and hoped to be to my parents by early evening.  We switched drivers early in the morning and after I had been sleeping a bit, I was awakened by the strong smell of smoke.  We were in Wyoming and must have been near fires. We did not see any but the smoke hung in the sky and was very strong.  We prayed for the people who have fought and been touched by fires this summer- there are so very many in so many different states. 

I had prayed that we would have a safe and uneventful trip.  Safe we had but our adventures are far from over.  Here is a big lesson we would like to pass on to anyone who might sometime travel through Wyoming.  ALWAYS KNOW WHERE YOU ARE!!!!!  You don't know when you will see a gas station again.  Yep, we ran out of gas outside of Gillette, Wyoming.  Dave had asked me if I thought we should get gas but we had a bit and some of the kids were sleeping....so I told him no.  Well, the miles passed and Dave had me check where the next town was....it was farther than we wanted!  We were praying and we actually stopped in a little town for gas, but it went out of business in June- UGHHH!   Well, our tank went dry when we were about 4 miles out of town.  Dave was actually able to coast if for almost 3 miles on the shoulder- thank goodness for down hill!  Then...Dave got out and pushed the car (YES- HE PUSHED IT :) 



Very thankful for a strong husband!





The boys were a huge help!



The boys got out and helped.  They made it about another 1/2 mile until a man stopped to see if he could give Dave a lift to the gas station. The boys continued to push as they were able so Dave would have less distance to cover getting back to us(we were ALMOST to the exit by this time).  Suddenly, a car pulled up behind us and this AMAZING lady got out with gas can.  She had seen Dave pushing the car so she went to the gas station, borrowed the gas can, BOUGHT us gas, drove back out on the highway, crossed through the grass median and even poured the gas in for us.  She truly was an angel!!!!  The attendants at the station later said they had never seen her before!!!  By the time Dave got to the gas station, the people asked if he was the car that ran out of gas and told him a lady was on her way with gas.  They said that people run out of gas all the time there!

Thank you Lord for sending us an Angel in Disguise and may we bless others the way she blessed us!

It was wild as we drove through areas that had signs for the Badlands, Wall Drug, Mt. Rushmore....all the places that we stopped at as we first started our trip.  What amazing memories! It is hard to believe that it has been 5 weeks.  We would love to stop and see all these places again!  The only place we didn't get to stop and see was Devil's Tower. We would have gone by if our time was not so tight.  We have good friends who stayed there so I may need to lift a photo from them! :)



They left the light on for us...
SO glad to be here!



The rest of the trip was less eventful but we were sad as we drove through the Midwest and saw what the crops looked like now 5 weeks later.  This  drought is rivaling the Dust Bowl and it is evident in the fields.  I prayed for the farmers and their families as they go through this and know that it will also touch us in many ways.  My parents actually had their well dry up while we were on our trip and they are hoping for rain to replenish it!  We had joked on our trip that we seemed to bring rain to every desert, so we figured that it would rain once we got to Iowa.  Would you not know it, but it stormed that night and they finally got some rain, not much but some. 

Let me tell you....were we glad to see their house!  We arrived around 8pm and they had a wonderful meal waiting for us.  The best pizza in the world, chicken, fruit, veggies & dip....mmmmm, so delicious!!!!  Thank you mom and dad for taking such good care of us. We love being here!!!! 



Having a wonderful meal with Grandpa
and Grandma!





My parent's dog, Traxx

In fact, the kids were begging to stay longer.  This was to be a very short stop as we still had 21 hours to go to get home.  Dave wanted to leave at 3am, (he was hoping to get home while it was still dark, so we could all get more sleep).  I wanted to leave around noon...so we compromised and slept until 6am, had a yummy breakfast with Grandma and Grandpa and were then on the road around 7:30am.  Even Traxx was begging for us to stay longer- or was it for us to leave.  We were not quite sure!  :)

Annika also had a birthday present from Aunt Denise and Uncle Terry which she had a lot of fun opening up.  It will be fun having new things to play with on the last leg of the trip home.

I am so thankful as I think about this incredible trip of all the people we have met and been blessed by, the amazing places that we have seen and just the experiences that we have had as a family.  We are so much closer and I am just so thankful for this time.  I am sad that it needs to end but so glad that we have this gift of time.  Thank you mom and dad for being a wonderful rest stop for us and thanks for the many ways that you show us your love!!!  We love you both so much!!!

Last Day In Montana



The Beehive Basin Hike



Thursday, August 2, 2012     Our last day of "vacation" before our long drive home.



The boys were making some creative
weapons.



We all slept in again this morning and it was so nice. The kids all said that they didn't even want to go outside the cabin :)  There was plenty to keep them busy....playing cards, making creations out of strips of cut t-shirts, the making of "weapons", watching the Olympics, reading, writing blogs.  We all enjoyed greatly the day of not doing much.  Dave and I did get the car prepped for our long trip home and got the car packed up during the day.  I am sad to think that our amazing trip is almost over. It has been such an incredible treasure and I have mostly cherished the time with our children!!!!!!!!!  Thankful!  We are truly thankful!

Lin did talk me into doing a hike back at the Beehive Basin and I am so glad that I went.  It was just the two of us and it was so peaceful and serene....just what I needed.  WE both loved taking pictures of the flowers (and logs :).  I do imagine that heaven will be like this....meadows filled with flowers, wind rustling in the tree tops, long walks with no where to be, the incredible fresh pine smell air, just being completely amazed by God's creation....it will be "heavenly"!



I do like my log pictures!





This is where we turned around
to go home.  Isn't it inviting?



We decided to hike up one hour, we knew we could not make it to the basin but our goal was to just enjoy the outdoors, which we did thoroughly.  We stood for awhile where we stopped to turn around.  I just wanted to soak in the sounds, smells, feel of the breeze, the gorgeous field and inviting path to "Come further up and further in" (quote from The Last Battle- Narnia).  What a gift to be in creation and spend this time with Lin- Thanks Linda!!!! 



The mother moose, the baby
was lying in the long grass taking a nap.



Our trip down was quicker but just as enjoyable. We passed a family who asked if we had seen the mother moose and her baby.  No, we had not but we would keep our eyes open for her. That would just be a perfect ending to our day.  We watched as best we could considering the terrain.  At one point, Lin just stopped and said, "This would really be a perfect place for a moose".  And as I looked around, I spotted the moose and said, " And there she is!!!"  How exciting to see a mommy moose and her baby sleeping in the grass. They were not 50 feet away from us but the mother seemed to care less that we were there.  We briefly contemplated trying to get a little closer but then decided to just be thankful we saw them at all.  What an AWESOME hike!!!!

Dave and I made dinner tonight of lasagna, salad, bread and fruit.  Our last meal in Montana but a wonderful one.  We had a great time with all watching the Olympics and packing up last minute things.  We are planning on leaving at 3am to start our trek to Grampa and Grama's house, which will be about a 16 hour drive.  No one is ready to get back in the car but we are glad to have such a wonderful place to stop and rest in Iowa!!!!  Good night everyone, it will be a short night here!



This is just but a shadow of what will be!



 

Yellowstone National Park- Day #2



The Lower Falls and Grand Canyon of Yellowstone



Wednesday, August 1, 2012  Yellowstone National Park:  Lower Falls and Grand Canyon, Petrified Tree, Mammoth Springs and the Boiling River

 Today we were a little slower but still out of the house by 9:00am.  A small miracle truly :)  Our goal today was to drive around the Upper Loop at Yellowstone and started with the Lower Falls by the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.  We took a .8 hike with a 600 foot elevation change down so that we could be right on the top of the Falls.  Beautiful and so powerful!  The hike was enjoyable and such gorgeous views.  The hike up was a bit more work but all did well, although Annika stopped to rest at every log, seat or rock.   We all made it up and enjoyed our picnic lunch with a good view of the falls from another angle.



After our climb up from the Falls.




The Lower Falls



We love seeing the falls and it is amazing to think of how God created all this landscape.  With the towering canyon walls to the rushing river with the crashing falls. 



Jonathan & the Lower Falls.



Just incredible!  Jonathan, Chris and Ben had fun taking some unique pictures with the Falls.  Not many of those around I bet! :)





The petrified tree



After the Falls, we continued down the road toward the Mammoth Springs.  There was a petrified tree that Jan had wanted to see but other did not.  The night before the decision of whether or not to stop to see the tree had nearly caused a riot.  People were jumping on the "Tree Train" in support of Jan but in the morning, the tree got cut from the schedule.  Now, we were at the end of the caravan, so Dave made a split- second decision and cut off from the group when we saw the sign saying it was ONLY 1/4 mile away.  We ran up, saw the tree (took pics of course) and caught up with the rest of the group.  Fortunately, for us they were only about a mile up the road.  A moose had been spotted so all were out getting pictures.  When hearing that we had been delinquents and went to see the tree, Jan insisted on seeing the tree.  One car went back quickly while the rest of us enjoyed the moose.  Whew- traveling in a group= not easy!!!



This is where the hot water runs over the
side and the different colors are created
by different minerals in the water.

Overlooking the top of the
Mammoth Springs

 When we were all reassembled, we continued onto the Mammoth Springs.  We hiked up most of the way to the top but then decided to drive the rest when a person said that the most incredible views were on the way up.  It is amazing to see the different colors and textures from the Hot Springs.  The springs looked very low right now but as we talked to a ranger later, he said that the water flow is the same, just the terrain that is changing with the springs coming out at different places.  I did not hear this story but supposedly, a ranger had been walking in an area thought to be safe from hot springs and fell through the ground. He had to be hospitalized for 7 months.  This is not something to play around with....soooo....we went to play IN at our next stop!



We were onto a place many had been waiting for, the Boiling River!  Dave had wanted to go in a Hot Spring and this was a place that had a river with hot springs running into it so the water was like a hot tub.  It was hard to imagine that water could actually be that hot coming out of the ground but let me tell you....IT WAS!    It was so very cool (not cool in temperature) and we had so much fun at this place!



Swimming in a hot tub



The Boiling River- All the water
spilling into the river is BOILING
HOT...trust me!



There was a river right next to the hot springs with a lot of rapids

in it and the kids loved surfing in the water until they were really cold....then they would hop into the warm water.

It was very relaxing and it still completely baffles me how the water can be so hot coming out of the ground.  We swam for about an hour and then we went out in search of food.


Cookin' in the Boiling River :)



We exited Yellowstone at the North entrance in Gardiner, which is the only entrance open in the winter.  What a fun day....and our animal count today moose, prong horn deer and some mountain goats. 









Jonathan and his buffalo



We stopped in Gardiner to get some supper.  After 2 no-gos, we ate at a little cafe and had a SUPER supper.  Jonathan had a double buffalo burger and polished it off in no time (Dave, on the other hand was not able to finish his).  We had a fun time talking and hanging out in this little town.  We had over a 2 hour drive back to Sky Haus and arrived home around 12:30am.  What a LONG day but such a good one!  Looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow. 

It has been a blessing to see so many amazing creations with Dave's family!



Good-bye Yellowstone!



Weasel "Ousel" Falls Hike



Ousel Falls



Tuesday, July 31, 2012     Ousel  Falls Hike

Again, another favorite morning of sleeping in- sooo nice!  We all had a relaxing morning until Dave whipped the kids (and me) into shape with a mile run (at over 8,000 feet).  The kids all did very well but I had a problem since my lungs seemed to be on fire.  The downside of being out of shape :)  But it is gorgeous scenery!

We had found this house through friends of Jan and Rob.  We had been told that we needed to do the "Weasel Hike".  Interesting name we thought but maybe there are a lot of weasels there????  So, that was what we planned for this afternoon.  When we reached the trail head, we realized that the name was not Weasel, but Ousel.  We were close....and decided we all liked Weasel better.  There were two interesting signs at the trail head that we don't usually see.  The first one was to watch out for Grizzly Bears in the area....?????????  YES WE WILL!  The second one was to report Noxious Weeds.  Again, ???????  Supposedly there are 4 different weeds that we need to report to rangers if we spot them and then they would be in BIG TROUBLE!!!!  All of this is so new to us.:)  Jan said that she could just NOT turn a weed in, they were too pretty.

So... off we are on our hike.  Again, just incredible scenery and a very pleasant path.  It leads down to a river which we cross over and then on into the hillside. There are waterfalls and canyons that the rivers runs through.  We came to a pool with steep canyon walls running up each side. The kids loved skipping stones here and clamoring over the rocks.  I thought that this was where the hike ended as it was so cool, but no...a little farther up, we found the Falls.



We had fun exploring up on top of the falls and below it.  It is amazingly beautiful, especially when the sunlight glistened off each water drop. Gorgeous!  We briefly walked about heading home to get swimsuits and water shoes so we could go swimming in the falls but then thought...NAH, lets just swim in our clothes.  So most everyone ventured in the falls.  It was slippery work crossing over on all those river rocks and the falls itself was merciless and very powerful. 



Chris getting pounded by
the waterfall.



We got so many amazing pictures and had so much fun exploring.  Christopher even discovered a room under the falls that most everyone entered. It was NOT EASY as the water was so powerful and VERY COLD.  Even Boppa made it out to the underwater room- Way to go Boppa!  It was fun to think that he had found a place that probably not many people know about.



Here is Dave in the Chrissy hotel

under the waterfall.  So cool!



We Praise You Lord!!!!!



My niece, Erin.



We took many pictures there, too many to post but we had some great silhouettes in front of the waterfall.  What an amazing time.  After everyone was sufficiently cold and hypothermia was again a concern, some of the kids slid down rock slides into the first pool that we had come upon.  They had fun sliding down the natural slopes, trying to catch fish and after a while, just trying to stay warm.



Sliding down the slides.



Our Master of Ceremonies!



 We had a nice walk home, warmed up in the hot tub and filled our tummys with a wonderful meal by Nanna.  That night Jonathan declared was to be "Game Night".  He banned the watching of the Olympics (at least until 9:30pm), made medals and we had a blast playing "All in the Family" and "Killer".  The rules to the game "Killer" are that you need to wink at others to get them out.  Oh, that is HILARIOUS, especially when there are people who can't wink.  What fun!  It was a wonderful night of playing games together.  Good job Jonathan!

Well, we are off to another day at Yellowstone tomorrow again (it is a BIG park), so time to get some sleep.  Thank you Lord for yet another incredible day, I don't want this trip to end.