Dan caught a FISH!

Okay - we went back to that little stream that Dan fished in the other day and lo and behold he caught a fish - I didn't get a picture of his fish before he threw it back - but let's just say it was way too little to keep, but the fact is he caught a fish (actually he caught two last night but they were too little to keep also!) He caught some fish and at this rate he is down to about $75.00 for each fish he has thrown back! That's okay - give him time and he'll catch one or more that he can keep!

I did the laundry today and Dan stayed at home and worked in the yard - he used the weed eater and watered the yard - he also washed the front of the 5th wheel that still had bugs on it from the trip out here. I went by the post office and picked up the mail - I paid the three bills that were in the package and went through the rest - some was insurance information and stuff like that. There was some confusing information and I had to make some phone calls. Dan asked me if it was going to be easier next month and I told him yes because we won't have all the final bills from the house. Anyway, that should be everything for the month - at least I hope so. So far, we are still on budget and that is good.

Tomorrow we will take the trip into Montana. As I said last night I'm not sure if we will have any pictures for the blog tomorrow night, but I look forward to the drive. Then it's to work on Saturday and Sunday. (we did close the cabin this afternoon - our neighbor had to go to the play).

I also fixed a blackberry cobbler (Dan called it a crisp) it was a little crisp - but I am still learning to use the convection oven and I only did a half recipe because we only had one package of frozen blackberries. Anyway, I am learning and I'll keep trying until I get it right. Supper tonight was pretty good - chicken, vegetable medley, and corn on the cob. It was pretty good.

Well, I'm not staying on line too long tonight - we are currently watching one of the Indiana Jones movies - "the Last Crusade" (which in my opinion is the best of the series!) So I'll sign off - one more thing - Congratulations to Melissa and Justin on the purchase of their first home!!! Dan and I are sooooo happy for you both!!!! Talk to you all soon.

Grocery Day

Hello all -today was a day at home and the grocery store and getting things organized again. Since it was a sorta boring day I wondered what I was going to talk about today on the post and realized that I had never shown you pictures of the inside of the 5th wheel. So, I decided I would do that today - now forgive me for not having them in a more organized manner (this is our bed - duh - and the dresser is two pictures down, but I really wasn't thinking when I was downloading the pictures - sorry!) Anyway, I think you will be able to see how things are. We are getting rid of the "fu-fu" - we can't stand it and adding a more country/wood theme - we took down the "fu-fu" headboard that came with the trailer and added our own picture (of the Grand Tetons) - added our bedspread and pillows on the bed. Of course, when you see the dresser you will notice we added our own moose also!

Now you see what I meant when I said the generic table lamp on the dining table - we would really like something more "woodsie" (if that's a word) for the table. So, we will look for something in our many travels.

Of course, this is the kitchen area - look Melissa, I have the sign you gave us in the kitchen - for those that can't read it I'll translate - "Dream - When your heart is in your dream, no request is too extreme! - Jiminy Cricket" We sorta feel like we are living that "Dream" right now.

In case you couldn't tell - this is the dressing area of the bedroom - and yes, here is our moose on the dresser - in the background is the shower and sink area.

Finally, this is the living room area - and yes, I have tried to put a little bit of our "touch" on the place - I can't think about living somewhere that I haven't decorated just a little. It isn't big, but it's our home and we are getting settled in and liking what we have. I will do a few more tweaks of course (like the table lamp) but it is comfortable for us now.

Now, I did download the pictures of yesterday's trip into Yellowstone and I will post them at the bottom of the entry for today. Tomorrow we will do laundry and then we are going to go up and close the cabin for our neighbor tomorrow afternoon - she and her husband are going to West Yellowstone to see The Secret Garden at the playhouse. We told them we would be glad to close up for them so they won't be rushed getting to the playhouse. After we close, Dan wants to go back to the stream that I took the pictures of him fishing the other day. (Oh, by the way, he bought a new fishing rod and reel and all that stuff today when we were at Wal Mart - over $100 worth of stuff - I told him that he had better start catching fish - he was over $200.00 in fishing stuff!) So, I will take my book with us up to the cabin and then I'll read while he fishes.

Friday we are going to do the loop into Montana - I really don't know what kind of pictures I'll take, if any, but I'll have them for you if I do. It is hard to believe that this week is almost over and we'll have to go back to work in 2 days - oh well, it's only for 2 days. We can handle that!

Now, as a final note - I watched the Bachlorette (sorry Crystal) and I was somewhat surprised that she sent Reid home - but then her date with Kipton went really well. I'm not sure now who she will pick - the head's on favorite has to be Ed, but lately it doesn't seem like things go the way you think they will - and in the previews it seemed like there was going to be some kind of drama - so we'll just have to wait and see. Of course, next week is "The Guys tell all" and I hope someone beats Wes's A**! He is such a jerk. Okay, Crystal, I'll quit now.

Here is the link for the pictures from yesterday. Hope you enjoy!

Keep the comments coming - and just so you know - my hair is different!

Yellowstone - South Loop

Well, here we are sitting in front of the Lower Falls at Artist's Point. Isn't that the most beautiful scene you have ever seen - okay take us out and it's one of the most beautiful. Anyway, we had a great time today - we saw lots of water falls today on the north side of the southern loop. We did see a little wild life- I have some pictures of a Bull Elk and some of buffalo. Not much else - I wanted to get pictures today of the hot springs, but we made the mistake of taking the northern side first and by the time we got over to the western side we were ready to come home. Soooo - I told Dan that the next time we come into the park I want to take the hot springs picture and he said okay. Once again, the girls traveled well - we let them out a couple of times to go 'potty' but the rest of the time they rode in the back seat. We stopped at the Lake Lodge for lunch ($23.00). This is the oldest lodge in the park - I always thought Old Faithful Lodge was the oldest, but it's not - this lodge was actually used as a stagecoach stop. Anyway, Dan had trout almondine and I had a chef's salad and water -it was pretty good. I'm cooking dinner as I write - but, it's really lite tonight - how about hot dogs and potato chips.

One of the reasons we having hot dogs tonight is I don't have anything else to cook. That's why tomorrow is a run into Rexburg - Wal Mart and Albertson's (the Wal Mart store is not a super center and they don't have fresh produce or meat - so we'll check out the Albertson's that is right next door). We have a few things we want to pick up at Wal Mart - such as a paper towel holder that mounts under the cabinet (the one I have now sits on the counter and it takes up too much precious counter top). Hopefully we won't be in Rexburg all day, but it is the closest Wal Mart and "real" grocery store.

I'm not going to be too long winded tonight - I need to get up and finish getting dinner ready. I'll leave you with one other picture from today - I'll get the pictures downloaded to the web tomorrow and have the link for them then. Hope you enjoy!

Dan's Fishing Day

Well, today Dan finally went fishing - and I even have pictures as proof. In fact, he walked down to the Buffalo River right after dinner to try a little more fishing. This picture was taken on a little back road that we drove today - one of many. While he did not catch anything on this little trip at least he FINALLY went fishing!!! He was somewhat excited to be able to go out in the middle of nowhere and try his hand at catching trout - he'll catch some - it's just a matter of time.

Tomorrow we are going to do the south loop in Yellowstone - it is more of the geysers and hot springs - I don't know how much, if any, wild life we will see, but I will have my trusty camera ready. I look forward to taking some pictures of the hot springs - some of the colors in them are breathtaking. We will take the pups with us again - so if it's a long day we won't have to worry any.

This afternoon I bought tickets for a musical that is being presented by a theater group in West Yellowstone. We are going to go next Wednesday (the 22nd) at 6:00 pm. It should be fun - I let Dan decide what he wanted to see - they are presenting three different shows - Footloose; The Secret Garden; and Guys and Dolls - Dan chose Guys and Dolls. I hope he enjoys it and maybe we'll go see at least one other one (Footloose). I'll let you know how next Wednesday goes first.

Thursday I will do laundry and Friday we are planning on doing a loop into Montana. It's a scenic drive and I always look forward to seeing beautiful country.

Today has been very windy - gusts up to 35 mph. I will be glad to see it settle down - the weather forecast is for it to be windy like this until 9pm so I still have about an hour and a half. I really don't like the wind like that - it sorta rocks the trailer, but I know that it's fine. We keep a listen on the weather radio and there isn't any bad weather - just the wind.

Oh- one of the things that I did today was upload the pictures of Bryce Canyon and the Grand Canyon. I didn't take many of the Grand Canyon for some reason, but anyway I'll put the links in. (At least I'm going to try and put in two links - I've never tried this before, so I don't know if it will work - let me know if it doesn't).

If you would like to see the pictures of Bryce Canyon click on this link.
If you would like to see the pictures of the Grand Canyon click on this link.

Let me know if these work - and for my girls - I'll email you the pictures of my "new" hair - don't want to bore everyone with them.

I'll sign off for tonight- BTW, the only tv show that I really miss is The Bachlorette and I watch it the day after it shows on network TV on the Internet - I am making a prediction now, in case any of you out there watch it too. I think she will pick - ED and REID and sent Tipton home tonight. We'll see how I do. (it was interesting to see that she did NOT use the Fantasy Suite with any of the guys except ED and supposedly just talked with him - a girl with a little morals maybe???) Anyway, after tomorrow, when I can watch the show, I will make a prediction on who she chooses. Later!

My two little excavators

Friday I gave my little darlings a bath and just yesterday we put their Frontline on them and gave them their heartworm preventative. Silly me thought I wouldn't have to worry about them for another month. So, imagine my surprise and my irritation when cleaning the kitchen this morning and fixing our lunch I look out the kitchen window and see dirt flying. I look again and Jessie (whose butt is toward the camera) is waist deep (if dogs had waists) in a hole and Samantha is on the other side digging just as hard. They had found a chipmunk hole and were digging furiously trying to catch this poor little creature. Dan comes to the door and tells me that the dogs were now officially mine and he didn't have anything to do with them and their past time. Yeah, like I'm really buying that one!
I finally get finished in the kitchen and walk outside with the camera - these little pups where making the dirt fly and when I called them Samantha tried to hide. I did finally get a picture of
both of them with their dirty little faces. I'm sure I will end up having to give them another bath but for now I'm just trying to give them a "sponge bath" and get the majority of the dirt off before I let them in the bed.
As you can see, these little darlings were dirty from the tips of their noses to the tips of their tails. Oh well, what can you do?

Today was another busy day at the cabin, but it came in spurts. At times there would not be anyone in the cabin then 10 minutes later there would be 15 to 20. At one time there were over 40 - that is a little crowded! However, we met some of the most fascinating people and learn so much from them - today we met our first people that are full-time RVers like we are. We talked for quite a while and learned a lot about different parts of the country and where they would recommend us traveling to. It was very interesting and informative - they gave us a card with all their contact information and I hope to stay in touch with them.

I know my girls would like to see a picture of their "new" mom and I'll have Dan take a picture tomorrow and I'll post it then. I'm not sure what we are going to do this coming week - I know that I am going to encourage Dan to finally use those fishing licenses - he needs to get out there and see what he can do. Right now he has put in a movie (Bourne Supremacy) and so I guess I'll sign off for tonight.

Another Day in Paradise (or close to it)

Hello all - sorry I didn't get my blog posted last night - I had done the blog and when I started to post it I realized that I was not online anymore and I lost the entire blog. By that time it was so late that I decided I would catch everyone up on our activities today.

Yesterday was a day that we got a lot accomplished. Not only did I do housework, I rearranged some cabinets and got rid of some things that we will never need. You know, it's funny when you are getting ready for an adventure like the one we are on how you think you will need all this "stuff" and you don't. For example, I brought at least 8 towels - now what do I need with 8 towels when it is just Dan, the girls, and I? When I do laundry I wash the ones we have used then we use them again. I don't get new towels out everyday. Anyway, when we get back to Florida in November that is one thing that I will change - get rid of stuff you don't use or need. But I guess it just takes living the way we are to recognize what you actually do need and what you don't. It is a completely different way of living than living in a "sticks and bricks" house. You have to think about the size of the jar of peanut butter you buy - will it fit in the pantry? How many rolls of paper towels you buy and how much frozen things you can fit into a freezer the size of a small cooler. It is an adjustment, but I think we are handling it well.

I also was able to give the puppies their long awaited bath - they were not real happy with me for a couple of hours (at least until I fixed dinner - then all was forgiven). I will put their Frontline on them today and give them their heartworm preventive and we will be good to go for another month.


Dan and I went to a small craft fair yesterday also -it was to benefit the local library - I did buy 4 paperback books and spent one whole dollar. It will give me something to read at night since I had finished everything I had brought with us. (So, I donated those books to the library - don't have room to store them.)

Last night Dan helped me do my hair - and it may come as a great shock to my children, but their mom is NOT a blond anymore - I'm now a light brunette. I don't believe my girls have ever seen me not as a blond (that gives you an idea of how long I have been coloring my hair - YIKES!) Anyway, I got a little tired of having to do my hair all the time and I also thought that a person on the back side of 50 probably didn't need to be a blond any longer - SO, I looked for a color that I thought was pretty close to my natural color and voila I'm a new woman - Dan wants to know when I will let my hair go gray and I told him when I was as old as he is I just might!

Today was a busy day at the cabin which was somewhat surprising, but we had one family group come in that was having a family reunion - there were over 50 in the group with some coming from as far away as Hawaii. This afternoon when we were closing I looked at the register and there was a family that came through the cabin today from New Zealand. It is amazing how people from all over the world come to this little cabin in the woods - I sometimes wonder how they find out about it - could be the same way we did - the good old Internet.

Well, we are half done with our work "week" and I am not sure what Dan has in store for us next week. I think we will probably do the southern loop in Yellowstone sometime during the week - and I am sure I will do laundry one day, but other than that we are just not sure - we'll get up one day and decide what we are going to do then. I need to get up and fix dinner - bar-b-que pork sandwiches, fresh french fries, and corn on the cob. Should be good. Maybe one day next week, if we can stay home, I will get the pictures of the Grand Canyon and Bryce Canyon on the web so you guys can see them (they are pretty awesome!) That will be a goal of mine for next week. Please let me know what you think of the blog - or if you have any questions about what we are doing just drop me a comment and I'll answer you. Until tomorrow!

Grand Tetons National Park

Grand Teton

Today was another absolutely wonderful day - we drove over to Jackson (by the paved road this time) and shopped a little on the square - I should say we walked through some stores. My kids would be soooo proud of me - I haven't bought anything in all the stores we have been in - okay, I take that back. I did buy a Grand Teton National Park sticker to use on my scrapbook pages when I get my pictures developed. But I have not bought any thing for the trailer - no little something to decorate with. I know they won't believe me, but it's true. Maybe it's because I don't have anywhere to put anything. I did see a lamp that I told Dan would be pretty on the table instead of the Wal Mart special we have there now. But, the $75.00 price tag changed my mind very quickly! After we walked around for a little while we went into the Million Dollar Saloon and had lunch - I had a regular cheeseburger while Dan had a buffalo burger ($25.00). I saved some of my cheeseburger for the pups (yes, we took them with us again - I don't like to leave them alone so much).

After we left Jackson we actually drove into the Grand Teton National Park instead of just driving by on the way to Yellowstone as we have done in the past. Therefore, most of my pictures today will be of scenery. The scenery is awe inspiring. I hope you will be able to tell from the pictures that I will post at the end just how beautiful this place is. I really don't know if my pictures will do the place justice, but I hope they will. The picture above was taken at the Jenny Lake Visitor Center and almost matches the picture we have hanging over our bed in the trailer.

When we left the Tetons we decided to go ahead and drive through Yellowstone from the south entrance and go through West Yellowstone to go home instead of driving all the way back to Jackson and then back the way we came - it would have been about 100 miles that way instead of about 70 the way we went. We stopped at McDonald's in West Yellowstone because it was getting late and Dan was hungry (big surprise) - I figured it would be an inexpensive meal since we always eat off the $1.00 menu. WRONG!!!! They don't have a $1.00 menu - so instead of about 6 bucks we spent $12.63. Oh well, it was a great day and we did enjoy ourselves.

By the way, at the end of the pictures you will see female elk pictures and a couple of a very young male elk - he was just starting to get his horns (nothing like the Bull Elk we saw on Tuesday). I hope you enjoy these pictures - just click on this link.

Tomorrow I stay home and clean a little - finally give the pups a bath. I think Dan is finally going to go fishing. Will fill you in on what happens - you never know what we are going to do next!