Volcanic weekend

Brad and I wanted to do something special for our 5 month anniversary since it'll be the last one we have till our 1 year. The idea for our 1 year is to meet up in Ireland for his 2 weeks of leave that he'll get. Fingers crossed that it will all work out.
So Brad wanted to do a day trip to Yellowstone, but I don't think you can do yellowstone in one day. So we found a cheap motel and decided the next morning to get up and go. It's a beautiful drive down to yellowstone and the towns surrounding the north entrance are really kind of cool.
As soon as we got into the park we saw some animals on the hills and got our picture taken at the 45th parallel.


The story behind this is that when we first were dating Brad took me to Colorado to go snowboarding and visit his brother Greg. I guess it's a thing we do. :-)


The last time Brad had been to Yellowstone he went to the firehole river. Its fed by the hot springs, so the water is warmer than you'd expect. We found it and luckily found a parking spot quick enough. It was a very popular place to be.





We ate some lunch and ventured up to where people were jumping into the rapids and floating down. Little kids were doing it, older guys were doing it. Other women were doing it, but I was having a hard time rationalizing jumping in. After Brad had jumped a few times and he peer pressured me into jumping and it was soo scary. But I did it and he now can't say I didn't jump. We floated down the river a little bit and while we were swimming I kicked a rock with my foot. dumb idea, but I didn't see the rocks down below. We then floated down a little bit and discovered why no one was floating down that way. The current was really strong and it took Brad down the river a little. It then took me and it was the scariest thing I've been through. I cut my foot open while being pulled down the river. It sucked. Worst part of the trip. Brad took care of me though. We got to the side of the river and he went and got my flip flops. We made it up the car and Brad cleaned me up. It was hard to walk after that, but I was glad I brought my tennis shoes.







After all of this, we arrived at Old Faithful.












We walked around a little and saw some other geysers and hot springs while we waited for Old Faithful to go off.










Ventured to the hotel and got a beer and watched Old Faithful go off! It was quite the show.

















It was a long day and we were on our way to West Yellowstone when this big buffalo decided to stop traffic.










It was pretty cool to see up close and personal.










We found our little motel and walked down the street to find something to eat. Brad really wanted to take me to Bull-winkles because he had fond memories of it. So we did that or our anniversary dinner. On the way back to the motel, this fish jumped out at me!






The next day we took slow.





Went to gushers for a late breakfast and early lunch.





Very good. Don had suggested that we go there . . . thank you Don!





On our way out the East Entrance we saw some cool things.





Drove by yellowstone lake . . . saw some more buffalo.




















OH! I saw my moose! I totally forgot!






We drove past this real pretty part of the lake and took a picture! One of my favorites.








I took this picture from under the sun roof.




It turned out pretty cool!

























Driving out of yellowstone there was a controlled burn that we drove by.
We went through a tunnel and then drove through wyoming on our way home to billings.
We drove through Cody and then finally home.
It was very nice to come home and sleep in our own bed.

Life Changes

Since March 20th I've gone through a few major life changes. I got married and that's a big thing. I also moved to a different state without knowing anyone but my husband. I am very fortunate for the people who have taken me under their wings and grown into friends. It's those friends that I want to keep around. My wonderful husband is also being deployed come september, so I will have to learn to go through life for a year without him by my side. Most of my friends understand this hard time in my life and are there for me. I am so very thankful for these friends. I hope they know who they are and hopefully understand how much they mean to me!
But it's those friends who are having a hard time understanding these life changes that frustrate me. I thought I knew these people and they'd be there for me, regardless that I now life 800 miles away from seattle. I guess I didn't know them as well as I thought.

These life changes however have made me see things a little clearer. The friends that I thought I wouldn't be close with again are reoccurring in my life and I love it. I guess I need to re-define close friends. I knew these people were close to me at a certain time in my life, but they had faded away. Now that we are in similar parts of our life, we can relate and it's wonderful. I am rejoicing in it.

My in-laws have told me that you lose friends at 2 times in your life. Once when you get married because your 'single' friends can't comprehend the new priorities in life. The second is when you have children because its the same 'single' friends ( if they are still around ) and the married friends that don't have kids yet, that don't understand the same thing. Priorities.

So I am decided this:
I am not going to feel bad for spending every waking moment with my husband. He is my best friend. He loves me for who I am and wants to make my life better, not worse. He is there for me in my time of need. He is an amazing person and I am not going to be punished for spending time with him.

On a much happier and positive note . . .

In the time that he's been home we haven't had much down time. He arrived home on Monday afternoon and we had to get up early Tuesday morning to be back at the unit for his SRP! The SRP are like medical days. They get shots, update their folders, talk financial and what not.
I am involved in the FRG, Family Readiness Group, for the unit so we sell concessions and organize events for soldiers and families, deployed or not. Every drill weekend, we do concessions and get to meet the soldiers so they know who we are and what we do and stand for. We did concessions for the SRP both Tuesday and wednesday ALL DAY LONG. We set up at 6:30 because first formation was at 7 and we didn't leave each day till around 5:30 after final formation to be dismissed. We sold pizza ( lots of it ) and made sure the soldiers were updated on our paperwork to contact families. It's tiring to do that. Thursday morning we had to be there early as well because they had other classes they had to sit through. That morning wasn't quite as long, but I am sick of being at the unit. At least we got to sleep in this morning, but I had to meet Rachel, the FRG leader, at the Shrine to make sure the Yellow Ribbon stuff was getting taken care of. Yellow Ribbon is an event that the FRG SHOULDN'T have had to put on but there was a HUGE miscommunication, so now we got stuck with doing it. And by we, I mean Rachel, myself and a few others. It's meant to get families ready for deployment and what life will be like, what to expect and how to get by. I'm looking forward to it. I am also looking forward to it being done! :) It's been harder and more time consuming that I thought it'd be.
Its usually a 7 part series, and parts 3 and 4 are rumored to be in SEATTLE!! L :) that'd be freakin awesome!
I got to go to LA for a weekend for a training on how the FRG should run. It was very informative, but the best part was getting to go to the ocean. I was craving the ocean noise and the cool touch of the water! It was great. I'll be sure to put up pictures sooner than later.