Last But Not Least....

Cody, Wyoming. The Black Hills. Driving Home!

Yellowstone & Grand Tetons

Oh The Joys of Pictures

Pictures from:
Seattle, Washington
Gig Harbor
Olympic National Park
Pacific West Coast

Glacier Pictures

The Beginning of Lots of Pictures

Here is the first set of pictures (they're also on facebook). Some of them you've already seen, but there are a lot of new ones too. I'll be posting more over the next few days.

These pictures include:
The first 3 days of driving to the Badlands
The Badlands
Driving to Glacier

Home Sweet Home!

We got back to good ol’ Jacksonville, FL yesterday around 7pm. As much fun as I had on our trip, I was filled with so much joy when we drove into our neighborhood and I stepped foot into our house. It was a wonderful feeling coming back to one of my most favorite places! I’m extremely grateful for the Lord’s protecting hand and for the gift of family. It was a trip of a lifetime!

During our 3 day drive home, mom and I came up with some fun facts and lowlights (since we’ve shared most of our highlights) of our trip....

Most asked questions:
What are we doing tomorrow?
How much longer until we get there?
What’s for dinner?

Top 5 most popular places:
1. Glacier
2. The Grand Tetons
3. Yellowstone
4. Badlands
5. Mt. Rushmore

Lowlights:
-Stuck in traffic in Seattle A LOT
-We ate out twice and both times we wished we hadn’t
-Altitude sickness
-Trip to the emergency room two hours from where we were staying (in the middle of Yellowstone) with no cell phone reception.
-7 mile hike through brush our height
-Didn’t see a bear

Random:
-We made 53 gas station stops to re-fuel
- Did 33 loads of laundry
- Drove 9,000 miles
- Who caught the most Z’s while driving 9,000 miles: Drum role please…..Ryan and Amber!!!
- Spent 8 nights in Wal-Mart parking lots

Wildlife:
Buffalo- Yellowstone and Black Hills
Deer- Everywhere
Pronghorn/Antelope- Black Hills
Donkeys- Black Hills
Mountain Goats- Glacier and Black Hills
Coyote- Yellowstone
Jack Rabbits- Badlands and Cody
Wolves- Yellowstone
Prairie Dogs- Badlands and Black Hills
Big Horn Sheep- Badlands
Chipmunks- Everywhere
Elk- Yellowstone
Moose- Yellowstone
Turkeys- Badlands
River Otters- Yellowstone
Peacock- Port Townsen
Golden Eagle- Cody

Food:
Favorite snacks: pretzels (Went through 8 bags!), granola bars, and fruit.

Our Chuck Wagon meals: Spaghetti, Tacos, Grilled Chicken, Hamburgers, Hotdogs/Brats, Steak, Chicken Piccata, and Beef Stew. Most of these meals we had twice. If we didn’t cook, we had a sandwich or leftovers.

Lunch: Just about everyday we had a picnic lunch that consisted of sandwiches, sandwiches, and more sandwiches :). Most days along with sandwiches we had grapes and chips.

Breakfast: Everyday for breakfast we had cereal, oatmeal, toast, or fruit. Two mornings when we had time we had bacon, eggs, and toast.

More pictures coming tomorrow!

Our Last Supper!

We’ve had another long day in the van. We’re almost to Chattanooga, Tennessee and tomorrow we’ll be home! Tonight we had our last supper at Cracker Barrel! It was delicious and a much needed stop!

We're pretty tired in these pictures after two straight days of driving!

Wildlife!

Feeding the wild donkeys in the Black Hills....

A type of mountain goat

One of our encounters with a stuffed bear...didn't see an alive one.

Koyote in Yellowstone

The buffalo like to cause traffic jams

Female elk in Yellowstone

If you look up in the top right corner you'll find our "spider monkey" Ryan standing on a rock.

One of our many adventures through the woods =)

Chipmunks were everywhere, but oh so cute!

Pictures!

One of the colorful hot springs in Yellowstone

The Yellowstone Grand Canyon!

Momma and her munchkins

The Black Hills & Mt. Rushmore

The first day in the Black Hills we went to “Jewel Cave.” We rode an elevator 300 ft. into the ground and toured the cave for an hour and a half. It was 49 degrees! Was a very cool experience, but we were all glad when we came back up to the sunny and fresh air! That afternoon we took a quick peek at Mt. Rushmore because we knew we were going back to see it at night along with a video presentation. Once we got back to our campsite, dad, Victoria, Karah, and I went to a field close by and played a game of dodge ball and soccer.

Yesterday we went on a drive called “Wildlife Loop.” We saw some buffalo, prairie dogs, pronghorn, and donkeys. The donkeys were very friendly! With the parks permission, we were aloud feed them. In fact, they didn’t leave us alone until we did! They were a lot of fun, but some of them were a bit aggressive which caused dad to pull out his fist a few times! Last night we went back to Mt. Rushmore. They do a very nice outdoor video presentation and light up the mountain when it’s over. The grounds surrounding Rushmore are very patriotic!

We left our last campground this morning at 6am and are on our way back home!!! If everything goes as planned, we’ll be back late Monday night.

Day 21

We spent this morning at the Buffalo Bill Dam and white water rafted in the Shoshone River this afternoon. The weather was beautiful, but the water was freezing. It was a nice ride down the river…Not too rough at all!

The rest of the day we caught up on laundry and are packing up to leave in the morning for the Black Hills/Mt Rushmore. We will arrive by tomorrow afternoon and will be there for 4 nights. After the Black Hills we’ll be on our way home!!!

Blogger is having some technical problems with uploading photos so I’m still unable to share any. Hopefully whatever the problem is will be solved over the next few days. I will be trying from time to time.

Yellowstone & Cody

Sorry for the delay in posting! Our internet connection hasn't been the greatest and it's been very slow. We had a lot of fun in Yellowstone! Everything from the wildlife to the geothermal geysers were beautiful. We also spent a day in the Grand Teton National Park. It was unique in its high peeked Rocky Mountains, and we had gorgeous weather!

We did however, have a few complications due to the high altitude. We camped at 8,000 ft. above sea level and drove as high as 10,000 ft. By the second day the 3 youngest of our group started to show signs of high altitude sickness. Unfortunately, the symptoms for Joshua resulted in a two hour ride to an emergency room. Without going into details, we should just say God was faithful to meet his needs and he is now fine.

We are now back down to camping at 5,000 ft. in Cody, Wyoming which seems to only be yielding a few stomach pains. Last night we went to a rodeo and experienced a real wild west show. Today we visited the Buffalo Bill museum and watched a gun show on the streets of downtown Cody. Tomorrow we're hitting the rapids!!! YIPEE!

We're all still having a lot of fun, but definitely ready to back to home sweet home!

Here is just one picture from Yellowstone. I will try to post more tomorrow. Like I said, the internet connection is very slow and it takes a while to get them uploaded.

Day 15

We all woke up early yesterday morning and headed to Olympic National Park. It reminded us a lot of Mt. Rainier…Beautiful snow capped mountains! We hiked 1/2 a mile straight up and saw a very pretty 360 degree view of the area….Victoria and I ran some of it and both decided that it wasn’t a good idea after the fact :). While eating lunch, lots of dear came out to see us. I think we counted 9. Some of them were babies and adorable! The weather was wonderful!

We headed back to our campground mid afternoon, ate a yummy dinner, and packed up again. We are now on our way to Yellowstone! It will take us two days to get there. Last night we rode a Ferry because it saved us from driving 90 miles around Seattle. It was a 30 minute ride and we had a great view of the city. We stopped driving around 12 last night and got back on the road again at 8:30 this morning.

Today is another full day of driving. We’re hoping to be in Yellowstone by tomorrow afternoon. Not sure if we’ll have internet connection while there so I might not be able to post over the next few days. Keep checking back!

On the Ferry....It was really windy!

Candace & Victoria in the Tent

To clarify ahead of time, the disgusting belch came from Victoria not Candace! :)

Two Week Update!

Twas two weeks ago when we journeyed afar
Packed up our stuff and left in the car
Drove through the arch as we continued our march
Went on to the Badlands where we became parched
The wind blew fast, but the view was vast
Saw some rock and Victoria went “bok!”

Wal-Mart is the best because we get to rest
It’s where we get our food so we stay in a good mood
We stock up on supplies and say our goodbyes
Continue on our quest to the best of the west

We went to Glacier National park
And saw the stars when it got dark
Walked on the clouds tried not to be loud
It gave us much luck for we saw a big buck
The wild flowers were pretty, they made us get giddy
We didn’t see a bear so Josh yelled “no fair!”
Montana was golden, the sky so grand,
It made our family its biggest fan
Saw some cattle then left for Seattle

Our great big van, it was hard to park it
But we sure were glad when we saw the market
Flowers, fish, and veggies galore
Then went on to the first Starbucks store
The Space Needle was grand, saw all of the land
No one in Seattle has a nice tan

Mt. Rainier was next, standing so tall
Saw lots of fir trees, both big and small
Covered in snow and ice
It looked so perdy and nice
It was a really long ride but worth the drive

Had a day of rest and cleaned up our mess
Did all the laundry so we could stay dressed

Woke up in the morning had eggs and toast
And headed off to see the Pacific West Coast
Hiked through a rain forest first time ever
Pretty amazing for our first endeavor
Victoria fell off a tree and scraped her knee
We watched the wave’s crash and Ryan got smashed (literally!)

Went to the beach and got dirty feet
Skipped some rock and saw a peacock
Started the day changing our tires
Ended with steak sitting around the campfire

With two weeks to go, we hope to see more snow
Especially a grizzly and maybe a doe
Hope you enjoyed our poem, for it gave us something to do
Next stop is Yellowstone! Yippity do!

Written by: Ryan, Amber, and Candace (And a few lines by Victoria and Karah)

Day 14

This morning we got all our tires changed on the camper and headed north east of Olympic to our campground in Fort Flagler State Park. Spent most of the day walking on the beach enjoying the cool and sunny weather.

Tonight we’re all staying warm around the campfire and its girl’s night in the tent :).

Tomorrow we’re headed to Olympic National Park!

Ryan is Chief of the fire

We re-stocked our pantry for the 3rd time today!

It's cold outside tonight!

Day 13: The Pacific West Coast

This morning we hit the road at 8am and headed off to see the Pacific West Coast. Two hours into our drive we stopped, had a picnic lunch and hiked through a rain forest (Only one in the US!). Got back on the road and drove for another hour and a half to see the Pacific Ocean. The weather was a bit chilly, but very nice. The beach we went to was surrounded by rock and drift wood...Couldn’t see any sand. The water was freezing and the surf was rough.

It took us a good 4 hours to get back to our camper. It was definitely a long day in the car. What was supposed to be a scenic highway wasn’t very scenic, but we had lots more bonding time in the car :).

After dinner we packed up again and headed to another Wal-Mart parking lot so we can get up early and get new tires put on the camper. We'll then head out to a campground closer to Olympic National Park and will be staying there for two nights. After Olympic is Yellowstone!

It's harder than it looks :)

Dad making fun of us!