September Gets Off to a Flying Start!

September gets off to a flying start! My grand-daughter Macie Kensiington Zuniga, age 10 months, rides in our airplane swing on our big back deck at our Labor Day Barbeque.

I was chief chef but Rachel grilled the burgers and Christian helped with the vegetables.

We cooked up some baked beans, hamburgers, hot dogs, onion rings, crystal lite lemonade and as always, thanks to Andrew lots of  fresh fruit.

We were glad Meagan and John came up to visit.

Macie is our main source of entertainment.  Christian cleaned out his homework papers and we let Macie play in them.  

The kids are all back at  school. Jamie started 7th grade at Mary Putnam Henck.  This is the first day of school.

I drove Rachel, Mandie  and Hannah Avarell to their first day of  High School and took them to Starbucks in Blue Jay on the way for a strawberry frappacino. 

 Mandie's first day as a sophmore.

Rachel is a senior this year!

Who knew you could have such a great time in Rexburg, ID?

After we left Big Sky Montana and Yellowstone, we decided to go to visit Rexburg, Idaho and see
BYU-I.  I had never been there before.  The temple was beautiful.  Jamie and I spent time at the
BYU bookstore there and walked around campus.  We went to see the movie "Ramona and Beezus," which was really cute.  Jamie and I had read those books when we were about 9 or 10, and I even remember meeting the author, Beverly Cleary when I was in 2nd grade.  I had won a class reading contest, so my teacher took me to a special event where she was at.
Back to our Rexburg adventure.

Jamie and I spent the night with our neice, Jolene and her husband Jace, who attend BYU-I.  Then we got up and went for a walk on the green belt, packed up and left for Logan.

Just outside of Rexburg we saw signs for "BEAR WORLD."  We decided, "Why not?" So we followed the signs.  It was really fun to go there and see bears roaming around like you hope to see in Yellowstone, but don't.   There were rides, a petting zoo, a cute gift shop,  elk, deer, moose, pigs, etc. as you will see in the pictures.  They will even let you feed a baby bear for $25, but we passed on that experience.  We really enjoyed Bear World and recommend it to young families.

In part of Bear World there is an area you drive your car through to see the bears in their habitat.  If you stop you car, they may climb on it, so you are encouraged to go 3 mph.

The baby bears were so cute.

Even I got on this ride.  

Another fun memory.  The Reader's Digest Magazine had an article on happiness.  They suggested you spend money on experiences, not a new car, if you want more happiness.  I don't have a new car, but I will never forget this vacation with Jamie.  We made it to Logan about 5:00 p.m., ate at the Blue Bird Cafe, which I love, and spent the night at Tenille Segalla Phillips' home, which was a delight.  We picked up Mandie and Rachel at 7:00 a.m and drove to Provo to visit Lauren for a bit and then on to California.  Mandie and Rachel talked about how great EFY was much of the way home.

Day 2 Yellowstone and Big Sky Montana

Big Sky Montana at Buck T-4's 

Grizzly Bears in Montana

Yellowstone Falls 

We saw many Bison

This bison walked right along side our car and almost grazed our side mirror.  Jamie loved that.

I love Waterfalls.

This is fishing bridge in Yellowstone, where my parents got engaged about 55 years ago.

When I was young my dad took me to Yellowstone several times and I loved it.  I wanted Jamie to have that experience.  The pictures say it all.

Our Yellowstone adventure of a lifetime.

After dropping the girls off at EFY, Jamie and I headed off on a road trip.  First stop - Logan Temple.

Next stop, Bear Lake, Idaho.  This is at the Fish Haven Cemetary where we visited the graves of our ancestors, Mary McPherson-- One of the oldest to survive the Willie Handcart ordeal,  Hugh Findlay, her son, who was the first of 4 missionaries to go to India for the church and was missionary president in Scotland, and his daughter, Charlotte Findlay Howell, my great grandmother who died at age 40 delivering her 7th child.  My grandma was 10 at the time.  

Next stop, Star Valley, Wyoming.  This is my aunt Geraldine, age 87, skyping my cousin and his wife who is on his mission in Pusan, Korea, where I served my mission, 30 years ago.

My cousins in Wyoming had a nice dinner for us, took Jamie to gather eggs and saddled up a horse for her to ride.  This is my cousin Darnell and his daughter Tammy and two children, visiting from Nebraska.

The next morning, after Aunt Geraldine fed us a nice French Toast Breakfast, we headed for the Tetons and Yellowstone Park, ending up that night in Big Sky Montana.  More to come, next blog.