The Jackson Family Online

Today I reconnected with Bruce the man in charge of the addition on my house which was a good thing since we hadn’t talked in a month:). A few things here and there had to be changed or done a little differently than originally anticipated but it’s all good. Probably going to take another month to finish it up. Which is not too big a deal as the girls and I are headed up north in about ten days and will be gone for around three weeks anyway. Today was the first time that when I woke up in Lydia’s room…I could see out into the sunroom and imagine what it’s going to be like to have that room…I can already tell I’m going to love that room! And today was the first day that we could walk up into it since they put the stairs in today from the new bedroom to the sunroom. We still can’t go into the addition from the main part of our house but it won’t be long now…After talking with Bruce I found myself pulling a weed or two and the next thing I knew I had gone through my whole yard getting everything back into shape…wasn’t in my mind that I was going to do that today as I need to do laundry and still need to unpack my suitcases…but the weeds and dirt were calling…you know me:). So the outside of my house is looking much better. I tried a new thing today, I hope it works out…I have a tree I planted in my backyard a couple of years ago and it’s really getting bushy and growing but I wanted it to go up more and some of the branches were low enough and heavy enough they were touching the ground, so…I figured I would just break a few of the lower branches off so that the tree would be forced to grow up…after finishing that up I had to wonder if I just did major damage to my tree…hopefully not…we’ll see how that goes. Amazingly most of my plants are doing marvelously well and are still alive, yippee! In fact my raspberry and blackberry plants that I planted this spring are taking off big time…I’m going to have to find out what I’m supposed to be doing with the huge stalks coming out of them as they are starting to look like a jungle. I have a feeling that I underestimated the amount of space they will take up…oops!

The girls and I spent the rest of the day running errands…amazing how many things pile up when you’re gone for a month. The girls weren’t especially thrilled about it but they survived and we had a great lunch at The Bread Company…haven’t ate there in over a month so it was all the more special…we even got to eat outside and the weather was perfect! After the errands we went and saw a movie…”Walle” it was cute, and Lauren actually had a teary moment which is very rare for her…

Tonight I was back out in the yard…I swear it calls out to me and says…don’t worry about the laundry, leave the suitcases behind, come move around some flowers, pull some weeds…etc. The only problem is that now that I’m getting ready for bed my body is calling out to me and saying “What were you thinking…” Anyway…

Tomorrow is time to go to the dentist for all three of us and we’re all dreading it, girls even asked if we could play hooky…the only problem is that we already did that once and rescheduled it already so…we’ll just have to get it done. Our dentist and assistants have this lovely habit of scolding us when we go…and frankly, we’re doing the best we can…I mean it’s not as if I’m in shape either, so my teeth seem to be the least of my problems:). I’m hoping to drop in on Richard and Idona after our appointment, catch up with them a little and see how his treatment is going. Then I’m going to have to come home and face the inside of the house:). If I dont’ do laundry soon their won’t be any clothes left:).

It’s been interesting to think through and talk through this whole house addition with the girls and in my own mind. It’s always the dilemma of building and making things that fit us three or taking into consideration that we might become four or more some day and how would we want things to be if that was the case…I’ve basically come to the conclusion that we just have to make things the way they need to be for we three…if that changes we’ll deal with it then, if it never changes than I would just as soon make things fit who we are at this point. I’m excited to see that we’re going to have room to hang our three hammock chairs that Mark got us from Nicaragua in our sunroom…I can picture some really great moments and conversations happening sitting in our chairs together.

Hope your day was wonderful. I found myself at the movies today watching the previews realizing that I was much more aware of the backgrounds in the movies and thinking “I recognize those mountains…” I’ve been to that location… etc. Amazing how much my picture of this world has changed in the past month.

Off to Bed…need to go take some ibprofin…some crazy lady has a back that’s in pain…can’t imagine how that could’ve happened:)>

Love,

Ruth

Seems really good to be home except for the fact as Lydia put it that it feels like we’re living in a “haunted mansion”…that would be because everything has a big layer of dust from construction and then it appears that this is our cats big shedding time so… everything is also coated in cat hair, it’s lovely. I didn’t even bother unloading the car yet, figured that stuff didn’t have anything on it so no need to contaminate it too:). So…after church today we ate lunch and then went and bought a new vaccuum…Knew my old one wasn’t going to cut it and although it was tempting to bring my huge shop vac out of the basement and shop vac everything in sight I decided the new vaccuum would be a better and more manageable solution. So far…it’s going on 4pm and I have the front room mostly done…have a long way to go but we’ll make it. The girls are happily playing in Lauren’s room. They’re enjoying being home again. Add the overgrown weeds and grass and construction stuff and that finishes off the haunted house look:). Hopefully in a couple of days things will look a little more homey again. I’ve never been gone for a month before but wow…things tend to get a little behind.

It was great to go to our church this morning. I’ve never been one of those mom’s to regularly measure my girls height but I have a feeling that I should…when we walked into church this morning everyone commented on how much the girls had grown…I of course hadn’t even noticed but I’m sure they’re right. Lauren is now out of the kids area at church and so she sat with me in the service and really enjoyed it. While we were taking communion she leaned over and said “Mom, this is why I love The Bridge…we do things different here…” Pastor Ben was preaching about fear this morning and he had us break off a piece of bread that represented our greatest fear and then we all gathered those pieces and took communion from them (we did all use hand sanitizer:). It was interesting to think about what my greatest fears are, what wakes me up in the night, one might think that I would be afraid about being alone, or other issues like that but I knew immediately my biggest fear the thing that wakes me up in the night and drives me to my knees is my fear of not being what I need to be for my girls. I so clearly see my faults and failings with them…and I know I have such a limited amount of time with them…and I don’t want to screw it up, So many conversations I want to have with them, so many experiences, etc. and many days are just spent trying to keep the peace between the two of them. Parenting is not easy for anyone let alone doing it alone. Ben reminded us of the verse “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me…” I love that verse! He had us share times when that verse has played out in our lives and helped us to conquer our fears…I shared about being afraid of taking the trip out west, driving through mountains, etc. and how last night when I pulled in the driveway I almost felt like I should hear applause or something…and after I shared…my church, my part of the body I’m connected to applauded for me…how beautiful that they would be the hands of God to me today. As Pastor Ben served communion I noticed because I was sitting close that for every single person in the congregation who came up he had a word to speak to them that was individual and unique before they took the bread. How wonderful to know that my pastor knows his congregation well enough to be able to speak God’s encouragement straight into their hearts at a special time. Sometimes we common people wonder what pastor’s do all week…admit it you’ve wondered…I grew up in a pastor’s home, married a pastor and am still occasionally impressed at how much of a pastor’s work is behind the scenes. Relationships don’t always show up in numbers and graphs but they are the lifeblood of a church. Pastor Ben today said to me…may you feel God’s smile upon you…and in those few words I drew a lot of strength, he told Lauren “May you feel God’s encouragement in your life…” and I knew he hit the target and I know he did the same for several others in line probably without even realizing it. I love my church and it was good to be home.

On the trip I had a chance to speak encouragement into my sister’s and nieces’s lives and they spoke into mine…Mary Anne told me “Ruth you always see the silver lining in everything”…meaning that no matter what happens I can find the good in it. Wow…she has no idea how much that one statement meant to me. I wouldn’t have said that about myself…but I’m sure glad that she sees that in me. Amy asked me if I had heard a song from Point of Grace that talks about living every moment to the full or something like that and when I said no she said “Ruth it’s your theme”…meaning that she sees me living large for God and taking advantage of every moment I’m given…again I’m so glad to know that is what comes out in my life, because at the core of me that’s what I believe. These examples of short statements of encouragement have reminded me once again the power we all have to speak into each other’s lives, I know how much I appreciate and need it and I hope I’m one to give that same encouragement out to others.

Found myself in worship today singing the songs but driving in my mind through the mountains and beautiful scenery I’ve seen in the past month…images to last a life time. Well…back to the daily grind…need to finish the cleaning…at some point I’m going to have to unpack:).

One funny story before closing..today on the way to church I was on the expressway driving, thinking, etc. and before I knew it I had passed the exit I take for church…I realized I’m so used to driving hours at a time I had gone on mental auto pilot and not been thinking about getting off on the right road…so I had to go around the back way into church today…Had to laugh at myself, it’s like my car has a mind of it’s own or something:).

Love,

Ruth

The big news of today is that we are HOME!! Yes we came home a day early. Last night I mentioned that Lauren wasn’t feeling good, threw up…and then continued to throw up through the night, by this morning I made an executive decision…I couldn’t do a whole lot about how she was feeling but I do know that when I’m sick I’d rather be home than anyplace else so…I programmed the GPS for home and we took off. Nine and a half hours later we arrived at home…let’s just say we made incredibly few stops and kept a good pace going:). I purchased a box of saltines this morning and we were good to go:).

It was so nice to get home!! The addition looks great and gets me all the more excited for it’s completion. I left the house clean but in a months time of our two cats and all of the building going on…well it was kind of interesting to see how much dust and cat hair was on everything in the house. Not trying to gross you out or anything but wow…I can see I’m going to be doing a major clean this week, actually that sounds fairly therapuetic for me this week…along with an oil change…I’m just a little over due on that after over 6,000 miles:)…and dentist appointments for all three of us…woo hoo that sounds exciting.

It is unbelievably good to be on my own computer!! And hopefully we’ll be good to go for church tomorrow which will be awesome as we’ve already missed four sundays.

The girls and I had the best time the last few miles laughing about the funny things that happened on the trip, you know how it goes…those moments when things happen that you didn’t plan on…those tend to be the moments that are hilarious later. Makes me realize already how priceless this month is and will be for me and my girls. We did talk about our next summer vacation and decided to wait on the East Coast thing…we’ve decided to opt for a cruise instead…something we can unpack our luggage one time on and have more time to just relax and not be driving…So…we’ll see how that goes and we all know a lot can happen between now and next summer but I think that’s the direction we will be heading in. 

So now we are home for the next 11 days and then we head out for another 3-4 weeks with a trip to Michigan, the kids are both going to horse camp up at the church camp my parents direct, and then we are camping as a family at church camp and then we are heading out to Washington D.C. with my brother Jim and family.

We’ve been gone a lot this summer but with the addition going on I’m thinking maybe that was all part of God’s plan for us so we could live through the addition and not have it be a big deal.

I do have to tell you as I drove over the Clark Bridge tonight I was looking at the beautiful sky, the river, the bridge, etc. and I realized that people who don’t live here on a daily basis would be stopping to take pictures just like we did all over the west. It was absolutely beautiful and something I take for granted everyday simply because I live here. As much as I loved the mountains, the ocean, the wildlife, the canyons, etc. there’s no place like home to me. I love where I live, my neighborhood, my flowers…can’t wait to get out in them and get them weeded out and spruced up, my friends, my church, the views we have here are beautiful.

I’m in the mental mode of reorganizing my life this week and taking it easy a little at the same time. I thought we would unload the car tonight but we didn’t…I only had enough day light time to walk around my house, look over the addition, the plants and talk to the neighbor and then it was dark, it was a long day so I decided it could wait until tomorrow. I’ve decided the girls and I are going to try eating at home for the next 11 days…I’m tired of eating out…you know how that is after awhile. So tomorrow will involve getting groceries as my cupboards are a little bare at present. And a month’s worth of mail…well that’s a pile to go through tomorrow as well. For tonight I’m just going to unfold my body from my driver’s position and watch some tv with my kids and then collapse in bed. Their will be time tomorrow.

Thank you for your prayers, support, and encouragement. I asked the girls if they would ever take their kids on a trip like we just took and they both said definitely yes! They have made so many great memories and seen things that I never saw until I was 37 years old.

When I get all of our pictures scrapbooked I’ll have to show it around to those of you who would like to see them. I’m hoping to have them together by the time I come up to Michigan. Maybe I’ll even post a couple on this blog. I’ve never been real good about the picture/blog thing. I’ll also try to post some pictures of the addition…it’s come a long way!

Have a great Sunday!! I’m looking forward to mine!

Love,

Ruth

Today we said goodbye to Hannah and Amy, they flew back to Michigan from Rapid City by way of Denver and Chicago. Hopefully they are in the air as I type almost back to Flint. The girls and I drove on to Sioux Falls, SD. We were definitely driving through the waves of amber grain today…almost had an ocean feel at times. We did stop by the Corn palace…and I’m not sure what we missed but it wasn’t for us…so that took about 20 minutes to do a quick walk through for us to come to the conclusion that we didn’t need to take anymore time. No big deal since we hadn’t driven out of our way to go. We arrived at our hotel, chilled a little and then I took the girls to see the water falls in Sioux Falls. My line on this trip has been “You never know, we may never travel this road again…” so although they weren’t big on seeing another waterfall we went anyway and we were so glad we did. They weren’t like any waterfalls we had seen yet. I mean the ones at Yellowstone are huge and you don’t get anywhere near them…these ones you could actually walk out on the rocks and almost dangle your feet in them which was pretty cool and fun to take some pictures of the girls. Then we thought we might try to go see Walle since it just came out, didn’t find a movie theatre…but that was a God thing, went to Chili’s for dinner and discovered Lauren wasn’t feeling well…so after she threw up (in the bathroom, Praise God) we decided to box dinner and come back to the hotel. I think that all of our bodies have had enough of vacation life…you know how it is, you eat different, sleep different, etc. in fact we have even talked about driving straight home tomorrow…except it would be a really long drive…at least 10 hours. So…I think we will probably stay with our Kansas City stopping point but we are anxious to get home.

I read a quote recently, can’t remember where from but it said “if anything matters…than everything matters…” had time to ponder that today, we’ve had family with us for the past 19 days so I hadn’t had as much time to just think and drive so today seemed kind of nice to have some down quiet time. The reality is I believe that everything does matter no matter how minute it is. For example…when I bought Amy’s ticket it had more layovers than they would’ve liked, understandably, but I found myself wondering how God might use them to speak a kind word, share a story, give a smile in each of the locations they stopped. I can’t get over the thought that what we consider “good and bad” is not what God considers to be “good and bad”. Not to overwhelm myself or you but I think every detail, every word, thought, action, etc. matters, the way we spend our time, money, attention, etc. it all matters. Just something that made me do some thinking. I’m behind in my bible reading as usual so I probably will try to read Hebrews and Ezekial sometime this weekend…ugh…I hate it when I let myself get behind. I’m also feeling the need to do something different this week diet wise…need to purge all of the eating out I guess…I’m thinking it might be a fruit and vegetable week for me and the girls with water thrown in between times.

I almost feel like their should be a crowd in my driveway when I pull in on Sunday:)…I”m not expecting that or asking for it but my point is I feel like we’ve run a good race and we’re completing this leg of life well…who knows maybe their will be some angels giving a yahoo as we pull in. Today I was thinking…people always say as time goes by the missing the loss of a person you love gets easier, or less painful…I have a feeling that is because you start making so many memories where that person is not present that your mind literally has a way of moving you through the grief without even realizing it. When I get home I’m starting a new scrapbook of pictures since Mark died…a scrapbook that is the girls and I’s memories as “we three”…it just seems like the right thing to do. It’s as if we were all on one piece of land, Mark took a bridge to a place that I can’t go right now and the girls and I at the same time took a bridge to a new land ourselves…and all of the bridges have been burnt behind us…a clear before death and after death line in the sand so to speak. The only common denominator between the two places is God…I know Mark is drawing closer to God everyday…and the truth is even though it takes more effort on my part to draw closer to God on this earth everyday…that’s where I need to be too if I want to sense any connection between our two worlds. As you can probably tell…I had drive time today, one road for several hours with no mountains to think about, and plenty of time to think…felt good.

Anyway…hope Lauren feels better soon!! Tomorrow it’s another five hour drive…by the time I get home I will have driven around 6000 miles in 30 days…wow!!!

Love,

Ruth

Today was a slow get around day. But once we got going we headed for Mt. Rushmore…the funny thing is even before you pull in the parking lot you see it up on the mountain and could almost say…”o.k., we’ve seen it, take a picture and lets move on…” we didn’t do that however:). We enjoyed gift shopping, eating, and more eating and we also walked around the museum and the place where the sculpter worked, and we took in the two movies about the area. It felt like an incredibly hot day and by the time Amy and I got back up the stairs from the Sculptor Studio I swear we could’ve both had a heart attack…I’m just a bit out of shape. In fact, here’s a funny story…Hannah took a picture of Amy, me and Lauren when we had almost reached the top and Amy looked at the picture and realized how bad she looked and asked Hannah to retake it so we could try to look happier and more alive, the second one was a bit more perky:). Lydia found the coolest souvenir today I only wished we had found it at the beginning of the trip. It’s a passport book for all of the state parks/historical sights/etc. across the nation and what happens is you buy stamps and put them in your book and then when you reach one of those sights the Ranger stamps it for you so you have an official record of when you were there. Bummer we are at our last stop and could’ve been doing it all along…so I’ll have to go back through where we’ve been and at least write in the date we were there. The girls had fun putting their stickers in their books and are looking forward to having more stamped when we go to washington D. c. at the end of July.

It’s obvious when I look at the gang and evaluate my own well being that we are pooped and need a vacation from the vacation…you know how that goes. Amy is upstairs right now trying to fit in all of her stuff in her luggage so she can fly home tomorrow, that’s the problem with a trip like this you pick up a lot of souvenirs along the way:). We’re supposed to get a bad storm through here tonight so we’ll probably just stick to the hotel or close by so we can get an early to bed and get them to the airport in the morning. And no I haven’t been to the corn palace before…but I’ve heard about it from others and looked at the brochure…it’s on the way so it’s at least worth a stop in to check it out.

Next week…the girls and I are just hanging out at the house…sounds like bliss right now:). It’s been a great trip though and I’ll be up for another one in a year:).

Thanks for traveling with me…
Love,
Ruth

We had a great last day at Yellowstone on Tuesday. We saw Old Faithful go off, had time to eat lunch before so it felt like the timing worked out perfectly. When we were in line for lunch and then after Old Faithful in line for ice cream (a daily event), we missed the crowd of thirty people by mere seconds so that was awesome. We saw the rest of Yellowstone at least the parts that you can drive around, got out of the car several times and walked the paths…didn’t realize how much but we were all a little sun burned by the time we got back to the hotel. And we even saw not one but two grizzly bears up close…pretty amazing! And Buffalo everywhere it seemed. Yellowstone was such an awesome experience it feels as if the rest of the trip might seem a little bit anticlimatic…I mean it’s incredible when you can see the animals in the wild not just in cages:). And the scenery well…it was amazing. Anyway, yesterday we got up and drove for nine hours…it was a long drive and truthfully I think Amy was feeling as stiff as I was by the time it was over. The good thing is that it wasn’t a stressful drive in the sense that we seem to be into the hills now instead of mountains. The girls had fun watching National Treasure 1 and 2 in preparation for Mt. Rushmore:). We enjoyed taking some pictures of the Black Hills and then checked into our hotel. I have made a decision after this hotel stay that it’s always best to stay in a chain hotel…but it will get us by for two nights. We ate a great dinner and came back to the room and vegged. This trip has definitely involved a lot of drive time, I feel like my car is my second home. Which brings me to me first home…I’m very curious to see it on Sunday…have no idea what all has been done. Figured I might hear from Bruce sometime this month but we kind of left it that if he was fine and didn’t need anything that he wouldn’t call and I told him I wouldn’t probably call him either unless necessary. Wanted to separate the vacation from the addition. I’m confident the girls and I will be surprised upon pulling into our driveway. We did check and make sure that we could get across the Mississippi River to make it home and even with all the flooding that seems to be still doable Praise God!

So…today we head to see Mt. Rushmore and Crazy Horse. Will be an all day event as we plan on seeing the lights tonight at 9pm on the monument. Then tomorrow I drop Amy and Hannah off at the airport so they can fly back home and the girls and I drive to Sioux Falls for out next stop. About five hours down the road. I think we may stop at the Corn Palace on the way…it’s cheesy but I have a feeling it might be something they would enjoy and it’s right off the highway so we might as well. We may never travel this road again. Then on Saturday we drive to Kansas City and then home on Sunday. We’re all looking forward to getting home. But it’s been a great trip. I’m thinking the East Coast for next summer:).

Have a great day,
Love,
Ruth

We had a great last day at Yellowstone on Tuesday. We saw Old Faithful go off, had time to eat lunch before so it felt like the timing worked out perfectly. When we were in line for lunch and then after Old Faithful in line for ice cream (a daily event), we missed the crowd of thirty people by mere seconds so that was awesome. We saw the rest of Yellowstone at least the parts that you can drive around, got out of the car several times and walked the paths…didn’t realize how much but we were all a little sun burned by the time we got back to the hotel. And we even saw not one but two grizzly bears up close…pretty amazing! And Buffalo everywhere it seemed. Yellowstone was such an awesome experience it feels as if the rest of the trip might seem a little bit anticlimatic…I mean it’s incredible when you can see the animals in the wild not just in cages:). And the scenery well…it was amazing. Anyway, yesterday we got up and drove for nine hours…it was a long drive and truthfully I think Amy was feeling as stiff as I was by the time it was over. The good thing is that it wasn’t a stressful drive in the sense that we seem to be into the hills now instead of mountains. The girls had fun watching National Treasure 1 and 2 in preparation for Mt. Rushmore:). We enjoyed taking some pictures of the Black Hills and then checked into our hotel. I have made a decision after this hotel stay that it’s always best to stay in a chain hotel…but it will get us by for two nights. We ate a great dinner and came back to the room and vegged. This trip has definitely involved a lot of drive time, I feel like my car is my second home. Which brings me to me first home…I’m very curious to see it on Sunday…have no idea what all has been done. Figured I might hear from Bruce sometime this month but we kind of left it that if he was fine and didn’t need anything that he wouldn’t call and I told him I wouldn’t probably call him either unless necessary. Wanted to separate the vacation from the addition. I’m confident the girls and I will be surprised upon pulling into our driveway. We did check and make sure that we could get across the Mississippi River to make it home and even with all the flooding that seems to be still doable Praise God!

So…today we head to see Mt. Rushmore and Crazy Horse. Will be an all day event as we plan on seeing the lights tonight at 9pm on the monument. Then tomorrow I drop Amy and Hannah off at the airport so they can fly back home and the girls and I drive to Sioux Falls for out next stop. About five hours down the road. I think we may stop at the Corn Palace on the way…it’s cheesy but I have a feeling it might be something they would enjoy and it’s right off the highway so we might as well. We may never travel this road again. Then on Saturday we drive to Kansas City and then home on Sunday. We’re all looking forward to getting home. But it’s been a great trip. I’m thinking the East Coast for next summer:).

Have a great day,
Love,
Ruth

Highlights of yesterday’s Yellowstone adventures:)…

The girls having a snow ball fight…I kid you now there were places where their was several feet of snow still on the ground even though we were in shorts and sleeveless shirts!

A black bear literally crossing the road in front of us while Amy was standing outside the car taking pictures with me yelling for her to get back in…I knew it would be hard to explain if anything happened to her to Jim…:). It was truly amazing! A once in a life time experience.

Seeing the Canyon Falls…not just from one perspective but actually from three they are so large and powerful. Just listening to the water was amazing!

Watching the Norris Geisers going off and taking lots of pictures.

And a ton of animal close encounters…we’ve actually seen so many elk that the kids have gotten to the point where if it’s just elk again they don’t need to be bothered about it:). Kind of funny.

Today we go to Old Faithful which should be a great experience.

I found myself awake last night for about an hour. If you’ve ever drove through mountains for a long period of time, and especially in Yellowstone, or walked the trails at The Grand Canyon…maybe you’ve had this experience. I woke up and had to calm myself down about the terror of what could’ve happened if I had made a misturn, went to fast around a curve, etc. My imagination is pretty good and there are some permanent scary images in my mind that I know will make me grateful to get back to the midwest…I am a flatlander at heart:). I do drive carefully…but like I said if you’ve made these kind of drives I’m sure you know what I’m talking about…So after a little deep breathing and a long conversation with God I was able to get back to sleep and we all actually slept in this morning…haven’t done that much on this trip, always things to go see and do. I have a feeling my kids and I will collapse once we get home and just enjoy some down time. But for today…off to Yellowstone, it’s our last full day here so we want to enjoy it to the full.

Have a great day. Tomorrow we head for Rapid City, SD to see Mt. Rushmore the following day.

Love,

Ruth

I love how every place we’ve gone has not disappointed me and Yellowstone…wow!! First off the drive from Missoula, MT to Gardiner MT where we are currently staying was awesome, the mountains beautiful, the rivers amazing, etc. and their’s a reason why they call Montana the Big Sky state, I know mentally it’s the same sky I look at back in Illinois but it sure looks different here. So…on the way driving in yesterday I had watched the river long enough that I decided it might be fun to go white water rafting, jokingly mentioned it to the kids and Amy:)…little did I know that white water rafting is huge in Yellowstone on the Yellowstone River so…yesterday after arriving I proceeded to book us for a white water rafting trip for this morning. We were all a little nervous as none of us had ever experienced it before and had seen the current of the river (side note, the river is at the highest point it has been at in the past 10 years due to a cold spring and then a rapid warm up that caused huge melting amounts of snow to flood the river), but again I figured it would be good for a great memory and they have guides in the boat so surely it would be safe enough!! After getting that settled for our schedule today last night we went into Yellowstone National Park at the North entrance, which I guess is the oldest original entrance…we were hoping to see wildlife and wow we weren’t disappointed. I could not believe how many animals we saw and the variety. We saw deer, elk, buffalo, a fox, and a brown bear and then later a black bear. We also saw some pretty awesome waterfalls and that was all in a short amount of time and on one drive. It had hailed earlier in the evening so we waited til that was over to go in. So in probably 1 hour we took all of that in!! Awesome! I never imagined that it would be that easy to see the animals. And the views…wow rated right up there with the redwoods, the grand canyon, etc. The only snag was that we were having so much fun and taking so many pictures we let the sun go down on us while we were out a ways and then had to drive back in the dark…I was glad to see the exit by the time we got out:).

So…today, the white water rafting was awesome!! We all decided we would like to do it again. And I have to give Amy credit for being game to do it in the first place…o.k. I didn’t give her a lot of choices but to her credit she went along peacefully:). You should have seen us all in our wet suits…remember the water was extremely cold…snow run off. We looked beautiful, you’ll have to imagine that in your own head as I will not be posting a picture on this sight:) (I promised Amy:). Our guide was great and it had relaxing moments and also some more exciting moments. We all decided we would like to take the next step up for the next time we rode. Today we rode a level II-III river. We had fun buying souvenior shirts and I bought the CD of the pictures they took on the river…priceless:). Now we are headed to lunch and then to venture back out onto uncharted territory in Yellowstone, wonder what animals we’ll see today. I’m definitely going to make sure my tank of gas is full, everyone has used the restroom, etc. their aren’t a whole lot of places to do that kind of thing there:). We have one more full day in Yellowstone tomorrow and we plan to drive to Old Faithful and further down into the park than we have so far, it’s about 50 miles away and at 35 miles an hour with frequent stops well it could be an all day trip. Then on Wednesday we head out for Rapid City.

This trip has been incredible…my confidence in myself and who God is has grown immensely…bring it on baby:)!

Love,

Ruth

Today was a long driving day 7-8 hours through mountains. But it’s nice that at this point we have arrived at our destination in Missoula, MT. The girls were a little bummed about the fact that our hotel doesn’t have a pool…at least it’s just for one night. Tomorrow we head out to Yellowstone National Park, we’re actually staying in a Best Western in Gardiner, MT which appears to be right at the entrance to Yellowstone. We’ll be there for three nights, which is the longest we’ve ever stayed anywhere on this trip but people kept telling me to plan on plenty of time there so I decided to go ahead and schedule three nights.

So…I’ll catch you up on our day from yesterday. We had a great time walking around the San Juan Island in Friday Harbor, lots of little shops and things to look at. We even found time to get ice cream, Again!! O.k. so I’m going to have some serious working out to do when I get home but it is vacation after all:). We went to the local whale museum…and overall had a good time sitting outside and enjoying the beautiful weather. The girls and I had a great time on the way back to seattle on the boat watching for whales/purpoises, etc. We were so proud of ourselves everytime we spotted one even from a great distance. It was windy and a little chilly sitting on the top of the boat but a memorable moment for me and the girls. And between the mountains, the water, the wildlife, etc. I found myself naturally singing praise songs to God…it helped that no one else was sitting on the top of the boat with us:). We even passed a few cruise ships headed for Alaska and had some incredible waves to go through as a result…that added some excitement. When we got back to Seattle we went to The Old Spaghetti Factory for supper, we have one in St. Louis which I went to many years ago but it had been a long time and was the first time for Amy and Hannah so that was nice and again the weather was perfect. For the whole time we were in Seattle I don’t think it ever rained, pretty amazing. After getting settled into our hotel we were planning on catching the monorail to go up in the space needle at night to see the city lights…it became apparent that the walk/trip was going to be too much for Lydia so…she and I stayed back in the room and I repacked our suitcases. They were getting a little crazy. Lauren Amy and Hannah went to the Space Needle and had a great time, got back to the room about 11:30pm. I think as always we fit in just about everything we could fit in to the limited amount of time we were there. This morning we got up and around and hit the road, knew it would be a long drive.

Looks like tomorrow we drive through the Rocky Mountains on the way to Yellowstone, at least on the map that’s what it looks like, I’m curious to see if those mountains seem different from the ones we have already driven through. We sure have seen some beautiful sights on this trip. But I have to say as a midwest person, born and bred…whenever I get to an area of flat land I feel a little relieved:).

The drive gave Amy and I a lot of time to talk and catch up on life…something that we don’t always get a chance to do which was nice. Sometimes I feel a little bad about the fact that Amy and Hannah aren’t getting the freshest side of us…o.k. I’ll be honest the girls and I are having a few more irritable moments than usual these final days of our trip…vacations are exhausting you know:). It was nice to have some honest heart to heart conversations about imperfect situations and feelings today and come out stronger for it. God is good…been trying to start reading Ezekial…ugh I’m not a big prophecy person, I can tell that’s going to be a tough one to get through.

After tonight only seven more nights til we’re home. This has been an incredible trip so far. More than I could’ve even dreamed, memories for a lifetime. I’m hoping we see some wildlife in Yellowstone…that’s been the one thing we seem to be missing at most of the locations so far…not picky here but I’d like to see the wildlife from a distance that’s safe but still photo quality:)…o.k so maybe I am a little picky. The girls and I couldn’t help it on the boat last night we all were praying that God would bring a whale to the surface and just let us see a tail flap or something, earlier in the day we were told about a pod of 30 whales that had been playing around in the water just off the coast of the island..their should be an alarm or something don’t you think that tells everyone to come quick or you’ll miss it…sadly we missed that…I am grateful for what we have seen though and optimistic about Yellowstone..

Hope your day is going great and that you’re not flooded out! I figure my plants at home should be incredible as they’ve been watered so much…we’ll see.

Love,

Ruth