Week 56 (+23) In planning mode

56

-The number of Aubrey Holes (thought to have located wooden posts) in the first stage of Stonehenge.
-The number of men who signed the United States Declaration of Independence in 1776.


So I have been sick this past few days with it only hitting me the other night. I wondered why I felt weak and odd and it had me worried until all the rest of the normal start up signs of being sick hit me. Not fun. I spent the last night chilling and wrapped in a electric heated blanket watching crap TV until I felt tired enough to sleep. This morning I have mucus running down my throat and a lil hint of a cough every now and again. I always seem to be the one that holds out the longest in the family when sick. Then it hits me with 20 double barrow shot guns all at once. This time it is not that bad YET.

I've been working on a few projects and even got one that I'd been mulling over for a while done with. It was a sew project that I had been tinkering with in my head.

New music that discovered in the last lil bit:

This song is brought to you by a bored Rach. It is OAH by Alexander Rybak He is the 2009 Eurovision winner and a Norwegian musision.

I also like this song by Rybak.
Europe's Skies - Alexander Rybak


His music has a folk/gypsy/pop feel to them IMHO. To bad that his CD has to be imported at a cost of $30+ bucks.

Zircon - The Art of Zen

Found this one through FA. Tons of good music is link through the artist on FA. There is another one that I've been listening to on the laptop but I can't recall what it is or who it is by so that will have to be posted later.


Now onto the planning in the Planning post.

So the destination for Sibling Road Trip XI is going to be Oregon! The major things we are hitting up are Wildlife Safari and the beach! Sadly I was planning to try and make this trip shorter then the last one but ended up making it much longer. Two days there with a stop (when I say stop I mean for the night) in Winnemucca, Navada (5 hours) and another in Klamath Falls, Oregon (10 hours >.<) and then onto our vacation destination of Winston (3.5 hours) with two days for fun there. Then the inverse of it on the way home. Six days round trip. I tried so many ways to get the second leg of the journey cut down but I just could not find a place to stop and stay at. It looks like the place leaving Winnemucca is rather desolate until you cross the boarder into Oregon.

So now the grit of planning minus the money and hotel/motel stops that John and I have already worked out. Wildlife Safari is like a MASSIVE Bear County USA that we hit up in South Dakota. Bear County was a huge hit with everyone even more then I planned. I thought that all the other sibs would just kinda like it and I was going to be the only one that really, really liked it (I can't say looked forward to it as it was a surprise major side trip while in SD). But no it was a massive hit with them. Wildlife Safari is bigger and has not just North American wide life but African and Asian wildlife as well. After I looked it up and read their website about it and told Rach and John about it Rach was giddy as hell about it! A couple extras that we are also going to spring for while we are there is the elephant car was and the tiny train ride (kinda like they have at zoos). Rachel is extremely excited about the car wash that is to quote from their site "Guaranteed not to get your car clean!!!!!"



Did I mention that you get to stay in your car while they do it? John said about the extra cost of the wash "might as well since we are going to be there". It cost only about $10 bucks more then Bear County USA sans the elephant car wash and the mini train ($2 per person). (I kinda want one of the paintings that the cheetahs paint as my souvenir.)

Then either that day or the next the beach! I have a kinda stupid but fun idea for that. While we are having fun doing all the beach stuff they can gather up a lil bit of sand and put it in some small glass viles/jars I'm going to be picking up off of Etsy and bring it home as a memento of the trip and the day at the beach.



Been thinking if I want to bring food coloring as well so they could color it if they want in the hotel room later that day but the mess seem like a bad idea and I think the bottles with the sand alone will be cute enough. (Oy I feel like a half baked crafty soccer mom sometimes lol) I think that I should look up some sand castle buckets/kits and see if I could buy one cheep for the beach as well.



Anyway that is it for tonight.

Yellowstone and Grand Teton

So like a posted earlier via PSP I'm back all the way home this time (not just in Utah).

We set out at about a little after 5am Thursday on our 4 hour and 40 min drive to Jackson (*cough more like 5-6 hours cough*). After taking a wrong turn just before Cokeville and turning about and getting back on track we started our drive through Bridger Nation forest. Beautiful place with the surprise that cattle and sheep graze freely through it and across the open highway that cuts through it. Also many great views of the mighty Snake river.

After we got to Jackson and checked into our room we rested up for a couple hours took potty breaks and had lunch then set out for Teton.

Driving through Grand Teton National Park we saw beautiful colors of Fall hanging from the trees, along the road old park signs from the 40s-50s warning us the animals crossed and that we needed to keep speeds slow. Since we wanted to enter the park through the South end we had to go up through Teton. Entering Yellowstone Park proper we where greeted by towering tree lined roads that soon gave way to sweeping views that dropped from the side of the road into a river more then 300 plus feet below (insert a very freaked out up ah inspired me). After awhile on the driver's side we came upon the largest lake we had seen! Lewis Lake is a monster of a lake, a deep and wondrous blue..... well that is NOTHING! to Yellowstone Lake (yeah lake lol). After passing through some road work we made it to Old Faithful. Unlucy for us we did not get to see it go off -_-... time and sunshine was running out o us so we pushed on to some of the other geysers in the Upper and Middle basin. After stopping for some more photos we piled back in and set off again.

While laughing and talking I just barely noticed us passing the first animal we had seen (ok I lied we had a female mule deer dart past us on the road but...). There on the side of the road in a field was a BUFFALO!!!

After many ooohs and aaahs we jumped back in and went on. After a little more we came upon a whole ton of cars pulled off and gawking at many elk grazing and drinking in a river. We pulled off and join in snapping some pics. After getting back in and pulling off in the "pull off" we took some more elk pics and then continued on up the road. As the sun was failing we came upon the most awesome sight yet. Two HUGH BUFFALO where walking along the passenger side of the road. We where going so fast that we had to double back. As we passed them the second time I had John slow down almost to a stop and with my flash got some up close and personal pics of these MASSIVE beautiful animals! (my fav pics of the whole trip ^_^). lol when the flash went off on the second one the buffalo looked over and started walking our way! Eeek this big guy was within arms length already O.O! I told John to gun it lol. The BEST WAY to end a Yellowstone visit all be it a short one (well several hours but felt short lol I guess things always do when you are doing things like this).

After a few hour drive through Idaho back to Jackson we crashed in our room and slept hard for 7 hours. (got there at 11pm-ish and got to bed around 12:30am-1am and woke up at 8:15am)

After showering and getting ready we cleaned up the room and checked out and was on our way back home by 9:45-10:30am. On the way back we passed through Afton and stopped for a bit of lunch and to let the kids look around. We also passed through a very small town called "Smoot" with a population of only 100! I kids you not... that was less then any town we passed through in Idaho last year.

At some point we took a new turn that diverged from the way we took to get to Jackson in the first place and ended up passing Bear Lake and and through Cache Forest and some much more!

So onto the pics! (..that are for some reason out of order :/)