Our friends that we usually go to the river with came for a visit. We went snowmobiling - which is something Jan and I had never done. We rented some sleds and went just outside of West Yellowstone in Montana. It was beautiful. Here is a place we found to stop and eat a snack. These old, old houses were so fun to look at. It is hard to believe that people once lived here. Talk about beautiful.
The snow was great, and we each fell in above our knees atleast once. I personally had to roll out of several holes. I kept falling in to my waist. This is Rick trying to take some pictures.
This is us all geared up and eating a snack.
*beware* if you read below this point you will see blood. If you don't want to see blood, quickly scroll until you see more snow.
Mara and I were a little slower than Rick, Tanya (their daughter) and Jan. They would all go ahead and play a little waiting for us slow pokes to catch up. While playing, Jan drove down a bowl, hit really hard, felt his face slam into the steering wheel, and thought as he was driving back up the other side "OH NO, I know I just hurt myself really bad." He thought he broke his nose. He put on the brakes and jumped off his snowmobile and started spitting blood into the snow. He flagged Rick down.
Rick quickly realized that Jan had put his bottom teeth completely through his bottom lip. Luckily I had talked Jan into packing a pair of extra socks for me into his back pack. Rick filled it with snow and Jan held it like a compress on his lip down the mountain. This is Jan looking a little better after wiping most of the blood away. Can you see the perfect half circle his teeth left?
Luckily the nurse who runs the urgent care clinic was out shopping and agreed to come in and stitch Jan up so we didn't have to drive two hours to get to a hospital. This is Jan looking good after stitches.
Now he just looks like he has taken up chewing and has a blue goatee. I think he'll have a sexy Indiana Jones scar. As Jan always says "Battle Scar!"
This is the assistant, nurse, and the nurses daughter who took very good care of him. Their little clinic in West Yellowstone reminded me of a cross between a vets office, a dentist office, and a doctors office. Funny.
The next day Jan went out again. He took it easy. These are some pictures from on top of Two top loop.
This is a tree. Can you believe it?
This is where warm water from Yellowstone runs into the lake. It never freezes here.
The second day, Rick had one of Jan's friends from High School (who is a guide in Yellowstone for the winter) take them out. He showed them the sights and they had a GREAT day. Here is a picture of one of the bison they saw.
This is Rick jumping. Josh taught them all sorts of tricks. No one got hurt.
This is Jan. The day was tiring, but a lot of fun. One they will never forget.
We had the most amazing experience several weeks ago. Kaile was getting ready to go to a friends house to do home schooling. We had left her backpack outside since we were still unpacking. She found a chrysallis attached to her backpack! It ended up falling off at her friends house, so they glued it to the inside of a canning jar lid, and there it lived for about a week. One morning I walked out and it was in the jar fanning its wings. We took it outside and were able to hold it for several hours while it flapped its wings. It was an amazing once in a lifetime experience!
The antennae were really interesting. They looked like those stickers you get in your socks that are spiraled.
I was amazed at how hairy this butterfly was! I had no idea they were hairy. I guess Kaile was destined to have Butterfly experiences. Kaile also had a butterfly experience when she was a month old at the Wild Animal Park. A Butterfly came and landed on her chest. A special day for a special girl.
