Our Idaho Christmas

It was a memorable Christmas this year since it was the first away from our families together - but we enjoyed spending it together... in our pj's and snuggies! (thanks to my mom!)

Bill's earth science club decorated a tree to display at the school and it turned out really neat even though they didn't win anything for it. You can see it has a sun on top, warm and cold fronts, pressure systems, storms and lumps of coal under the tree. I thought it was really creative!

Since we had so much fun cutting down our own tree last year we decided to keep up with tradition and go back to Targee National Forest. Chris and Katie went with us as we searched for the 'perfect tree' ... and then 1 1/2 hours later settled for the best we could find! But the view wasn't too bad and it was a beautiful drive!

It was a very snuggie christmas!

And it was a smokey christmas too! Bill pulled out the fire extinguisher for it's maiden voyage during a oven fire and it did the trick! Good thing I saved the money bread!

(notice our pretty tree in the background! Not bad!)
And finally Bill playing with the Christmas toys!

We got a fun nerf game that shoots at a floating target from Bills parents. Needless to say it was opened immediatly and a large part of our entertainment for the day. Who says you can't get toys when you're grown up!?!

And he got a green astronomy laser pointer that he couldn't wait to try out! After the fire and smoke in our apartment it was the perfect time to beable to see the beam of light nomatter where you pointed it!

We had a great Christmas together, the most quiet we will probably ever have! But we missed our family and can't wait to hopefully be home later this year!

Lost Camera :(

well- Bill took his big trip last week out to Challis for the independent study he is doing through the school and on one of his big hikes the camera disappeared so unfortunetly there are no pictures of his adventures. :( But he does have some great stories from the trip that he will have to share with you. He got to see a mountain goat up real close, helped some stranded people and became one with nature. Think of the most desolate place and that is where he was in Idaho! Not much of anything except rocks... which was perfect!
Hopefully we will get a camera soon so that we can keep posting pictures on here. As for now- this will have to do!

Off trailing in Yellowstone. And let's just say that we weren't the only 'storms' on the mountain!

Bill leading the way 'off the beaten path'.

This was a very memorable trip. We hiked up to see the most beautiful view of Yellowstone from the most north western corner. We could see all the way from Yellowstone to the Tetons when we got to the top. Unfortunetly we also saw a storm over the Tetons heading our way.

We headed down the mountain about 20 minutes only to realize we were going down the wrong ridge! So- back up it was, after climbing it once... we went back up! And trying to beat a storm!

Honestly, we were scared to say the least being 9000 ft up and all!

We headed back up... and fast. We got to the top and then started going down the right ridge when it started to rain and lightening not too far away. Quickly... and by a miracle... we found a cave that the two of us barely fit in.
We stayed in there while the lightening storm passed- about 45 minutes - and then finally headed, very steeply, down the right ridge. The whole trip took 6 hours and who knows how many miles! We were sore for days.

On the top of the mountain... before the storm.


The cave we found to hide in during the 'incident'


The calm after the storm. There was a double rainbow- it was beautiful!

A petrified tree about 50 million year old.

This is my fake 'get me the heck out of here' smile.

We still had a couple miles to go and were burning daylight.

Me at the top. We came from the green valley in the center and hiked 2000 ft up to the top!