grasses | Not a Perfect Knowledge

My Thanksgiving weekend was mostly spent at Sheldon’s Home in a little town called Grace, Idaho.

I got to spend lots of time with his family. Once we arrived, Sheldon took me shooting with his dad and brother in their fields. I didn’t hit the targets, but I hit the metal stand for them… its something. That first night we made home made pizzas and rented the McFarland movie. Its a good one, we all enjoyed it! My favorite part was the little fat kid that won them the race… so inspirational!

Wednesday morning I got up and started making some of my family’s favorite holiday rolls. It took a good portion of the day because they had to rise twice. Everyone seemed to like them, so I’d say they turned out pretty good. I also made his family some pupusas with a taco bar lunch. I did lots of cooking the day before so I didnt have to fight for the kitchen on thanksgiving day. So that afternoon Shel took me on a drive around Grace so I could take some pictures. I wanted to capture the beauty of this hidden little farming community. We also got some really good hot chocolate in town on the way back.

Then the next day was Thanksgiving day! All the women around the house worked together to make this beautiful relish tray to start the appetite for our big meal later on. I loved the colors and presentation in ramekins.

The Thanksgiving meal was delicious! We had big plates and everyone was so full. We had the typical turkey, mashed potatoes with gravy, green bean casserole, fruit salad, green salad, rolls, creamed peas, yams, and a few pie options. Our tummies were stuffed! That evening while the guys watched football, the girls pulled out the crafts! Sheldon’s mom was nice enough to buy each of us a little wooden christmas set to paint up. They all turned out cute!

It also snowed that morning, so I had to take a few more outside pictures with fresh snow!

The next day was Friday so we got up to drive to Utah. We didn’t get caught in any traffic or snow! We were very blessed.

We did some shopping in SLC and then went to American Fork to have lunch with Grandma. Shortly after lunch we then drove to Provo to pick up my sista and her date to go see the first season lighting at Temple Square.

It was a fun double date night. Because we knew it would be cold, we bought some hot chocolate to keep our hands warm as we walked around. It was a little colder than we all expected but for the record; ‘Kneeders’ hot chocolate is wayy good! Funny thing is that we all got there a little early and didn’t see too many people around, but once we walked around to the other side we were bombarded. It was like instantly packed like conference time there. Good thing we were early and had a nice spot staked out, because they turned the lights on 5 mins early. It was beautiful though. I can’t imagine the amount of hours spent on lighting each of those trees/ nativities. Impressive sight!

My favorite lights were the little bubble lights that floated on the reflection pool.

My sis and her date seem to have had a fun time.

So did Sheldon and I.

We ended the night with pizza from ‘The Brick Oven’ in Provo. SO GOOD! man that place is yummy, and dad treated us to dinner. Thanks! Wonderful evening.

Well we woke up Saturday morning to a delicious southern cooked breakfast of biscuits and gravy from Grandma, then we were on the road once again. But this time weather/ snow was against us….

Thankfully, we made it back safe. Sheldon and I had time to make oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and little star ornaments before we had to separate for another week!

So I ended up having a fun & memorable Thanksgiving in ‘a little place called Grace’.

Happy start to the holiday season!

So its been on our bucket-list for awhile, and we needed to make it happen before the park was closed for the season. We decided to make Yellowstone a group adventure. I had tried all week to coordinate rides and times and people with everything but it was just one impossible logic problem. It just couldn’t work for all of us to leave at the same time as a big group (like 18 of us) so we had a staggered schedule. My group left at 7:00 a.m. but we still had the goal to all meet up with everyone at Old Faithful at 3:00 p.m. as the last destination before leaving the park.

I was able to bring my dad’s old camera to play around with. It was a fun place to practice photography, that’s for sure. So everything on this blog post (except for the map- thank you google) is taken from Dad’s Nikon, or Sheldon’s phone.

We drove in through West Yellowstone and followed the main red circle path (on the map where it says “Yellowstone” in green) up then around to finish up at Old Faithful. Fun fact is that there were 3 states involved in this trip (Idaho, Montana, Wyoming).

First Views of the park- through the West Entrance:

Not long after paying the entrance fee we saw a herd of elk off to the side of the road, one really big one with quite the impressive antlers, well of corse we parked and walked over to take a picture. While walking back to the car we realized that there was one elk right there in the parking lot! SO close! I knew it would be a good day!

Stop Number 1: Natural Hot Pools

Okay this place was a nice first destination. The lighting was perfect and there weren’t any other tourists there but us. I love the fact that we came in October, I was able to capture some beautiful muted natural tones.

Stop Number 2: Gibbon Falls

Okay this place was beautiful! It was just right off the road, there was a little walkway; but come on, people will hike for days to see this stuff. So good. This is nature at it’s finest. Also, selfies with a real camera are hard… But you can’t exactly take a bad picture of this place!

Stop Number 3: Norris Geyser Basin Hike

This is just the towards the parking lot, we did a good portion of this hike though to see the geyser basin.

Heavenly Father is the best artist, I mean look at His creations. Nature is so cool. I took some “Dad inspired pictures” of different paths around the park, and also paid close attention to the different textures.

We also found this pretty little lake off the beaten path.

Next Stop: Upper Falls

This is the place. I remember this beautiful sight very clearly from my family vacation back in 2007. Pictures really do NOT catch the awe factor. The sun is starting to shine pretty bright here though so some shadows are dramatic. Sheldon said that if he didn’t see a “yellowstone” he was going to sue… haha, good thing we made it this far. The park lived up to its name.

And the (partial) group photo:

Along the drive to the next spot we pulled over a few times for some classic Yellowstone photo-ops like these. We also saw a baby bear, but I didn’t get out of the car. Let’s remember this is October, it is getting pretty cold here.

Next stop: Snack break at the Bridge Bay pull off.

I loved seeing the variety here, all different landscapes in one park! Its really amazing. The sand here is made up different rocks, I personally like the black sand from volcanic rock. Also lets just appreciate the crackle texture on this old log. The friendly bird was workin’-it like he wanted to become famous.

Animal Sightings: Baby bear, elk, bison, squirrel, friendly fuzzy birds, and big ugly black birds….

Surreal landscape of Yellowstone Lake.

Last Stop: Castle Geyser and Old Faithful

We didn’t really plan ahead too well because we only brought snack foods expecting there to be a place to eat along the way… Well now we know that there are places, but they aren’t open for off-season. Upon arrival we saw the very end of the eruption of Old Faithful… we missed it. Well because it is SO iconic, and important to everyone to see, we waited another hour to be able to watch Old Faithful go off. So while waiting we walked through the gift shop, and the little museum, then decided to walk the loop to see other smaller geysers. Luckily we were able to watch Castle Geyser.

Old Faithful was a little late, not sure of that means he’s unfaithful or what…. but the miracle was that the timing worked out so that I could see everyone of our giant group at the Old Faithful Geyser at 4:00. We all met up for a few minutes, perfect!