Well, after seven years of recovery from Idaho, they've returned! Yup, seven years - can you believe it? No. Actually, no, no, I can't. Damn - seven years since I got married. Wow. Ok, my bright light moment of realization is now over. Onwards...
They got in on a night where we actually had an event to go to in Pocatello - music night on the Idaho State University quad - the girl's last name was Curtis, but other than that she really didn't make an imprint on me, sorry. However... she did on Daniela, who bought her CDs and and stood in line for her autograph. It's really been amazing weather, just perfect summer weather which I so wholly appreciate after our winter in Illinois. Lovely, lovely weather with beautiful days and calm and brilliant sunsety nights. 
After our evening libations and enjoyment at the quad, we decided to go play frisbee golf at the park before heading home. It was lots of fun, and Ma Wendy did great with the oil company plastic freebee version circa 1987. The week before, the new sculpture of Chief Pocatello was dedicated just down the hill, so we stopped there on our way home to awe in the spendor. It was quite pretty, and very respectful, I believe. (Not so) Funny enough, we were there a couple days before, and ran into a descendant whose name was misspelled on the placard there - oops. 
So, I have an admitted open obsession with this local grease grub called Spaceburgers, which I share with my mom and AC. Not sure if this comes from the typical 'comfort growing up food' OR if I just really like the food and the inventiveness of the food. It's basically two pieces of bread squished to toasty perfection an eighth inch thick with ground beef and cheese melted in between. I digress... and I drool... anyway... I was very excited to share my love with the family, but it was quite anticlimactic. Not impressed, I guess it runs in the family - Cujo could care less about it as well. All this talking about it, I think I'll have to go get one tomorrow. 
We wanted to go rafting somewhere, so we decided on the closest and cheapest river - Lava Hot Springs! Only 40 minutes away, sounds great plus the fact that we get great Thai food after. Perfection in motion, to me. Little pleasures baby. Anyway, perfection may be an overstatement - three out of four of us ended up with injuries or shoe losses for god's sake - is this age or stupidity, I sure as hell don't know just yet. Give me another decade to figure out what I do wrong this decade. Either way, today I remember much fun and little scrapes. Poor Wendy crashed and burned as I tried to pull her up the riverbank. And dammit, it worked so well when I did the same to Daniela. Cujo crashed and burned on a big ole drop to a higher put-in in the river, and I just burned my elbows - I have no idea HOW exactly, oddly enough. But - the good news is - we had a lot of fun AND we got to eat Thai AND drink a bottle of wine we had just bought on Main Street 10 minutes before without paying a cork fee.
Sight saw some of the area, Scout Mountain and Mink Creek, and Charlie got to chase a few cows so she was happy. I swear, that instinct is so strong it's alarming. Makes me wonder if we as humans have any of those born in instincts in us anymore, or if we have suppressed and repressed them to the point of extinction over social boundaries. Beautiful area, it's that 'higher than anywhere' point where you can't help but have a different perspective on things. I've always thought that either a)looking down from above like in an airplane or b)looking up from the ground like lying on the ground peering up through tree branches is always an experience of viewpoint astoundment.
As if physical exertion were no object, despite our old folk injuries, we came to the conclusion that another try at disk golf at the harder course was in order. Now, this course is quite incredible, and is supposed to be one of the hardest and most elevated. The truth to that, I'm not sure, since we just barely started playing this sport, but that's the word on the street. The street that houses the frisbee golf store. And a guy I ran into that does it every day that I used to work with. So, for what it's worth, it's a kickass course. 
One of the tees has a five hundred and something distance, which is FAR. Throwing a frisbee - seriously - hard. Especially when the wind catches your disk and you end up five hundred feet down in the gully that you slip and slide to get to, through cactus and rock and dust. Nonetheless - FUN SHIT. Crazy what we consider fun. Actually, now that I think about it - no, I disagree. It is fun - get outside in nature in the summer and play a game, you try to better yourself, and Charlie loves it. And the cherry on the pie - you can carry a cooler with you with your favorite liquid.
We've only bought Charlie a few bags of food so far, haven't had her a year yet, but damn does she get excited for bags and boxes - wayyy more excited than the $10 toys we buy her. I think we've finally caught on - now we just save our pop and beer boxes for her to demolish before recycling them. 
Very cute and conscientious, Daniela insisted upon wearing a helmet on the bike. Nebraska has a helmet law, Idaho does not. 
So, it's been a while since I've been to Yellowstone, even with it a few short hours away, and it's gotten busy. I mean, it's always been busy I suppose, but this trip seemed a tad hectic. There were long lines to get into the gate at West, lots of traffic, lots of people, and drivers in a hurry. Isn't this the part of the trip vacationers are supposed to slow down and admire? We even saw a car wreck a few minutes after the crash - people being tended to along the road and TONS OF SHIT thrown out of the van or SUV they were all in. They had to be on quite a trip based on all the crap they had strewn about. Oh, and there was a fire! Unfortunately, this WAS the fire that pushed out the bear into the waiting arms of a firefighter. He is okay, but holy shit what a story. Our animal viewing started off slowly, but we made up for it - at the end of the trip we had seen bison, deer, fox, coyote, bald eagle and a moose. Not bad, eh? Pretty damn good I say. And, another highlight - no blowing of the infamous Caldera. Even though we'd still be goners anyway if it happened now. Thanks to Bob, I have that fear instilled in me so I attempted to pass on that unreasonable fear to my little sister.
Some say this is the most beautiful place they have ever been - tops the list. Okay, it's Cujo that says that. This is his number one. I have to admit, while I have such a hard time with rankings and orders because everywhere is just so different, I can't really argue that this place is simply magnificent. No wonder people are so moved from this viewpoint. It's much more spectacular than the Grand Canyon to me - this one is surrounded by cleaner air so that you can actually see across the canyon, for one.
In order to get the whole experience of National Parks, (and since Daniela didn't really remember doing this before - not her fault btw - she was nine) we camped out. Not in the sticks, but in a civilized campground with water and ranger discussions and scary signs like this one:
Leaving Yellowstone out south, you can go through Grand Teton and Jackson to loop back home and different scenery is always great, right? These peaks are breathtaking and they always seem to far away, even standing at Jenny Lake.
On our way home, we drove right by Blackfoot so we figured we might as well stop by the Blackfoot disk golf course along the marina - we could play and Charlie could frolic in the water. However - Cujo lost his brand new distance disk in the tree, and the water had a warning that read some sort of warnings of swimmer's itch. What is swimmer's itch anyway? All I know is Charlie still swam. And she lived. And she's not scratching uncontrollably. Bummer to lose the new frisbee though, although I'd rather lose the frisbee than the Cujo, who tried to reclaim it by climbing the 70 foot tree.
At the local Fort Hall Casino, one only needs to be 18 to gamble, so we HAD to take Daniela. She actually didn't do bad, but when I lost $8 I was done - what a wimp I've become. I just can't see the point in losing large amounts of money on purpose anymore. Sign of age, like the fact that I'd rather buy alcohol and drink at home than go out to the bars and pay triple. Or a sign of alcoholism? hehe. Or... is it that you don't drink while on a reservation? And THAT is what impairs your financial gambling judgment? Duh. 
Now, a little back history is necessary here - Curtis has an unhealthy obsession/competition when it comes to miniature golf. I don't know where it comes from, it was there before me. All I know is that drive is very very strong. And annoying. Anyway, he was beaten by his dad in Missouri, thankfully. But - we are now in Idaho so that apparently does not count. Sheeesh. Anyway, the talk was all talk. Good thing his sister got the putt putt genes and humbled her brother. Although, of course I do need to mention this WAS the day he was diagnosed with walking pneumonia and bronchitis. Excuse? Crutch? Validated reason? Injury take two? Maybe all of the above. Oh yeah, AND he got a tetanus shot in his putting arm that day as well. Ugh, damn, putting it that way, yes - he was handicapped. Poor guy. 
There are usually a couple weeks a year that we have an apricot mess here at the yard - especially when the fruit stunter doesn't work. This was one of those years. And unfortunately it coincided with a family visit. Each morning we would have to pick up a dozen or so super ripe apricots that had fallen to their death and exploded with a vengeance on the patio. Why don't we eat them, you might ask? Well for one, they have worms, and secondly - they are a good 30 feet above us. So they leave a sticky, squishy mess that Charlie is drawn to. In fact, she does eat them and occasionally spits out the pits. Yeah, her shit is orange, that's how we know. Ha. And she has a new aroma. Ewww. I don't think eating apricots is terrible. Anyway, during this picture, one just happened to fall down right on Cujo as he was snapping the photo - priceless. Life is good. 
