This is my last post for this trip. I gotta say that I feel like a kid who was just told they had to leave the playground and go home and do chores. I kind of want to throw a temper tantrum and beg for more time. We have so enjoyed this trip. It is so beautiful here. It's been so fun to just go out and see what we can see. We'll have an adjenda for the day then just take our time doing what we want. It's been wonderful.

Today we went up to the Earthquake Area. We saw three lodges that either dropped into the lake or just got destroyed in one area (but the outhouse was still in pretty good shape), the Cabin Creek Scarp- a 21 ft. fault, Ghost Village, Earthquake Lake, the landslide area, the big boulders that slid from oneside of the valley to the other side, and the Visitor Center that told us all about the area.

On Aug. 17, 1959 around midnight, there was a massive earthquake, measuring 7.5 on the Richter scale. It was one of the most powerful earthquakes ever recorded on the North American continent. This triggered flooding and landslides. The landscape was changed. The roads were destroyed. The movie at the VC said that about 200 geysers in Yellowstone (or as Emily calls it- Lellowstone) went off all at once! This was huge! It was a very awe-some day, very humbling in ways. Thanks Jim for telling us about it.

HELP! Jamison got attacked by some wild animals! Don't let the little one's stand-offish appearance fool you here. She was just as wild as any of them!

We stopped at a campground and had a picnic. We've had fun picnicing for lunch for many of the days here. Emily has looked forward to the picnics- infact- she usually would be quite content to just go home right after the picnics.
This picnic was extra special. We got lunch and entertainment. I packed an apple and a pear and cut it up to go with lunch. Suddenly, one of the kids reenacted the scene from Enchanted where the squirel, Pip, is trying to tell the prince about what happened to Gissel. He starts by humming the song then does the grumpy guys part of, "want an apple pretty girl?" "No thank you," "It's good!" "Ok" then she takes a bite and dies. After the first one did this, another one said, "No, that's not right at all." Then would get up holding their prop and do the whole scene filling in "apple" with whatever they had in their hand. We even had a "papple" a piece of a pear stuck to a piece of an apple. This went on for a while and we just giggled. After awhile we remembered that Jamison had the camcorder so we had them each get up and do it all together. We laughed so hard. This is the part where they are humming the song and dancing. You should have been there for the death scene! Very dramatic!

This is one of the trails along the way. I loved to see my children being taught by their good dad. He is such a good man. It was neat to watch him get down and teach them about the rocks, the plants, the trees, whatever he saw, he taught them. He also played with them. At one point Natalie had on his sunglasses- but for her and the other kids, they were 4D glasses. Everything was so real looking and when you could see his hand come to get you- you could even feel it! Amazing!

This really has been a great trip and I think- hope that the kids will have good memories from it and always know that we love them and want the best for them. Not just because of this trip, but I hope that this emphasises this. We have good kids. I love them!