James and Tasha's Wedding

James and Tasha Venable Wedding.

James is my cousins son on my mother’s side.  Tracy, his mom, and I have not seen each other for over 30 years.  Grandma Delores, my mother’s sister, was, as always, a delight to visit with.

Delores and Barbara got along really good, I think they are laughing at something I did.

Tracy owns a small ranch in Stites, Id. Where she raises Yack/Angus hybrids known as Yow’s.  The valley view from the top of her property is astounding.

So, being a ranch they had a “Western Theme” Wedding.  So of course the bride must make her entrance on a horse. Wow!!!!

They were proceeded by family members.  Tasha’s dad was standing by to escort her to the alter.  While Tracy and her brother Lee walked with Tasha’s Mom in the procession.

The ring bearers are of the canine persuasion, although this one got a little excited about being included.

Tracy sits with her ring bearer charge Sparkles. 

Of course no wedding can go as planned, the wrong rings were placed with the ring bearers, so there was a little mix up in placing the rings.  It’s all good and everyone took it in stride.  The ring bearers didn’t care.

 

The deed now being done everyone relaxed a bit and started to have some real fun.  Here are the happy newlyweds with part of their wedding party, this picture picked out primarily because it has James Cousin Jamey and the Groomsman that accompanied her. . Sorry, I never got his name.

The happy mom with her now wed baby boy.  In the background is Tasha the bride and Jamey, James little cousin.

There is nothing lovelier than bridesmaids in the spring.

The post nuptial ceremonies were outstanding.  I didn’t get any pictures of them, but I did get pictures of the cake, corrections, cakes.

I love the lariat around the boot, awesome.

 

Of course there was the battle of the first bite, the Bride scoring early;

But the groom in an awesome display of manly prowess got his cake in also.

One of the details forgotten was the person to cook the hamburgers, hot dogs, and steaks, so I volunteered.  Only a couple of people got poisoned.

 

It was great to see my cousin Lee and meet his wife Stacey.  Their daughter Jamey was a delight, Jamey and her Dad.

It was really great to visit with my long lost cousins Tracy and Lee.  I wonder where we all got the wrinkles from.

Yellowstone National Park

 

 

Yellowstone National Park is much larger that what I remembered as child when I visited it with the Cook’s circa 1968.  Bud Lily’s Fly Shop still exists in West Yellowstone.  This is the place where I attended Fly Fishing School.  Yes, I am an Alma Mater of the Bud Lily School of Fly Fishing, as are; Larry Cook, Scott Cook, and Eric Reid.

 

This is the place that Larry Cook dubbed me "Super Flogger of the Water Dog Tribe". 

He attested that I would flog the river so vehemently that the water would froth, the fish float to the top, and then we could just scoop them up in our nets.  Or maybe it’s just because I kept falling in the river so frequently.  In any event, I was awarded the “Most Improved” by the instructors. 

They no longer do instruction or guiding, but the fact that the store still exists was amazing/nostalgic.  

 

Welcome to Yellowstone NP;

 

Yellowstone is home to the majority of the world’s geo-thermic activity.  Lots of places where steam and hot water escape through the rocks.  Our first stop was at the world famous Old Faithful Geyser. 

 

 

We sat at the base and watched it.

 

 Then climbed to the top of the hill and watched it.

 

Then we walked about 3 miles around several other geyser’s and springs.  The colors from the micro-organism’s was pretty amazing.  Then the minerals mixed in made for some very colorful waters.  We kept thing it would be wonderful to skinny dip in the pools of warm/hot water.

 

In this area they take there history pretty seriously as a result you can find many examples of machinery used in the early industrial years of the US, like this old tour bus;

 

It is pretty nice to watch the mixture of the river and the geothermal pools that abound in the this area;

 

A lot of the park was closed in early May.  Plenty of snow and ice still around.  So we visited the few areas that were open.  One of which is the “Grand Canyon of Yellowstone”.  The Yellowstone River has cut a big canyon through a section of the park. 

In that canyon are two water falls.  The upper;

The lower;

 

Along the canyon you can find Osprey nesting;

And of course opportunities for the group photo;

 

One of the more interesting things is to stand before the “Dragons Mouth” and listen to the steam build and spew, really sounds like a dragon breathing….

Buffalo abound in the park.  Some hog the highways;

And others you just want to reach out and pet. (from a distance of course)

Jackson Hole and Grand Teton

We drove 33 miles into town to see a movie and go to a bar with a band.  The bar was the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar.  I love that place.  They had a lot of displays of western life, displays of buffalo hunting, including guns, scenes from cowboy activity, saddles for seats....  And the band was pretty good too.  Add locally brewed beer.  I love that place.

I probably stared at this display for a half hour.  A wolf and a Big Horn Sheep.  I was impressed.

It rained that nigh, next morning it had cleared up and was beautiful day.  We went for a hike up around Jenny Lake. The scenery was awesome.

Of course there was still plenty of snow around.

With wet cold feet we trudged on, until we came across this little girl.

Very young, maybe a yearling...  She was not concerned with us at all.  I can't believe she let me get that close. More pretty scenery.

On the way home we spotted this fellow on the hunt, still can't decide whether he is a wolf or coyote, or cross breed.

The Teton Mountain range is magnificent.  I finally got most of the dust out of the little Lumix camera so it is kind of working.  My good camera is ready, now we just have to stay someplace long enough for it to catch up to us. 

I am happy that we are here now.  I think the mountains with the snow on them are far more impressive than they would be in the summer. 

Mt. Moran

The National Park will only allow the dogs on paved areas, which is ok this trip because there is still a lot of snow around.  Lake Jackson is still frozen over.

 

It’s nice to see herds of Buffalo and Elk here. 

 

We took a drive out of the NP and into the National Forest so we could take the dogs for a hike.  Spotted more elk and a young Moose.  The road form here to Yellowstone will be closed for another 10 days.  Because we are on a schedule to get to our summer job we can’t wait for it to open so will have to back track a couple of hundred miles.   

You can’t really capture the size and grandeur of the Tetons on film.  But it is fun to try.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hyrum State Park and Logan Canyon

The road from Salt Lake City to the Grand Teton National Park was a little over 300 miles of mountain highway, so we decided to break the drive up a bit by stopping off near Logan, Utah.  Hyrum State Park is a pretty little campground on the edge of a lake.

There was a late spring storm, it snowed and inch while we were there, gone by 10am.  It was a good thing we delayed, the road into Grand Teton got 5 inches of new snow.  While in Logan I got my new motorcycle helmet.  Hopefully the radios will work better with this one. 

We also did a climb on the First Practice Wall. It was windy and cold, but we had fun anyway.

 

We set up on the anchors for route 1, Barb traversed over to route 2 for a while, then finished up on 1.  I took an easier route to the left, not shown here. 

I sure will be glad when I get my cameras fixed.