private?

there always seems to be a question of making blogs private. i do worry about who is reading and with what intent. i don't actually mind people i don't know reading the blog, so long as i am pseudo-aware of who they might be, i.e. friend of a friend, facebooker, etc and where they got the blog address. I have a map that tracks locations of visitors and sometimes i can tell who it is, sometimes i can't. there are a couple of places that i don't know anyone who lives there (as far as i can recall at least) that visit frequently and it does sort of worry me. i would like to keep the blog open and to do this i'd like a few comments from people who read and where they are reading from. anyone from denver? oregon? florida? just for my peace of mind. salt lake city or nearby, don't worry about it, there are many people from around there that read the quintessence blog. thanks!

Yellowstone

We decided to take a day trip up to Yellowstone since we were so close but we couldn't afford more time than that. It's a shame; there's so much to see up there. It would really take weeks to see everything you'd want. Still I'm glad we went. I'm excited to see more of it in the future. It was neat to see Old Faithful again and to watch the stunning scenery pass us by as we drove. I kept waking Kate up to see elk or deer, poor thing. She was so tired. :) We drove straight back down to Salt Lake from Yellowstone and didn't actually get home until close to midnight. Kate made it almost the whole way. The last hour she'd had it and went pretty crazy but to have lasted that long was better than I could ever expect. My little angel. She had fun at the geyser. She liked running through the geyser mist even though it was "stinky". :D

This one looks like two kidneys. Just thought it was funny.

A beautiful view near Old Faithful.
She's so cute!I wish I could describe the beautiful colors. Even the camera couldn't catch them all.
A "smiley face" made of the heat-tolerant bacteria. What a nice welcome.

More cool looking growths.

More cool geyser formations. This one is dried up, leaving some wicked rock formation behind.

This one looked like eyes to me.

Kate seemed to be testing just how close she could get to the edge. Yeesh.

Heart Springs, named so for the shape. I love this one!

Old Faithful erupting.

The funny thing was that though Old Faithful was erupting, I couldn't seem to take my camera away from my beautiful daughter!

Nursing on her juice straw. She looks sort of Mobster or something.

Aren't we darling.

These are some elk we stopped to watch eating for awhile. Their fur wasn't looking to hot because they were molting or something. Still they are beautiful creatures!

While we were watching the elk, Kate took up her favorite pasttime, picking up rocks. Sometimes she keeps them, sometimes she throws them. Today she threw. :)

Driving along we stopped due to an unexpected visitor walking around slowly across the road. A sign of how tourists have impacted the wildlife. It was so fun to watch it so closely though. It was beautiful.

I just like the contrast of wildlife and automation in the same picture.

Though it is neat to see wildlife up close, I'd never get as close as that guy!

I created the next two shots putting lots of pictures together to form a panorama. I love how the finished product turned out!

Kate driving an Audi at age 2. Sigh.

We stopped by a waterfall on our way home. It was pretty, but to be honest, the camera again just doesn't give the impressions that being there gives.

We stopped again on our way home to see a herd of buffalo. Boy are they ugly and incredibly impressive. I'd NEVER want to be on the wrong end of one of these!

Fur falling off...

My favorite part of the journey was a gorgeous lake we passed by. We stopped to enjoy just a nice break in a beautiful place. There was something so peaceful and beautiful about it. Seeing those gorgeous mountains by that gorgeous lake. Watching my daughter throw rocks in. :)

This is my favorite picture of the whole trip.

Jackson Hole

We went to Jackson Hole with John, Janet, Matt, Melissa, Sam, Grant, Jen, Hudson, Alicia and AJ. We had a great time and Kate was so good for the long drive. The weather was not very cooperative however and rained most of the time we were there. We went hiking one day and were blessed with some good weather. The other days we spent our time in town shopping and looking around. I haven't been able to find the cool old-fashioned saloon pictures we had done but I'm sure they're in a box i just haven't been through yet. That's so sad I haven't been through all the boxes yet. I'll post them when I locate them. We also spent a lot of time just hanging out in the very cool house and playing games.

Kate wearing mommy's gloves against the chilly weather.

Jon celebrated his birthday with his favorite - Marie Callendar's blueberry cream pie brought by Matt and Melissa. Kate didn't mind.

We did some extra work for Alicia that used large envelopes. They had stickers on them with which Alicia promptly decorated Kate.

This is the boat ride to the hike. It was COLD!!!

Getting ready to pack the kiddo up the hill...

On the boat again. I'm just envious of John's gear.

Shhhh! I'm not sure why we're being quiet...

That is one tough chick!

At the boat dock.

AJ

It was BEAUTIFUL. Note the tiny little people on the bottom left :)

At Hidden Falls

Matt and Sam, Grant and Hudson

Alicia shooting the scene

I just like the contrast, shapes, and pseudo-creepy beauty of this shot.

Changing Sam's diaper. Nicest changing table ever.

Jenny Lake

Tight-roping?

Kate befriending the locals

John and Janet

There was a nice place to just sit and enjoy the view of Jenny Lake so we did so for quite awhile.

Matt, Melissa, and Sam

The Tetons

The Tetons have a very jagged shape. It was sort of neat to see that something as basic as "a mountain" doesn't necessarily invoke the images we know.

We passed this lone tree in the middle of a grassy plain on the way to the hike and I pulled the car over (much to the chagrin of the inhabitants) to shoot it. I LOVE this tree, the way it bends with the weight of years of wind, how it sits by itself, the sloping mountain in the background.

The tree again. My obsession.

This is another shot taken after I pulled the car over (again) mostly because I was overwhelmed that those impressive mountains I had been awed by earlier where dwarfed by the magnificence of the light and clouds.

I just thought it was funny that Kate ran outside in her diaper to see what was going on. That's my kid. :)

Hudson. I think this might be paper he's playing with but I can't remember.

We were staying at a nice place in Grand Teton Village and there were some horses coralled at the bottom of the village. They were beautiful horses and I'd never seen any like them before. They were HUGE horses. I wish I knew what kind they were. Kate wanted badly to see them but was scared to death to go close.

Jen and Hudson. Hudson appears to be hungry. And surprised.

Kate loves her Grandma!

I never did get a good picture with Kate by the huge fake buffalo. She was TERRIFIED of it, even though I showed her it wouldn't move and she could pet it. Ah well. Maybe next time. Kate is funny about her headbands. If she is happy she likes wearing them but the minute she gets stressed or scared or impatient, off comes the headband. This buffalo is in downtown Jackson Hole.

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