Carpet

So today I was picking up the apartment and doing some dishes and and getting dinner ready for when KC got home from work and just as I was patting myself on the back and telling myself what a good job I did I really took a look around. What the HELL happened to my carpet!?!? I'll tell you what...2 kids. I have punch stains that will never come out. I am so excited that the dining area in our new apartments is on hardwood and not on carpet because I don't know what it is with these juice companies. I can picture a group of men (yes men...it has to be men) in a board room going "What can we do with our juice that people will think of us every single day?" and some idiot in the back of the room who was hired for the sole reason that he is the boss's nephew that the boss took pity on because his wife made him and hired him and said "Here sit in a tie and look smart...just don't open your trap and you get paid weekly" saying out loud to the group "HEY!!! What if we made our juice absolutely IMPOSSIBLE to clean out of carpet?!? Then these people will see our stain and go HEY! I need more juice!" and since nobody wants to upset Mr. Boss Man they agree and put freaking permanent marker liquid inside of our juice.

Wow...that was even random for me. haha! I love blogs...I will write whatever I feel like and you will all read it! BECAUSE I SAID SO! MUAH HA HA HA!

OK so enough with the juice stains in my carpet. I am very excited about moving again to a nice new apartment. Anybody available to help just let me know *wink wink* its going to be on the 27th I believe. I have decided to start in the kid's room and start boxing things up and I swear I'm going to throw out half the stuff we own. Why do we hold on to the things we do anyway? I mean do we really thing to ourselves "Wow...My daughter can't wear these pants anymore because they used to be pants but now look like Capri's...but I think I'll wash them anyways and fold em and put them right back in her closet" Yes...I have done that several time hehe

So lately to save on gas money KC has been dropping me and the kids off at their school in the morning and he goes on to work and I walk home then I walk to pick them up and walk them home. I have to admit at first it just made me tired thinking about it. But I must say that now that its routine it is really a lot of fun! Me and the kids have the funniest conversations these days. I love to hear from them about the "hot topics" at school and the highest things that they worry about or think about. If I have some spare change I'll bring my big cup with us and we stop at the 7-11 for a 90 cent refill that we all share on the walk home and talk about school. So for now Tatumn likes to tell me how she wants to do her hair the next day and how she wants me to give her "princess hair" (is she really mine?) and Cort likes to talk to me about books he is reading. He is really into this book series "Diary of a wimpy kid" that is coming out as a movie soon too. Its exciting to see him so into books and not just video games and television. Every day I harass Cort about letting me cut his hair but he refuses. Its so long and shaggy!!! He will have a mullet soon if I don't put a stop to it...maybe he just doesn't want ME to cut it. I think I'll bring this up at our next walking opportunity and see if great clips can cut it for him.

Well I have run out of things to talk about and I'm still laughing about the Boss's idiotic nephew bit from the beginning of my post and I think I need to just let that image soak in a bit.

~Ciao

Whats in a name?

It has come to my attention that I have not been updating my blog nearly often enough. So I decided to take a thought that just popped into my little head and write about it. Whats in a name? Have you ever learned the secret behind your name? Everybody has a very specific reason for a name that I know of. Most people were named after family members long past. Some people were named for friends of the parents. I know that when I was born I had so much in common with my Mother that she named me the name she was supposed to be named. My understanding is that when my Mom was born her Mother wanted to name her Karen. My mothers aunt wanted that name for her daughter and forbade my Grandmother to name her daughter Karen so my Mother was named Sue. So when I was born I was born in the same month of my Mother, we were both the 2nd daughter and the 4th child. Our mothers were the same age when we were born. We weighed the same, we were the same length. Just a lot of bizarre similarities. So as I was brought into this world my Mother said THIS is Karen. Karen means "Pure" and its Greek. I certainly don't think of myself as "pure" but am still honored by this name. I used to hate my name but I guess it was just a phase...I think everybody goes through a time when they hate their name and their parents reasons for it. I remember my brother Levi telling me to call him something different when we were in public because he disliked his name. I think he got over it too. In hindsight I'm very proud of my name and hope to do it justice. Living up to the name that was some body's like my Mothers is a big responsibility and an honor.

My husband was named for his Grandfather Kenneth. Unfortunately I was not blessed to have met the man in this lifetime but will look forward to meeting him in the next lifetime. For those of you who know me and KC well enough you know I do not and never will call my husband Kenneth. (for reasons I will not make public knowledge...for those of you who know you can join me here with my "lol") Ironically my Grandfather was also named Kenneth. My Grandfather passed away when I was 1 year old and doubt me if you want but I have a singular memory of him playing catch with my older cousins in my Grandparents backyard. Its odd...to have such a memory when your only 1 year old stick with you for your whole life. I remember such tiny details about that memory. I'm getting away from my topic forgive me. So KC was named for his grandfather and to hear KC talk about him and his memories with him Kenneth Nickerson was a great man whom I would truly love to meet someday. So what does Kenneth mean? According to most baby name websites it means "Born of fire" and its Gaelic. So now I wonder if there is a reason for the first Kenneth being named Kenneth and was it so important to be passed on so many generations? Interesting thoughts...

Now when KC and I knew we were to be blessed with our first child we decided then and there that we would have picked out in advance a girl name and a boy name. We are both particularly proud of the names we chose for our children. We were still in the decision making process and nothing really stuck out for us as far as names went. Then we went and rented a movie called "The quick and the dead" starring Russell Crowe and Sharon Stone. We both really enjoyed the movie. Russell Crowe's character is a ex-killer reformed and now a Preacher having forsaken his evil ways. His name was Cort. Now its important that you all understand that we did NOT name our son after this character. Meaning that this movie did not alter our lives due to this character or his performance. It was just a good flick. But as soon as we heard the name out of the movie we both looked at each other and said "Cort...That is a really nice name!" So we decided on Cort. Cort is French and means "short" and as you all know, Cort is NOT short...haha! Even as a baby he has always been in the 95th percentile...so the meaning of Cort is almost silly if you know him but the name in my mind is and always shall be my son's. When I hear "Cort" I think of a handsome little boy who takes care of his sister at all costs. (even when she doesn't deserve it) I think of this kind hearted soul who wouldn't wish anything ill on anybody no matter what they do to him. Most of all I think of dimples hehe.

Now Tatumn-Marie. I absolutely LOVE this name. One thing KC and I wanted from the very beginning with names is something different...but not TOO different. Something you don't hear a lot anymore but not something you hear and go "Wha?? That's a persons name??" So you can see how perfect Cort was. Now on my side of the family we don't give girls middle names. Because when we are married we usually take our maiden name as our middle name. So my Mother was born Susan Sundburg and was married to Mark C. Allen and is now Susan Sundburg Allen. So I was born Karen Allen I was married to Kenneth Allen Coon (yes the middle name being my maiden name is actually a huge coincidence) so my married name is Karen Allen Coon. yup were both KAC's. So when we were thinking of names we thought it would be fun to stick with the movie theme. Well when Tatumn was in my tummy we went and rented the movie "Scream" yes...the one with Nev Campbell...don't judge me. Anyways if you remember Nev's best friend the blond girl who was totally sarcastic. The sister of Deputy Dewy. Her name was Tatum. Again we both looked at each other and said "wow! That is a cute name!" Of course we started thinking of Tatum O'Neil and the like but its not an often heard of name. So since my side didn't do middle names for girls and KC's side did we compromised. Yes her name IS hyphenated. Of course we call her Tatumn (the silent N was KC's idea and I love it) but her full name is Tatumn-Marie Coon. Thats how it is on her birth certificate and that's what she's called when she's in trouble. We didn't think of the middle name until she was born and they put her tiny body on the table and bundled her up and we saw all that mass of dark dark brown hair and she opened her eyes and looked right at me with her beautiful dark doe-like eyes. "Marie" sounds so perfect for her. Tatumn means "Tate's Homestead" and obviously once again..it means nothing to me but the "Technical" meaning. To me when I hear "Tatumn" I think of an absolutely beautiful long haired girl with a gorgeous smile who has her daddy wrapped around her little finger and she knows it! She is such a Daddy's girl. I think of angelic laughter and a little Princess. We even call her "Princess Tay"

So whats in a name? In my own humble opinion the baby name websites can all take a hike. I don't care what the technical meaning to anybodies name is. A name is what you make of it and how you chose to live your life is how that name will be remembered in time.

~Ciao

Holiday Fun

Today KC came home from work with an exciting little box for the kids. His boss bought him a Holiday Rice Krispy Treat kit for the kids to make. It was so much fun to see their faces all lit up with excitement. I had to post some pictures of our fun.


So a big huge THANK YOU from the kids and us for the treats. Thank you Jana!

~Ciao

Cort's School Piano Recital

So today was Cort's piano recital. It was so wonderful! I got there just in the nick of time. He did so wonderfully I just HAD to post it for family and friends who couldn't make it.




So after the kids finished up their amazing recital the teachers played a piece. Unfortunately I didn't get my camera ready in time to record ALL of it but I did get some and it was amazing.

Thank you Salt Lake City department of Justice!!! (sarcasm in type...)

Have you ever been so upset and angry about something you can't do anything about? I've reached the end of my rope. I honestly don't know what I could have done differently in my situation so I've decided I'm going to write out my feelings of frustration in hope that I feel a little tiny bit better afterward.

Let us go back in time...to about 6 months ago when my car registration expired. I went in and got everything paid for and updated at our local car shop. I got a little white paper that I was told to fold on the dotted line and put in my rear window. I did as I was supposed to. I neatly folded my little magical "I did it right" paper and placed it in my rear window. Now I needed to pay for my car insurance and was unable to do so after the cost of the registration. So as I was told to I legally parked my car in the back of my apartment building until I could pay for my car insurance and drive it legally. Now here is the kicker...APPARENTLY my sweet little girl moved said paper as she didn't know its "magical properties" and she didn't realize that said "magical properties" only worked if they were placed in the car rear window. She thought that Mommy had forgotten this paper and put it on my driver side seat as she was exiting the car so that I would see what a good girl she had been when I got back in the car later. Now I didn't go anywhere near my car for a good 3 days until KC had been paid again and he had proof of insurance. (another magical paper with special properties but this one is only magical when sitting inside your glove compartment) In the meanwhile I had been walking for about 2 hours a day. Its about a 30 minute walk to my children s school then I walk back then I walk there again to pick them up and walk back again. For those of you who know me I have plantar faciitis in both of my feet so this is a rather painful 3 days for me. I was so happy to make one final walk to the back of my apartment to place the magical insurance paper in my glove box when I got there I saw on the windshield wiper 2 blue papers. I took the papers out and to my surprise they were 2 tickets from the police department. I was rather surprised that my magical rear window paper had apparently be for nothing. Perhaps I forgot to dance with this magical paper in the pale moon light at midnight? What did I do wrong? The tickets I got from the police department had been sitting on my windshield for 3 days now in several rain storms. The blue envelope they thoughtfully provided for me had been rained on and actually bled through on the ticket itself making it illegible. Now I knew what the ticket was but was confused as to what it was for as I had a magical paper!!! So I did what I thought I should and took the mess of blue into my apartment and called the police department number I got from the phone book and expressed to them that I got a ticket and where my car was when it got the ticket but that I was confused as to what it could be for. The nice lady on the phone told me everything would be OK and that as it was illegible and I couldn't read the little number back to her that they would be mailing me something in the mail letting me know what it was for and what needed to be done. As promised about 2 weeks later I got a lovely paper in the mail telling me that I was ticketed not once...but twice on separate days for having an unregistered vehicle. I told her all about the magical paper who's properties were a mystery to me but that it should have kept any ugly blue messy papers off of my car. She actually laughed at me. She laughed at me and said "ma'am if you had the paper on your rear window you never would have been ticketed. These police officers know their job and they have done this a few times and wouldn't ticket you if had that paper in your window" After I got off the phone with her I ran down to my car (yes I actually ran...my kids were shocked too...mom doesn't run.) It was at this point that I realized what my little girl had unknowingly done. I took the paper and ran back up to the apartment and called the woman back and explained it to her. She told me I would have to take my paper down to the Salt Lake City Justice Department to take care of any disputes. Now I will admit that a few days went by before I did but no more than a week and I walked in to the Justice Department and got searched and felt up by a huge scary woman (apparently women can hide things in their bra under wire...gotta check there right?) Then I went to a huge line and pulled a number and then I had to wait in what is quite possibly the most uncomfortable chair in the world for about 30 minutes before my number was called. At this point I met the one person in this whole mess who treated me like a person and not a checkbook. The man was very kind and understanding and told me that since I had my magical paper that proves that I didn't do anything wrong outside of letting my daughter touch said magical paper he could take the charge of $240 off and bring it down to $25. I was so pleased I was happy to pay it and put this whole mess behind me. He signed off on my little paper and I walked over to a new line to pay for my ticket. All done right? No...about a month later I get another paper in the mail saying I owed them for the ticket and that I was in danger of being served a court date if I didn't pay it in a week as now I have wasted all this court time and caused all this paperwork for these poor poor people who sit in an office and stamp papers all day. Well of course I was shocked! I picked up the phone and called the Justice department right away. I spoke to a nice young woman on the phone and she explained to me that it must have been some kind of mistake because the man who signed off on my ticket only signed off on ONE of them and not both. So their computer said I still owed $120 on one ticket and that the other one was paid off. I told her what was done and that it should all be done and taken care of. She said to me "oh I see. There must have just been a mistake in the computer is all. I'm going to take care of this now and just delete it out of our system with a note saying that you paid for both of these on your last visit" Well I was delighted that this was taken care of and behind me (for the second time) and hung up with that relieved feeling that all was right in the universe again. I had forgotten about this business completely when I got a knock on my door about a month later. I opened up the door and a woman stood there and said "are you Karen Coon?" I said "yes" and she handed me a paper and said "I need your signature here please" I looked down at the paper and said "whats this?" she says "this is for a ticket you failed to pay 3 months ago...You have been served" Well you can imagine my shock and dismay at the complete FAILURE of the Salt Lake City Justice Department at this point. I verbalized a rather long stream of profanities that I'm grateful my kids did not hear as they were at school. The poor woman just said "don't shoot the messenger" to which I smiled and apologized for my rude outburst and signed the papers and let her be on her way. It was at this point that I pondered the fact that they have police men running up and down the streets surrounding low income apartments and not only ticketing them but coming back the following day to ticket them again. This is how they fund their incompetent search for "real criminals". I was absolutely disgusted. After I finished crying I cleaned myself up and called my husband on the phone to tell him what happened and he told me to go down and take care of it in person while the kids were in school. I drove back down to the Justice Court and got felt up by another huge scary woman (damn those under wire bra's) and took a number and got in line again. This time I was not as fortunate as to having a kind understanding person on the other side. The woman I had to speak with was not only rude but she talked down to me like I was a 6 year old who didn't understand basic English. She called me a liar told me she was"impressed with the lengths i was willing to go to avoid paying a ticket I obviously deserved" and told me that its not the police mans job to "search my car for my paperwork" I probably could have argued further with her but at this point all I could think of was my frustrations at the simple things in life that I couldn't pay for. I have been donating plasma twice a week now for months to help my poor husband who works all day long and is just as frustrated at our finances as I am. The $50 a week I get from this donating usually ends up going toward basic needs like groceries and cleaning supplies. We have had a really hard run this last year and a half and nothing seems to be going our way. Every time we get to a point where we can pat ourselves on the back and say "good job! the rent is paid" or "way to go! we have groceries for 2 weeks" something else comes our way. KC does so much for our family to get by and I try and help out but with my time restraints on being here when the kids get home from school and trying to be a good housewife (and failing) it all just seems to go down the crapper. At any rate I ended up telling the woman how wrong all of this was and I believe I said "What can I do? I haven't done anything wrong! I'm being charged a ticket for something I haven't done! I did everything right!" and I am ashamed to say I actually let that witch of a woman see me cry. I'm sure she walked in the back of the office and told everybody in the break room how she brought a liar down to tears and how awful a person I am but at the end of the conversations she said "I can take it down to $40. Can you pay that today?" Between each sobbing breath I said "no...I'm afraid I cant." and she said I had until December 2nd to pay it off. Here comes the part where I DID do wrong. I forgot about the court date. I have had so much on my mind with trying to find a new job and stressing over Christmas that I completely forgot. That part I'm willing to admit was completely my fault. So now I owe the court $150 and if I don't pay that soon ( and no...I cant) they will issue a warrant out for me. In honesty I hope they do arrest me. I hope they do so I can say "Hey! 3 square meals at the taxpayers expense? I'M IN!" You ever get that feeling that things can't get any worse? and then inevitably they do? That's me...except on a weekly basis. I've reached the end of my rope with these people!

Have any of you seen that movie "A knights tale"? There is a line in there where the man who plays the writer Chaucer has debt collectors come and collect on a debt after they stripped him of his clothes and everything that he had on him they then try and get the money out of his friend. His friend pays for the debt then Chaucer turns to the debt collectors and tell them "I will eviscerate you in fiction. Every pimple, every character flaw. I was naked for a day; you will be naked for eternity" I'm afraid that's all I can possibly do to these people. Write about them and hope I feel better about it when I'm done.

So here's to you Salt Lake City Department of Justice! *cheers* to you who have taken down the REAL criminals with your lies and your fake paperwork sent out to citizens in low-income apartments in the butt crack of Salt Lake! Way to go! You got another one! I'm sure there will be an extra bonus in your Christmas stockings this year! High Fives all around! You F'ing WIN!

...I'm sure in about a week I will regret posting this. But I don't think it matters...and if it does I'll delete it then. lol

~ciao

Job

WEll its been an interesting day so far...as many of you know I donate plasma twice a week to help pay for groceries. Its not much but it is an extra $60 a week and it helps a ton. Today I went in for my usual Tuesday donation and a new girl was there. She came to stick me and I was already a little worried because I'm told I have an impossible vein to find on the left arm and a decent one on my right. I always donate on my right arm. Well she comes over and sticks me and it didnt work. She then proceeds to jiggle it around inside my arm for a good 2 minute of me going "ahh...ahhhhh...oowwww" well she finally goes "gosh sweety I dont know whats up with your vein but it just doesnt wanna work with me" then she calls over another person to "fix" it. This other guy whom I know to be very good comes over and shifts it around my arm for some time all the while me whimpering like a baby cuz it HURT!!! And he cant fix it either. So then he calls over one other lady and she comes and actually shoves the needle INTO MY MUSCLE TISSUE! I was now tearing up...I'm sorry Im not usually such a baby about these things but it burned and hurt soooo badly at this point I couldnt stop myself. Well she got the blood to flow again and then turns to the original bad sticker and says "keep an eye on her during her return cycle" so now i'm actually scared. I can feel my heart racing and i'm worried to death at this point...I mean what does that mean actually?? So then I'm close to my return cycle and the little yellow light turns on and starts beeping at me...so I raise my hand and a girl I dont know comes over and was very good and stayed with me until the return cycle started. Well of course since its ME and I have horribad luck...it wont return and the blood starts pooling in my tissue. She stops the machine and had to restick my left arm. The rest went good but then she goes to remove the needle in my right arm and a huge gelatinous string of partially clotted blood comes out of the needle and plops on my arm. "ahhh theres the problem" she says. So now I'm dying...I had to take the money I earned and to go the store to buy something so we had some food to eat tonight and the whole time i'm there everybody is staring at me. I have 2 wrapped arms with blood stains all over them and iodine stains. Can't say I blame them for staring. The things I do for food. It was so awful. Now I have to ice down my arm every 30 minutes and tomorrow I have to alternate heat and cold. To top it all off I have to go donate again on Thursday. I'm scared to death. HOLD ME! And to end this whole crappy story...

Karen is currently looking for work. I need a graveyard shift position that I can go to after KC comes home from his job. If anybody knows about anything PLEASE let me know!

~Ciao

Montana family fun!

I look forward to our visit to my Dad's cabins in Montana every single time. We try and get up there at least once a year but lately its been pretty tough with gas prices being what they are and trying to save up the cash to buy what we need to get there.

It was soooo much fun this year! We started out our drive on Wednesday the 30th at 12:30 as the kids only had a half day of school. So we picked them up and headed north without delay. The kids have been absolutely giddy waiting for Wednesday to come. Tatumn actually wrote out a calendar on her new easel she got for her birthday just so she could count down the days until we left. Cort would help her each day by helping her remember to cross of a new day before they went to bed.

It so nice seeing the kids get so excited about something. Some days I feel like we get into a routine of just school, homework, cleanup, bed...and who wants that for their kids? There has to be a little fun thrown in there right? I remember when I was little my sister used to think up the funnest games for all of us to play. One time she gathered up a whole bunch of old toys and collectibles and such from wherever she could and did a game show type game where we could all "win" things from behind the counter. I couldn't have been much older than 8 or 9 but I still remember it well...who knows? Maybe Cort and Tatumn will have fond memories of trips up to Montana.

Not to mention poor KC who works all day every day comes home just in time for dinner, some homework, maybe a show and then bed just to do it all over again. He needed a break more than any of us.

So we headed up after school Wednesday and drove for about 6 hours. (It should have been about 5 but I swear my kids bladders are smaller than normal) We got to the cabins with the help of our good friend "Ken Ken" (its really the Tom Tom my mom got us for Christmas but we renamed it Ken Ken cuz we have the voice of "Ken from Australia" on it...we still giggle when he says in that thick aussie accent "You have reached your distination") haha see? it made me giggle just now...

When we got there we unpacked and headed to our cabin that was all ready and waiting for us with the heater on and everything. It was wonderful! My Dad has made some amazing improvements on them since he has been there. I looked forward to that amazingly wonderful shower each and every night before bed.

Here is the front of our cabin we stayed in. Lucky number 9!

Charice, Carissa and Cade and Chancy, Tanya, Bridger, Aspen and Emery got there in the wee hours of the morning so the next day we all saw each other and there was at least a good 4 inches of snow on the ground so what do we do? Make a snowman of course! Check out the kid's masterpiece.


Here is Uncle Chancy helping Tatumn get the eyes and nose on straight.

And we tried to get Aspen to do the Charlies Angels pose with Carissa but she wasn't having it. haha

Later we realized that they made too many balls for the snowman so they made this fellow here...

Poor fella...didn't have a chance with those buck teeth and goofy hair.

But we love him anyways...it was really snowy the next day...May he rest in peace.





OK this made me laugh. So the next day we decided to head up to Ennis where there is this fishing pond just for kids and its free and you don't have to buy a fishing license so we try to get the kids up there each time we go. On our way there traffic was stopped so that these cows could be rounded up and crossed the road. And this rather serious cowboy was yelling at cars so that we didn't spook the cows. He did eventually clear the road for us though.

Thank you mister cowboy man!

So thankfully Mom and Dad brought our fishing poles up from their house and we took them up to the pond in Ennis. We decided that Tatumn has graduated from her "princess fishing pole" and let her use Cort's old one so that Cort could use KC's "Manly Fishing Pole".

We headed in to town to gather some supplies from a sportsman's store and then headed to the pond. We waited a good while until Cort got his first nibble. Then it got exciting for the kids. They would sit and stare at that bobber for hours. I've never seen them dedicated to one task for so long. Then after a while Cort landed a big one!
I'm so proud of myself for getting a picture while he was reeling him in.

So now Cort was having the time of his life.




Now it was Tatumn's turn. Now don't tell the rangers but I was casting in the line and holding the pole for her...OK I was hooking the fish too but SHE reeled it in! So I don't think I was realllly cheating....right? She was so excited to pull that monster up too.

OK so we couldn't get her to hold the fish for a picture but Daddy was very brave for her and held it for her.


Now at this point we figured we were probably done for the day as we were actually planning to eat these fish any more would be a waste. So KC and Cort took a last trip to the bathroom while me and Tatumn waited at the pond. Well while they were waiting I landed another one and tossed the pole to Tatumn to reel it in. Well she is so excited she starts throwing her hands all over the pole and reeling in just as fast as she can. I'm watching the bobber and its getting further and further away...I was a little confused until I realized Tatumn in her excitement had hit the release button on the rod so the fish was just swimming away with it haha. Well I fixed the rod and handed it back to her and she started just a reeling away for quite a while so that I could get to the net. By the time I got the net and got to the edge of the pond she had it right up to the edge. I stared at it for a while and just wondered...how the heck am I gonna get this on land? ITS TOO BIG FOR THE NET! It looked like Monstro the Whale from Pinocchio. So I sort of scooped its head into the net and kinda had to fling it up on land. Perfect timing cuz right as I did the hook came off of the fish. So I keep pushing it up further and further until KC and Cort got back from the bathroom. Tatumn was doing a little dance she was so excited to show Daddy what she did. Well as I was getting the fish into our bucket I realised that this thing had another persons hook in its lip that must have snapped the other guys line cuz all you could see was the hook and a swivel. That's right...she caught the one that got away. I couldn't really do this fish justice with just a picture so I had Tatumn lay down next to it so you can see...its actually the size of her leg.
See here you can see it is almost as tall as her from her knee up.


And here she is laying down (well..as close to it as we could get her to) and its about from her hip to her toes.



We headed back tot he cabins after that bit of fun. Then we got to start the dirty work of gutting and cooking. So I made some before and after pictures.






Mmmmm Fried fish...it was delicious. We froze the other two and took them home. I'll be making them for dinner tonight.

So the following day we headed to West Yellowstone to see what kind of trouble we could get into. KC found this really fun place. It was a reserve for Grizzly bears and wolves. So we had to check it out. This statue was in front of the place so Tatumn decided she needed to have a picture in front of it.


We learned all kinds of interesting facts about bears and wolves and the kids got to play in a wolf den.


Then we got to meet this monster. She weighs 918 pounds!!! And the funniest part was that she had dug out a hole for her to recline in and basically sat there and swatted at the raven's and stared at the humans. At the end there was a play area that Cort and Tatumn had some fun at as well.


This was a photo op if ever I saw one.

So then we headed back to the cabins to hang out with the Family and try and stay warm. How better to stay warm then a bonfire? My dad's cabin camp has a HUGE area set aside for people to set up tents and there is a huge fire pit there that we always have to set up a big fire and then cook tin foil dinners. If you have never had one of my moms tin foil dinners...you havent lived. Its like a whole pound of hamburger, onions, potatoes, salt, pepper, bacon, cheese...lots of gooey delicious cheese...mmmm



Rissa's orange hat...need I say more? I'm so jealous.

All in all it was a great fun trip! I'm looking forward to next year already.

~Ciao