WE ARE IN....

Here we are in Utah! Mark, Brian's youngest brother, is getting married tommorow. So here we are - although a little crazy getting here.

We have driven pretty much 10 - 11 hours each day, starting Friday morning - complete with camping items.

Our first night camping was pretty much a NIGHTMARE for me. I like camping - I am a fan....BUT when the temperature (near Mt. Rushmore) gets down to 35 degrees at night in the middle of July, I have only so much love for the place.

NOT TO MENTION, camping with an 8 week old can be a little tricky. Kylianne was congested and all night I was thinking " Do I need to suction out her nose" or "Is she breathing?" " Do I use the aspirator and have her cry bloody murder and wake up all the campers around us?"

Needless to say, I got about 45 minutes of unsettled sleep. Brian, who is a FANTASTIC sleeper couldn't get any sleep either.

So at 4:30 AM we looked at each other in the pitch black tent and said, "LETS GET OUTTA HERE!!!" So we loaded everything up before anyone else in the campground was up and vanished from that place - Custer State Park - as soon as the tent was down. The kids had no idea what hit them or where they were - they just knew they woke up at the crack of dawn in the car.

Mount Rushmore was great - the entire 5 minutes that we were there.

Yellowstone was by far our favorite. We were GOING to camp there too, but after that horrible night we had, we quickly acted and made hotel reservations at Old Faithful Inn which I LOVED LOVED LOVED. Old Faithful was literally like 40 feet away - it was amazing. And there were like 50 other geysers along pathway that we could walk around outside of the hotel. I LOVED it.

Also - in our room - it was supposed to be the feel of the hotel as it was 100 years ago. So there was no phone, no clock, no TV and no bathroom in our room. There was a lonely sink and two queen beds. But after camping it was luxery beyond compare for me. The lobby was amazing and whimsical - like something you would see at Disney World - larger than life. I was sad to leave - I really think we could have been entertained there for days.

Brian and I BOTH wanted to see a bear, but sadly, we didn't. We did see buffalo, moose, bison, and a goat - VERY close by.

We were a little disconcerted when having a picnic there because as we were cooking eggs bacon and stir fried veggies on a kerosene stove and we read a sign nailed on the picnic bench which read, "EAT AT YOUR OWN RISK. BEARS ARE ATTRACTED TO THE SCENT OF FOOD AND MAY APPROACH YOU." So every 30 seconds as I was cooking I would glance nervously over my shoulder at the surrounding woods and turned the heat up as high as it would go to make everything go a little faster.

The only way we could drive 10 hours a day was the Medela pump I had that has a car adapter. I would pump a bottle and then contort my body so I could feed the bottle to Kylianne in the seat behind us. The only bad part - since I couldn't burp her - I would take her our at the rest areas and she would projectile vomit and drench everything and everyone in site. POOR GIRL!! But she was an ANGEL and never EVER cried in the car...AND she still slept through the night despite her being sick. What a dream baby! AND thank goodness for a laptop to play videos for Brooke and Tyler. And I didn't even MIND that "CARS" is 2 hours long, which I generally hate.

And now we are here in Salt Lake for Mark's wedding.........!