Yellowstone

To celebrate Blake's birthday, we took a little trip to West Yellowstone and Yellowstone Park. We took Brian's pickup and loaded the 4 wheeler in it. We stayed at the Worldmark resort.

We stopped in Island Park on our way and fed the fish at Big Springs.

We rode the 4 wheeler around for awhile. We found the school bus that we saw last winter when it was buried in snow.

We saw an elk ranch with HUGE elk behind the fences.

We found the boat dock that looked totally different last winter.

Blake is loading up the 4wheeler after we had ridden around for a couple of hours. It was perfect weather, just a little breezy, but really nice temperature.

On Thursday we rented a GPS that told us all about Yellowstone Park. It was like having your own personal tour guide. We learned alot about the park, and it's history. We drove the north loop and saw many things we had not seen before.

We saw quite a few Bison and Elk, this big guy was just sauntering down the road.

Friday morning we took off again through the park, we went south and drove through Jackson. It was a nice relaxing trip to see things almost in our back yard.

We saw Old Faithful erupt. We couldn't have timed it better if we tried. We walked up and sat down on the benches, waited a whole 3 minutes before it started spouting off! Can you see the rainbow in the steam?

When we left Old Faithful, there was a huge crow sitting on the seat of the 4wheeler. It didn't move until we starting backing out!

We saw the back side of the Tetons. They are so majestic and huge! This was taken right out of the pickup window.

Senior Pictures

Saturday, Jared and I decided to try taking his senior pictures. We took pictures at Matsuura's tennis courts, the river, our driveway with several different "props", down by a straw stack, and in the house. I'm not a professional photographer by any means, and I really don't know how to deal with shadows and stuff, but all in all I think they turned out pretty good. Here is a sample of some of them.
Isn't he cute? Please vote for your favorite!

Michael Packer

Randy's best friend, Michael Packer returned last Wednesday from his mission to Birmingham, England. He gave a really good talk in church on Sunday. I'm sure he was a really good missionary. He seems so confident and sure of himself. He has definitely grown up!
It was so fun to see him and hug him (even if he didn't really want the hug). He still has his fun sense of humor, and a little bit of a British accent.Michael showed us a picture he carried in his wallet for the last two years that was just like this one. The only difference was that Randy was standing where Jared is. Welcome home Michael! Good luck at school!

Senior

Wednesday was the first day of the last! It is the last year of high school for any of the Blake and Diana Purcell children! I know, I know, that means we are getting really old! This is the last time I will take a picture of my children going off to school! I can't even begin to imagine where the time has gone! I remember Cindy's first day of kindergarten, and how hard it was to send her off to school, and now my baby is a Senior!
There he goes, driving off into the sun....rise!

SKUNKED!!!!

When we got home from Michigan, Blake saw that something had been digging trying to get under our patio. Well, the next morning when he was in the hot tub, he heard something moving around, it was a skunk! He watched it walk around the patio and wander out into the field.

So Blake decided to put more dirt and pack it down, hoping to discourage the skunk from trying to get under the patio. There was no sign of it for a few days, then Blake could tell that it had begun digging again. He borrowed a skunk trap to see if he could capture the varmit.

The first night he had the trap set, he made sure that Poky and Baby were locked in the garage, but he didn't catch a skunk. The next night Baby wouldn't go in the garage, and when he went out in the morning, he had definately caught something black and white! Baby was not happy at being locked up in the cage! She ate all the tuna fish, but was really ready to get out of there!

Blake decided not to set the trap the next night because there had been no sign of the skunk for the last 2 nights. About 2:00 am I woke up to Poky growling, he was in the garage growling like crazy. After a few minutes, I heard him go out of the garage, then I could hear an animal fight. It woke Blake up and he bolted out of bed. By the time he got to the garage, Poky was back in there, but he was leaving a little trail of blood. We don't know what he was fighting with. His ear was scratched and bleeding. Blake went out to the patio and looked to see if the skunk had dug some more and sure enough it had, it was probably under the patio right then! So at 2:30 am, Blake set the trap again. Poky and Baby were safely locked in the garage this time. When Blake got up a little after 5:00 to get in the hot tub, there was the skunk in the trap!

Now, he had a really big problem! How should he get rid of the thing! He had tied a rope on to the trap to drag it away from the house into the field. He had to wear his "headlight" flashlight so he could see where he was going.He got the trap out into the field, but didn't know how he could open the trap and shoot the skunk without being too close. Then he got the idea to drown it, so he filled the ditch with water and dragged the trap to the ditch and dunked it, when it was dead, he buried the stinking thing!

The next night he got a big idea to see if he could trap whatever was fighting with Poky. (We didn't think it was the skunk, because there was no odor.) So, he set the trap out on the driveway. At about midnight I heard the trap door slam shut, so I woke up Blake and he ran out there -- he couldn't tell what was in the trap, finally he got brave enough to get close enough to see --- it was a large black cat! He let it out and it ran off in a real hurry. We still don't know what Poky was fighting with, but decided we've had enough trapping wild animals!

Trip to Michigan

Sometime last year we started planning a trip to Stevensville, Michigan to see Cindy and Ken and Sydney. We planned to drive our Red pickup and get a uhaul trailer so we could take Cindy's furniture that she'd left in Idaho to her. So, on August 8th, we loaded up the

trailer and pickup with Cindy's couch, love seat, table and chairs and some other things she wanted. Brian and Celia and Blake and Jared and I were planning on going, but at the last minute, Celia had an opportunity for a job interview, so she decided that she would stay home. We were sad and we missed her. We also took my niece, Jackie so that Syd would have someone to play with. So, on Saturday, August 9th at 5:00 a.m. we loaded into the pickup and headed east. We stopped at my sister Lynne's home in Woodruff, Utah at 8:00 a.m. for breakfast and to pick up Jackie. We left there about 9:00 and continued on east. We stopped at Cabela's in Sidney, Nebraska for some leg stretching time and some food. We went on to stay the night in Lincoln, Nebraska. On Sunday morning, we took off again. We arrived at Cindy's about 6:00 p.m. Cindy has a very nice new home, really open and spacious. She also has a very BIG dog. Stormy is a Great Dane that is still a pup and doesn't realize how big she is. Blake, Jared and Brian loved her, Jackie and I weren't as sure about that. We unloaded the trailer, and pickup. Cindy and Ken had an older couch and love seat that they said they were going to give to Goodwill, Brian decided that it was better than what he had at home. So, he called Celia and she said if we could fit it in, to bring it home. We had only rented the trailer one-way, so they worked hard, but finally figured out that they could fit the couch and love seat and all our luggage in for the trip home. After all the moving, we just chilled out for awhile, we were all pretty tired from all the driving, but were glad to make the trip. It was so fun to see Cindy and Ken and Sydney again.

Jackie was a real good traveller. She watched dvd's and ate snacks and played games and counted trucks.

Blake and Jared and Brian all took turns driving. They made sure that Blake was driving when we got near Chicago, so he could deal with the traffic and many roads.

I didn't drive, I just rode along and entertained Jackie, and passed out drinks and snacks. I was probably the worst of the travellers, I'm not a real good sitter for long hours.

Cabela's in Sidney, Nebraska

We had a small trailer for such a big pickup.

Jackie's up bright and early, ready to leave the hotel in Sydney, Ne.

Brian and Jared getting to know Stormy.

Blake and Cindy watching the boys and the dog.

Check out Cindy's blog to see many more pictures of our adventures!

Monday

Monday morning, Ken, Blake, Jared and Brian went and played tennis. Cindy and I took Stormy for a walk, and man do they walk fast! Syd and Jackie just played and played. After lunch we went to Deer Forest, which is a petting zoo that includes deer that you can mingle with and feed. Brian and Jared loved it! Then we went to a little river, everyone waded in the water and played with Stormy. She loved chasing sticks in the water and running around. We grilled hamburgers at Cindy and Ken's. Then we watched some Olympics on TV. Ken had them recorded, so we had hours to watch commercial free which was great. Cindy, Syd, Jackie and I played some games, too.

The llamas were very friendly and funny.

Syd feeding the deer, Jackie being a little leary of the deer.

Jared and Brian feeding the deer the apples that Ken cut up for us to take.

Tuesday

Tuesday, after playing some tennis we loaded up and headed to Rothbury, MI to the Double JJ Ranch. It is a resort that has an indoor water park, an old western village. We played in the water park and went down the slides, played in the wave pool and the lazy river. After that we wandered through the village, the girls got to ride an old horse. We stayed the night in a log cabin. It was lots of fun.

Brian and Jared being flushed out of the "toilet bowl". That's what we dubbed this slide, it was the favorite.

Ken, Cindy, Syd and Jackie coming out of the huge slide on a 4 person tube.

Jackie was really good at making it across this pool on these floating logs using the ropes to hang on to.

Brian playing basketball in the water.

Wednesday

Wednesday, we left the Double JJ Ranch and headed for Grand Rapids. We went to the John Ball zoo. It was a fun zoo, most of us touched some stingrays and a shark. We went to McDonald's for lunch then headed back to Stevensville. In the evening, Ken took Sydney and Jackie to a concert at the county fair. Blake, Brian, Jared, Cindy & I went to St. Joseph to get some yummy pizza, then we walked down to the Lake Michigan beach and watched the waves, then we walked back up to the town and got some yummy ice cream.

Jared, Jackie, Cindy, Blake and Brian touching the stingrays.

Syd and Jackie seeing if they measure up to kangaroo. Syd is actually younger than Jackie by almost 2 years!

Jackie and Syd feeding some birds.

Jared and Jackie petting and brushing some nice goats.

Brian wished he'd worn his swimming suit, he wanted to get out into those waves.

Jared and Cindy checking out some of the waves.

Here are the 5 Purcell's that were together for a few days.

Brian, Cindy and Jared eating their yummy ice cream cones.