Yellowstone

For President's Day, we decided to take a day trip to Yellowstone with two of our good friends Mike and Sarah Harrison. They told us about free national park day so why not take advantage?! We didn't realize that all the roads are closed in the winter so we couldn't drive through the park unless we rode on a snow coach which would take 5 hours one way! We decided not to do that.

Instead we found some fun things in the town to do. First we checked out the bear and wolf discovery. They told us that they do not interact with the bears or wolves so they are still "wild". Throughout the day they let out two bears at a time. 

Inside the gift shop we did find a nice bear to interact with!

We ate lunch at Wild West Pizza. We had to hurry and finish eating so we wouldn't miss the wolf feedings!!

This part was actually pretty cool to see how they would eat in the wild. They let two wolves out with the pieces of meat already scattered around. There was a clear dominant wolf that wouldn't let the other wolf near the food. 

Here you can see him growling at the other wolf. I would not want to be the one up against those teeth!

We walked around to some of the shops but sadly a lot of them were closed for the winter. I'm guessing this place is a lot busier in the summer!

On the way home we stopped in Archer, ID for what we heard is the best homemade rootbeer. 

We approve!

Hopefully we can visit Yellowstone again before we move, so we can actually drive through the park.  We have to take advantage of living near such a beautiful area, Dallas doesn't have much going for it as far as scenery goes :)

Christmas At Sundance

We were able to spend Christmas 2014 with David's family in Sundance, UT. His parents rented this cabin so that we could all stay in one place for the holidays, with the exception of his sister Ginny and her family, since she recently had a baby. They live close by, so they were able to come up a lot!

The inside of the cabin. I loved the big windows with a nice mountainside view.  We were within walking distance of the ski slope. 

It even came with a Christmas tree all decorated!

My favorite part was this shower which is going in my future house!

David had fun trying out this new toy! There was a lot of snow while we were there so it was nice to have.

Aunt Suzanne and her family also happened to rent a cabin in Sundance close by to our cabin! The first night we were there we went over for dinner that his cousin Wendy made. She is such a good cook! We love her food!

Suzannah, David, Jackson, Star and her daughter Scotland.

We played some Christmas songs with these bells 

Trying to follow along so we don't miss our turn!

Our music directors Jackson and Shelby. 

Back at our cabin we had a little too much fun with the whipped cream….

Who doesn't want whipped cream flung into their mouth from across the room?

Getting it on our face…

On Christmas day we made a big lunch and had everyone at our cabin. Here is the younger generation (cousin's kids)

And the whole group! (Minus David's brother Sam and his wife Eve who spent Christmas day with her family.)

We spent Christmas day eating and with family, we didn't even get around to opening presents until that night. 

 Suzannah trying out Dave's head scratcher.

Dave's parents got all of the kids robes with our initials on it. 

On Sunday we went up to Herriman, UT for little Jordan's baby blessing. 

They did the blessing in their house so that more could participate in the circle. A lot of family members were able to come for the gathering at Ginny and Adam's house. 

All the siblings together for the first time in years!

All the Butler grandkids!

Some other fun things we were able to do including snowshoeing, sledding on the side of our cabin and night snowboarding/skiing at Sundance!

It was a great Christmas and fun that we were able to have everyone together!