What . . . a whirlwind

Getting a bit behind so I figured I'd better post something today before I rationalize my way out of it again. So first things first

My birthday! Katie, Jon, Staci, and LeeAnn came over that night and we had dinner and cake! Staci made the cake (spice cake with toasted coconut frosting. YUM!) of course and it was fabulous as usual. My p's were on their way out of town with my brother Ken and his kids. Ken's mother-in-law passed away unexpectedly and they were all heading up for the funeral in Twin Falls. But they stopped by on their way and dropped off an enormous Costco sheet cake (carrot cake with apricot cream frosting in the middle. YUM again!) to make up for their absence. And my sister also stopped by with her kids and THEY brought ice cream cake (chocolatey caramel goodness. YUM cubed!). Lots of cake that day! No wonder I've gained 5 pounds!

BAM! Short for the Battle At Midway triathlon. My first race of the season and I was underprepared and unfocused! Awesome! But luckily I'd paid in advance and was committed to doing it. And I'm so glad I did because it was awesome! I freaking loved it! Even the swim portion which is normally my most hated event. Although my swim time was slower than last year— amazing since last year I treaded water for several minutes at the start trying to decide if I REALLY wanted to swim in 52 degree water in 42 degree weather—I managed to knock off 3 minutes from time. Made me really wish I'd trained harder for this since I missed my time goal by 31 seconds. Ouch. But the experience was awesome and made me excited to do some more. It was fun to have Dave there and doing it with me.

West Yellowstone! This past weekend Staci and I headed up to West Yellowstone for a much needed mini-vacation. We were lucky that the weather stayed pretty decent for our trip. It was very pleasant on Saturday and when it rained it didn't rain long. Until night time when it got cold and rainy and stayed that way into Sunday. Naturally the weather cleared up behind us as we drove home.

Our hotel room was sketchy at best. Had obvious structural problems and the pool and hot tub were less than inviting. "Closed for the season" we were told. Would that season be summer? Hmmm. Found out it was rated as the next to worst hotel in West Yellowstone. We switched rooms since our first room hadn't been cleaned since it was built in the 1980's and the second one wasn't nearly as bad. A pack of clorox wipes later and we felt right at home. With our shoes on at all times of course.

Staci giving one of her new friends a kiss

Taking pictures of poop for later identification. Stace was convinced we were going to be attacked by a bear, bison, or other large animal while we hiked and wanted to find out which animals were sharing our trail.

That brown smudge is actually a bear! Not sure which kind but it was really close to the road and created a VERY long traffic jam while everyone stopped to get pictures

We passed right by this massive elk on our first hike. It was laying down in the brush 15 yards from the trail!

We were very curious how hot the water was coming from the different hot springs so we took turns seeing how hot everything was. I know. We were so very daring! We even left the path in a couple sections even though signs warned us not to do it. Ha!!