A quick update

I have much to catch up on, but I'm not feeling very blogggy right now, so I thought I'd give you a quick recap of what's been going on around here.

The 4th of July was Sunday. We started the day by heading out to Hyalite Canyon, not far from Bozeman and doing two hikes with my family. The first was short, and easy to Palisade Falls. The second was way more challenging, straight up a mountain, but totally worth the reward of Blackmore Lake nestled in the mountains. I love the 4th of July holiday, but was admittedly underwhelmed by the festivities in Bozeman. I've celebrated in much smaller towns that have a much better celebration than this town of 35K or so. Not to mention, my parents were worn out from the hike, so they crapped out and went back to camp to go to bed. And when that happened, I just went home with Jason, who had agreed to miss going to the fireworks because our dog is neurotic and completely freaks out about fireworks. We did catch part of the display from the street in front of our house (albeit with an obstructed view).

My parents talked about heading back to Yellowstone Monday, but when Monday came along, Jason and I decided to pass and perhaps go down to the park again Tuesday. Well, the 'rents decided that was an alright idea, so we just sort of laid low Monday. Grandpa Bob took the two granddaughters to the playground while Mom and I checked out the quilt shop downtown. We all explored together a bit and went out for Mexican that evening.

Tuesday, we did go back to Yellowstone, and checked out the Old Faithful area. Oh. My. Crowds! I had forgotten about the throngs of people that go there. Soooo much different than Canyon, which obviously has plenty of tourists but not in the insane numbers as Old Faithful. Still, lots of great things to see. My mom decided to take a rest (she has a leg injury) while the rest of us walked out to Morning Glory Pool. The timing was right on because we happened to be in the area to see both Riverside Geyser and Castle Geyser erupt. Very cool.

My parents and Harmony left after breakfast Wednesday (yesterday) morning and Jason and I got our windshield fixed from the hail storm last week (Did I mention the hail storm?)? With golf-ball sized hail? Yeah, insane. While Jason watch Spain beat Germany in the World Cup, Sierra and I headed down the street to check out "Lunch on the Lawn." Bozeman has this event every Wednesday in July and August with live music and a few food vendors. It was great, made me wish we lived here. I also had my second appointment at the Bozeman Birth Center. Oh, I love it there. The midwives are great and the facility is just amazing. Sigh. Kinda wish we were planning to stay and have Baby Girl #2 here ( ... must not think such thoughts ... must think of super expensive out-of-network-insurance costs ... stay in, baby girl, stay in!!).

Today, Jason and I took Sierra to Missouri River Headwaters State Park. Not a whole lot to see there, but there was an interpretive area about the native people and about the time when the Lewis and Clark expedition first visited there. And, we have now been to both the beginning and the end of the Missouri River. The headwaters of the Missouri is actually the confluence of three rivers (Jefferson, Madison, and Gallatin), which join together to form the Missouri.

Hoping to post in more detail about these things later (hopefully sooner, rather than later, I'll try for tomorrow).