family reunion in august

I got to plan a Coombs family reunion this summer! Everyone except the Claytons got to come. We wish they lived closer! We all met up and went into Yellowstone National Park for the day!

Here is Spencer hanging out in his stroller!

Kristin rode with us in the car and kept Spencer entertained. She is such a great aunt!

All of the Coombs family, except for Kim! If I knew how to use photoshop I would have added her!

Spencer just loves Cade. He usually laughs a whole lot when he is around him!

And here is me and my sissy! Love you Krisin!

Later that night we all went to pizza at WILD WEST! Best pizza!
The next day we went to the IMAX theater and watched the Caves show. It was fantastic. Then we did some shopping around town! We also took the family around town to show them the damage of the wind storm we missed the day before because we were in the park. It was pretty horrible! Then we finished up at our house eating a scrumptious lunch!

It was so great to finally get the family here! We waited almost a whole year before they finally came. It was so much fun and we really loved having them all here! We hope they come back sometime!

Cheetos are delicious!

My birthday was a couple weeks ago and Justin kept asking me what I wanted to do. Well, I really didn't know what I wanted to do, but he wanted to go camping so that's what we did (well mostly). We went to this great little place near our house called Wade Lake and Cliff Lake. Two lakes right next to each other and they were beautiful. We took a hike, drove around, had a camp fire and had tin foil dinners and smores and then drove home to sleep in my bed. It was great!
We saw this little rock chuck peeking at us from his hole on our hike.

Spencer stopped to smell the flowers

Dad helping Spencer walk on this huge log

Justin's shoulders make a good seat. We really need a hiking backpack.

Mom and Spencer

Wade Lake

Our friends in our ward gave Spencer this bike and he LOVES it!

I got this picture a couple weeks ago. This little fox is in our backyard.

Our friends Dan and Emalee came to visit us and we went into Yellowstone! Such a great day! This is Yellowstone Lake!

We got super close to a grizzly bear. He crossed the road right in front of us.

Lower Falls

A scruffily looking wolf. Dan and Justin got really close.

Earlier this spring we went for a drive in the park. This grizzly bear (we have seen 12 this year) was hanging out near the fields and rock before you get to Madison Junction. He was walking pretty fast, so we only got to watch him for a while...or so we thought.

As you can tell it was getting pretty late.

We went into Madison Campground to see if we could find him. But we had just missed him according to other people. So we thought we would just get on with our drive. We turned on Fire Hole Drive and about a 1/4 mile in the grizzly ran right in front of our car. So we took some snap shots. They aren't great because it was so dark, but you get the idea.

He just sat there and watched us as we watched him. But the coolest part for me was when he stood up on the pole and started scratching his back. Too cool!

Here's a huge Buffalo. They are everywhere.

Daddy snuggling Spencer to keep him warm while we waited for Old Faithful.

Little coyote.

So a couple months ago I hear Justin start laughing. We had all just crawled out of bed, so I came to see what was so funny! Well Daddy left his late night snack out and Spencer enjoyed every second. At first he thought he was in trouble and offered a peace offering. But we just let him finish off the bag. He loved it! Great breakfast!

Well, so far we are really enjoying our summer. We are both working hard and Spencer is loving all his buddies and outdoor time at daycare. We have had lots of friends stay with us and we have loved having all of them. And hope to get more family and friends up this way.

3 moves, 1 year

As soon as we got back from our nice warm vacation in Arizona, we started to pack up our things yet another time! Yes... this is our 3rd move in 1 year (actually 10 months) and now we are staying put for a while(fingers crossed)! We should be pro's at moving by now, but I think we are dopes! I am so tired of cleaning houses UGH! But we are mostly settled and we are really liking this place! We are still in West Yellowstone...yes we have moved 3 times this year and they have all been in West Yellowstone. There just isn't a lot to choose from here. This is a home and we love it! So here are a couple of pics!
Kitchen

my favs: ice and water dispenser & island

Dining Room

Living room

Backyard

We live on a peninsula and there are around 400 buffalo out here roaming. Something to get used to. The other day I went to put Spencer down for a nap and was face to face with a buffalo out my side window. So I let Spencer check them out through the back sliding doors. Pretty crazy, but pretty neat! I told Justin I didn't have to sing the song anymore "oh give me a home, where the buffalo roam" because I was living it! Sometimes I can't believe it! Who would have guessed?!

Yellowstone National Park

Hanging out at mom's house. The boys!

Wearing Grandpa's hat.
Next time Grandpa promised to take Spencer on the riding lawn mower. Lucky!

It's such a great time to go into the park! Not a lot of traffic and lots of animals to see. This is a grizzly bear Justin spotted.

Mammoth Hot Springs

Hanging out in Gardiner, just outside of the park, eating sandwiches in the back of the truck. We think everything, well most everything about Spencer is cute. And eating sandwiches is one of them. It just makes us smile.

Lots of elk and this poor fella only had one antler.

Unfortunately, our battery on our camera was dead the second time we went through because we saw some great stuff. All I was hoping for that day was to see some wolves and we did! About 20 yards away....it was so awesome! We saw 1 black bear, 2 grizzly's, lots of elk, buffalo (their babies are SO cute), big horned sheep, antelope, deer, and a coyote! So great! We LOVE Yellowstone!

Spring Break

We had a wonderful Spring Break this year. And we were much looking forward to it after the winter here in West Yellowstone. It was a long drive, but it was SO worth it!

We drove to Idaho Falls to spend Easter with our families and then we drove to St. George. We stayed the night there before we left for Tucson, AZ! When we got to St. George we stopped in to Costco and when we came out, there was the most beautiful rainbow I have ever seen! This pic doesn't do it justice!

On our way to Tucson, to see Justin's older brother and his family, we had some car problems. As we pulled into the small town of Wikenburg, our truck gave us a warning that we were almost out of gas and the ABS Brake light went off. We filled up our tank and kept going, but the Brake light didn't go off. We passed a GM service center and felt prompted to pull in. It turns out our wheel bearing had gone out and the mechanic told us if we hadn't of stopped, our front tire would have seized in a few miles and we would have crashed.
We feel so blessed that Heavenly Father is watching over us. Looking back on it there are so many things that could have gone wrong, yet so many simple and small things that added up at just the right times and kept us alive and safe. We are so thankful and we feel so overwhelmed by God's love for us. With everything that has happened in our lives in the past year, it is amazing and so hard to be ungrateful for anything. It has also made me so aware of Him in my life.

Here is our cute nephew Bryson holding up all his gifts!

Spencer and Zachary had a blast together. And they had the same shirt! We took them to the store that day and everyone asked about our "twins".

Spencer loved the magnets on the fridge and thought it was so cool to throw them on the ground! He would swing his arm back and after letting go of the magnet, he would leave his hand out for a few seconds before throwing the next one.

We got to go to the ZOO and we loved it! It was such a neat zoo. There were so many animals and it was just so amazing! All the plant life and everything. Justin even picked a lemon from a lemon tree. Spencer and Zack had a blast watching the animals. And it was so WARM! Somewhat nicer than what we are used to!

Zachary is so cute! It was so good to get to spend time with him and get to know him better. He has the coolest eyes! We sure miss our nephews!

They had some rinos at the zoo! Did you know they weigh 5,000-6,000 lbs! I'd hate to get stuck in a cage with them!

Here are Spencer and Zack touching toes! So cute!

Justin and I & Jason and Diana! Thanks for letting us stay with you guys! We loved it and we had a blast!

Then we got to go to Phoenix to hang out with our best buds, the Jeides! Qunitin has grown up so much and talks so well. Oh how we missed you buddy!

And here are Spencer and Audrey playing. They were just so cute together! Audrey is so adorable and she is just so tiny! We miss you little girl! I can't wait to kiss those little cheeks again!

Justin and Eric got to go to a Diamondbacks game and they had a blast. They got great seats and got all you can eat: peanuts, pop, hotdogs and popcorn. Eric ended up eating 7 hot dogs and Justin outdid himself and ate 11 whole hot dogs! He is still recovering. I finally got to meet Cori's sister Erin for the first time! All 3 of us and the kids went to the best frozen yogurt place and to a spray park. I stopped at 2 more frozen yogurt places on the way home because I was obsessed! Great intro to great things! The Jeides took us the ChinoBandito (food network top restaurant) and it was killer. We also went to the Outlet Malls and we loaded up on great clothes. We had so much fun. It was so nice and warm and I wish we were there right now! It was just great!
We also went to a cute little park and hung out and took pics! Here I am w/ Spencer!

Cori took some great pix of our fam! Here is my fav of Spencer. He is getting so big, I love it and hate it!

He is such a water baby! He loves it! And he is so brave!


Here we all are! Good times! We miss you and love you!

On our way back we went to the Hoover Dam and it was so amazing. It looked like they had only one section left on the bridge. So cool!

Then we took a stroll down the Las Vegas Strip! Always fun!

We got to see my bro-in-laws parents in St. George and it was so much fun to see them! And we got to stay with my grandparents in St. George! They were so much fun. We stayed up way too late and played lots of games. We can't wait for them to get back to Idaho so we can play some more! It was such a great trip. So great, that we can't stop talking about it!