General Relief Society Meeting

The General Relief Society Meeting (not Women's Conference....this is what's held at BYU each Spring) for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was held on Saturday, Sept 24, 2011.  It was a fabulous meeting.  I attended the meeting in the Conference Center with my friends Jill and Pam. If you missed it live - be sure to watch it now.  You can view highlights from the meeting, watch the whole meeting, or read the talks here.  If you only have time for one little highlight right now - watch the clip from Pres Uchtdorf entitled YOU ARE NOT FORGOTTEN.  What a great uplifting meeting to get us through the next few months as women in the Church.  And I had a great night out with the girls.

Salt Lake Connect Pass

So - I just found out about the Salt Lake Connect Pass.  If you are planning a trip to SLC or you are a resident of Utah, and want to explore Salt Lake, the CONNECT PASS may be the way to go. It is a pass you buy - then you get in to several attractions free with the pass.  What a great deal!  Be sure you read about the pass and understand how you use it before purchasing, but what a deal!

Yellowstone Park

Over the Labor Day weekend, we packed up the family and took a road trip to Yellowstone Park. Our kids had never been there. I went (so my parents claim) when I was little, but I didn't remember it. Carl went when he was around 8 years old, but didn't remember too much of it either.

We took off on Friday and drove straight to my Aunt Judy's house in Rigby, ID. They were gracious enough to open up their home to us for a night. It was great seeing them again.

The next morning - Saturday - we drove to Yellowstone (about a 1 1/2 - 2 hour drive from Rigby).

We stayed at this GREAT place called Mack's Inn, in Island Park, Idaho (about 30 minutes from West Yellowstone). They are open year around, and offer hotel rooms, cabins, etc... We rented a cabin - we thought it only appropriate to stay in a rustic cabin while visiting Yellowstone. We loved our cabin. We did mainly just sleep there, but it was so much fun and adventurous. It had a bedroom, a living room, a bathroom, and a little kitchen. It was just perfect for us.

Here are the pictures from Yellowstone. They can explain what we saw better than I could try to describe it. They are all pretty much self-explanatory, but if an explanation is needed, it's there.

We liked this geyser because of its name: Spasm Geyser

This geyser is on a little trail up from Old Faithful. It is called Solitary Geyser. This is a must see. It goes off every 4-6 minutes. Few people make the short hike to see it. Well worth it!

Old Faithful - to me, kind of cool, but not what I had anticipated. The steam from the hot water blocks your view of the water - so to me, not too impressed. I was more enthralled with the angry elk.

Carl showing some of his mad camera skills:

So, this is our angry elk. When you enter the park, there are signs everywhere that warn you about the wildlife. Warning you to keep a safe distance. Their recommended safe distance is 25 yards from animals like elk, bison, moose, etc... And 100 yards for bear, and wolf.

We passed the meadow and saw this elk on our first night in the park headed back to our cabin. The second night, he was there again - it must be his home. Well, this time, people were inching closer and closer to the thing! Right before Andrew took this picture, the elk stomped his hoof, and blew air out of his nose, and lowered his antlers toward the group of pine trees on the right? Why? Because there is some idiot with a camera right in the group of trees. As you can see, NOT 25 yards! That elk was not happy about some dude invading his space. We were hoping to catch an elk attack on camera - but luckily enough, the elk's warning was enough for the guy to high-tail it out of there. Duh!! But, it was one of the most memorable moments of the trip. We were just laughing at the stupidity of people.

More of Carl's mad photography skills.

There were 2 fatal bear attacks in the Park in August. This sign (although blurry) was one that closed off the area trails heads where both of them happened. Scary!!

We did a lot of this:

On our way home, we drove thru Teton National Park, and down thru Jackson Hole. Boy am I glad we did! We didn't see a bear the whole time we were in Yellowstone - and we were in posted bear country more than once! Within 10 minutes of entering Teton, we saw a bunch of cars pulled to the side of the road. Sure enough! It was a mama grizzly and her cub!

You can see the mama middle left of the picture. The cub is middle right, right above the top power line. Can you see them?