Jackson Hole

In June, I went with Nathan and his family to Jackson Hole for a few days.  Every year they do a fun family vacation and this year it was Jackson!

Here are a few photos from our adventures.  We stopped in Archer, Idaho for a Big Judd's burger and fries. I got to meet up with Krystal and Kiley too!! (A photo was taken, but I don't know which camera it was on) After Big Judds, we went to Idaho Falls and walked around to see all the water in the Snake River. It was incredible!!

Nathan tried to take a "normal" picture of me, because apparently whenever a camera is pointed in my direction, I must make a face... perhaps I will need to research this and do a post about it.

Cheesy grin

He's making fun of my goofy smiles. I love him!

We found "Hawaiian" Ice... not really even close to the shaved ice I enjoyed in Hawaii!!

Nathan in front of the Hawaiian Pacific booth

Idaho Falls Temple, through the trees

Idaho Falls temple

 After Idaho falls, we drove to Jackson Hole! We really enjoyed seeing all the pretty scenery It's funny because our suppose to be 5 to 6 hour drive to Jackson Hole turned into an 11 hour drive... we stopped a lot and saw a lot of pretty stuff! I love road trips! We got to Jackson around 8 pm and walked around and then went back to the hotel and hung out with the fam.

The next day we went to Yellowstone! It was June and there was still a lot of snow! But, it was surprisingly warm. We had fun looking at stuff like:

A buffalo... what' s Yellowstone without one of these big boys

Yellowstone National Park

Look at all that snow!!

Tree lined streets of snowiness

Nat and Nate in the great outdoors!

I'm wearing shorts so it can't be that cold!

Yellowstone River

NH + NM

My super hot boyfriend and me

Yep, more snow

In front of Old Faithful

It's Alive!!

Old Faithful

TADA!

Elk

Mr. Hottie Face

That night we got home and were wiped out!! We took naps and then went swimming and had dinner and played games and it was awesome!

The next day we took a trip to the Grand Tetons. It was rainy and cold, so we didn't do much, but it was still fun!

We went to the Jackson Lake Lodge and had dinner at a nice little restaurant. We sat right by the window overlooking a huge field and "mountains" (they were thickly covered by clouds) It was cool because we were looking out and we saw...

A FOX!

This is what it looked like that day... wet, cold, wet.

This was actually taken on our way to Yellowstone, but it is of the Tetons so i figures I would put these in here too so you can see what it is suppose to look like when it is nice and sunny out.

Kristy, Nathan, Me, Jared

Kristy, Nathan Me

Kristy, Nathan, Me, Jared

Jordan, Ashley, Nathan, Nat, Jared, Kristy

Smoochy Smoochy

The gang

Linda and Doug

Back to the cold and dreary day at that Tetons... this I believe was Jenny Lake

Nathan

Me.. there are a bunch of elk back there, but you can't really see them

The Grand Tetons!

We also managed to make it to the 6:00 shoot out at town center in Jackson Hole.. it was fun to watch and afterwards, we found the best place for pie!! It's called the Bunnery and I must say I would make the 6 or 11 hour drive up there just for some of that pie!

We also had one full day to spend in Jackson.  It was sunny so we went swimming and walked around town. That night we went to the Bar J Wranglers. We had a dinner and a show. It was fun and if you go to Jackson, I highly recommend you do this..but get the steak or the ribs!
(These photos are on Nathan's camera, so I will post them later!)

Nathan and I left a little early because he had to work on Thursday and I had a job interview. We made one last stop at the bunnery, bought a whole chocolate pecan deliciousness pie and set off home. It took us a while because, stopping is what we do!  Here are some photos of the places we saw:

Really pretty fields, mountains and trees... it started to rain/hail so we didn't get to take as many photos as we would have liked. We also stopped in Afton, Wyoming because there was this cheese factory that ended up being more like an expensive fridge full of not many kinds of cheese.

We also stopped in Bear Lake it stopped raining and was really pretty!

I LOVE HIM!

Bear Lake

All in all it was a great vacation and just what we needed... to get away!! I'm excited to see where we will end up next year!

Lions and tigers and bears, Oh MY!!

Nathan is in Europe right now for a study abroad trip, so I find myself being quite bored. Was I use to all this boredom before I met Nathan or what did I do to fill up all of my ample amounts of free time? Maybe I haven't really had free time in so long because I met Nathan right after I moved back from Hawaii and in Hawaii I was always busy with friends, church and my little Lou Lou. Before that I was at BYU-Idaho and school and friends took all of my time. Wow, I have forgotten how to entertain myself! I miss Nathan, but I have done a few things since he has left. Last Saturday I finished planting our garden, weeded it and took a long nap. Then on Tuesday I went out with Nathan's mom, Linda to dinner at Chili's and then we met up with Jared and Kristy for bowling and then went to Yvonne's house and then got ice cream. That was a lot of fun and kept me busy most of the night! On thursday i went to Baylee's dance recital and watched her and my brother, Scott do their daddy daughter dance. It was so cute and my brother has got some moves!! Then on Friday I got my hair done! I went a little more drastic with the color, but I really like it!! Afterwards I hung out with Stacey. I love hanging out with her. We talk about all sorts of fun things and have a good time remembering how silly we were growing up!
Today I woke up early, no thanks to my nieces, put Abbey and Chloe in the car, picked up Nathan's little brother Austin and went to the Zoo!!

Austin and Abbey in front of one of the dinosaurs

Chloe in front of the baby triceratops

Austin and the monkey

Austin, Abbey and Chloe

Chloe, Abbey, Austin and the bald eagle!

Chloe and Austin on the carousel

it was stinky in this house

so smelly

a bunch of monkeys

riding on the dinosaur

aaah he's eating my head!

Abbey and My mom on the train ride

Chloe, me and Austin on the train ride

I had a blast this week, thanks to other people helping me come up with things to do with all this time on my hands! I have been lucky and I've been able to talk to Nathan every day via video chat. One more week to find things to do until he returns! I think I will survive!

Happy Birthday to me!

Today is my 28th birthday!! Yep, I'm an old woman!! Today I woke up, read my scriptures, was inspired by my grandpa's "ponderings", got ready for work and went to work!  Around 11 in the morning I got a call from my hunk of a boyfriend telling me to come outside for a minute.   I got outside and he gave me a kiss and told me that he wanted to say happy birthday and  give me something. This is what I got:

I opened it and this is what was on the inside:

He told me to have fun, gave me another kiss and went to work. So, I had all day long to sit wondering what on earth I was going to find when I got home (I had a pretty good idea that balloons would be involved). Work was good, and I started working on new things so time went by pretty fast. I went home as quick as I could opened the door to my bedroom and found this:

My first thought was "HOLY CRAP!" then wow, he spent a lot of time on this and "Oh boy do I love him!" The balloons hanging from the cieling and some of them on the floor were filled with confetti and a piece to a letter puzzle! So I had to pop each balloon and confetti went everywhere! It was fun! And when I discovered the "puzzle" I told myself that Nathan can NEVER say he is not creative again! Once I got all the balloons popped, this is what the puzzle said:

"Oh Natalie, my girlfriend. Wow you're old. I love that you are mine and wish you happiness and joy. Always keep smiling and Know that its true You're my true love Happy Birthday to you!"

I also found in the midst of all the latex and construction paper 3 presents, uniquely wrapped in homemade wrappings:

Inside were 3 things I wanted: 

And to top it all off, he folded and put away my laundry!! I'm so lucky to have such a wonderful man in my life! I love you Nathan!!

After my room safari, I went out with my mom, and some of my family to the Blue Lemon!! It started out as just me and my mom going, but my brother called to see what we were doing and decided to come and I invited my sister-in-law because I live with her. So it was fun!  If you've never been to the Blue Lemon, I would  highly highly recommend it!! Everything there is absolutely delicious!!