Whew! What a Whirl!

Life in the fast lane.....what a whirl!  We hardly made it to Minnesota than I went on an annual 5 day quilting retreat with friends at Lake Palmer.

 It's a beautiful place right on the lake with room for all.

We eat most of our meals in the screen porch.  It's like eating in the trees.

 Can you tell we have fun?

One day we reserve for going to the nearest "city," Park Rapids, MN population 3,903.  There is a nice quilt shop (Monica's) where we leave a lot of our $$$ and next door is a Ben Franklin's that has some good fabric finds too.  We went to the book store, the Amish Furniture Store and a bead store where I bought a couple of strings of turquoise  that I will have Sydney help me make into a necklace and earrings.  Since there is no cell service at the cabin here Kari and I are checking in! 

Just three days later it was time to leave for Yellowstone National Park.

I've been coming to Yellowstone for a loooong time.....here I am with Dad in front of Old Faithful. I'm three years old!

 Another view when I am 8 or 9 years old.  I tried to count the times I've been to this great place.  Somewhere between 12 and 15 times.  It never gets old, it's always wonderful.  The paint pots still enchant me with their bubbling mud, the geysers are so interesting and the wild life still abounds.  We don't see the bears like we used to....in the 50's we still rolled down our windows and fed marshmallos to them and drove to the dump to watch them feed.  So many years of discouraging the feeding of the bears they have moved back into the hills and you don't see many. This trip I did see two black bears, one grizzly by the side of the road eating grubs from a hollow tree, too many bison to count, a fox, bald eagles, ducks, geese and so much more. 

 Mr. Scottie Dog and I got a chance to pose.  Beautiful view.

 Bison losing that winter coat. There were lots of baby bison to see.

   

We went to Yellowstone this year as a family reunion of sorts...lots of family and friends met us there.  Sydney (on the right) got to see her friend Emma from Eureka.  I had a brother, cousins, nephew, third cousins, spouses, friends...more than 25 of us.  The only problem is not enough time spent with them all!

Here's one of brother Pat and I....wishing our little brother Denny could have made it.

After a week of camping, barbeque, hiking, talking, laughing, sight seeing and more we had to say goodbye.  Maybe in 5 years we'll do it again.

A quick trip back to MN and we've settled into our trailer and the house hunt begins.....The Midwest just feels like home now. 

(PS...thanks to the friends and family I "borrowed" all these pics from....I didn't bring my camera and had to depend on their kindness)