Ryker is 3!!

I still can't believe that my baby boy is three.  I always felt like he was going to be two forever.  He is imaginative, stubborn, completely adorable, and a huge mama's boy - which I love.  A couple of his catch phrases are, "They is awesome!"  "I not big boy, I little boy."  and "That my favorite, I love it."  He is a big fan of Mario Kart Wii and loves playing with his toy guns.

Ryker had a hard time trying to figure out a favorite theme for his birthday party.  First he wanted Star Wars.  Then he wanted Batman.  Then he wanted Dinosaurs.  He stayed steady with Dinosaurs for a long time, but then he switched it to Power Rangers.  He finally settled on a Hunting party.

To start his special day, his daddy took him out to get donuts and then took him upland bird hunting.  He loved it and it was so nice for him to get some one on one time with dad.

They got a couple birds, so it was a successful hunt!

Meanwhile, Brodie and I were getting ready for the party... and a couple other neighborhood boys too.  One boy was at our house from 1:30 until about 7:30 at night.  Two other boys came over at about 3:30... the party started at 4:30.  I guess it was just too exciting to wait!  Brodie testing out my balloon animal antlers... not so talented in the the balloon creations... Brodie does look a little like a deer in the headlights in the first picture though.

I made all the kids hunting bows out of pvc pipes and arrows out of dowels with pencil eraser tips.  They were really easy to make and are actually quite impressive!  The boys have been obsessed with them and are getting pretty accurate with their targets.

One of Ryker's requests was a Turkey Pinata (previously was a deer, bear, then pheasant... you get the idea)  So far I've made all my kid's pinatas.  Mostly because their themes aren't very mainstream and so you can't go buy one at the store.  Pinatas always take a lot longer to make then I anticipate.  The birthday boy loved it though, so seeing all that hard work smashed to pieces was worth it!

One of the attendees wanted to try shooting the turkey with his bow and arrow before he started whacking it with the bat.  I honestly thought it wouldn't do anything, but lo and behold the arrow went right into the pinata!  A true turkey hunt!

Brodie kept insisting all day that he was going to be the one to break open the pinata.  When it was his turn up to bat he start attacking that thing with a fury!

Even after the pinata's contents fell out he kept hitting it over and over again.

He wanted to make sure that thing was dead.

I always have high hopes for birthday cakes.  I wish that I could make fancy beautiful cakes, but that just isn't my calling.  So I took the easy way out and printed off some pictures, sealed them in contact paper, adhered them to toothpicks and skewers, and stuck them on top of a sloppily frosted cake.  Oh well.  I did put in a little extra effort and did a "camo colored" center.  When Ryker saw his cake he squealed, "They is awesome!  I love my cake!"  Success!

Ryker was also a huge fan of opening up his presents... so was Brodie.  Poor Brodie was so excited about Ryker's birthday and had a hard time keeping his paws off Ryker's things.

Ryker, your mom and dad love you so very much!  It's hard to express in writing how much we care for you and how much you've touched our lives.  I feel so lucky that I get to be your mom.  Thank you for just being you!

Yellowstone!

One activity on our summer bucket list was to go camping and to go to Yellowstone.  Our summer bucket list spilled into the end of Septmember, but we did it!  And luckily 3 days before our stupid government decided it would be in our best interest to shut down all the National Parks.  But this is supposed to be a happy post, so I won't go off on my feelings about that.

Anyways, we had been waiting for my parents to come up here so that we could go camping with them.  They just bought a trailer as my mom's retirement gift, so we figured if it go too chilly the boys could go sleep in there with them.  Well, my parents needed to come up here at the beginning of September, not the end of September, because at the end of September, it is already freezing here!  Like in the 20s at night freezing!  Luckily we have the best neighbors ever and they let us borrow their tent trailer.  I LOVED it!  No more tents for me please.  I know what I want for Christmas now!  We ended up camping at Rainbow Point Campground just north of West Yellowstone in Montana.  It was a beautiful campground right next to a big lake and surrounded by lots of beautiful trees!  I love being in a forest!  Plus the campground was pretty empty and the best part is it had electrical hookups on one of the loops!  Lights, an electric hot plate, and electric heaters are so cozy when you're camping in freezing weather!  We were even able to download The Croods and have a family movie night.  Now that's my kind of camping!

Brodie was just finishing up a cold, so the first day we were there he had a permanent dirt-booger mustache.  I realize this will disgust most of you, but I thought it was so cute!

On Saturday we headed to Yellowstone Park.  We had excellent luck in that it was a free fee day and saw lots of animals, but a bit of bad luck in that it continued to be freezing cold and created so much steam that the beautiful bubbling pools were near impossible to see.

Ryker excited to see his first buffalo!

Probably the clearest pool we saw the whole day

The kids were a little chilly

More buffalo!

Mari is awesome!  She was such a good girl the whole time!

The boys wanted to look at this "Mini Volcano" and after we looked at it for about a minute it started erupting!  Perfect timing!

Buffalo within touching distance... from inside our car.  These things are so big!

Some quote worthy things said by the boys that need documenting.

Ryker: "We're going to see buffffffaloes and elllllk and moooose and beeeaarrrs, but no tigers or giraffes."

Brodie after we entered the park: "I thought Yellowstone was going to be more yellow."

Brodie seeing the following sign at Old Faithful: "Dad, there's no skate boarding here."

When we first got to Old Faithful there were a couple people sitting on a bench near us and we asked them when the geyser was supposed to go off.  They said 2:45, which was in just a few minutes, so we sat there for 20 minutes and nothing happened.  Then a ranger walked by and we asked her and she said 3:30.  So we went into the lodge and got some hot chocolates.

Bo and Brodie went back out to watch the geyser erupt.

The rest of the crew enjoyed our view from inside the warmth of the lodge.

Ryker loved this giant bear.  He kept hugging it.

This pool was supposed to be super pretty... stupid steam.

And the Prismatic Pool, which is the only one I was really excited to see, was invisible because of the steam.

There's a buffalo crossing that river!

Firehole Canyon and Falls.

I thought we were going to be able to cross off the west side of the park, but I think we're going to have to revisit it again since we couldn't see the pools very well.  Good thing we'll be here for at least a few more years!