In Loving Memory, go to Yellowstone

A year ago today my mother passed unto her Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and I've been wondering for a time how I would feel, how so many would feel and behave, on this the first anniversary of her death. I realize though that my emotions and behaviors are mine for the molding and that I do not have to wait to find out just how such a day effects us all. That's right, we get to choose and today I chose to have a darn good day! So, in memory of learning just how fragile life is, we decided to live happily in gratitude for this wonderful life we live. Mom was always about family time; going places and spending quality time together and we emulated this by taking a trip to Yellowstone.

We headed up there Sunday afternoon (I absolutely love living this close to the National Park) ate dinner, went for a swim in the hotels pool, and took an evening drive through the park. Green prairie with bright wild flowers gave way to river and stream on one side and hills and mountains on the other dense with pointy ever greens. The beautiful landscape could easily be mistaken for a vast, flawless painting except for the occasional slow movement of grazing deer, elk, and buffalo providing proof that such majesty is indeed reality in our world today. We saw lots of buffalo and even stopped to get a closer look at the bubbling, steaming mudpots. (You can always click on a picture to view it larger.)

 We really didn't know how our little girl would do that night sleeping in a pack and play next to our bed in our hotel room. But, we did try to enforce our standard routine: We sang our songs, said our prayers, gave kisses and said good nights. The last thing I remember before falling asleep myself was her standing up peering over the railing at us. I guess she's finally reached the age that sleeping by herself sounds better than sleeping between mom and dad though because she didn't cry and she must have laid down at some point because we all awoke rested bright and early the next morning to the promise of a free hot breakfast, some zofran for momma, and a full day of sight seeing.