Island Park!

Well... I am a little late on this post.. as always.

About 2 weeks ago, we (as Gavin's family let me tag along*) took a little vacation to Island Park! They do it every year and this go-around I was lucky enough to tag along!

We had so much fun. It was my first time being to Island Park since I can remember, besides just passing by to get to Yellowstone.

We woke up Friday morning, in hopes of leaving early.. but with the babies, chores, and all our little pit stops we got a little behind track! The drive there seemed like it took FOREVER.  Poor MacKenzie had to put up with my complaining and complaining, and well... complaining, "are we there yet? My butt hurts. I FEEL LIKE we've been driving forever" its a wonder she didn't just push me outta the car.. ha ha. We made Gavin sit in the back with the boys, which wasn't a total loss for him. He got to watch Spirit and whatever other movies Teager's decided to watch.

When we pulled into Island Park we were blown away by the mass amount of snow there was.  Literally there were FEETS (no better way to say it) of snow!  On the roofs of the cabins there was seriously like 10 feet of snow. Half the cabins we couldn't even see because they were snowed in, it was crazy. 
When we walked into our cabin (which was absolutely adorable might I add) we were all a bit worried that the roof would either:

This wasn't our cabin it was one across the street, but if you look close you can see where some of the snow fell off the front roof and onto the deck, and broke the deck, as well as the front window!

A: Cave in

or

B: The snow would avalanche on us and we would be smooshed.

But luckily we made it out of there alive, in the end.  The back door of the cabin (which in previous years they were able to get from the door to the snowmobiles) was snowed in. Literally, there was no getting out.

Crazy!

This really does no justice to the cabin, itself. Sorry

Our agenda went as followed:
Friday: Get to Island Park, unpack (in Ellie's case MOVE IN), and EAT! Gavin went out on a night ride.. not wanting to take his unexperienced girlfriend into the dark of the night in trees.. not quite sure why? Ha ha. The boys just relaxed, watched sports.. and us girls did a puzzle.

Saturday: Spent the day in West Yellowstone.  We went to see the wolves and bears. It was so fun watching Teague (and Gavin) get so excited about the animals.  We walked around and went into all the little shops.  Had lunch.  Gavin must have had some good breakfast that morning because he was in a good mood that day and he spoiled Kenzi and I with gorgeous rings from one of those little indian shops (one of a kind as the jeweler said) We got back to the cabin.. the boys and babies took there naps and us girls did what we do best.. CRAFTS :) we made headbands, necklaces. We had alot of fun.  We all have a bit of a different style but they all came together and we came up with a lot of cute stuff. Gavin and Kyle took me, Kenzi and Teague out on a little ride.  Gavin FINALLY let me drive and after him yelling at me enough to SLOW DOWN over this BUMP and that bump and STOP here and blah blah blah. I gave up and said, you can drive. Haha we then all did what we do best and... ate! Prime ribbb and funeral tatoes, yumm.
Sunday: Bundled up Teagers and ourselves up and went sledding. We had so much fun! It was kind of windy, but other then that the weather was perfect. Gavin and I took out his sleds and this time around I said I get my own.  Me trying to be the dare devil I am, following him through the trees and getting stuck and making him mad, just completed the entire day :) ha ha he is so good at snowmobiling and I just was begging him to teach me how to do tricks.... but neither of us have the patience with each other to ever do that.. we would probably end up beating each other up before it was all said and done ha ha maybe someday though!

Monday: Sadly we had to pack up and leave.  The whole trip we had our fingers crossed to see a moose.. and finally right when we were heading out.. we did! It was kind of far away, but it was better than nothing. We made one last stop on the way back.. and ate Olive Garden! It was the perfect end to a perfect trip.

Can't really see him, but the moose is there.. that lil black dot to the left ha ha

Then came reality.. school.. work.. and TONS of homework to catch up on, unfortunately! Now I can only hope that the Smith's can put up with me, so I can go with them again :)

THANKS GUYS! LOVE YOU ALL :) 

*PS:  Jerica we misssed you! We will remind baby Klay JUST how much you love him when he grows up

I was so sad, I forgot my camera for alot of the trip.. so I missed out on some good pictures! But..

Heres some more pictures that I managed to get:

Ellie and Gavin, sitting comfortably playing the Xbox.

Always making cute faces for pictures.

Soo close to walkin

SNOW!

This is what happens when Kenzi lets me watch Teague, I kept him away from the yellow at least ha ha

Snow angels

Oh Ellie..

Oh this crazy thing we call life..

This semester has been a real challenge for me! Being because I really have a sense of what I want to do with my career choice.  Starting college (ha I make it seem like it was SO long ago) I had kind of a sense of what I wanted to do..
A. Something short
B. Something I could make good money
C. Something I could have a family and not be just working mom thats never home, rather someone thats there for her family

I searched ALOT of options.. and as I have said in previous posts I decided on dental hygeine.  Many people told me that you don't have to know WHAT you want to do WHEN you go to college, which sure I guess has some truth.. if you want to be in college for your entire life.  Without knowing.. you really have no sense of direction. So I am glad I finally decided.. anyways back to being to this challege.. ha

The base of my major consists of science based program.  Therefore, classes like Chemistry, Biology etc. etc.. along with that I have to take statistics (luckily my last math class, thank goodness)

This semester I am taking stats, chem, english, sociology and an introduction to dental hygeine. LOVE all of them.  Not going to lie though at first it kicked my butt. I wasn't used to having to actually put forth an effort in school, it usually came to me...

Anyways, enough of me blabbing on. I will get to my point of this whole post! Haha.

In one of my classes a professor read us a quote that really stuck out to me..

"We learn wisdom from failure much more than success. We often discover what we will do, by finding out what we will not do."



When my professor read that, it really stuck out to me.  I have been having a really hard time lately with school being so hard.  And the people that I care about not being around me everyday to help boost me physically and emotionally. 

Alot of people say that college is the time to get out and meet people, but really to me.. its been much more then that.  It truly has been such an experience more in meeting my true self..

I have come such a long long way from a person I used to think I was.  I really have been beating myself up about it to.. thinking that people will never change there views of me, or I will never really be forgivin.  But when my professor read that, I really realized that its me that hasn't forgiven myself!

I learned so much from my past, and thanks to it (not saying I am pleased about it) I have learned so much..

I am a much stronger person, thanks to this crazy adventure we call life!  I am really trying to work on being a much more positive person this year, and little things like that always help!

 

Hope all is well with everyone, xoxooxo.