OK, HERE are Old Faithful pics

It's been a long and tiring couple of days in Yellowstone, but we're having a great time. No worries, Mom. We're fine. I just need to be in better shape for all the walking we're doing. Or John needs shorter legs... In real time, it's after midnight in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. We just drove here this evening to spend three nights, and a couple days in the Tetons. So we said good-bye to Yellowstone today, but brought with us bug bites and some wicked farmer tans, complete with short lines and sock lines. I brought along a couple blisters and some holes in the insoles of my hiking boots. But the insoles can be replaced at K-Mart tomorrow - we're finally in a real town with stores! :-) In blog time, however, I owe you some photos from Old Faithful, way back on Monday. Seems like ages ago.

Gracie, Katie, and Kathy waiting for Old Faithful.

We're just waiting for a geyser, with a few thousand of our friends...

Finally! After all that anticipation, Old Faithful does her thing. We realized after the eruption started that we were in a bad spot - on the mist side, instead of on the water side. So it wasn't the best view. But, no worries - we could always come back!

The girls kind of watching Old Faithful. Later when asked what we just saw (the name of the geyser) they had no answer. But there's photographic proof they were there!

Photos from Monday - Old Faithful

As promised - here's some photos from our first day in Yellowstone - Old Faithful and other geysers and springs.

Steaming hot little creek that runs in to the Gibbon River

Female elk in a field right by Kathy and Jonathan's camp ground. Caused quite an "elk jam"

Buffalo in same field.

Firehole Spring, on the Firehole Lake Loop.

Algae and bacteria grow in the warm water to give a yellow color (or other colors, depending on the warmth of the water and what grows in it).

A cute little bubbling spring at Hot Lake

Hey, Gracie - reach down there and see how hot the water is...

At the Biscuit Basin, the very cool looking Sapphire Pool, and the yellow run-off from it.

Here's me in front of the Sapphire Pool.

OK - the Old Faithful pictures are going to have to wait. The internet is really slow here, and we're off to go explore some of the northern part of the park this afternoon.

Vacation Day 3 - Old Faithful

OK, if I can stay awake long enough I'll do one more post. I am STILL working on east coast time. Somehow John adapted in about two hours. Not I. Still waking up at 4:30 every morning. And right now it's 10 pm and I am about ready to pass out!

Monday morning we entered Yellowstone for the first time, passed a spot in the road where you could not stop because there was a bald eagle nest right by the side of the road. We saw a few elk way off in a field, and then almost to Kathy's campground stopped on the side of the road for three more elk and a buffalo, all grazing and causing big old "elk jams." The buffalo are good for this, too. They like hanging on the side of the road, or just wandering down the road (as we found out on our way to Old Faithful that morning - almost got hit by a buffalo).

Said hi to the Halls at their campground. I haven't seen the whole family since 2006 when I went to Calgary, and John hasn't seen them since our wedding. It took the girls (Katie and Gracie, ages 8 and 6, respectively) about 30 minutes to stop being shy. And after that it was all over... Non-stop talk for the rest of the day. Actually, they STILL haven't stopped yet, and it's currently Wednesday night...

On our way to Old Faithful we took a drive to the Firehole Lake and stopped to check out some cool geysers and hot springs. We also stopped at the Biscuit Basin and saw some absolutely amazing colored springs and some fun little geysers. I'll post pics later - I am too tired to look through them right now!

We got to Old Faithful right after an eruption, which gave us 75 minutes to get our bearings, eat some lunch, and grab a front row seat for the next show. And about 75 minutes later, we and about 1,000 of our closest friends watched Old Faithful do its thing. It was pretty cool, although we were on the side where all the mist blows, so we couldn't see the fountain quite as well. We might go back again on Saturday.

After we got out of the Old Faithful traffic jam (it's ridiculous in there) we drove the rest of the Grand Loop Road past Yellowstone Lake, past the Fishing Bridge (had to stop for ice cream, of course. When you're with 2 kids, how can you resist?), and past Canyon Village and back to camp. After some dinner with Kathy and Jonathan we drove our tired butts home and crashed!

Vacation Day 2 - I-DA-HO

OK, sorry! I am neglecting my posting duties. All for good reasons - either I couldn't get on the internet in West Yellowstone, or we spent too long at Kathy and Jonathan's camp site and got home too late for me to function. Which may well be the case again tonight, but I'll try to at least update our day on Sunday.

Sunday we were leaving Jackson Hole to detour around Yellowstone and get to our hotel in West Yellowstone. First we needed to take advantage of an actual real town and a good grocery store to stock up on food, buy a cooler, get ice, etc. Here's the view from the grocery store. Terrible, eh?

To get to Idaho from Jackson Hole one has to cross over the Tetons. Lots of switch-backs and steep hills. I'm sure it's not fun to drive in the winter, but the view from the top was nice. On the other side of the mountains the terrain quickly turns flat. You can see forever, and there's always mountains in the background. Flat turns to rolling hills, potato farms, and oodles of hay pastures.

We made a stop at the Mesa Falls, upper and lower, which I think is on the Henry Fork of the Snake River and is the last un-dammed river in Idaho. The lower falls we could see from far away, but we could walk on a boardwalk right up to the top of the upper falls. We took a few photos, toured the museum, and continued on to the source of this river - Big Springs. It was entertaining to see the river just starting out of nothing - literally just bubbling out of the ground. We did a quick tour of Johnny Sack's cabin - some guy who bought the land at the head of the spring and built a cool cabin there, entirely by hand.

Ended up in West Yellowstone and made the long (ok, 5 blocks) drive to town for some dinner, then spent a few minutes wandering the two main streets of tourist stores, ice cream, and rafting guides. West Yellowstone is not exactly a booming metropolis (although we were later warned by Kathy and Jonathan that Gardiner is even smaller).

And then we were off to bed, ready to get up on Monday morning for our first trip in to the park!

Vacation Day 1

Yay! We're on vacation!!!

Started vacation on Friday with meeting Mom and Dad in PA to give them CoCo for a few weeks. She gets to spend some time at Grandma and Grandpa's summer camp. Lucky dog! Also told Mom and Dad that I was pregnant, which surprised them a bit, I'd say... :-) I think they were excited!

Saturday morning we spent a couple hours with my friends Rich and Vanessa, then grabbed a ride with them to Dulles airport, leaving our car at their house. MUCH cheaper than parking at the airport! Dulles was empty and security was a breeze.

We flew in to Denver airport, which was pretty nice. Our flight to Jackson was delayed by 30 minutes or so - AC in the place was broken so they had to fix it before we could board. And then I spent the entire flight to Jackson with my nose pressed against the window. AMAZING. I love the mountains. And when we got OFF the plane? WOW. Jackson is a super cute little airport (emphasis on little) with amazing scenery. This photo doesn't do it justice.

Jackson Hole is a cool little town. Our hotel was tiny but clean and nice. Grabbed some great food and John had a good beer at the Snake River Brewing Company. It was yummy - kind of reminded me of DuClaw's at home. And then we walked back to the motel and crashed.

I was not successful in sleeping past 6AM Jackson time on Sunday. We thought we were all early and stuff when going to breakfast, but apparently people get up at the crack of dawn here to go out to do stuff. We were about the only car left in the parking lot!

I'll post more about Sunday's adventures later. It's way past my bed time now!

Thanks, everyone, for the nice comments and emails about our pregnancy news!

Start Spreading the News

So, it's official. Went to the doctor today and heard a foreign heartbeat inside my belly. No, I didn't get a heart transplant. I am pregnant!

I'll give you a second to pick your jaw up off the ground...

Good? Back with us? Yes, you read that correctly. I, the person who said I would never have a child, am pregnant. And, yes - it's on purpose.

Why'd I change my mind? Call it getting old, I guess. Plus, a girl's allowed to change her mind. That's what girls do best, right? John wanted a kid, too. So - here we go!

I'm officially 13 weeks along now. Far enough along that the baby's heartbeat could be heard, when the little sucker wasn't dancing around inside me. I told John that's a sure sign it's a boy, right? Kid won't sit still. :-) And I did ask - there's only ONE heart beat, right? Yes, yes. Only one. Whew!

One more visit to the doctor in 4 weeks, and then I think we get a slip of paper to go to get a sonogram. Then we'll be able to see if the baby is going to have my nose or John's...

Due date is January 23. And there's some other posts in this blog that tell you a bit more about the first doctor visit, how crappy I felt for 2 months, etc. Fortunately, now that we're 2 days away from vacation, I am feeling much better. Still stomach aches every now and then. But on the whole, much better.

Next stop for us is Yellowstone National Park! We leave on Saturday for a 10 day vacation to Yellowstone and the Tetons. This shall be a well traveled kid, before it's even born!

Gettin' Better All the Time

Finally, after weeks of feeling like crap 100% of the time, my crappiness has dropped down to, oh, maybe 30% of the time. Not bad! Now I have a stomach ache only occasionally. After I eat a crab cake and a piece of cheese cake (that'd be right now) I don't feel so hot. But then again, who would?

John has always known I was nuts, but it's being seen in a whole new light now. Yesterday for a snack at work I brought six kosher dill pickles. Outstanding. Meat of any kind has almost zero appeal right now. If someone fixes it for me, I'll try it out. But I am certainly not going to pull some meat out of the freezer and say "yum, let's eat this!"

Water is finally my friend again, and I can finally drink more than one bottle again during the course of the day. Which, of course, means I spend a lot of time in the ladies room. Small price to pay.

Pasta is a main staple in my diet right now. And cheese. Although I got some Cabot extra sharp premium cheese the other day and was sorely disappointed in the extra sharpness of it. I thought maybe I was crazy, so I made John taste it, too. Nope - I'm not crazy this time. He said it tastes like Munster cheese, not extra sharp cheddar.

Mint, which used to help me make it through the day: I can't even think about it now - it makes me ill. So the mint M&M's I bought a month and a half ago? Still sitting in my office, half eaten. Shocking, I know! And I haven't had a piece of gum in my mouth for ages. Probably better for my poor ailing teeth, anyway.

Oh, and peanut butter. New favorite condiment.

Pistachios, already shelled, cost an arm and a leg at Wal-Mart, but are totally worth it. New favorite snack food.

Now let's hope that my stomach aches totally disappear by the time we go to Yellowstone. And that I can pack enough snacks to keep me going during the day. It seems like I am hungry ALL THE TIME. And if our cross country trip six years ago is any indication, John likes to survive on vacations with a diet of power bars and apples. I have nothing against this. As long as he doesn't mind me passing out from hunger...