Summer

It seems that when you live in Idaho, you live for the summer and fall. The weather in the spring is sometimes nice, but more often than not is disappointing. The problem with summer is that we try to cram so many activities into the few nice weeks. All winter we talk about what we want to do the next summer.

Of course, this year, the Alaska trip was the biggest event we were planning for. But we also had a lot of local hiking that we wanted to do.

For a long time, we've talked about hiking back up to the Bench Lakes near Redfish Lake. But, it never seemed like we were able to make the time to go there and do it. This summer part of the family went to Redfish earlier than we are going, and we wanted to see them, so we went over this weekend. Thankfully Angie let us put our tent in her camping spot. It was fun to visit with family and take the beautiful hike.

Greg and I have so much fun together on these outings. I'm not a very fast hiker, and he is very patient. So, it makes for a nice combination. We both love solitude and beautiful scenery. It's something we've really enjoyed since becoming empty nesters....(well most of the year empty nesters).



It doesn't hurt when you have destinations like these.

Looking down on the beach area of Redfish Lake



The view from the trail


The two lakes we visited

A Most Unusual Store

Yesterday Greg and I were in Jackson Hole, Wyoming and stopped at the Haagen Dazs shop for an ice cream cone. It was kind of chilly so we sat on the window ledge of a store next door that had the sun shining on the front of the building.



Greg finished his ice cream and stood up to look in the window of the store that we were sitting in front of. He told me to look. It was a tyrannosaurus skull. On the card next to the skull it said, "Yes, it is real". So we stepped inside the store.





I saw a beautiful purple geode. I said, "Greg, come look at this, it costs $10,000."



Then I saw a neat stone that was full of ancient turtle fossils.



I was shocked to see that the price tag said $97,000.



Then we saw another geode that was very cool, but I can't remember how much it cost.....I'm sure it was a lot.



By it was a fossil of a fish from the Jurassic Period that cost $130,000.



By this time I was getting really amazed at the value of these items.

Around the corner was a beautifully presented flower fossil.



I'll let you see the price tag of it for yourself.



Well when we left the store we decided to see the price of the dinosaur skull. It wasn't easily visible when we first saw it.

It was a shocking $375,000. Don't think I will be making any purchases in that store soon. But the items sure were fun to look at.

A Beautiful Testimony

If you double click on the video, it will open in You Tube where you can see the video without the right side being cut off.

A New Resolve....

I have been struggling with reading the D&C for the past year. I would do good for a while, then fall away. But, after Stake Conference last Sunday, I decided that I would put away the D&C for a while and begin the Book of Mormon again. I have only read the first 14 chapters, but have been deeply touched with the power of the book. Today I read 1 Nephi 14 and received the strongest impression that Nephi did see our day. The Great and Abominable Church is fighting the Church of the Lamb of God. We see it every day, everywhere we go. But how comforting it is that even though the Church of the Lamb of God is small in number, we can be armed with righteousness and the power of God.

It's just the same message that the General Authorities were telling us at conference. We don't have to be afraid. We just have to concentrate on arming ourselves with righteousness and letting the power of God work in our lives.

I get so afraid when I listen to the news.....I don't need to be afraid. Nephi saw it all and we know who wins. The things that are happening are disheartening but are certainly not a surprise. I have always known that, but it is so nice to be reminded by someone who lived a long time ago, but saw it all.

Thanks to my girls for reading the Book of Mormon with me. It helps me to stay on track knowing you are reading it, too!!

Yellowstone Park

Greg and I went to Yellowstone Park on Saturday for a spring drive. It's so much fun to go when the animals are in the valleys. We went last year in May and vowed to go again.

We had fun using the new video camera. I hurried and put a small video together of our day.

Hope you enjoy. If you watch it on You Tube, you can see it in high definition. Just double click on the video and it will open in You Tube. From there you can change the resolution on the bottom of the video window.

Terri

Bubbles

Learning New Things

I purchased a new high definition camcorder. Working with the files from it on my computer has been a huge challenge. Sometimes they would make my computer crash. Other times the software I was using would freeze up. It has taken me so many hours of research to find out the best way to use the files. But, you know me, when I have a problem like that I get obsessed with finding a solution. I finally found some software that could convert the files into a usable form. I've made my first movie with the files. The videos from the hike and in the car were taken with my little point and shoot camera. The others came from the camcorder.