Elbe Train Ride

On Saturday we were all really excited to go on the Elbe Train Ride.  It's a really old train that takes tourists on a short ride to a museum and back.  Since it's Halloween they had a Halloween set up for the kids once we arrived at the museum and also a costume contest. 

 They had an engine that you could get in and ring the bell. 

Woodland Park Zoo

On Thursday we made the trip up to the zoo.  It was a great time to go!  All the animals were up and moving and Ad had a great time! 

 She absolutely loved the otters. 

Leavenworth

Monday I took the day off work and we went to Leavenworth for the day.  As we were getting ready for the day we got out the Halloween decorations.  Ad was so Happy! 

We practically had the whole town to ourselves!  It was a beautiful day to go and a great drive in the fall.

Ad loves to dance.  She saw this stage and heard the music and had to put on a dance recital.

Dash Point

On Sunday we went to Sacrament Meeting and then we had planned to go have a picnic at Dash Point.  It was a little rainy out that day but we live in the Northwest so a little bit of rain wasn't going to stop us from having a good time.   Which also meant we had the whole beach to ourselves. 

We couldn't keep her out of the puddles.  She was in love with jumping in them.

Northwest Trek

Mom and Robyn came up to visit us for a week so we started off the week with a trip to Northwest Trek.  We had no idea how cool this place was! It's kind of like a big zoo with a train that goes around.  It was a lot of fun.  We for sure will be going back!

 A little more walking than you do at a zoo but that means the exhibits are a little bit bigger for the animals to roam around in. 

 Ad loves having Aunt Robyn and Grandma here!

We ended the day in the gift shop with a classic sunglasses selfie! 

Yellowstone Bike Ride

We were all ready for the Yellowstone ride this year and had anticipated leaving right after work on Thursday.  I had to give the introduction at a conference at work and so we had to stick around for Thursday.  Although Wednesday night we noticed that there was something wrong with Lily, she had puss and blood coming out of her and so we decided we should probably take her to the vet the next day.  After I presented at work we got to go to the vet together.  She always gets nervous when she has to go somewhere without Dinky, so I let her sit on my lap - bad idea cause she ruined my skirt. 

 Vet check her over and found that her anal glands were infected and needed to be drained. So they did that and then updated her vaccines.

Away we went.  By this time it was time for Oley to be getting off of work and I had an incredibly bad headache.  So as he finished getting the rest of our stuff packed I went upstairs to try to sleep the headache off before getting in the car.  My head was still pounding but Oley had everything packed including the bikes on the back of the car.  So we rounded up Ad and Dinky and I went to go find Lily - no one had seen her for a while.  When I found her she was having an allergic reaction very similar to the one she had in Spokane.  Her whole snout was swelling and she wasn't doing well.  I told Oley to take her back to the vet as quickly as he could and all Ad and I could do was worry at home.  Last time this had happened we lived very close to our vet and it was a good thing because by the time I had gotten her their her heart rate had tanked and she was not doing well.  They had told me the last time if this happens again it will go a lot faster. 
Long story short Oley was able to get her there in time and the vet that saw her earlier that day was able to get her some meds.  They had to stay at the vet for an hour to make sure that it was going to work and then we were told we needed to watch her closely for the rest of the night.  

 Once she got home and was comfortable she went right to sleep. 

So we had to postpone leaving for Yellowstone until the next morning.   Our drive was definitely long - the first half of the drive this was the company I got as I drove.  Funny how Oley always wants it to be my turn to drive when the baby is finally ready for a nap ;). 

 It was a Long Drive!  We had to stop to rearrange the bikes on the side of the road and Ad was glad to take a break. 

By the time we were 15 miles from our end point Dinky got sick needed to throw up.  Lily was whining.  And Ad was crying.  Oley  doesn't do well when things are a little out of control and so the whole car was in a disarray.  When we finally got to Island Park we were all very glad to be out of the car. 
The next day was the bike ride and it was FREEZING.  It had frosted the night before and it was still really really cold.

 Doug, Robyn, and I opted to ride from the beginning of the route and Oley and Mom had Matt drop them off at the top of the big hill.  The first 10 miles of the ride were miserable.  It was so cold I felt like my fingers and toes were going to break off. 

Once the fog finally burned off it was the perfect weather for riding a bike.

There was tons of wildlife this year.  Not that there isn't every year but it seemed like there was a lot more this year.  As Doug and I were waiting for Robyn at the top of the big hill I turned around to look at Doug and there was a huge buffalo walking towards us. 

We were able to catch up to mom and finish the first half of the ride with her.

The majority of the group decided that they were not going to ride back out but Oley and I opted to so I rode with Marilee's in-laws.  Oley left a little bit earlier than us but we caught him at the half way point on the way back.

I love when we are able to work out together!  We ended up finishing off the rest of the ride together from there. 

Doug and Shelbie met us back in West so that we could take Ad back in to see some of the animals and Old Faithful.

 We got there right as the geyser was going off so we weren't able to make it very close.  Next year we will take her when it will mean a little bit more to her. 

The next day we headed back home.  We were all ready for a break when we hit about Coeur D'Alene and so we stopped at the park that we used to ride our bikes through.  When we lived in Spokane we didn't have kids so we didn't realize how awesome this park was.  Ad had a great time stretching her legs out a bit. 

 By the time we made it home we were ready to be done.