the rest of the trip

Alright, I will try and fill you in on the rest of the awesome trip, since I know you were waiting with baited breath..

I forgot to mention in my last post that we also went white water rafting (more of a scenic float with some choppy spots, honestly) on one of the days.  I will post pictures when I get them from someone in my family (hint, hint), but it was super fun, even though it was cold and rainy out.

So.  On another day, we went to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, which also has the Upper and Lower Falls.  Yay, more waterfalls :) again, because of snow, Lily and I didn't venture too far down into the canyon, and this time, Jesse, Jess and Mom stayed with us and we hiked around the top and got some pretty good views of the falls.  From here, we went to check out some of our favorite hot springs: The Black Dragon Cauldron.  When Team Pagano went to Yellowstone the first time, we lovingly nicknamed this one "Double Stinky Swamp" because it smelled so strongly and awfully of sulfur.  It still smelled horribly, but I didn't gag this time, as I seem to remember doing often last time.  Lily didn't seem too concerned by it.

GC of  Yellowstone

Thursday, we just hung out.  Mom got sick while we were there and she needed a day to relax, and I thought that Lily could use a day to relax as well (and me!) where she didn't have her naps in the car driving from one place to another.  It was a fabulous day, in my opinion.  We hung out, played games, walked around Gardiner..just took it easy.  Unfortunately, this was Jess and Richard's last day out there, as they had to fly out Friday for Richard to work Saturday.  Work is lame.  

Friday..while Dad and Uncle Mike (I think?) took Wayman's to the airport, Jesse, Joel, Kimmy, Lily and I went back to Old Faithful to wander around a bit more and to see some more hot springs.  Because who doesn't love seeing hot springs?  We also found a fabulous little bridge where we played Pooh Sticks.  

Old Faithful Inn

Pooh Stick Selection

winner!

While we were there, Jesse got the inside scoop on where the best place to check out the Grand Prismatic Spring is, so off we went.  I am so glad we did.  

Grand Prismatic Spring.

Saturday was our last day there.  Mom, Dad, Joel, Kimmy and my little family all headed to West  Yellowstone for some touristy things, and we stopped at the Artist Paintpots on the way back.  Lots of cleaning and packing when we got home before we crashed for the night to head home the next day.  

the perfect shop for them: sandwiches for  Joel, ice cream for Kimmy

at the Paintpots

That's roughly it!  I may think of other things I wish I had added, but it was incredible.  And as my mommy friends understand, coming back from vacation and a time zone change has been *super* fun this week with Lily trying to re-adjust.  Plus, she popped her first tooth out Monday!  So it's been a great week..

blog overload.

So, we're back from vacation!  And it was tons of fun.  I've spent the last few days looking through the over 600 (I know, amateur) pictures I took and editing some of them.  Now, I'm not entirely sure where to begin to tell you about our trip..

We (Jesse, Lily and I) drove to Pittsburgh Friday night, thus beginning our adventure.  As our flight was really early in the morning Saturday, we felt it best to stay in a hotel Friday night and head to the airport from there.  Funny story, we met up with our friend Mike for juice at the airport, who also had an early flight the same day (hi, Mike!).  We mostly got through security with no issues..I just didn't know there was a pocket knife in a carry on.  No biggie.  Lily was a champ, sleeping most of the flight or playing peek-a-boo with the folks behind us.  Dad and Uncle Mike picked us up at the Bozeman, MT airport, and so our fun began!  After a few mile hike back to an abandoned dude ranch, we all crashed for the night.

Day 1: why not jump into vacation with both feet?  My family pretty much goes full throttle on vacations, especially when we feel there is a ton to do and see.  Sunday, after we had all converged on a wonderful rental house Aunt Shasta found us (Jess, Richard and Mom had an adventure getting there, but they made it!), we went to church in Yellowstone National Park before heading out for our first bit of fun- the Hoodoos!  These are basically several acres worth of fallen apart mountain, which is super fun to climb over.  From here, we went to see some hot springs at Norris Geyser Basin.

Hoodoos

Norris Geyser Basin

I think this is also the day we saw grizzly bears.  Is this correct, family?  Anyway, we saw a Momma bear and two baby bears.  I didn't get too many pictures because I was standing on the roof of the van (from a safe distance!) to take pictures, and ditched my 200mm zoom lens pretty quickly for my mom's 300mm lens and binoculars.
Day 2: because of the time difference and the fact that everything was new and exciting, Lily got up super early this day.  "Super early" was really just around 630 or so..it just seemed so early because I was still adjust to being in Mountain Time.  She did pretty well overall with adjusting, but that first day was kinda tiring for me!  The whole family went to Old Faithful and wandered through the Old Faithful Inn, Lodge and visitor's center for a few hours.  We didn't spend as much time there as I think the original plan was because we hit a major roadblock on our way there.  A two our trip turned into 4 (at least) because some bison decided that they were just going to walk down the middle of the road.  And by "some bison," I mean a huge herd.  You don't rush bison, or tell them what to do.  A ranger was following them, trying to help direct traffic, but when you have 30ish large animals with pointy horns..you don't really push them.

Old Faithful

the Inn

Day 3: Tower Falls!  I love these falls.  Last time we were out in Yellowstone was over Christmas break when I was a sophomore in college and we cross-country skied up the (closed) road to see these.  Jesse and I had decided before we went out there that if we came across something that we didn't think we could do with Lily, or it got too cold/rainy/hot/whatever and just didn't want her outside, that I would stay behind with her so Jesse could see all the sights (since this was his first trip to the park and my sixth..).  This day was cold and rainy, and none of us had really anticipated the drizzly rain.  Since Jesse and I didn't want Lily out in that hiking, Dad and I stayed up at the gift shop/car area and had some coffee while the rest of the family ventured down to the bottom of the falls.  Unfortunately, half the path had been washed out (right?  Is this the right day/event?) and they couldn't go too far.  

Tower Falls
After Tower, we drove back to Mammoth Hot Springs and had lunch before exploring that set of hot springs for awhile.  Since my family has been here a few times, we have a normal lunching spot in Mammoth, and when we got there, it was taken!  So we took over what was basically a hallway for lunch.  I let Lily crawl around on the floor, and she went straight for the floor-to-ceiling windows and started making faces at the people outside.  

Our days ended back at our house making/eating dinner, hanging out, talking and playing games.  Good, relaxing evenings to busy days.  Which is good, because we had a very tired little traveler with us.

That's it for now!  More later. 

oops.

So, rumor has it that my picture didn't load to my last post.  Since I know you were all so curious about this picture and to see us..here it is!

So, hooray!  Here it is :) I will post more pictures when I get home and sift through all of them!

oh, hey!

Hey y'all!  Since I'm still on vacation and didn't bring my laptop, I had to steal Joel's when he wasn't looking.  Except that he is sitting next to me..I tried to take a picture of us with his webcam, but it was too dark and it is too late for me to care.  This is just a quick update anyway to let you all know we're alive and having fun :) Jess and Richard have to leave tomorrow (boo) but the rest of us don't leave until Sunday.  I will bore you all with details in later blogs with fun pictures when I get home and have some time to sift through all my pictures.

Team Hildebrand at Old Faithful
photo credit to the fabulous Kimmy

I will be back in action hopefully next week sometime..I will also try and update my daily pictures of Lily.  Something to look forward to there: guest photographer Kimmy a few days!  woohoo!

Until  next time, ciao!

Garage Sale Saturday!

Jesse and I love garage sales: I think it's the combination of good deals and looking for hidden treasures in what other people see as junk, and this weekend, we did pretty great.  Friday, I was only able to find one sale I felt justified spending money, and walked away with a bag stuffed full of clothes for Lily for $1, two pairs of shoes for another buck and a small coffee pot for $1.  How can you beat that?  Today, after we finally dragged ourselves out of bed, Jesse and I decided to go see what we could find and oh man, are we glad we did!

Sale #1: a walker ($1), a baby swing ($1) and two pairs of jeans for Jesse ($3).  The lady running the show was excited to see that we have a baby and gave us all her unused boxes of rice, oatmeal and mixed grain baby cereals.  Probably 10 boxes!

Lily fell asleep in her new swing, and that hat is another find

Sale #2: two baby gates ($2 [we didn't have any, so this was perfect]), two sun shades for our car ($3 [more than I wanted to pay, but we needed them]) and probably 100 Mason jars for canning!! ($5!!!).  We need our garden.  

Sale #3:  I don't remember the prices for the things here, but Jesse was pretty excited about it all.  It looked like a daughter had come to help her sickly father get rid of stuff.  Jesse also found a bucket of lead, because honestly, who doesn't need a bucket of lead?  But seriously, he will use it to make musket balls for hunting.

2 cast iron frying pans, 1 cast iron Dutch oven, a planer, knife sharpener and an entrenching tool from Vietnam (aka, fold-able shovel)

Our little town is having a community wide garage sale next weekend, which we will be missing, and I am a little bummed about this.  There will probably be all sorts of treasures we won't get to look through.  We haven't found too much of value, yet, but we have hope!  Julia did find a Coach purse when she and I went last weekend, so I guess that pretty awesome.  This week, my favorite find was the swing for $1, and I think Jesse's were the cast iron cookware (3 for $15).

And currently, Lily doesn't understand how the walker works, but I'll let you know how that goes when she figures it out.  I suppose that's about it for now!

8 months!

Without a doubt, this was the hardest batch of monthly pictures to take of little goober.  She sat still enough, but she would not look at the camera.  If she did, she was making a face.  Ridiculous.  

Zeke was quite the distraction, so lesson learned: don't let your crazy dog run around while you're trying to take pictures!  Not necessarily my best round of pictures, but they definitely show her growing personality. 

photo bomber..he distracted her a lot while I was trying to take pictures

love this one

helpers

she makes the funniest facial expressions now.  no idea where she gets that..

The other lesson I learned: if it looks like it could be a good backdrop for a photo, don't put your kid there.  I almost stuck her in two patches of poison ivy and next to a thorny bush.  Fortunately, I know what poison ivy looks like and Jesse wouldn't let either of us near the bush.  I apparently have a dangerous yard..to the park next time!? 

hooray for graduating!

I have been reading "Winnie The Pooh" and "The House at Pooh Corner" to Lily recently in very small increments since the listener has a very small attention span.  The copy I've been reading to her is the one I stole borrowed from Mom and Dad that they read to Jess, Joel and me: it has been well-loved and is at the wonderful falling-apart stage of it's life, so I have the added joyful task of trying to keep her from grabbing at the pages.  I've been enjoying reading to her, and as her little attention span grows, I will maybe get to finish more than a page at a time..regardless, I have decided we have a Tigger on our hands because "bouncing is what Tiggers do best," and if you've really ever met Lily, you know she's a bouncer.  

 Julia and I found this little jumpy-turtle-thing at a garage sale for $5.  Once her little feet can hit the floor, I think she'll enjoy more than she already does, but she was already trying to bounce on it.

Lily also has been learning to share..I've been giving her hard sourdough pretzels to chew on, and she'll chew on it for a little bit, then hold it out for Zeke to get a few licks before she takes it back to chew on it again.  Awesome.  

 Jesse planted our "garden" today!  Spinach, two types of lettuce, two tomato plants and then our little lemon tree and mint, of course!  Since we're only renting the house we're in, it's easier to garden in pots instead of trying to wrestle the soil in the backyard into submission.

Lastly, Joel graduated today!  YAY Joel :) Lily and I went on a mini roadtrip to Mount Vernon to watch him get his diploma.  We actually drove to Zanesville last night and spent the night there so we didn't have to leave at 5am this morning.  Mom H and I enjoyed a movie night and watched Tangled, which I really enjoyed, even if it doesn't have the same flair as Aladdin or The Little Mermaid.  

after all the graduates went in and were seated, I went to find Joel and took his picture

and then asked the guy sitting next to him to take our picture..thanks, Guy Sitting Next to Joel!

got to see the greatest professor of all times!

note: Joel IS, in fact, holding a teething ring in his hand.  it was for Lily, not him.

And that's about it!  Good job, Joel!