Gabriel on the Trail

Hi Maxwell! Hi Mariah! Hi Nicole! Hi Blake! Hi Eli! Hi Jonny! Thanks for emailing (it's fun to get kid emails). I am having a fun time. We saw a lot of animal fur, tracks and poop! We are in Idaho, our family hasn't ever been in Idaho. I hope you are all having a fun time too. I miss you. See some of you soon. Gabriel.

Camping! Sabrina Style!

I miss soccer sooo much but we forgot a soccer ball. Next year I want to go to Thunder soccer camp with Max, Eli and Lucie.
Where we are in Idaho there is nowhere to kick a ball around because there are a lot of trees and mountains and there are a lot of RV's. I just want to kick a ball into a net right now. I look forward to playing soccer in California(2 more states to go)

It would be hard to travel in Idaho because of the mountains and there wasn't food for Lewis and Clark. They travelled this area in the winter. There is a long river here, the Snake river, and we could go swimming(but it isn't that hot here today).

With all due respect,
Sabrina

Nez Perce Trail Information

Grand Teton National Park

Boiling River

Here a natural hot spring meets a frigid mountain river making for a pleasant soaking spot.

Yellowstone images

Rafting Rocks.

Yellowstone Reflections

"Everytime a new beauty". John Muir said it best when describing the great outdoors. I would add how AWESOME it is to be able to be a kid again and enjoy all the wildlife as if we were seeing the animals for the first time. The elk, grizzly, trumpeter swan, marmot, pelicans, hawks, deer and her fawns are all more amazing than in the books we've read. The animals here are much bigger than the ones we've seen in the Midwest. Maybe it's all that fresh mountain air!

I can't decide which is more fun, spoting wildlife, listening to the kids sing John Denver songs and seeing Mike's smile or watching the kids play in the rivers (falling from branches, slipping on rocks, chasing mom's sunglasses downstream and falling in the water, playing in the hot springs). It's good to be together.

We are all enjoying sharing our adventures with you. Today Sabrina asked if we could find a place that had internet-I can still remember paying a dime for a phone call:) The kids look forward to taking pictures for the 'blog site'. Thanks to those of you who have responded to our posts, please continue to post we all look forward to reading! Also, please write your name so we know who is posting. The kids have already figured that this stuff counts as school. Gabriel practices his reading and is reading all of your comments and Sabrina is practicing her writing by sharing her thoughts, though she'd rather call you all!

Today is William Clarks 236th Birthday, we celebrated by visiting Three Forks (source of the Missouri river) and participating in a hike and talk. The kids wanted to get birthday cake! The ranger asked Sabrina if she enjoyed history and she replied, "I like Shakespeare's history". Oh well, at least we are instilling a desire to learn, right?

Today Montana tomorrow Idaho along the Nez Perce trail.

Grizzly Bear sighting!

What a tremendous experience to see a grizzly in the wild. We were very excited ...and thankful there was a large river between us.

Gabriel's thoughts

Hi Friends!
I am having a blast. I wished you could've seen me rafting, it was AWESOME! I hope yu are having a fun time too. I wish you could come camping with us.

More from Sabrina-Yellowstone

We went whitewater rafting today and I sat on the front edge of the boat. We went over a big rock and I almost fell over and got soaked. We went swimming in the Yellowstone River and it was really cold. The water was moving very fast and it was very hard to get back to the raft. I can't wait to do it again.
Yesterday we went and saw some geysers, they smelled so so so bad. They smelled like rotten eggs with tar on them. They were really dangerous. There was one that had a sign that had a kid standing on a geyser and burning. They are hot.
We also saw wolf cubs playing around a water. The mom was watching them play. There was one guy that was walking towards the wolves and everyone was shaking their head because you should never get between a mom and her babies.
When we slept it was so cold but luckily we had two blankets piled on top of us.
Sincerely,
Sabrina

Cecilia's photo (She got the moose in!)

Sabrina on top of the world

Rocky Mountain High!

The hight point of the trip so far both literally and figuratively. The kids loved being up where there was still snow and see for miles. Dad had all the kids singing John Denver tunes the whole way up. Brings back fond childhood memories. We camped out at Beartooth Lake about 10,000 ft up. We were awed by our first moose sighting.

Sabrina finally posts!

We started driving at 1 AM. Dad drove us to North Dakota. We stayed at a campsite next to a little town. We went on a hike. At the end of the day we had ice cream. (cookies and cream). I can't wait to go to Hollywood!!

Yellowstone National Park link

Clark was here

Montana Big Sky

Theodore Roosevelt NP

Gabriel up close & personal with the wildlife

Wild Horses at Theodore Roosevelt NP

North Dakota, Montana

We've travelled through two states in 48 hours. Highlights from western North Dakota include watching Mike fall asleep at the Little Missouri river after the long drive. It was too hot in the tent so he tried to get comfortable under a shady tree. Fortunately N. Dak. doesn't have high humidity and he fell asleep for awhile. The kids and mom ventured in the park exploring all the wildlife the park has to offer: bison, mule deer, rabbits, wild horses, praire dogs and lots of birds. We hiked about a mile and decided to turn around because it was so hot, about 95 degrees. Instead of the hike we ventured to town for the Cowboy Museum and ice cream. Happy kids equals a happy mom:)

Mike inquired about rain fall of the ranger at an evening hike we took and she couldn't remember the last time it rained. Ironically we were awoken by sprinkles on our faces as it began to rain thorugh out tent because we opted to not put on the rainfly. Go figure! We packed up camp in about 30 minutes:)

The signature Lewis and Clark Bicenntenial event at Pompeys Pillar had about 25, 000 people travel through the past few days. Boy, there were some hard core Lewis & Clark afficianados there. There were some excellent reenactors, displays and presentations. Sabrina asked if we could follow Christopher Colombus' explorations next! Gabriel has said on many occassions how happy he is to be doing this because "he is interested in animals", "this is funner than fun", etc. Either he really enjoys this or he wants something:) We are hoping for the first. We adults are amazed at the breadth of knowlege we have gained thus far and would say that this event surpasses all the others in size and scope.

Yellowstone for the next few days! We look forward to more wildlife and exploration. We may not post for a few days as it will be difficult to get connected.

Tonight, we are "roughin' it in a hotel in Red Lodge Mt. Tomorrow we head up into the mountains on the Beartooth Highway.

Gabriel says: We are having fun in Montana. I liked climbing the Pompey's Pillar rock, I liked seeing his signature. I liked the Native American fashion show. I loved seeing all the buffalo at our hike when the buffalo came close to us yesterday. We are almost to California. We are also having a lot of fun swimming. We are doing lots of things together. We are having a fun time.

Cecilia says: Hi friends. We saw prairie dogs. We had a good time climbing the rocks, where Clark carved his name. I liked seeing the fashion show.

Crossing the Missouri

PACKED! FINALLY!

Adventure #1- packing!

Who says "more hands makes light work"? The kids keep moving things. We've got a HUGE mess and it keeps getting redistributed around the house slowly making it's way into the van. The length of the trip has finally set in, what are we thinking!!!:)

It's fun to determine what is important to have and what is really just extra stuff. We continue to try and live simply but it can often be complicated i.e. which soccer ball should we take we have 4, which books do I want to read I have a bookshelf of unread ones, what makes the cutoff of important things. We have each other, and a few good CD's.
Happy Trails!

Go West!