A controlled burn

piece of string 

 The boys were discussing the other night how they thought things would burn.  We talked about how different material burn different ways.  How something burn fast and other things burn slow.  Well that just peaked the curiosity- I could see it in their eyes.  Instead of finding a bunch of stuff burnt in my basement we decided to offer a controlled burn.  We had the boys each pick something they want to see burn.  B got a bucket and we let them burn different items in the house.  Ansel wanted to 'sacrifice' one of his stuffys- duke!  I know it seems weird to allow the boys to burn things but I'm really hoping after them learning how items burn and how quickly they won't ever play with fire with out us around.  Oh- and no stuffys were sacrificed with the burnings.  :)   Sometimes you just have to learn by doing the thing. 

carpet 

plastic tea jug 

tea jug- burnt fast and hot

a sock 

Bemidji

B and I took the RV to Bemidji.  The camp site was in the woods and full of mosquitos!  There was great trails to walk on and ride the e-bikes.  We were able to get to the town of Bemidji and not have to move the RV.  The weekend had lots of rain to deal with.  On Friday we ended up heading to Duluth to get away from the storm.  It’s fun to be able to just pick up and move. Loved having the camper with only the two of us !

The koa in Duluth 

North shore 

Gooseberry 

Orchids growing in the wild! In MN!
So cool 

Drying off our shoes from the rain

S’mores even with out the kids

New Ink

 I got a little ink therapy in the middle of all this weirdness.  My plan was to get a tattoo for the big 40th B-day but the world has been closed and weird.  Finally things are slowly starting to open and bring back a tiny bit of what we used to know as normal.  I know we are far away from things being even close to what we use to know as normal but doing something just for me was what I needed! 

Love it already!

:)  Yes, we can finally have tattoos that show at my work
Figured this one wouldn't bother any one :)

I really am happy with my new ink.  I went to Minneapolis Tattoo Shop.  It is a female owned and run shop- which I thought was cool.  My artist was super cute and made it a great experience.  No pain and so smooth!  I can't wait for another :) (it normally takes me a few years to pick one out that I like enough)  This nurse tattoo I have had picked out since 2015 :)  Yay for doing things for yourself and finding some kind of therapy that works for you during these trying times that we are living in.  Hope you all are finding some thing that brakes up the boring patterns and makes you happy. 

4th of July

This years 4th of July was very different then what we normally do. No fair, fair food, parade and fireworks with a bunch of family. COVID has canceled all things normal again. We tried to still make the weekend fun. We played in the sprinklers, slip in slide, had fires and did our own mini fireworks. Enjoyed the hot weather and air conditioning!

Yellowstone National Park

One more try to get to Yellowstone! 

We finally made it to Yellowstone!

Wearing masks when in crowds

 I may have over done it with pictures of Yellowstone but there was SO many beautiful things to see!  Gysers, bubbling mud pools, stinky sulfur in air and lots of animals to see. 

Water falls

Jumping on rocks 

This one doesn't like his picture taken anymore :(

It's like another planet

Finally he let me take a picture :)

Its truly amazing that this is only two states away from us

Entering the park- see the snow on the side

Bison! 

Looking out the windows for animals 

Yellowstone Lake

Pulling over to have lunch.
The RV made it so easy!

Old Faithful 

We got stopped by a ranger.  He thanked us for wearing masks and gave the boys jr. ranger badges!
He said thanks for keeping me and you safe! 

Camping in the woods.
This was my favorite campsite

Fires and smore's

Oh, the sunsets! 

Climbing rocks again! 

Elk

Steak dinner 

Everyone got a chance to cook smore's

Tastes so good when you make it yourself 

It started to hail on us during our nightly fire.  Glad we have a RV

More Bison 

Look at the baby bison

A brown bear!!!  We caught a look at this guy on our way out of the park.  The boys were so excited.

So that's a wrap on our whirlwind trip to Yellowstone.  It was amazing and stressful.  It took the boys a couple of days to settle in and figure out the camping but each site we stopped at was fun for its own reasons.  It was nice when we had hook ups but the woods were so beautiful.  We had fires and lots of smores.  We saw rain, snow and hail.  I reminded the boys what it would have been like if we were in a tent.  The RV was great.  We didn't go to any public bathrooms- did learn about a poop stick!  (you know when a kid poops big enough it doesn't fit down the tube in the potty :) ) We saw mountain goats, elk, bison, prong horns and a bear!  The boys thought the bear was the coolest ever.  It was so close to the car.  It was the BEST road trip we have done with the boys.  It really helped that they could all spread out or sleep while we were driving.  I can't wait to plan our next trip.