Summer hike #3: Darby Wind Cave

Seth had work this day, so I extended an invitation to my parents to join the girls and I in hiking to one of my favorite (and most hiked-to) locations. Hike #3: the Darby Wind Cave in Darby Canyon, Wyoming, on Friday, July 27. We went in the Wind Cave as far as we usually do (until you get to the point where you'd have to army crawl for 20-ish feet to continue on), so we probably went about 7 miles.

 Analee, Miriam, Rebekah and Winnie next to the creek near the beginning of the trail.

 Winnie running down the trail.

 Snack and water break.

 Miriam, Grandma Scott, Grandpa Scott, Rebekah, Winnie and Analee with the Wind Cave in the background.

Miriam (and her headlamp) by the monument, getting ready to go to the cave.

Grandma Scott, Analee, Rebekah, Miriam, Andrea and Winnie at the monument. We ate lunch there, and I shared the story of the lightning strike.

Four girls headed across the creek to the mouth of the cave.

 Grandma and Grandpa Scott coming through the mouth of the cave.

Crawling back out of the cave. Winnie came through too quickly to get a picture of her.

Miriam and Analee under the waterfall that comes from the mouth of the cave.

Rebekah and Winnie taking a moment.

Analee, Rebekah, Miriam, Andrea and Winnie under the rock ledge that--earlier in the season--supports a waterfall.

Summer hike #2: Lake Marie

Our second hike of the summer was minus two kids and plus one dog. Hike #2: Lake Marie in Island Park on Friday, July 20. (We LOVE that Seth gets every other Friday off with his new job.) We arranged for Miriam and Winnie to play with cousins at Aunt Rachel's house in Island Park while the rest of us took Peach on her first real hike.

Seth's GPS clocked us as hiking nearly 9 miles, with a lot more elevation gain/loss than our first hike (which is why we let the younger ones sit this one out). We ate lunch, bathed our feet and had a contest to see who could keep their feet in the runoff longest. (Seth won.) We had the trail almost to ourselves on the way in, and Peach readily introduced herself to the group of Scouts we saw as we left the lake.

Bekah, Peach and Seth looking over a ridge. 

 Peach and Analee frolicking among the wildflowers.

Some of the beautiful Western Blue Flax we saw along the way. 

 Rebekah and Peach wading in the lake. Later in the summer, the lake completely dries up since it's only fed with runoff.

 Lake Marie and the surrounding bowl.

Analee, Peach, Seth, Rebekah and Andrea at the lake. 

Taking a break on the way out. Peach didn't know to pace herself (she was prancing all over the place on the way in), so by the end of the hike, she was sticking to the trail and flopping down in the shade every chance she got.

Summer hike #1: Fairy Falls and Imperial Geyser

With softball season completed, our family took to the trails this summer. First, Fairy Falls and Imperial Geyser in Yellowstone National Park on Saturday, July 7. The trail was congested until we got to the Grand Prismatic Spring overlook, then it thinned down. There were several other small groups at the falls when we were there eating our lunch and wading, but hardly anyone continued the extra half a mile past the falls to the geyser.

A few of us hiked past the geyser to the top of the ridge so we could see the falls and the geyser from above. Seth's GPS reported a total of 8.5 miles of hiking by the time we got back to the car. The girls were troopers (especially Winnie since her legs are shorter than anybody else's), so we stopped for some ice cream at Old Faithful before driving home.

The older two girls and I tried to hike this trail last summer, but the trail head was closed. We had more success this year. 

Hiking (more like walking ... this trail is very tame) down the path. 

Miriam and Winnie at the falls. 

A chipmunk eating the Sour Patch Kid it took from Seth's hand. 

Bekah, Winnie, Seth, Miriam and Analee at the falls. 

Miriam and Andrea wading in the water. 

Winnie climbing over a blackened tree to get to the to the base of the falls. She was worried about the ashes in her hair. 

The girls petting the frog Seth caught along the way to Imperial Geyser. 

Hiking next to Imperial Geyser's runoff. 

 At the geyser.

Miriam and Rebekah opted to stay down by the geyser with our bags while Seth, Andrea, Analee and Winnie hiked up to the ridge above the geyser. We walked farther along to the trail and found two lily pad-covered lakes, too.

Softball

This year we simplified things by having Analee play up on Rebekah's fast pitch team so we'd only have two teams (the fast pitch team and Miriam's pitching machine team) to worry about. Rebekah and Analee chose "Order of the Phoenix" for a team name, and Miriam chose "Bouncing Ferrets." (An obscure Harry Potter reference, to be sure. Remember that time when Mad-Eye Moody transfigured Draco into a ferret and bounced him around?) Grandpa Scott was my co-coach for both teams, and Rebekah and Analee base coached the younger girls' team.

Miriam's team had a lot of younger players, so we tried to cover a lot of basic skills in our practices. The girls all improved throughout the season, and despite us only playing two games in the tournament, we were happy with their progress. Miriam learned that she loves playing first base and shortstop. (Seth had to take the pictures since I was coaching.)

 Miriam fielding a grounder.

 Throwing from the outfield.

 Batting.

Running to first with the encouragement of Rebekah and me (background).

Rebekah pitched a whole lot more this season (it helps that she didn't break a finger during the first game this year) and continued to enjoy playing catcher and shortstop as well. She caught several pop flies, including a few at catcher that were pretty darn impressive. Analee learned that she enjoys second and third base. She has got quite the arm on her; she made a throw from 2nd to 3rd that had her coaches smiling.

Our team lost all our games during the first part of the season, but we won one right before the tournament started (which helped us have a higher seeding), and we won our first game in the tournament and ended up taking fourth in our division. The girls were ecstatic.

 Rebekah pitching. 

 Rebekah batting.

 Andrea (first base coach) and Rebekah (on first).

 Rebekah at shortstop and Analee at 2nd.

Cute Analee in center field. 

Analee batting. 

Analee running from 2nd.

Fourth of July

Our Independence Day started with a ward breakfast, then we dashed to the parade route so we could do some of this:

 Oakley, Miriam and Winnie waiting in line for free popcorn.

Waiting for the parade to start. Grandma Scott, Aunt McKall, Uncle T, Seth, Andrea, Aunt Jessica, Bennet, Miriam, Winnie. 

 Laughing at some hilarious comment of mine, I'm sure.

Waving (spinning?) flags.

And so we could see some of this:

Analee's friend Jocelyn and Analee walking with the other 2018 DARE graduates in the parade.

Rebekah playing the valve trombone amid a sea of Bonneville marching band kids.

Her yellow glasses helped me pick her out from the crowd. They were playing "You Give Love a Bad Name" when they passed us.

Then we went to Grandma and Grandpa Scott's house for a barbecue before loading up the van and heading to Menan for their fireworks. We got there early so we could scope out the place (we've never gone to Menan for the Fourth before), eat a picnic dinner and play games together while waiting for it to get dark.

Analee during a game of Apples to Apples. 

Rebekah laughing at something hilarious, I'm sure. 

Miriam drinking her snow cone. Since there were lots of food booths, we let the girls each pick a dessert. Miri and Seth chose snow cones. Ana and Winnie chose cotton candy. Rebekah had ice cream, and Andrea had mini donuts. 

Seth during our game. 

Winnie was on my team. She can read the cards herself, but she prefers to sit on my lap and choose my cards to play.

The fireworks did not disappoint (Winnie was oohing and aahing before the real show even started), and we got home sufficiently late.

Easton's blessing

Almost all of the Scott clan was in town June 30 for this little guy's blessing,

Winnie holding her baby cousin Easton, Uncle T and Aunt McKall's son.

so we had a little family reunion of sorts. Grandma Scott and I shared some family history and pictures with the kids,  

Grandma showing the girls the porcelain dogs her grandmother brought from Germany.

we ate good food and played softball together (no pictures of softball because we were all busy playing),

Girl cousins lined up eating ice cream. Ellie, Miriam, Libby, Winnie and Oakley. 

View from another table. Rebekah, Analee, Shelby, Andrea. 

and the next day (July 1) we attended church in McKall's parents' ward where Easton was blessed by his dad.

Sibling picture after sacrament meeting. Ethan, Tyson, Jessica, Andrea, Jonathan. 

Immediate family picture. Ethan, Tyson, Jessica, Annette, Neal, Andrea, Jonathan. 

Extended family picture. We were missing Teressa, Spencer, Samuel and Seth. Teressa took the boys home to Washington before the rest of the family because Sam got sick, and Seth had missed several weeks of bishopric meeting and felt like he needed to be there for that.