Gibbon River

This is Gibbon Falls.

We pulled over by the Gibbon River to take some pictures. The water was clear and cold. There were so many idyllic places in the park.

I was brave and went out to sit on a rock. The water was only a few inches deep out to that point, but then it got deeper (and I had to stop).

Old Faithful

We waited for about a half hour for Old Faithful to erupt. It goes off about every 90 minutes (plus or minus 10 minutes), and there was definitely a big crowd for a 2:00 pm Wednesday afternoon show. The crazy thing was that while we waited there were other geysers that were erupting not too far away. It is an amazing place!

The entire eruption lasted only a couple minutes, but it was spectacular. (Well, I thought it was. Doug wasn't as impressed, but he was also really sunburned by the wait in the sun.)

At its peak, Old Faithful reaches about 120 feet. You don't want to be close by!

Grand Prismatic Spring

This geyser was about 200 feet across, and is known for all its colors. You can't really tell from the picture, but even the steam coming off was almost purple and iridescent.

The bright blue water was surrounded by vibrant orange bacteria mats. It was really beautiful!

Yellowstone geysers

Yellowstone was definitely a highlight of our trip! Here I am at the Fountain Paint Pots, bubbling mud pits.

It was so strange to see these big holes in the ground that belch steam, hot water, and sulfuric gases. Definitely not something you see every day.

This one was huge! It constantly had a cloud of steam rising from it. It erupted in 1884 and 1985, so maybe in other 80 years we should go see if it will do it again...

(Some of the) Artwork in the Conference Center

A painting of the arches in Southern Utah.

This was an incredible stained-glass window - and it was huge!

An artist's rendition of the First Vision.

Conference Center

We also took a tour of the Conference Center, since Doug had never been inside before. It's such an amazing building! You really can't tell how big it is if you just see it on TV. He really loved the landscaping on the roof. It's too bad that the fountains were being cleaned at the time and were not on. Our tour guide told us that the building designer was worried that the fountains on the roof would eventually leak into the building, but President Hinckley really wanted them. So, he put the largest fountain right over the pulpit, so if it leaked President Hinckley would be the first to know! :)

Here is a shot of us on the roof with Temple Square in the background.

Here is a picture I took of Doug with some of the landscaping in the background...

And here is where I was standing with downtown SLC in the background!

Temple Square

We went to Temple Square during our recent vacation. Above is a shot of the temple from the Joseph Smith Memorial Building.

There were beautiful flowers EVERYWHERE! I have never seen Temple Square looking so lovely.

Someone told us that there were 38 weddings that day - woah! Everywhere you looked people were getting their pictures taken. Of course, it was a perfect day!

Bread

I decided to learn to make bread, so here are a couple pictures of my first loaves from a few weeks ago. Tasty!

More Sherman

Here are some more pictures of Sherman. He is a lot of fun (and develops a fan club wherever he goes because he is so cute)! He slept through the night last night, and we are really getting somewhere with the housebreaking.

Here he is with our friend's little boy, Easton. Who doesn't love a puppy?

We gave him a bath the other night.

Cutie!

He likes to whine when we put him in his kennel.

Sherman

This here is the newest addition to our family. (Mind you he is not a child or a child substitute.) His name is Sherman. He is a Dachshund. He is tired and shy.

I must admit that I am quite partial to him. He has a little place in my heart. This of course might change once I have to clean up after him. We can not believe that we got this little guy!

Em is just in love! This is one really cute dog. He weighs about 2 pounds. He is 8 weeks old. He is going to get his first adjustment this next Friday.