Jelly-Stone Park

West Yellowstone!!
Okay, I know I'm still back-tracking here but I want to get caught up so I can be up to date. The day after graduation John and I went to Yellowstone with my family. Becca, Aiden, Chris, and my parents were all loaded in the van in time to make it up there for a 2pm matinee of Oklahoma at the Playmill. As most of you know I am in love with that play and could probably act out every part for you myself. But I had never been to the Playmill and had heard that it was a lot of fun so I figured graduation was a good excuse to take a little trip over there.

The play was well done and the little theater was really cute and had a nice atmosphere because it was such a small little box theater. It was hilarious because my dad decided to rename it the "moulin bleu" because it is a mill and looks a lot like the moulin rouge in Paris (and from the movie). So, those of you who know my dad know that he likes to keep a good thing going and he was making cracks about if this was a burlesque version of Oklahoma with some topless dancers and maybe a little bit more action in the dancing underwear girls scene (during the many a new moon song). And we kept laughing which only encouraged him and we were basically calling it the moulin bleu all afternoon and of course we were saying it with ridiculous french accents. Here it is so you can get the full mental image:

While we were watching the play my nephew, Aiden, was being pretty well behaved and walking back and forth in the aisle. Then he tripped over himself and whacked his face on the chair-back in front of us and bounced on the chair seat behind him. Then of course he started wailing in pain and my sister had to squeeze out of the tiny, box-theater row. After a few minutes of him still screaming my dad went to check on him in case he hit his mouth or something like that. They had to take him all the way out of the theater and walk along the sidewalk until he could calm down because it turned out that he got a nice shiner. There was a gash next to his right eye and he looked pretty pathetic. This is a cute/pathetic photo of his little shiner:
After the play John met up with us, he rode his motorcycle up, and we ate at a delicious fifties style diner that unfortunately was out of garden burgers : ) My sister was all excited because they had them on the menu but then they were all out of them and she was moody the rest of the evening. It was entertaining. There was a toy train that chugged around a rail on the ceiling too and Aiden loved it. I had an amazing chicken sandwich and we ordered some great malted milkshakes. I love fifties diners if only for that reason alone; I love malts! If you don't know this about me already, I'm obsessed with photos so here are some fun ones of my family at the diner:

John and I

Mom & Pop

Becca & Aiden

The Crazy Boys

On Sunday we went into the park and hiked around looking at all the geysers. My dad and I were mostly being obsessive photographers and spent at least ten minutes at every spot worth taking photos of. When I get them edited and everything I'll probably put them on my website or a photography blog when I start one. But here's a sample:







We got back to the hotel pretty late that evening and decided that we really didn't get enough time in the park and especially that we hadn't seen enough animals. So we decided to wake up really early Monday morning (I know you guys are laughing because you don't think my family could wake up and be anywhere early) and go back in for more photos and hiking around. Dad really wanted to see some good buffallo herds and such. We made it in by 6am and did some nice little hikes to some cool water falls and saw quite a few buffallo. We even saw a bear way far away that some park rangers had pinpointed in the telescope. It was fun.

Mr. Buffalo

In front of one of the pretty water falls.

Sweet Rapids

Really Pretty Water Fall

That was yellowstone!
The End!

Graduation!!

I finally graduated from BYU-Idaho after what seemed like forever. In reality it didn't take me too much longer than average to finish my degree. I earned a bachelors of arts in communications with a minor in French. I am glad it's all over with but am not quite sure what to do with myself...well, technically I could be unpacking but who wants to do that. Here are some photos of my graduation which was on July 18th 2008.

That's me by the pretty little Y-of-I made out of carnations.

That's me giving my valedictorian speech. : )

Really pretty flowers in front of the podium...

"Look Jay-chel Grampa's taking a picture!"
Me, my siblings, and my nephew

The ones who got me there!

Me, my hubby, and my sweet mother-in-law.

Me with one of my favorite teachers.

Most of the AVM Girlies!

Like mother like daughter.

Without him I wouldn't have made it either
Although I gotta admit he was a distraction occasionally : )

Everyone but Kyle made it over for the big event.

Buffalo Wing Thing

I've decided that one of my new favorite foods is the Buffalo Wing Thing pizza from Craigo's. It's kind of a funny story too because I was in a group for school and I told one of the group members that "I could have a hot and steamy love affair with that pizza." He laughed--who wouldn't :)--and told me that was ironic because he invented that pizza. Apparently at Craigo's they let their employees be creative with pizza toppings and sauces and such. So this is my shout out to James Rognon (not that he'll ever see this) the father, and creator of the most savory/delicious/scrum-diddly-umptious pizza I've ever had in my life! Ok, so that was a little over dramatic but I really do love that pizza!! I'll explain food-critic style:

The buffalo wing thing pizza is a brilliant combination of two classic American foods--spicy buffalo wings and pizza. The thick Craigo's crust is a perfect palette for this masterpiece which begins with a healthy slathering of barbecue sauce. This savory sauce is joined by deliciously melted mozzarella and warm tomatoes. Finally the creation is topped with the piece de resistance: the buffalo wing. This sweet and spicy combination sends the taste buds into a delighted frenzy urging for more, and before long an addiction is born bringing the cravings and withdrawal pangs along with it.

I know, being a food critic could have been my calling in life except I hate fish. Oh well, I'll have to stick with blogging about amazing foods.

Now that you know about my love affair with the buffalo wing thing pizza it is plain to see why I took my family to Craigo's for dinner the night of graduation and here, of course, are the photos to prove it:Aren't we so cute?!

Just chattin it up!

Ah, look at all those tasty Pepsi products.

num, num, num, num delicioso!

Notice how there aren't any more pictures after the food came...

Groats at BYU-I

Right before graduation I got a chance to hang out with my in-laws before my family came up. They came to help Jarom and Stacy pack up and move to the new house but we got to spend a little time with them too. Kristine even got to stay for my graduation which was really neat. But, after I finally finished my last final ever and turned in my website I got to go play with them for a while. We went geo-caching of course because it's Kristine's favorite new hobby. It is pretty interesting and can be a lot of fun. All my nieces and nephews especially love it and they made her an easter egg hunt using coordinates on her gps so they could geo-hunt all of them. But we found a couple nearby and got to go trekking around and trying to be sneaky around all the muggles--yes, that is what they call non geo-cacheing people! : ) I took some photos of us walking around and then Jarom showed us the little garden he planted in his gardening class so it was a lot of fun.

Looking for the cache...

Jarom resting up after all the hard work it took to find the cache.

And of course, the classic photo posing in front of the BYU-I sign.

This is Jarom's little garden from his class. He had to take a moment to stop and smell the flowers...ah...so lovely.

Here is Jeff in the middle of a very classic Jeff Groat explanation (note the stance and serious expression).

Jarom still being giddy about how lovely his flowers turned out...

Now, Kristine is busy explaining something--sharing her master gardening skills.

Jarom examining his tomato plants

Like father like son (note the stance and serious expression)
: )