Two, No, Three Goals Collide

Today I decided to get more serious about my writing and make it a priority to write 500 words six days a week. What got me excited about my goal was that I could write about things that are happening in our lives and share them on this blog!

I've been intending to do more with this blog for quite awhile, but I let myself become distracted. Now I have a great reason. I've found greater motivation.

If you're looking for great writing skills, you'll find a lot here that needs editing. This is intentional. As I'm writing my 500 words, I won't be editing and trying to make my words and sentences nearly perfect. This helps me with another of my goals, which is to just write and not always worry about it being perfect! Wow! Big leap for me.

When summer began, I thought I'd be able to get a lot of writing done, but no. Unexpected things started happening which butted up against planned things, and before I stopped to take a breath, August was almost half over!

Lazy River and Buffalo

Sam and I spent the second half of July in Utah and Idaho. We drove out with our pop-up camper in tow to celebrate our daughter Jessica's graduation from Brigham Young University-Idaho. She wasn't interested in going to graduation. She wanted a family campout and to spend time in Yellowstone National Park. Fun!

Our camping trip ended up including Ashley with her husband, David, and their four children (they live in Ogden, Utah); Elizabeth and her now fiance, Tyson; my sister Tami and her granddaughter, Makayla (Tami and her husband, Chris, live in Blackfoot, Idaho); my sister Lois with her husband Jim and four of their five children (they live in northwestern Oregon). We had a wonderful, fun-filled week.

Me trying to stay afloat,
take pictures, and
keep my phone dry

Sam fully enjoying the lazy part of the lazy river

Our much-loved Aunt Donna (my dad's baby sister) camped at a campground down the road from ours and had brought everything we needed to have the whole family float down the Buffalo River on inflatable rafts. The kids splashed around and played as they went along while most of the adults just tried to stay away from the rocks and drift peacefully downriver.

My grandson M did not appreciate the sulfur smell near
Old Faithful

Buffalo, elk, mule deer, ducks, birds, and maybe some antelope were spotted during our visit to Yellowstone. We visited Old Faithful, saw a mud volcano, and drove around a HUGE lake. At the beginning of our visit, not long after entering the park, we saw a couple moose laying in the grass next to a creek. Neither of them had horns, but they did have park ranger nearby with the light flashing on top of his truck. Most people driving by would have looked at the ranger's flashing light and missed the moose.

One of the buffalo we saw

Once we finally got past the lake, we came to a spot where, as they saying goes, the buffalo roam. We first stopped next to one we noticed on the other side of a creek that ran along next to the road. After we got out of the truck, we noticed another one. As we were getting ready to move on, one of them favored us with his version of a dog rolling around in the dirt. It was comical to see such a large animal roll on its back, kicking up a cloud of dust, with its hoofs showing just above the tall yellow grass as it wiggled and squirmed in the dirt.

Well, that's it for this installment. I've typed almost 600 words in threw in some pictures besides.
Until next time! PJB :-)