Our Second Day: The Day of the Buffalo

Today was a long, long day. We really wanted to go see Mammoth Hot Springs today. From where our hotel is it is normally only a hour and a half drive. However, a road is closed, so the trip to Mammoth that would normally be only an hour and a half is a predicted four hour drive. Well, we hadn't seen that side of the park either so we thought we would give the long drive a try.

On our way in we saw our first bison of the trip. He was just going along the side of the road. I'm grateful we had a car to stay inside to keep us safe. As we went along we kept seeing bison wandering along the side of the road.

We also saw this Blue Heron on our way into the park.

Our first stop was Black Sand Basin.

We then continued on and went over Craig Pass. The cool thing about Craig Pass is that at the top is Isa Lake. Isa Lake sits right on the Continental Divide so that water from the lake flows to both the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean.

Continuing on we came to the Yellowstone Lake. We drove along the side of the lake for a good part of the day.

Next we came to the Hayden Valley. Here we saw herds of buffalo.

Brad and I drove up to see if we could could get some good shots of a buffalo who had come up to the side of the valley. Brad turned around to fix his camera and found there was a buffalo right behind us. See for yourselves.

So, from here we drove for a long ways, up to see Tower Fall.

They had this crazy rock across the canyon.

From Tower Falls, we went to Petrified Tree. It was an ancient redwood tree that had been preserved by lava covering it over.

From Petrified Tree, we went to Undine Falls.

From Undine Falls, we finally made it to Mammoth Hot Springs. There were so many elk meandering around. We would be walking about 10 feet away from them and they didn't care.

This little guy was like this for a while.

We walked around Mammoth Hot Spring and found all these cool terraces.

By this time it was getting pretty late. The sun was setting and it was time to go home. Brad made the drive in two and a half hours. Not bad, but we got in a little before 11 and we are tuckered out. Tomorrow we're going to retrace a lot of our steps to catch a lot of the stuff we had to skip because we were running out of time to get to Mammoth. Things would be a lot easier if that one road wasn't closed, but we've had a lot of fun seeing all the beautiful country here in Yellowstone.

Our First Day in America's First National Park

As a celebration of our anniversary/my graduation/one last week of fun before school starts for Brad, we have gone on vacation to Yellowstone National Park. Neither of us have been here in years and with how much we both love photography we thought it would be a really fun trip.

Today was our first day in the park. We did so much! And we have a lot of pictures so consider yourself warned for picture overload.

First, we went to Firehole Falls.

We then went to Fountain Paint Pot.

Then we headed to Biscuit Basin and they had a bunch of cool springs there.

We had in the book that there was an easy to moderate hike to a waterfall father up Biscuit Basin. I was thinking, "Oh, this should take us no longer than an hour. This should be fun!" Little did we know how long/hard of a hike it would be. We ended up going up to the top of a mountain on switchbacks. Once we got to the top there was this incredible view.

From this point you can see a bunch of geysers. We got to see Old Faithful go off at one point from up here.

So, we continued to walk along the top of the mountain until we came down and found ourselves on top of the waterfall. We really couldn't see how high up we were because there was a big boulder, but we could see some other cascades coming down.

We hiked down a little more and we finally able to see Mystic Falls.

Brad decided to be a billy goat, but he slid down the mountain side. Okay, maybe it was just 5 feet, but he scared me so badly. He scrapped up his hand. So, we hurried back to the car to take care of his injury, but we took a moment to look at how high we climbed.

After debating whether to end the day early or to do one last thing, we decided we would go take a look at Old Faithful.

After that we headed home, but took a detour along the way. We went on a little drive to see Firehole Lake.

We also took quite a few detours throughout the day to take pictures of the wildlife. Today we saw. . .

Lots of female elk

One male elk

A coyote

Chipmunks

And even a Bald Eagle.

Now we are back at the condo, very tired, a little sunburned, and with achy feet. But we had so much fun today seeing the beauty of Yellowstone that we'll sleep soundly tonight and have another great day in American's first national park.

One Year

This is a little late, but I've been busy for the past few weeks. In between going to Salt Lake for our anniversary, a trip to Yellowstone, getting Brad started with school, and job hunting, it's been crazy. But I thought I'd put something up for our anniversary.

Brad and I met two years ago. It was on a trip up the a ward FHE/opening social that I caught a ride up with Brad and his roommates Ryan and James. Ryan was driving, I was in the passenger seat, and Brad was sitting right behind me. Ryan was being a goof and Brad was thinking, "This girl is never going to talk to us again." I had said some things that made me feel like a fool, so I was thinking, "These guys are never going to talk to me again." It was a good thinking neither of us got a good look at the other or we may have been too embarrassed to every talk to each other again.

So, time went by and we met each other at Ward Prayer. We got talking after and ended up talking for 3 or 4 hours that night. It was just really easy to talk to each other.

Time continued to pass and we ended up being in the same FHE group. By this time we were friends and liked to hang out together. So, one night after FHE we were talking out in the lobby were I was living and one of Brad's Home Teachers walked through. He told us that he was doing some stand up comedy for Humor U on campus and that we should come. Brad's Home Teacher left and we continued to talk. Right before it was time to go Brad asked if I wanted to go on a date with him to see Humor U with him. Of course I said yes. So, for our first date we had Cafe Rio, Humor U, and games at my place.

A little while later, Brad called me up and told me he was bored and was wondering if he could come over and we would do something together. I had no idea what we would do, but told him to come over. When Brad came over we discovered that the hatch to the roof of the building was open with a ladder going up. We climbed up and had a cool view. Brad thought we should get water balloons and throw them off the top. Neither of us had water balloons, but we grabbed some sandwich bags and filled them with water. When we climbed back on the roof, we saw some people we also up there. We hid and Brad said we should throw our water balloons at them. I said no, what if they we people we didn't know, etc. Brad wasn't listening. He had found a hole in his sandwich bag and was thinking, "Hmm, I'll let it drip on Alisha." Drip, drip, drip, POP! The sandwich bag burst drenching me. My hair was soaked, my makeup was coming off, and my clothes decently wet. I tried to get him back, but it didn't work. So, we sat down by the edge of the building to talk. I was shivering from being wet, so Brad put his arm around me. We were sitting talking when the biggest shooting star I have ever seen came right in front of us. We both looked at each other and asked, "Did you see that?!" I told Brad, "Make a wish!" So, we both made wishes. Brad tried to get me to tell, but I told him no because then it wouldn't come true. We only had to wait a little while for our wishes to come true.

Some time later, Brad took me out on a date to see the Joseph Smith movie in Salt Lake City. Brad hadn't seen it since it had come out while on his mission. So, after the movie we walked around Temple Square and found a place to sit and talk. We can't remember who asked who first, but someone asked about what the other had wished for on the shooting star. I told Brad that my wish had already come true, I had wished for Brad to hold my hand. We had been walking home from the library, he threw me into the sprinklers (what was with this boy getting me wet?), and then got up the courage to hold my hand. So, I asked Brad, "What did you wish for on the shooting star?" He said maybe later I'd find out. We continued to talk. Brad turned and looked at me, I looked at him, and he kissed me. "That's what I wished for."

So, we continued to date for many months. One day, Brad asked if I wanted to go for a drive up the Alpine Loop and take pictures together. I thought we would go up through Provo Canyon, but Brad said we should start in American Fork Canyon. Brad hates backroads and he went on the slowest way to get to American Fork Canyon. He said he wanted to get the sunset. We finally got to American Fork Canyon and found out that the Alpine Loop was closed. So, we turned around and pulled off on the side of the road to get some pictures together with the canyon in the background. Brad set up the camera on the tripod, set the timer and ran to get in the picture. It turned out well, but he said we should take another picture. Brad set the timer, but instead of coming and standing by me, he pulled out the ring and went on one knee. The camera went off. Brad asked, "Alisha, will you marry me?" I said, "Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes!" I was shocked. We had gone ring shopping together, but I didn't think he had the ring.

The new toy for Brad!

This week I got a new lens for my camera, the Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS.

Here are a few of my shots.

I'm a big fan of this lens.

What A Week

I've had a great week. It started with my birthday. Brad made me French Pancakes for breakfast. Then I had to work, but going to a water park for work doesn't really seem like work. Then my family took me out for dinner and then we had ice cream cake at our place. It was lots of fun and a really good birthday.

Then, Thursday was graduation! It didn't really feel like I was graduating, but there I was in my cap and gown walking in with Pomp and Circumstance playing. It felt a little bit more real, the next day at Convocation, that I was actually graduating.

Right after Commencement

I found my old roommate Emily! We got to sit together for Convocation. The ceremony was really nice, except that they said my name wrong when I walked. They had a card for us to write our name down and another box for any special pronunciation. I was worried they would mispronounce my first name so I wrote down to say it like Alicia. So, I handed my card to the lady and walked up onto the stage and waited for them to call my name, but instead I heard, "Alisha Parker." I think at this point I pulled a funny face. There was a camera guy taking pictures of everyone as their name was called to be send out with the diploma so hopefully my funny face wasn't caught on film. I don't know how they got a R out of a C, but it's okay. As long as my diploma says the right thing then I'm fine.

We went to celebrate at Famous Dave's. They even brought me out ice cream with a sparkler for my birthday and graduation. Only at Famous Dave's would you get fireworks with dessert. I also got another great surprise. I got this. . .

. . . a 13 inch MacBook! My old PC has been dying so I'm super excited to have a new computer, especially since it's a Mac. I love it! I've been playing with it a lot and been getting things set up. And it doesn't have any of the silly problems that my old PC had such as not being able to connect to our wireless internet, shutting down programs for no apparent reason, and dying if disconnected from the charger for more than 15 minutes.

Saturday's party was awesome as well. It was fun to see everyone that came. Baby Ella showed us her new trick, walking. She was so adorable and it was so fun to see her toddling around.

Brad did a good job organizing everything and making the food. Brad even surprised me with a slideshow. I loved it! Thank you to everyone who came. I've had such a great birthday and graduation!

Look Who's Graduating and Having a Birthday!

Announcing the graduation and birthday of Alisha Packer!

She will receive her diploma at a convocation ceremony on Friday August 14th at 2:00 p.m. at the Wilkinson Student Center Ballroom at BYU.

...but if you don't want to sit through all the pomp and circumstance...

All family and friends are superly invited to a partyful celebration in honor of our favorite scholar and birthday girl!

Saturday August 14th at 1:00 p.m. at our place in Provo.

Email me for directions.

We'll be grilling up a few burgers as well!

R.S.V.P. at bpacker29@gmail.com