Mayes Family Reunion

We have had a busy couple of weeks. Last week we went to the Mayes family reunion in Island Park. This included Justin's mom's immediate family. Aletha's dad and all of her brother's and sister were there. A lot of Justin's cousins were there along with Michelle and Shane and Samantha (Pat and Steven couldn't come.) It seemed to have a good turnout and we had a lot of fun. This post is going to have a ton of pics because it is easier to write about what we did with pics...

It was a long drive to Island Park, and the girls were wanting a break, so we stopped and got some ice cream and were just in time to see Old Faithful do it's thing. The girls thought it was cool and Justee kept getting excited and pointing at it. Justee was such a mess after her ice cream, especially after she fell down and the dirt stuck to the ice cream that was all over her... We slept in a tent and the girls loved that. They (and Justin and I) actually slept really well. We got to see a mommy moose and her calf. They came down to the water right by us; It was really cool. I took a bunch of pictures because Justin has always had a fascination with moose and I thought if I got a good one, it would be fun to enlarge and frame. (Justin really wants a big moose mount, but he doesn't want to shoot it himself because he doesn't think he could do it.)

We went to see Mesa Falls and it was really pretty. Justin was nervous the whole time because we were up so high looking out over a cliff to see the falls. He kept yelling at the girls to stay back. (How can a helicopter pilot be so scared of heights?)

The falls were beautiful and there were so many rainbows in it's mist.

Charlee was not in picture mode. She did not want her picture taken. ...see what I mean... I went on a little nature hike with three of the most beautiful girls I know. We had fun talking and taking pictures.

Samantha (Justin's little sister):
My niece Tianna (Justin's sister Michelle's daughter):
My niece Teisha (Michelle's daughter too): I don't get to hang out with these girls very often, but I enjoy it when I do get the chance. They are such fun sweet girls and I'm glad I get to call them family. (Did I mention how beautiful they are too?)
I have lots more pictures of them that I will have to post later.

One night we went back to where we saw the moose at because we heard that there had been a lot of bear sightings there recently. We hung out for a little while until we were getting eaten by mosquitoes and had to leave. Unfortunately we didn't ever see a bear. Justin & Justee, Tianna, Teisha, Shane & Zack, Mike, Sam, Michelle, Chris, Sydnee, Jayden, & Kirk (Charlee was asleep in the car):When we left the family reunion, we headed to Lovell to drop the girls off at my parents house. They were keeping them while Justin and I went to New York City for 5 days. (That will be my next post.) On our way through Cody we could see a lot of smoke from wildfires. The sun looked so pretty through the smoke. I snapped this picture just as it was glowing above Heart Mountain. Not five minutes later, we had traveled far enough away from the smoke that the sun looked normal. I'm glad I snapped the pic when I did.