A few more Yaak pictures...

Here is Nick, patiently waiting for his drink... (note the cute kid-size Adirondack chair and matching table - might have to get us a set of those for the new pad)


And who has his drink? Grandpa.


Hmmm, has a top, doesn't spill... maybe Grandpa is onto something!

It was a summer of "Y's"

Huh? Well, first it was a visit to Yosemite and then it was a visit to Yaak. Where, you ask? For those of you not familiar (although I'm not sure there are many people reading this that don't know me well enough to know where Yaak is...), Yaak is a teeny, tiny, itsy, bitsy town in northwest Montana. Sort of wedged in the corner near the Idaho and Canadian border. We're talking rural with a capital "R" but beautiful beyond words.

So the Desotell Family headed up there to join Grandma & Grandpa T as well as a boat load of other members of the Thomas clan. The first part of the trip was spent at the house in Yaak with the G-parents, enjoying the lovely weather, deer, huckleberry picking, sleeping (as much as we could catch up on) and generally just doing a lot of nothing.

The latter part of the trip included a big ole party at Savage Lake in honor of the 50th anniversary of the cabin originally owned by my Great Uncle Bert which is now owned by my cousins Jackie & Gwen. They threw a GREAT party - lots of family, friends, good food & drink (huckleberry daquiris - how can you go wrong???) We also had a nice BBQ with s'mores & all on our last day with the immediate Thomas clan (G-parents, Uncle Jerry & Aunt Lou Ann, cousin Todd & wife Grace, cousin Tracy & boyfriend Justin).

Enough babble - here are some pictures. Not enough to capture everyone or everything, but what can you do...

You can't be in Yaak without seeing deer. And you certainly can't be at the Thomas place without feeding the deer some corn. Nick really got into it and spent many an hour - I kid you not - HOURS - going back & forth between corn can and the "feeding area".


Feeding the deer all that corn is pretty exhausting. So what better place to take a nap than on Grandpa?


Feeding the deer came a close second to Nick's favorite pastime - the swing.


Not to worry - the house does have running water. Showers and everything! But no bathtubs. And he long ago outgrew using the sink as a tub. So lucky Nick got to bathe 'al fresco'. He didn't seem to mind.


Nick with Mommy and Aunt Lou Ann at the Savage Lake party. Nick is giving Lou Ann a high-five. The high-five was really just a ploy to get Lou Ann's camera. Thankfully Lou Ann was fast and the camera was safe from harm.


Here are Jackie & Gwen giving a bit of history on the Savage Lake cabin, introducing people and giving greetings to all the guests.


Nick getting his groove on while watching the Terriers - my Uncle Jerry's three piece band. At a couple of points during their performance, they were actually a four-piece band - my cousin Todd added his bass skills to the mix for a few songs.


Nick climbed up and down those stairs a bazillion times. I think in this picture he's trying to join the band up on the deck. He has some mean rattle skills, you know.


Nick is clearly telling Grandpa T and Mommy something very interesting. Only he knows what that was, however. Probably something like "So, I saw the deer and I went and got her some corn. Then I went and got her some more corn. Then some more corn..."



I'm sure there are more "Y" places to visit. Yemen, perhaps? Yakima? Stay tuned...

Yosemite!!

In mid-July, the Desotell Family joined a bunch of other families & friends in Yosemite for a weekend of "Survivor - Yosemite". Thankfully there were no eating contests or other challenges. But a lot of fun nonetheless. Lots of pictures to post, so I'll keep the commentary to a minimum.

Here is Dina next to her mule, Budweiser. The picture really doesn't do it justice - he was huge! But very sweet. He & Jocelyn's mule, Oscar, liked to hang out in the back. Nick & Daddy went on their own tour of Yosemite - Nick was too tiny to go on the mule train.


Here are Nick & Mommy heading down to the river to cool off. It was hot!!


One of Nick's new favorite toys: rocks. He gathered quite a few over the course of the trip.


The water was very cold at first, but felt very good on our tootsies. It took a couple of seconds for Nick to get used to it, but he adapted pretty quickly.


Here are all the kids from the trip. I'll get all the names, but can't guarantee I'll spell them all correctly!! From left to right: Justine, Big Katie, Little Katie, Tristan, Robbie, Remy, Riley, Ben, Rowan, Kyle, Evan, Noah, Sean and - of course - Nick down front. Conor is MIA from this picture for some reason.


Nick liked to "help" around the camp...


Although it was much cooler to do it sans pants...


Here are Nick & Daddy in front of Half Dome from the top of Glacier Point


Nick & Mommy in a similar pose - this pic got the waterfall in back too. I don't think Nick really got a sense of the amazing scenery. He did, at one point, take a good look at Half Dome. I think he thought it was a pretty cool rock and probably wanted to stick it in his pocket with the other rocks he gathered. Thankfully he thought better of it and left it where it was. Given his strength, you never know - he could've plucked out of the dirt.


Our little camper - it's a bit hard to tell in this picture, but he is DIRTY. I mean really dirty - face, feet, hands, legs - anywhere and everywhere. And he loved it. It took us days to get him clean - I still think his toe nails have Yosemite dirt wedged in there...