Asher and Luke's Favorite New "Show"

The Awesomeness of Blogging...

...is that I don't feel the need to write an annual letter.

Happy Holidays!

Las Vegas Christmas

These pictures don't do our front yard justice, but since moving back to Arizona, Nate goes a little crazy with the Christmas lights. The first year we moved back to AZ, I was a little surprised because (not to put too fine a point on it) I remember hanging Christmas light in Massachusetts one year when I was 7 months pregnant while Nate watched TV. So, the year, he came home with the Santa train from Home Depot, I thought there was a joke I wasn't getting.

I joke that Nate goes to town on our yard because he's from Las Vegas. We don't do those white lights--we've got color EVERYWHERE plus the Santa on the train and a Santa on a carousel.

(I asked Nate is it was ok to have Santa in two places in a Christmas light display. He told me I was overthinking it.)

So, Nate does this every year, and I worry about the expense and the burning of fossil fuels. Not to mention that the first few nights, I think there are people who are casing our house because I notice cars slowing down in front of the house. Hmmm, I'm probably admitting too much about my neuroses here...

Still, Nate loves it and the boys love it, and I've been feeling a little better about it, too, since I hosted a preschool moms' night a few weeks ago. One of the moms said, "Oh, your house has the Santa train!" Then, she told us that last year, on tough nights when she and her daughter needed something to do, they would walk down our street, and our house was a favorite because of the Santa train. And, it would lift both of their spirits.

So, while I may think it's a little silly, I figure if one person told me it was brightening their holidays, it must brighten others' (including Nate).

I Guess the Phoenix Boys' Choir Won't Be Calling Soon...

(Asher is the kid in the middle row with the white long sleeved shirt and a grey shirt on top who spent the first half of the song ringing his bell right in front of his face and the second half yelling, "JINGLE BELLS!")

The Holiday Merry-Go-Round

I know, little guys. Some day, I feel like I'm barely hanging on the holiday merry-go-round, too.

Family Pictures

So, there's not usually a lot of family pictures on this blog because a. I can't compose a good photo, b. our family doesn't like to sit still unless we're on a train (and even then...), and c. I worry a lot about spending a lot of money and not getting a single. good. picture. (Hello, Sears photo shoot of 2007!)






But, I have an uber-talented friend, Jessica, and I figured she would be our best bet for getting some usable pics out of us because a. she has excellent taste, b. my boys are very comfortable with her (including Nate who is completely fine with sharing his sometimes inappropriate sense of humor with her), and c. she has boys of her own and knows how to work them.

While Jess was willing to work with us longer, I'm afraid 20 minutes was about our limit. Still, she knew right where to take us at the Mesa Arts Center to get the best backgrounds, and I was thrilled to go online this morning to order my Christmas cards and have more than 1 to choose from because that has NEVER happened to us before. Nate and I usually sigh and say, "Well, I guess this one doesn't look THAT bad."

It's so nice to have that done and have it turn out beautifully. Thanks again, Jess!

Luke's thoughts on potty training

While changing a poopy diaper...

Emily: Luke, wouldn't it be cool if next time you had to go poop, you did it in the potty?

Luke: Yeah, next time I go poop, I do it in the potty!

Emily: Yeah? (getting excited and hopeful)

Luke: Mom, you a funny cowboy!

Scenes from a Marriage: a gift for whom?

Nate said he got this for me.

But, the back of the magazine makes me wonder...

Because we all have our holiday traditions...

http://www.passiveaggressivenotes.com/

Turkey Hunting

Luke has been pretending to be different animals lately...a lion, a dog, a giraffe (?!). But, his favorite animal is a cat. He often needs to be fed from a bowl on the floor, crawls on his hands and knees all day, and needs frequent scratches on the head.


I guess he took his cat persona a little too seriously, deciding to kill the pinecone turkeys we made earlier this week during piano lessons. He carefully removed all the feathers and the googly eyes. At least, he let them keep their beaks.

Fashion Forward

So, my blog has been VERY child-centered lately, which means I'm actually documenting the kids' lives, but I'm thinking it makes for pretty dull reading for everyone else. Here's an attempt at something a little more entertaining:

My friend, Sylvia occasionally posts cute outfits she's wearing on her blog and did a great post on all the fashion blogs she looks at to get ideas.

"Fashion blogs?"I'm thinking. People go and take pictures of what they're wearing every day? Well, I don't have the chutzpah nor the good taste to do that, but I was intrigued. My mom uniforms of t-shirts or polo shirts with jeans gets a little old. So with some guidance from Sylvia's links, I've been exploring these blogs and actually having quite a bit of fun.

This woman writes my favorite fashion blog, Simple Elegance. Whenever I'm on someone's blog, I make a comment, just so they know I'm there. But, I haven't been brave enough to do that on her blog yet because I think she's just that cool.

I LOVE this website! Diana is on a budget yet still manages to always look cute and create color combinations that I never would have thought of and has taught me the novel concept that if I want to dress well, I have to think about the clothes in my closet and try to put them together in new ways. (Stacy and Clinton have been telling me the same thing for years, too, but I don't listen because then, they'll have me on their show and we'll become BFF's and I'll get a whole new wardrobe for free!)
I really like Goober's site (though I'm not crazy about the name :) ), too. Again, someone who has reminded me that there are probably lots more outfits in my closet if I just take the time to figure out different combinations.

It's a little embarrassing to realize that I know that writing takes work, piano playing takes work, cooking takes work, but I guess I always thought that fashion was effortless to those blessed with a good eye and a generous clothing allowance.





I love Academic Chic, too, but maybe that's just because I like to pretend like I'm an academic. There's a few different ladies who blog here. It's fun to see their different tastes and ideas.









Then, there's Cardigan Empire, the first fashion blog I came across. This blog has such excellent writing and introduces me to styles and combinations I never would have though of. And, who else can make me feel happy about my body shape?

And, I love Deals for the Short and Curvy. Bianca likes all the stores I like, and then, she takes the time to track down coupons, post notifications about sales, and find new stores to try. This is just great! It's like having a personal shopper who keeps bringing different options and coupons and doesn't care that I never actually buy anything.

I'll confess that I was a bit reticent to look at these fashion blogs, thinking that they'd make me want to spend more money on clothes. It also felt like it would be decadent and selfish to spend a lot of time thinking about the way I look.

But, I've found that these blogs have taught me all sorts of important lessons. They've helped me be more comfortable in my own body--I love that there's all different sizes and shapes on these blogs, create more choices in my closet by showing me ways to make new combinations, and to help me spend my limited clothing allowance on smarter purchases. At this rate, they may get me to try a thrift shop or two!

A Flying Ghost and a Cackling Witch

In case you were wondering which parent Asher took after,

it's apparently not me, but we both like to do scary things with our hands in Halloween pictures.

Cleaning up the Dining Room

Luke decided we had lived in our house too long with an unacceptable dining room. Previously, it has had flat, dirty white paint, mis-measured blinds, and lots of choo choo train tracks.

So, Luke added choo choo train tracks to the wall a while ago, which I was slightly annoyed about, but I'll admit that I was also glad to have an excuse to finally get that room into shape.

But, I wasn't going to paint another room with popcorn ceilings. It's too hard!

One day while the kids were at playgroup, I decided to start on the ceiling. I knew my time to work on this project would be precious, so I didn't cover anything (big mistake!). Instead, I just started scraping. After 3 days, countless fights (Nate and I think it's fun to fight during home improvement projects apparently because we will fight NON-STOP until the project is cleaned up.), and a fine layer of dust all over everything and everyone, we got the ceiling done. It took another 3 weeks (and more fighting plus outside mediation of family and friends) to pick a paint color and clean up that fine layer of dust.

I should mention, though, that throughout the project, Luke was unfailing helpful.

"Here, try this!" he'd say as he brought us a scraper, vacuum cleaner, rag, etc.

He could offer you no less than twenty different helpful implements in an hour's time.

Then, as we worked, he would encourage us for any little thing (like climbing a ladder) with, "You did it, Mommy! You did it!"

We're happy it's all done now. Nate thought I was being neurotic and that no one else notices popcorn ceilings in a house. But, now, he's converted and has great plans for taking down the popcorn ceilings in the bedrooms when the weather is warm enough. (These ceilings are tricky to plan because one needs to not use the HVAC system while scraping away for days on end.) I, on the other hand, am not sure that I'm ready to embark on this process just yet.

And, Nate is glad to have Luke on board. He says that Lukey will make a great Elders' Quorum president one day.

Halloween Recap

We took advantage of the cold spell two days before Halloween to put long-sleeve shirts and pants on the boys and light a fire in the fireplace. Glad we did because it was back up to 96 degree here yesterday. Sigh...

Asher and Luke had lots of fun earlier that day (hence A's white hair in the fireplace pic) at Asher's preschool Halloween parade.

The next night was the ward Chili Cook-off and Trunk or Treat. This is also the only night that Asher was up for his full costume--make-up, white hair, and costume. He picked out the costume on his own and loved being a "flying ghost."

When he first got on the whole costume, he said, "Mom, how am I going to fly?" Fortunately, jumping off a kid sized table did the trick.

Luke was about the cutest Woody ever (though a picture of him by my un-made bed eating cereal is the best pic we've got; I guess all my blog readers know that I don't get around to making my bed much.). He kept those boot covers on all night, and I actually took away the hat because I was worried he would loose it. In retrospect, I should have just let him keep it because he was pretty darn responsible about it (well, you know, for a two year old).

And, Luke had trick or treating down! He'd say "Trick or treat" and then, "Thank you" in his cute little Luke voice. Almost makes a mom forget that he did this a little over a month ago...

This is the back of our car for Trunk or Treating. Not a bad first attempt for someone who's working on being a bit more creative...(but, next year, we'll need some fog. Don't you think?)

Nate did all the pumpkin carving himself this year. The middle pumpkin teaches kids about the dangers of drinking because really, what is Halloween, but an opportunity to teach kids our teetoaling ways?

And, here's the neighborhood crew getting ready to trick or treat. At this point, Asher would only wear the costume, but Luke was still game for the entire Woody ensemble.

Hope you had a Happy Halloween!

Because America Runs on Apples

The little boys and I had a fun and exhausting weekend. We went up to Utah to say goodbye to my cousin, Daniel, who is leaving for his mission in a couple weeks. Daniel is one of the few people I know who can quote a Jedi master in his farewell talk and make it work, even add an additional dose of spirituality to the talk.

We got back late last night, and I decided in the morning after feeding Asher stale Dad pancakes and dropping him off at school that Luke and I would stop by Dunkin' Donuts for our breakfast (because we can't take Asher anywhere to get donuts--darn egg allergy).

So, I got us two chocolate cake donuts and ate (or inhaled) one, reminding me of morning sickness on the Boston subways and making me a little nostalgic.

But, Luke wouldn't eat his.

I begged. I tried to sneak a bit in his mouth (that's usually what I do when I'm trying to get him to try something new and sugary). What does it say about my priorities that I'll let him miss out on a bite of asparagus, but NOT a bite of donut?

He got mad. Then, he started to cry, "I want elbows."

"You want elbows?"

"No, I want elbows." (at least that's what it sounded like)

Then, I realized that Luke was turning down a Dunkin Donut chocolate cake donut for an...

apple.

I wish I wanted an apple over a donut, but I'm afraid I'll pick the donut every time.

Halloween Time

Halloween is my favorite holiday. Here's some decorating we've done (the pumpkins on the top of the bookcase are from our camping/pumpkin patch trip that Jessica is far more on top of documenting than I am). Imagine the Frankensteins with stapled mouths--as soon as I get to Home Depot to get our staple gun fixed. And, the random block of moss on our table will be covered with lollipop ghosts when I feel brave enough to tackle that arts and crafts project with the boys.

So long, Elecare...hello, butter!

When Asher was diagnosed with Eosinophilic Gastroenteritis, an allergy disorder, 3 1/2 years ago, this is what I longed to see. To have some sort of crystal ball so I'd know just what food allergies he would "outgrow."

Throughout Asher's decline, diagnosis and medical care, we've been tremendously lucky. We've been blessed with smart and caring doctors in Boston and Phoenix. He loved his vanilla Elecare, a formula made of amino acids, the building blocks of all food. While some kids have to get feeding tubes to tolerate the stuff because it doesn't taste that good, Asher would drink cups of it (which was good because he had to drink 6-7 cups a day to avoid getting a feeding tube).

But, his Elecare was expensive ($600 a month). I'll spare you the tirade of trying to hold insurance companies accountable when they broke an Arizona law that mandated that insurance companies pay 75% of the price of formula for kids with Asher's disorder (I'm looking squarely at you, Arizona Blue Cross/Blue Shield).

Last year, about this time, we did a soy trial, and Asher passed, which means he didn't throw up, get hives, have diarrhea or complain about an upset stomach. This meant that provided Asher kept up with his growth, we could drop the Elecare, which he has done (way to grow, Asher!).

But, Elecare has been my crutch. When Asher wasn't gaining weight and refused to eat what I gave him and had such a limited diet, I felt like a better mom when I gave Asher the caloric-dense beverage. We haven't used it for 9 months now, and I'm finding that I'm just now ready to give it away. (Anyone want free Elecare?)

For a couple months, I've been feeling like it was time to do the last food trial I'm comfortable not doing in a doctor's office--dairy. (For the record, Asher's reactions to peanuts and eggs are so volatile and his lab work predicts that he probably won't outgrow these allergies, so I'm very reluctant to try those at home or, er, ever.)

This past week, I made Kirstin's delicious sugar cookies, but I used real butter instead of our usual Smart Balance substitute (oh my goodness! I forgot how delicious butter-based cookies are!). Every day, Asher gets 2 sugar cookies to see if there's a threshold for the reaction.

And, so far, so good! He doesn't show any signs of gastrointestinal distress, which is always my primary concern and will stop a food trial. He does get a slight red rash around his mouth, but once I wash his face, it goes away. And, if that's all that happens, I'm comfortable with calling the trial a success in another week.

I like to think this disorder is behind us, but I've been on enough support group listserves to know that this may not be the case. Still, I remember as a member of those listserves and as a more participant of our local EOS support group, wishing that I heard more success stories.

I suspect that there are more like mine, but as our kids get better, we forget walking up and down store isles in tears, wondering what we could make for dinner, or missing trips because packing all that food was just too hard, or sitting at the computer, crying as we read other families sharing their stories.

We just get busy, and truthfully, I feel a little guilty when I think of the families who started this journey around the time we did. We met some wonderful, generous people (you can see them and Asher in the video below, which was done as a fundraiser for this great site). It's hard to think about how as they lost foods, we gained more. But, I've been thinking that as someone with a success story, I owe it to these people to share our story.

"Mom, I made a pretty picture,"

said Luke with a black Sharpie in hand and a poopy diaper around his ankles this morning.

Luke's Imagination

Luke is the best self-entertainer ever. (My mom says he gets that from me.) With Asher in school most of the day, Luke and I like to putter around the house. And, Luke prefers that I not be around while he putters.

Here are some play areas I found after putting him down for a nap:

Ok, this one makes me cringe a bit...these cars were first used in the planter and then, made their way into Aunt Gail's baby grand piano (that we are borrowing).

Seriously, the kid will play in a planter for 1 hour, talking to himself and the trucks he is playing with, or with animals, growling away among the houseplants.

Mom, I am a BUSY BOY!

Last year, Asher's academic team recommended that he do his PANDA program in the afternoon and a mainstream preschool in the morning to get him ready for kindergarden.

All summer long, I agonized about this. Asher going to school from 9 to 2 pm every day seemed like a lot for a little boy who still takes naps. But, as a side note, how lucky am I that THIS is what has been keeping me up at nights?

So far, Asher has been delighted. He loves the morning school, where he gets to see his best friend, Mary, and he gets to carpool with his friend, Zachary. Then, there's still those bus rides in the afternoon plus getting to eat lunch at his "old school." The first day of this full schedule, he got off the bus and came in the house with a big smile and said, "Mom, I am a BUSY BOY! I get to go to 2 SCHOOLS!"

And, then, yesterday, I picked him up from school #1 to go to school #2. I said, "It's time to go to your other school."

Asher's response: "Yeah, I go to 2 schools. Hmmm...maybe I could go to 3?"

You'd think that since he had two different first days of school that I would have got a picture of ONE of them, but I didn't. There wasn't a need for any back-to-school shopping, so both days kind of snuck up on his. So, here's his school picture from his "old school," which shows how really slow I am at blogging. I was hoping for a a picture of him home from school--dirty and sweaty as a 4 year old busy boy should be, but he's usually asleep when the bus driver drops him off.

Fashion advice from Grandpa

Asher and his Grandpa Starr are buddies. So, it's no wonder that Asher has been taking fashion cues from Starr ever since they had the same sandals a couple years ago. When Asher noticed that Grandpa often wore socks with his, Asher knew it was a trend to be followed because Grandpa is so cool.

A few weeks ago, Asher had been enjoying an old pair of my sunglasses, so I got him some sunglasses in his size. He has taken to wearing both pairs on his face because that's how Grandpa does it. (Starr wears glasses and often uses a pair of sunglasses that flip over regular glasses.)

Note: Starr looks much more dignified and stylish than Asher when he wears his two glasses.

Being Married to a Fraud Consultant Does Have Its Advantages: Debit Card Scan

Nate got a fraud alert this morning. Wal-mart apparently just busted a huge bunch of its employees who were scamming customers. This could happen at any retail outlet.

1. You checkout
2. You pay with a debit card
3. The cashier manually inputs $20-$60 cash back which only shows up on your receipt and not on the touchpad screen.
4. If the cashier is under constant surveillance (which they are at Wal-mart) the cashier give the next person in line, who is in on the scam, your cash advance.
5. If the cashier is not under surveillance then they simply keep track of the cash back and remove the money when their shift ends and they reconcile their register to the till.

Even if you catch them doing it, they will simply claim the machine has been messing up and automatically doing cash-backs. Just always check your receipt for cash-backs.

Why I Love Arizona (even when it's 110+ degrees)

This is the time of the year I hate...I've given up leaving the house much, my air conditioner chugs away to keep the house at 82 degrees, the kids are bored, and we've all watched more Jungle Book than I'd care to admit.


Crafty, cake decorating friends have been telling me about the ABC Baking Cake Decorating store for a while now. But, I'm not crafty or good at baking, so I figured it wasn't for me.


However, in a moment of desperation last week, I had a moment of inspiration--I could bribe Asher and Luke to be good with the treat of going to this store to pick out their very own sprinkles for decorating sugar cookies. I thought, "It'll probably be about $10, but I don't care. We'll slip this into the budget somehow."


The boys were good, and we went with my mom to pick out the sprinkles. They had car sprinkles, alphabet sprinkles, little Micky Mouse sprinkles. Our family's only complaint would be that they had no train sprinkles. Sigh...


But, each boy picked their sprinkles: Asher got some plain primary colored dots, and Luke is loving his butterfly sprinkles. Then, I got some cute muffin papers (you probably can't tell from the picture, but they're safari themed). And, our grand total? $4!


If I bought the same things at a grocery store (and mind you, they don't have butterfly sprinkles), I would have paid at least $10.


ABC Cake Decorating
2853 E Indian School Rd
Phoenix, AZ 85016-6857

Here you go, Cookie...

I'm not sure where Luke learned to call everyone, "Cookie," but we're fast approaching the year anniversary of when he adopted the term.

I suspect it came about when he was trying to repeat me saying, "Here you go, Lukey," and it always came out, "Here you go, Cookie."

Or, maybe Luke just thinks "Cookie" is a cute name to call people. He does have a fondness for Cookie Monster after all.

So, we call him and each other that now, and I've noticed a few looks from people--like they're thinking, "I wonder what other strange pet names those Curtises call each other..."

Baby Luke

We have this little boy named, Luke. Perhaps, you've met him. He's the one who is always telling his mom to "Go away," when he's in the midst of having dinosaurs stomp through the house plants or engineering a train over a particularly difficult set of track that his brother built.

But, then, we have this baby named Luke, who loves to be snuggled and still wants to be cradled and rocked to sleep in one of his parents' arms. I kept thinking it was amazing that a 6 month old, 1 year old, 18 month old, 2 year old! would want to be rocked to sleep. Now, he's almost 2 1/2, he's way too big to be rocked to sleep, but he still loves that cuddling as one of us awkwardly dangles his legs over our arms and tries to cradle this big boy.


I'm not sure what we'll do when he turns twelve and insists on this...

Yellowstone Trip

So, I'm catching up on blogging, and by the dates at the head of these posts, one can see that I had good intentions.




My grandparents are very generous and arrange these fun family reunion vacations every once in a while. This year, we went to the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone. To the left, you'll see our lovely family picture. Really, couldn't have asked for a better backdrop; it's just a bummer that 3 members of the family couldn't be in it (darn airlines, darn mission)!




Because of several family members' generosity, Nate and I got to take a rock climbing class with lots of family. It was SO fun.



Experiences like the rock climbing are why this was the first family vacation we have taken our children on that made us think, "Oh, this is why people do family vacations." In the past, we have been convinced that family vacations were a perverse form of torture (and if you took a 3 year old Asher and a 1 year old Luke, you'd know how we arrived at that conclusion).

Not to say this vacation didn't have a few bumps. Asher and I were rather sick on this trip (we came home and found out we had strep throat). We went through most of the trip in a haze of a fever. And, I was dumb and decided to try and teach two classes during our vacation. So, Nate and I put in some late nights grading.



Luke was awesome--sleeping in his own pack n' play most nights without a peep. We had some balcony concerns, but overall, with a nanny and a blanket, he was a peach.



Asher was a trooper considering how sick he was, but we had a few problems. Asher has learned that it's ok to pee outside, but you know, that etiquette about when it's ok to pee outside is difficult to figure out. So, that picturesque photo shoot above? Well, while some cousins were doing their pictures, Asher went over to the bushes at the Grand Teton Lodge (if you click on this link, squarely in the middle of the picture, you can see the very spot) pulled down his pants and put his back to the bushes and peed. It was mortifying while being rather hilarious at the same time. I don't think the tourists getting the lodge tour thought it was as funny as Nate and I did, though.

Thank you, Granda and Grandpa for a lovely vacation, and thank you to the K. Clydes for putting it all together!

And so the generational difference in music taste begins...

Emily: Asher, this was one of my favorite songs when I was your age.
Asher: Oh, Mom, I do not like this song AT ALL!

Caring, Sharing, Every Little Thing That We are Wearing

This is a belated birthday post for my sister, Rachel--that tall, skinny drink of water on the right.

A few weeks ago, I was offerred two classes to teach online. Teaching contracts haven't been coming in much lately, so I was suprised. And, I debated (was the money worth a stressed-out Emily for 5 weeks?), but I remembered that the last time I taught this particular class, I had 6 students.

So, I'd have, what?...12 students?
Instead, I have 34...

Who each turn in 3 papers a week (102 papers for me each week!). And, if you're on Facebook, perhaps you saw the countdown I did one week while I graded with a fever from strep throat--got a little punchy there.

Anyway, this class started the week before our big family reunion, which left me flitting from my classes to getting ready for the trip, not really getting anything done, and panicking about everything (I caught myself thinking, "Oh my gosh, Asher will be wearing 4 different navy shirts on this trip. What kind of mother will my family think I am?! "--really, I thought this and worried about it.).

That's when my sister, Rachel, called. "Bring the boys and you can grade here," which got me out of the house to one of my kids' favorite places (Aunt Rachel's is almost as good as the choo-choo train park).

And, I got a TON done.

She wasn't even phased when at 4 pm, I said, "Um, I have 14 more papers, and Nate is working late. Can we stay for dinner?" (Yeah, don't have me over as a house guest.)

She made us a lovely dinner and a special allergy-free one for Asher, too.

Then, I had to confess, "Um, the only dress that I'll be able to wear to the family picture (with the bloated upset vacation stomach I like to "pack" whenever I travel) is the dress I wore to the last Clyde family picture, three years ago."

Rachel says, "You can wear the dress I got for Cora's blessing, and I have these fierce shoes that look awesome with it!"

So, I went home that night about ready to cry with gratitude for a sister who watched my kids, fed us all dinner, and gave me a cute dress to wear in our family picture. And, this is just one day that serves as an example of how she helps me.

Thank you, Rachel, for being such a good sister to me. I love you and happy belated birthday!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYZbgG4D2oA

What not to say...

...when you want to take a nap.

I think my exact words were, "Go read some books, do a puzzle, play with play dough, I don't care what you do. I just need to rest for a little while."

Scenes from a Marriage: Lunch

Old Faithful, Yellowstone National Park, last month (thanks for a fun trip, Granda and Grandpa!)

Emily: Hey, Nate, have you seen my sandwich?

Nate: I threw it away.

Emily: Why did you throw it away? I got a doggie bag so I could save it for later!

Nate: Look, I asked you three times if I could throw it and you never answered.

Emily: But, I never heard you!

And, then, I tried hard not to cry, feeling a little hungry but mostly, emotional from the strept throat some of our party were afflicted with, as we continued on our 14 hour day in Yellowstone.

**excellent camera skills, Evan!