Carlsen Family Reunion in Yellowstone!

At the beginning of August we headed to Yellowstone for the Bi-Annual Carlsen Family Reunion.  I had never been to Yellowstone so I was really excited about it. 

On the way up we stopped in Idaho Falls to see my friend Mindy.  It had been about a year and half since I’d seen her last.  We met at a local McDonalds and let the kids play and run around.  It was so great to catch up.  She was really great to meet us because she was actually packing to move the next day!  What a sweet heart and I am so glad she is my friend. We clicked instantly in the summer of 2009 while we were in Indiana because our husbands worked doing security systems.  I love this girl!

Such a funny hectic picture!

 

Addy and Tyson.  I’d love it if these 2 got married someday.  :)

So we got to Yellowstone on Friday around noon and we headed to the Mountain Man Rendezvous and walked around to see what everyone had.  We got Tyson a rubber band gun and he loves it.  While there a hail storm came in all of the sudden.  It hailed for about 8-10 minutes hard and then stopped.  It was totally random.

That night we all ate dinner together and then headed to the pool. I was really excited about it because it had a water slide.  It really was so fun.  Almost everyone went down the slide, even Brian’s mom!  I think I went down the slide one too many times because I ended up feeling kind of dizzy after awhile. Here are some pictures!

This is Andrew’s first time “swimming”.  This is the best picture I got and it has part of Tyson in it :)  I still love it.  It has my 3 favorite boys in it!

Brian’s mom!

The next day we spent the entire day in Yellowstone.   We did most of the touring stuff with Brian’s parents and his brother Terry and his family!  Tyson insisted on wearing this long sleeve shirt.  We couldn’t really fight him so I brought a short sleeve shirt for him to change in to but he never wanted to.  It was pretty hot at times.  He is so silly.  While at the first stop someone let him look through binoculars and he was hooked.  He looked through them every second he could.  You’ll see.  Almost every picture he is in he is looking through the binoculars.  It was pretty cute!

 

Tyson with his cousins Riley and Abbie :)

The next few pictures are at Norris Geyser basin.

Me and Andrew with the Steamboat Geyser.

 

 

Brian being silly at the Lower Falls.

Grandpa and Ty waiting for Old Faithful to erupt!

On the last day we had a small get together to take some pictures and say our goodbyes.

The Grandsons!

The Grandkids!

Bri’s immediate family!  Aaron, Jenny, John, Wilma, Ray, Brian, Wendy and Terry.  Missing Dave and Rob and their entire families.  They were definitely missed!

 

On the drive home…

We took the long way home to see The Grand Tetons.  At the time I wasn’t very happy because it added on about 4 hours to the trip.  I ended up being happy with it once I saw them.  They sure are beautiful.

 

Not that I really would like to remember this part but we were just about to Park City and I looked back at Tyson.  I could tell something was wrong and then 3 seconds later he started throwing up.  It was way nasty.  The carseat and him were covered.  We had to pull off an exit and try to get everything cleaned up the best we could.  We had to drive the rest of the way home with the windows down.  He had been playing with his toys looking in his lap for over an hour.  He told me his tummy hurt and I figured that was because he was hungry so I handed him an apple.  No, I guess he wasn’t hungry but car sick instead. 

I already can’t wait for the next family reunion.  I love these reunions :)

Sick, sick baby!

While in Las Vegas Andrew started throwing up after every feeding.  I thought maybe I was feeding him too much that I’d had too much caffeinated soda.   But when we drove home it was still going on 3 days later.  While at Seven Peaks with the family I started to wonder if it was acid reflux.  I called the nurse and she recommended taking Andrew in.  So on Saturday we left Seven Peaks water park after only being there 2 hours and took Andrew in.  I was told it was a virus and that he should be getting better by day 5.  So I just kept trying to feed in small amounts every hour or so.  Well on Monday evening  Andrew started throwing up (this is gross, sorry) green stuff.  So I called the Dr. on call and he said to take him to the Emergency room.  An added problem was that Brian was stuck in Salt Lake and the buses weren’t running because Sunday was a Utah Holiday (Pionner day).  So my awesome brother went and picked him up at his work and then drove him all the way down to the Utah Valley Hospital.  Andrew was admitted in.  Blood work was done and he was given an IV for fluids.  It was a bit of a scare but they said he was doing well keeping hydrated.  I guess when they start throwing up green stuff it can get serious at his young age and that’s why the Dr told me to take him to the ER. 

Here he is sleeping.  He slept a lot and would just want to be held.

Here he is in the ER.  He was such a good boy!

So I had to follow up with the Dr. on that coming Thursday and he was for sure on the up swing but still not 100% better.  He just had the nastiest virus ever!  I am so grateful that no one else in the family got it.  I’m not sure how I would have handled it if anyone else got it.  I am so grateful my mother was here to help calm me down and to keep an eye on Tyson' while I was so involved with Andrew.  Thanks to the friends and family that offered prayers in his behave and to those that watched Tyson for me.   

And here is cute picture of Ty, Max and Madi at Seven Peaks!  Just to end on a some what happy note!

Las Vegas

Last Part of our family vacation!

We left San Diego and headed to Las Vegas.  I was really excited.  It had been at least 4 years since the last time I had been.  It was hot, really hot but a lot of fun.  We did all of the following in a day and a half!!

Rode a tram.  Tyson said it was really cool!

We saw the big fish tank at Mandalay Bay.

   

We stayed in the Excalibur hotel.  Tyson thought it was really neat that we were staying in a castle.  Brian and Tyson went down to the arcade dudgeon and Brian won Tyson some toys.

We walked the ‘strip’ and meet an M&M candy.

We bought some ridiculously overpriced M&M’s at M&M world!

We went to see the Bellagio fountains but they were closed for maintenance. 

We watched Tyson do this for hours in the hotel room!

We visited the Hoover Dam.  It was incredibly hot.

We watched Andrew start to feel sick.  This is day 1 of his 10 day virus where it made him threw up after every feeding.  Poor baby, not feeling good :(

We saw the angels at the Hoover Dam and rubbed their feet!

We had to wake up Tyson because he was talking a nap while at the dam.  We stayed about 25 minutes and that was the max that anyone should stay.  It was way too hot as you can tell by our red faces. :)

We had a wonderful first family vacation!  It was good to be home though after 10 days.  I told Brian that we shouldn’t go on another family vacation for awhile.  It was pretty exhausting.