Yellowstone

Our vacation to Yellowstone was amazing and even though I have already e-mailed out my 500+ photos I felt this trip deserved a little narrative. We hiked a lot....I was shocked to learn that only 5% of the people who visit Yellowstone actually hike. I guess it's because there is so much to see on the ground level but I think the views from the mountain tops were the best.

Sepulcher Mountain
This is our first hike attempt. I call it an attempt because we weren't sure of the exact mileage starting out and before we reached the top we were already at 5 miles and we had to turn around and still go back 5 miles, so we didn't make it to the top of this one. (Day 1, we were just warming up)



This is a photo of the Grand Tetons which we were lucky enough to have time to drive down to these massive mountains. This park was just south of Yellowstone. We wished we would have allowed more time to hike the Tetons.

Bunsen Peak

This is the view from the top of Bunsen Peak. The elevation on this one was 8500ft. Can you see the itty bitty road with the parking lot.....that's where we started from.

Mt. Washburn

This hike is one of the most popular because it has an active fire tower at the top. It was 10, 200 ft.

Our tallest and most strenuous hike was Avalanche Peak which was 10,566 ft and straight up the mountain. It was very cloudy on that day and the pics weren't great enough to share but at least I can say we did it!

Yellowstone has it's own version of the Grand Canyon running through it with a huge waterfall. I could have stood here all day and watched it. This photo is used on many of the post cards for the park.

Also there are hot springs and geysers all over the place but here are just a few pics.

We saw an abundance of Bison and Elk. It was so nice to watch the animals in their natural habitat and not think of humans as their predators. I felt like we were just visiting in their world and as long as we kept our distance they didn't care. We also saw black bears, grizzlies, and a couple of wolves trying to attack the Bison.

We feel like we conquered Yellowstone and drove every square inch of it so we are glad to have this one down in our memories.

Built with Love

I came home from shopping and lunch with some girlfriends today and Matt said "I built you something". I now have a cute little flower box on our shed! It' s the little things in life that make me smile! Now I just need to think of some other things before the "handyman" wears off :)

Spring Project

Over the past two weekends we have been building a shed together. I'm sure our neighbors were thinking. "What the hell are those kids up to now?" One asked if we were building a boat house but I'm sure they were happy to see that we weren't "letting the neighborhood go". We've been wanting to do this for a while to clear some room in the garage. We had the perfect spot that we never utilized outside of our fence by the pond so it doesn't take away from our yard space. In 2 days we had the whole structure up and the 1st coat of paint on. I was a painting fool because we were racing against the rain. Now it is completely done and someone can't stop admiring his work. I am amazed at how fast we built this but it has been easier than our previous projects. It is an 8 x 12 and according to Matt we saved about $1500 by doing it ourselves so I'm satisfied.

The Man Cave

We are probably done with projects for this year because our summer trips are going to suck some money out of us. We leave for Yellowstone in 5 weeks and I can't wait to detach from society and explore a beautiful place with my favorite person!

Master Bath Remodel

So after 8 weeks we are done with our bathroom remodel. This has been our winter project and one heck of a learning experience. We gutted the whole bathroom, which only took 2 hours between the two of us. So now we have tile floors, a tile shower, new vanity and fixtures, double sinks and a glass shower door. I can take credit for the design and labor but Matt did all the great tile work and plumbing which was the tedious stuff. I'm so glad we can work well together in such a small space :)

Before

After Before After Before After Before

After
Before

After

Recently we needed a break from our construction zone so we went hiking to Whitewater State Park near Richmond, IN. Since Cody has been such a good sport with us taking over his "bedroom" during the remodel we wanted to spend some QT with him so he got to go hiking too.

Cody and Me after lunchtime.

My teddy bear being lazy while we slave away in the bathroom.

Road Trip!

So we road tripped it down to Florida recently when everyone thought we were flying. We have had that planned since August but just thought it would be fun to keep it a secret. We showed up at Kel's 3 hours before she thought she had to pick us up at the airport. I have to say that is the longest we have been stuck in a car with each other and we survived it. :)
The trip was nice with no major problems except for Georgia! Ugh! I would be happy to never drive through that state again. I've never been there and I think it's tainted for me now. There was so much holiday traffic and construction that it probably added 2 hours to our trip. We decided to stop for the night on the way down and back. I got awesome Hotel deals on Priceline by bidding my own price. It's a great idea if your not picky on your hotel by the way. They were both really nice hotels that I probably would have spent double on otherwise. We had such a great time having a low key week just hanging out and having Lucy entertain us! She has changed so much. I now say "oh my" all the time because she rubbed off on me. It was nice to have a week of no work, warmer weather, good food by Chef Mikolajczyk, cuddling with Bryan, playing with Lucy, and bonding with family.
On the way back we stopped in Chattanooga, TN and stayed in an older hotel in downtown. The hotel was really neat and the views around there were beautiful. We arrived very late that night because of the Georgia traffic that we didn't get to do anything in Chattanooga so we may have to make a trip back there one day.


Here Lucy is telling Uncle Matt "Oh my" because there are leaves on her slide. She tried cleaning them off herself.

Best Buddies!

2 Months.....No Post!!

Wow it's been a while since I've blogged so to bring you up to speed on us since October......November was full of deer hunting with the outcome of 1 Doe. In December we celebrated Cameron's 1st B-day and the birth of a new nephew. We are leaving for Florida in a few days to meet him and we are super excited. This month we also reserved everything for our trip to Yellowstone. We were planning on going this year but with the economy we thought it would be smart to wait. Now we feel comfortable enough with everything that we are going next July. We will both be so glad to finally go, I feel like we've been planning this for 2 years now. We will be hiking mountains every day so I think next month I should start doing that thing they call "incline training" so I don't get my butt kicked.
It usually takes me a while to get in the Christmas spirit but with all the snow we've had lately it's here and I'm excited to see my little nephew open gifts on X-mas morning. After today we have 12 days off from work and I need all of them. Matt must be excited too because he felt the need to shout "Honey we're on vacation" when I was still asleep this morning.

So what's in store for the Sondgeroths in 2010......
I love love love to travel but I think next year has a lot of traveling in store for me for work and I hope to take Matt with me. Since my promotion at work this year I have been learning a lot of computer/IT things which I love and they are sending me to Baltimore, St. Louis, and Arizona next year to learn more. I can't go to Arizona and not see the Grand Canyon.
Also my bestest friend is having a baby so Seattle is on the list and then quick trips to California and New Orleans may also be in the works! Whew!

Fall in Brown County

Last fall we went to Brown County, Indiana for the first time and we loved it so much we wanted to go back this year. This time we went to Yellowwood State Forest and hiked about 8 miles. It was perfect hiking weather yesterday. I liked this location so much more than Brown County State Park. It's not as populated with hikers and it seemed more like we were hiking in the woods than a man-made trail. This hiking spot probably ranks #2 for me.
Eventhough we were pretty beat after hiking we still managed to walk through little Nashville and have lunch. I love southern Indiana in the fall.