Can She Really Do That?

OK. I'm not sure if I am freaked out by this or amazed. In any event, this is another Kim Kamando Video of the Day. It was on her website on June 28th. The lady in this video is known as Snake Girl and she has been doing this contortionism since a young child.

True Friendship

I get most of my videos from Kim Kamando. She has a Video of the Day. Here is what she says about this video:

I’ll bet you’ve never seen a pet like the one in this Video of the Day. In 1969, two friends, John Rendall and Ace Berg, purchased a lion. At the time, Christian the lion was a 35-pound cub. He had been born in a zoo. The friends raised Christian in their London home. All three hung out in a friend’s furniture shop on the weekends.

Within a year, Christian had grown to 185 lbs. Rendall and Berg realized they couldn’t keep him much longer. But they didn’t know what to do with him. A chance encounter changed that. Two actors from the film Born Free walked into the furniture store.

The actors recommended a conservationist, George Adamson, living in Kenya. Christian was soon in Africa. There he was rehabilitated and released into the wild.
In 1974, Rendall and Berg decided to visit Christian one last time. He was now a wild animal. Adamson told them it was doubtful that Christian could be found. No one had seen him in nine months.

The two flew to Kenya, anyway. On the day they landed, Christian appeared outside Adamson’s camp. Somehow, he knew. He waited outside the camp until Rendall and Berg arrived.

This video was taken during their reunion with Christian. What a story! What a video!

Here is the video:

Bearfoots, Buffalo, and Macaroni

We have returned from our family trip to Island Park/Yellowstone Park. It was very fun! We spent a lot of family time together while we camped and enjoyed Heavenly Father's wonderful creation.


We departed from Downey on Tuesday, June 17. We arrived in Island Park at Mack's Inn and set up our tent in the Mack's Inn camping area. The illustruous leader of the family had forgotten not only wood but matches. We had planned on cooking hot dogs over the fire. We had to beg a neighbor camper for some wood, but since it was large pieces, and we had no real good kindling, the fire did not go as planned. Therefore, we ate cold hot dogs and the smores were just the marshmallows! A wonderful start to our family trip!


Angie, on the other hand, was very excited about camping. She was constantly remarking how happy she was that we were camping. Cold hot dogs was worth that!


On Wednesday, we motored into Yellowstone National Park. Our first stop was in West Yellowstone. Two years ago during the Brower Family Reunion at Island Park, Deb purchased three Bearfoot bears--each one holding a different letter, T, D, and A. Deb ran into the store where she bought them to look for an L bear. She was able to purchase it. She said that her bear family was now complete!

After after entering the park, we stopped to look at the buffalo along the Madison River:

While watching the Buffalo eat, Angie asked what they were eating. I answered that they were eating grass. While contemplating the answer, Angie then matter-of-factly said, "They don't eat macaroni." Oh, the wisdom of a three-year old, macaroni-loving girl!

We stopped at Old Faithful and watched the eruption. It was one of the better eruptions that I have seen at Old Faithful. However, Lilli was more interested in the basset hound next to us. She almost mauled the dog!

On the route around the lower loop in the Hebden Valley, we noticed a park ranger had set up a telescope so we stopped to see what she was looking at. Come to find out, a grizzly bear was laying on some snow about 2 miles away. With the naked eye, the bear just looked like a brown spot on the snow. The telescope view was just a little better--but at least we got to see a bear on our visit!

Our next stop was at the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. As usual, it was a spectacular scene. The wind, though, was blowing and Angie and Lilli did not enjoy it too much since the wind made it chilly. It took all we had to get this picture taken:

On our trip through the park, we saw hundreds of buffalo. However, we saw only three elk during our entire trip through the park on the lower loop. That was a little disappointing.

On our way back to our campsite, we stopped at the Outpost Restaurant in West Yellowstone to eat. The food was OK, not the greatest, and definitely overpriced. But in West Yellowstone, it was priced about average.

On Thursday, we just chilled at the campsite. We did visit Big Springs to get carried away by the mosquitos! Our visit to Big Springs was cut short when I noticed that a seagull had pooped on Deb's butt! She didn't even know that she had been pooped on!

That evening, I was able to get a good, hot fire going. We had prepared some tin foil dinners to cook that night. I should have noticed that things were getting too cooked by the smoke coming from one of the dinners! So, we went from raw the first night to burnt the last night!

On the way home, we took the Mesa Falls Scenic Byway and stopped at the Mesa Falls. The falls were beautiful and Angie and Lilli loved going into the lodge and looking at the stuffed animals and skins.

We stopped at Idaho Falls and went to the Tautphaus Park Zoo. The camera batteries died after this picture, or I would have had a picture of Lilli in with the goats. Both girls loved the animals, and I was impressed at what the zoo offered--much more than I expected.

We had a wonderful time on our trip. The girls loved it, but it sure was good to get back into our own bed!

A Couple of Videos

Here are a couple of videos I came across recently. The first is from America's Got Talent and you may have seen it already. It is quite the magic trick.



The second is for today--Flag Day. It is a skydiver unfurling a huge flag.

"Don't Get Mad"

Angie was in Nursery at church last Sunday. Sister Donna Richardson was substituting for the week. While in Nursery, one of the other kids spilled a bunch of Crayons on the floor. When Angie saw it, she told Sis. Richardson: "Don't get mad. Don't say crap, and just pick them up." She then helped Sis. Richardson pick up the crayons.

"Look at the Whole Wide World!"

Our family spent the first few days of June on a great vacation! On Monday, June 2, we drove to Heber City to take advantage of a free stay at the Rodeway Inn Bear Mountain Lodge on Main Street. The hotel website talked about the great rooms and the outdoor heated swimming pool. Well, the rooms were well-used (with a hint of smoking smell) and the pool was empty. It was a big disappointment for Deb and Angie when they saw the pool.

To make things better, we went to a park up the street to play on the swings and slides. Some pictures of Deb and the kids at the park:

Lilli and Deb on the slide.

Angie deciding what to do next.

Lilli with Bear!

Lilli swinging with Bear.

Lilli with Bear.

Deb helping Angie on the Monkey Bars.

Angie getting ride to slide.

Angie at the end of her slide.

After playing in the park, we went to Home of the Train Dairy Keen. It is a fun place to eat--though we just had a slush to cool us down. While there, the kids rode a train and sat in a train with tables for dining. Inside the restaurant, there was a table of wooden toy trains, a Lego table, and overhead a model train circled the dining area. Some pics:

Angie and Lilli on the train ride at the Dairy Keen

Lilli and Angie on the train of tables

Lilli, Angie, and Deb on the table train

We then went on ride to the top of Memorial Hill in Midway. Deb got out of the car with Angie and Deb started to show her the Heber Valley. Angie then said, "Look at the whole wide world, Mom!"

We then drove to Pizza Hut for supper then back to the hotel to bed.

The next morning we drove to Salt Lake City via Park City. While in Park City, we saw this bear and had our picture taken next to it:


We then went to Salt Lake and the Tracy Aviary. We got to see many different birds and even a couple of male peacocks strutting their stuff for a female peacock. After visiting the aviary, we went to the slide and swing area of Liberty Park. Again, Angie and Lilli had a blast swinging and sliding!

Angie finishing a slide

Angie at the park

Angie on the swing

Angie in the swing

Angie getting ready to swing

Deb helping Angie swing

Deb helping Lilli and Angie swing

Lilli and Angie swinging with the help of Deb

After our visit to Liberty Park, we went to downtown Salt Lake and rode the Trax. Then we motored over to Shauna and Scott's. Shauna doesn't love us so she made other plans to avoid being with us! Scott was a gracious host taking us to Chili's with Chris and Jessie.

When we got up on Wednesday morning, it was pouring. We had planned to go to Hogle Zoo. We waited around for a while hoping the rain would quit, but it didn't. By late afternoon, it had slowed to a drizzle so we tried going. Even though it was a drizzle, we still got wet but we had the zoo practically all to ourselves. We even crashed a private party for zoo donors (minimum donation to go to the party was $5,000!). We then came home--exhausted, wet, but happy.