Christmas in Utah (and ID, MT, & WY)

We were blessed to be able to go to Melis's folk's place for Christmas this year.

We couldn't resist dressing Abigail up in her Santa Baby outfit again, to the delight of Grandpa & Grandma.Our Christmas present from them was a trip to Yellowstone - in the thick of winter! What a thrill (& chill!) it was to see the area covered in snow.
We took a snow coach in (pictured a few pics below), and learned a lot from our tour guide, who doubles as a park ranger during the summer. Of the many interesting things we saw was the Madison River (any guesses who it was named by?), merely inches deep, doesn't freeze all winter!!! It was 5 degrees when we were there, and it gets a lot colder than that. Any other river would freeze - but this was is heated by crazy hot water flowing steadily into it by the geysers & other geothermal features that help make this place famous. This makes it a haven of life for creatures big & small, like these Trumpeter Swans.
Firehole Falls.

On the loop near Old Faithful.
The obligatory shot of Old Faithful herself going off.

The Lion Group, which I thought was more impressive than OF.

We found out that you can tell the temperature of the water by the color of the algae. If I'm not mistaken, this orange/brown color was roughly 150. It's amazing how a frozen tuft of grass can live there, too. I love God's creation!

After walking around the Old Faithful area for an hour & a half, we jumped back on the snow coach and rolled down the road to our next stop.

Beautiful wife & daughter. Abigail handled the trip quite well. I don't know that she'd readily sign up to do it again tomorrow, but the dozen or so layers of clothes kept her quite warm. She even fell asleep toward the end of the OF area. As I took her into a warm yurt they had set up, I was met with the stares of about 15 senior citizens - one of which even grabber her camera. I nervously unbundled my wide-eyed daughter, and was relieved to find her warm from head to toe. Here's a fun fact for you: When it gets cold outside, Elk need to start burning body fat at zero degrees to keep warm. Bison can stay cozy until 20 below, but moose (yup, our favorite animal!) stay plenty comfy (e.i., don't start burning their fat reserves) until the mercury dips below -50 degrees! In fact, they stay so warm that they're one of the few animals that actually goes up in elevation for the winter! Gotta love those moose.

On our way back we saw plenty of wildlife, like this coyote.

And this cow elk, gleaning a few remaining nibbles before a long winter.

And another coyote, who was enjoying what looked like some unfortunate frozen animal. Speaking of coyote, Abee is learning qutie a few animal sounds (not too many words in english yet - we're still at the animal sound level ;-). One of her favorites is the high pitched 'Ooouuuuwwwwww. . .' howl of the aforementioned canine.

Sun Dog (on the right) above the Madison.

Just had to add this pic of my hot wife & sweet kiddo on the snow coach with the sun going down.

At the entrance to Ellowstone NP.

Coming back into West Yellowstone, where we spent two nights.

Yup, I'd say Abee enjoyed herself.

And because we're just a little crazy, we thought we'd go snowshoeing with our old Salt Lake church's Youth Group in Big Cottonwood Canyon, just above SLC. We went to one of Melis & my favorite places where we often went when we lived there, Willow Lake.

One of the things we miss is the aspen trees, which aren't to be found on the west side of the Cascades (at least not that we've found).

I think this might be my favorite pic of this post.

Finally a little blue sky! But it didn't last for long.

Group shot, with Solitude Ski Resort in the background.

It didn't show up quite as clear as we wanted, but can you see the name of the HS YG? Impact.

Melis gets credit for pointing out this rather funky lookin' tree as we made our descent.

Hope your Christmas adventures were enjoyable and safe (but not too safe ;-). And mostly I hope that you were struck with an increased appreciation for the power of God and His overwhelming grace for us.

December in Oly

Just a few pics from the past couple of days. . .

'Awww, come on, mom & dad. Don't squish my face!'
Our Tuesday Night Bible Study showing our true colors. Earlier we went to a nursing home to sing Christmas carols to the residents. Our Santa Baby warmed the hearts of all who were there. We were so proud of her as she waved to the elderly people living there, even going up to a few and touching their hands. Abigail also enjoyed singing songs with us, especially when it came to 'fa la la la la, la la la la.' Then we came home to make english muffin pizza. Tasty.

'Uh. . .guys. . .what's up with all that white stuff out there?'

Yeah for snow!!!

Abigail tolerated her time spent outside, but Matanuska (aptly named after this glacier) would have loved to have spent all day playing with us in it.

My two snow angels.

In other news, it appears we have coons under our deck. Any coon huntin' ideas other than a late night stakeout?

Thanksgiving & Providence

We had the pleasure of getting the whole Koning clan together for Thanksgiving. We took advantage of the nice weather to head down into the Snake River Canyon, as we often do.

I think we'd all agree that the best part of the trip was getting the two Smackeroo's together - Dillon & Abee, especially with their Grandpa & Grandma K.

This pic might not show it too well, but they actually played very well together. We sure enjoyed seeing them interact.
Abigail was pretty impressed with something here. . .

Dillon is one strong galute. Abee enjoyed having him pull her around on this horse. Unfortunately for Dillon, she wasn't able to return the favor very well.

We also went out to Dierke's Lake and some of the Hidden Lakes around there. It's just a mile or two from where this famous event happened.

Don't be fooled - they aren't displaying their scholarly abilities with this thick book in hand - it's actually the Cars dvd case. They did get quite the kick out of that movie (as did Kristin & Serena, judging from the background).

On a different note, I've been actively seeking more donations lately for various items for the free Community Vision Clinic at the Gospel Mission. One of those items was a bunch of reading glasses. I sent out a handful of letters to online vendors, hoping to get donations from one or two of them (it is the end of the year after all, and I was hoping to get a couple of businesses who are in need of more tax deductions!). A package of 55 reading glasses & sunglasses arrived at my office today from a company in Colorado. The owner had included a note saying that her brother had lived for quite some time as a homeless man right here in Olympia! Somehow, she said, he had obtained glasses, and she was glad to be able to give to a cause that is taking care of people like her brother. Who knows. . .maybe it was even this clinic who had helped him see. It's interesting how God works.

Koning's Go Wild

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Abee Go Boom

So far in life, Abigail hasn't experienced too many big bumps or bruises. She's had her share, but not quite like these. In fact, two nights ago she fell out of her 'race car' (a big diaper box) & hit our coffee table, causing the smaller area of eccymosys near her lateral canthus on the temporal aspect of her oculus dexter (Melissa just called me a nerd ;-). Last night she simply crashed into our glider chair, thus creating the dinosaur egg above that same eye.

Thankfully, after getting loves from Mom for a few minutes, she almost looked proud of her battle scars ;-)

Sat @ NW Trek

Melis has had a 'girls day out' pencilled in on the calendar for over a month now. They went up to Trader Joe's in Tacoma, shopped for a while, and had a nice lunch. But it was a nice day, and not wanting it to go to waste, I packed up Abee & our stuff and set out for NW Trek.

The first thing we had to do, of course, was eat a juicy burger. Greasy might be a better word. Nothing short of dripping with lard. Poor Abigail is getting clogged arteries already at 1 year old. But she loved it! And the fries too ;-)

We took the stroller, but she wanted nothing to do with it. She was there to walk. And walk she did. She would hold my hand sometimes, but often shook her head 'NO' when I offered a finger. I suppose you have to work those calories off somehow.
Baldy.
Grandma Koning's favorite animal ;-). I don't think she'd mind me saying she was pretty bummed when they decided not to allow the hunt in Idaho this year for them.
Practicing what they learned in french class.
Shroom & fall colors.
Abee spent a good 5 minutes playing with this piece of moss and a few others near it.

This is as photogenic as the grizz wanted to be today. I never did see his head.

'Daddy, I'm a big girl now - watch me push the stroller. . .if I could just reach it.'
After an hour and a half walking around, making animal sounds, and climbing on benches, she started to get pretty tired. And tired girls don't follow directions very well. She didn't want to be held. She didn't want to ride in the stroller. She wanted to walk down the areas where small children aren't supposed to walk (must take after Mom that way, right?). I couldn't help but crack up when she kept pointing near the 'no' in this sign as I tried to coax her back to the main path. I think she understands that word far better than any 14 month old girl should.
We caught the Golden Eagle on our way out.

And finally. . .she gave in and rode. And slept most of the way home.

In other news, we were quite proud of Abee last night, as we visited Camp Quixote, a homeless camp that is fairly well organized, with a pretty interesting mission. It's not a destination for homeless people to stay at indefinitely, but something to help them for a short time as needed. Regardless of how one feels about homelessness, it's a reality, and we were there to make sure the residents got a warm meal and few extra smiles that night. Even though it was a bit dark, with some interesting faces around, Abee warmed up to the experience after a while. We pray God used her, even at this young age, to bring joy to the hearts of His children.

Speaking of bringing joy, that little girl has taught me a thing or two about my relationship with God. One of those little lessons is about our duty - our opportunity - to bring Joy to God. He doesn't need us. He doesn't need our obedience. He doesn't need us to be thrilled & enthralled with Him. But He wants us to. In the same way that kids bring joy to their parents, we have a great opportunity to bring Joy to our Creator who loves the dickens out of us not because of what we do. He loves us just because we're His kids. And that's all that matters.