Yellowstone Day 1

The King family gathered in Yellowstone on April 15th.  My sister Missi got our family 2, 3 bedroom condos with their time-share points thing.  This place was massive.  So, imagine your Mariot hotel with rooms that are 2100 square feet!  These rooms were larger than any apartment that Jentri and I have ever rented making the entire complex HUGE!  The two rooms, to our amazement, were on opposite ends of the complex.

The hallway separating the two rooms.

On the 17th started National Parks Week.  During this particular week admission to all National parks were FREE, that is a good word.  On Friday the 16th before the park became FREE we decided to run around the great metropolis of West Yellowstone.  The majority of the shops were still closed due to the fact that we were ahead of the summer rush.  So, we being Kings took advantage of what was available.

Us kids playing in the park

Playing in the snow was a lot of fun and the weather was awesome!  We continued to roam around the town and headed back to the "hotel" for lunch.  After lunch we took advantage of being, practically, the only ones there and occupied the indoor pool and hot tub.  This was the first real big outing we took Kylan on, and it turned out great in my opinion.  In total we had 14 of my family members there all partying it up.

Grandpa King watching the kids play

This trip was a great introduction to having our little one on outdoor expeditions.  Along with all of the family stuff I was able to hone in on some of my photography skills and exercise the things I have learned in class.  My good friend Ken Ockler loaned me ALL, yes all, of his photography equipment! (minus his 10D MarkII body)  I had 3 lenses, a tripod, and a really spiffy device called an Expo Disc to play with.  The Expo Disk gives you PERFECT white balance easily, for those of you who know what I am talking about.  For those of you who dont know, it allows the camera to capture the colors as brilliant as you visually see them.  Anyway, I could go on forever about photography just like climbing.  We ended the night with games, laughter, and of course food.  Keep watching our blog as we will be posting on each of our 4 days in Yellowstone along with awesome photos.

Running

I have decided that I could afford to lose a few pounds or more importantly a few inches.  So, with the advice of many others I have decided to take up the hobby of running.  Yeah, all 220 lbs of me is running for the fun of it!  Through my work I was able to purchase a good pair of running shoes at minimal cost.  I have now been running for 2 weeks and have found a small joy in doing so.  Though the inches haven't been going away like I had hopped!  I have been training in the bouldering gym with Dean and Heather Lords around twice a week.  I feel this road to being in shape is going to be a long brutal one.  These are the shoes I got and I love them!

Question: Breadfeeding Etiquette

This is probably completely taboo that I'm even proposing this question but I don't care, nobody ever comments on my posts (besides Laura, I love you for that). What, pray tell, is the proper etiquette for nursing a child? (I use the word nursing because even I don't like the word breastfeeding)

I was thinking about it today as I was getting ready to head to Yellowstone for the weekend with my in-laws (who I love). What are you supposed to do when you're out in public? I was worrying about being out in the park having a good time and dreading the moment when my sweet baby was going to be hungry and I was going to need to camp out somewhere to feed him for a half hour to an hour. I've been shopping with my mother and my sister at Khol's and missed everything because I had to hide out in the dressing room while I fed Kylan. It's awful to have to miss every thing because your baby needs to eat. Don't get me wrong I LOVE my baby but sometimes this breastfeeding thing is hard! It's almost embarrassing to have to nurse him when I'm somewhere, I'd really almost rather go home most of the time. I don't want to offend anyone but I don't want to be a hermit. I almost missed the food at the luncheon after his baby blessing because I was in the back bedroom feeding him because I didn't think I could be out there with all of those other people.

I'm not complaining, really I'm not. I'm just hoping for some answers, suggestions, help, encouragement in some form or another because sometimes I think it would be easier if I just pumped and fed him a bottle instead.  I wish I were one of those people who could just tell you tough, that's the way it is, I'm feeding him and if you don't like it cover your head, but I'm not. I'm me. Shy, reserved and afraid to offend. I wish I knew what to do but I don't, so I'll just keep plugging along hoping to figure it out. If this offends you, let me know, I won't feed my baby in front of you; if it doesn't, let me know and we can be really good friends because I won't be hiding from you.

Kylan Baby Announcements

Here are the baby announcements Jentri designed.  Which one is your favorite?

Perfect Day

Today was a rainy day filled with sleeping boys & baking cookies. Corey came home from class and helped me FINALLY get laundry folded while Kylan was sleeping on the floor. Ky woke up, had a snack, and fell back asleep with Daddy.

While they were sleeping I ran off to the kitchen to bake cookies for my Visiting Teaching ladies (I'm coming I promise! I had a baby and my companion moved so cookies might have to be it this month. Sorry) 

 All the while rain was pattering against the windows and I was listening to Regina Spector's "The Call" and anything else iTunes Genius picked up like Sara Bareilles "Gravity".

All in all a pretty perfect day in my opinion. I couldn't have asked for a better one. It's nice to finally just enjoy life and be in the moment rather than worrying about the next. These moments don't come everyday but I sure do enjoy them when they do.