BERNIE, the turtle!

Well, this may be a sad entry for Josh, Wes, and Landon....  We almost had a pet turtle!  We were all out working in the garden sometime in May when one of our neighbors called the boys over to his yard to see something!  Sure enough, there was a TURTLE in his yard!  It had somehow made it through the fence and come from the golf course.  A turtle in UTAH!  We were all shocked!  

Well, our nice neighbor told the boys that they should really take him home and do a huge research project on turtles...(You can imagine my excitement...) 

Our neighbors even helped us come up with a name.  "Bernie" is our neighbor's nick-name and we all thought it quite fitting!

So, because I temporarily lost the "no" in my vocabulary, we took him home and began an enormous research project.  We learned a lot about turtles!  

Bernie spent one whole day at the Ostler house.  He looked sad though.  He only went swimming a few times and usually just hid inside of his shell.  

So, I called every pet shop in Layton and also Animal Control.  Everyone of them told me that turtles live very happily in Utah, year-round. (Imagine that!)  They hibernate all winter long and enjoy the rest of the year swimming in ponds and other wetlands.  So, where do you find the most ponds in Utah?  Of course the golf course!  The pet shops and Animal Control told us we should put him back in his pond on the golf course and that he would live very happily there.  

So, after a very sad farewell, we climbed the fence to the golf course and a very sweet golfing couple agreed to take Bernie to the happiest pond they could find.  

There you have it... Our brief, but happy, encounter with Bernie the turtle!  

What a fun MacKnight party!

Thanks to Jared and Janey, we got to have a great little getaway over Memorial Day Weekend!  We went to Janey's family's cabin in Island Park and we even got to go to YELLOWSTONE!  It was a bit of a drive for all SEVEN of us, but we had so much fun that we hope we will eventually forget about that drive...

Here are the boys and "Uncle Jungle-Gym":

And here is Jerd and Alli having some bonding time!

The bebes LOVED having some freedom to wander in the woods and get really dirty...I don't have a picture of it, but our boys absolutely love to be mountain men.  They explored and gathered materials to build their own miniature log cabin, they had exhilarating four-wheeler rides and every other sort of fun thing!  

Here is Jackson making the most of his time at Yellowstone Park...(You have to give the little guy some credit, He spends a great amount of time with his little bum glued to the stroller!).

Old Faithful was AWESOME!  And you can't believe what happened RIGHT next to us... This guy totally got down on one knee and proposed to his girl right when Old Faithful went off!  We were all congratulating him when she said yes!  

The scenery in Yellowstone is breathtaking!  I don't think anyone would mind too much if I just move in to the park.  We could have spent a full week exploring and never be ready to leave.

Anyways, we had a wonderful time and set a new record.  This was the most MacKnight siblings we have ever gotten together on one trip!  It is so much fun to love your brothers and sisters as much as we do.  If I had to hand pick my brothers and sisters, I would totally pick each one of them.  They are incredible AND incredibly funny!  Thanks for all the fun you adorable thginkcam's!