YELLOWSTONE!! :)

Ahhh!! sooo many pictures from this place, and i am going to try to make this a short blog post, like i always say...so, we'll see how that works. Wow, i am trying to copy some pictures on here now and i am realizing that they are just endless. I mean, there are too many pictures i'm not even sure if this post will be organized and formatted; yea, it's that bad!! :0 (but then again, when are my any of my posts ever organized and formatted!?)lol

Ok, enough stalling, let's begin, shall we?


Yellowstone was beautiful. If you are looking for a nice vacation spot, away from the beach, and palm trees, (like away from Florida for example) i highly suggest going to Yellowstone National Park. (haha-how do you like that, i was staying away from "Florida" this summer before i even knew the whole of it!!)lol If you're catching my drift (Inna&Kelsey!)... :0 haha. But anyways, Yellowstone was just an amazing place to see God's wonderful creation and His variety of taste in nature i guess you could say. Seriously, not a day passed by that i was not in awe of my Heavenly Father. :) He is amazing, and seeing His creation brings a little more perspective of what heaven might look like! (emphasis on the little!)

Here we are, the very first day driving through and we just had to stop by the gorgeous Yellowstone Lake to take pictures!! :) Lovely, lovely, lovely!

The water was freezing though! :0

FEET!! Hey, actually, i think i might make a whole blog post on feet/shoes!! I think i did that on my old blog, but obviously we can't see that anymore...but we can replace the old w/ new, right?! ;)

And here, Kelsey decided to take a surprise picture for me...not realizing that the camera was upside down!!haha! That is just like our Kelsey!! :)

Pretty view driving by

Even manged to get a picture of my parents...awww!! How sweet!! :)

Yes, there was much wildlife!! It was really neat to see, as long as it wasn't blocking the road! :)

But Yellowstone had one major downer, it smelled horrible!! Now, only certain parts of it did...like the parts where the volcano was at it's strongest and where it would be most likely to explode i'm guessing!!lol Actually, i'm not totally sure what made it smell sooo bad,(smthing to do w/ the steam!) but there is a chemical explanation to this, so rest assured! But, remember how much i payed attention in my chemistry class!? Yea, me neither!!lol ;) To tell you the truth, if you don't know much about Yellowstone i suggest googling it up or smthing, (i think i have said that before) it is quite fascinating and extraordinary to learn all the details about the park. But if you are the Tiraks, don't even bother googling it b/c you guys are the ones who informed us of some important, life changing information before our trip! :) (ex: like how the whole park lays on a massive volcano, the largest in the WORLD!!)ahhh!!

Although it smelled we are a tough bunch of Conrads. We endured it, no matter how much our noses were burning!

It was also pretty cold at times b/c of the altitude, but all the views were worth it, are they not?!

















Check out some of this color!! Sooo pretty, and breath taking! :) Who would have ever thought that God can make a massive volcano look this good!?huh!?





And check this out!! This was what they call a saphire pool i believe. It was totally amazing b/c it was flat, grey ground, then all of a sudden it dropped off into this cray hole in the the earth, filled w/ water in the most beautiful blue color i have ever seen!

It was a windy day, and hair was not cooperation w/ us! :(

It was really neat going to see Old Fatithful, although, some ppl in the crowd thought it was being UNfaithful b/c it took awhile for it to start spouting water high. In all the days spent in Yellowstone, we were at Old Faithful 3 times when it erupted but saw it go off only twice.

Loving this cute pose w/ the dog!And this, a "candid shot" haha-not too candid actually, i posed us! :) But aren't i good, it looks candid doesn't it!?lol Ok, now these pictures were from our last day at Yellowstone. And it may have been the loudest day due to what is behind us in the picture below. I have sooo many movies of Yellowstone and the loud mud puddles but i won't post them on this post...i'll make a whole other blog post....so be waiting! :)

"For the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God." ~James 1:20

♫♪You're the Devil in Disguise♪♫

Another Elvis song. And i'm pretty sure he dedicated it the the Devil's Tower National Park big rock thing in Wyoming.....on the contary, i'm actually pretty sure he didn't. But it doesn't hurt to pretend, right?

It was beautiful here though. And i was really excited to see it too b/c i had heard how neat it was from my friend Justin who took an out west trip just like us a couple summers ago. But i'm telling you....he is my man!! Well, not like that, but if i ever have any questions about things such as out west to survival tips in the bare wilderness (thankyou government class!) he would be the one i'd trust the most and ask!! :) Ha-really,he is such a handy man and just super smart w/ all those guyish manly things!! One time for example, when my dad was out of town i needed to get gas in the car and i only did it once a really long time ago...but my dad was actually helping me out alot. This is where Justin comes in....i asked him if he wouldn't mind helping me (a poor, weak, fragile girl, whose completely uneducated when it comes to cars) get gas with me. And sure enough, he was all for it!! (actually, i first asked Taras to help me...but he refused; seriously!) So one day before Jazz Band practice we had to quick rush up to the station and he expalined to me how to get the gas....and he was sooo good at it!! I mean, he even made me go in alone to the station to give the $ and say the pump number! :O He talked me through all the steps and made me feel sooo accomplished at the end!! :) And at the end, we both got a little giggle on how i gasped when the plug things popped back into it's place. :P What a girl i am!!lol But i tell you, when i find a guy to marry....i want him to be just like Justin in those areas!! ;)

Ok, enough about Justin...and NO!! I'm not crushing over him! I just felt like reminising of some good old memories.

And while were back to the vacation topic, check out this marvelous view of Devils' Tower. This is actually the first national monument. It was pushed up from the earth years ago and i want to say it has something to do w/ a volcano or something but i just can't remember.

I believe this was across from the monument. Splendid sight on both sides! :)

We were on our way driving to the monument when we saw this beatufil sight. And seeing as how i want a white horse one day...this was lovely. (inspired by LOTR!) :)

And to make it cuter, there were 2 deer right by it, a mom and it's baby.

We took a picture of this kid b/c we thought he looked Ukrainian!! :O And i'm pretty sure he saw us taking these!! ahhh! lol

Thought the above picture was funny b/c in this my mom was looking through the binocualrs (as you can tell) and it was kinda a cute pose. Then after i took the picture i realized her purple wrapped up finger sticking up and i thought it would be a good memory for future days when we look back on this trip. :)Then this one, we were just stoped in the parking lot for like 10 minutes. No body said anything, and no music was playing...it was just dead silent. It was like our parents fell asleep or something. I was pretty positive that's what happened until i spoke up and they told me they were writing out postcards.

More to come!! :)

"We are fools for Christ's sake, but you are prudent in Christ; we are weak, but you are strong; you are distinguished, but we are without honor." ~1 Corinthians 4:10

My Bad...

I forgot to blog about the Bad Lands, which we were actually at before Mt. Rushmore. So here's the post now.

Now, when we first got there it was quite rainy and extremely windy...if you can't tell by the look of our hair and faces in the picture.

But yet, it was a lovely sight...almost like being at the Grand Canyon, just with a little more variety of color.

Here, i think the wind was too strong for Kelsey so she had to stay turned around. (when we smiled for the picture we had to face the wind...it was actually pretty hard!)


It eventually began to clear up soon and was becoming a nice day. Actually, we were all (i think) praying quite hard for it to become nice in order to see fireworks at Mt. Rushmore this night, but we didn't realize what other plans God had in store for us that afternoon....

He wanted us to see His lovely creation of reptiles. (you can tell where this is going...) And let me tell you, it scared us to death!! :O literally. We were walking up this small path way and we turn to out left and see a gardinish area. Kelsey sees a snake in it but her first reaction is to think of it as a rubber snake. "But wait......." she realized. We were out in the wide open west, in the Bad Lands for crying out loud!! Surely people won't purposely put a rubber snake into a garden just to scare tourists out of their mind...or worse, the Bad Lands park itself!! Moments later we realized it. My first and gut reaction was to RUN AWAY but then i realized that it's not everyday i see snakes. I go a step closer (still like 6 feet away), snap a picture and then turn around running down the pathway back to where we came from. Yes, of course there was some screaming involved and Kirsten had a fall down the stairs....ha! But the real crazy and unexpected thing was what happened to my mom. We think she turned around too fast and hit/bent her finger on the railing...it was crooked and hurt badly. Scared for any more future encounters w/ reptiles or weird animals during the rest of the tour around the Bad Lands, we decided we needed to go back to the hotel and go get my mom to the ER b/c the finger looked like it could be broken. They dropped us back at the hotel and my dad took her to the hospital which they were there for a good 3 hours. But, that left us girls happy watching Disney Channel and on the internet. Sooo....there you have it. Our story why fireworks didn't work out. But truth be told, we heard they were a dud b/c it began to get cloudy & foggy out and all you could see was faintly lit up clouds. Ha- God ended up giving us a better day at Mt. Rushmore anyways and we ended up seeing fireworks in town the next night (4th of July) which you could actually see! :) Thankyou God!!

Me...showing off God's glory....actually, i'm not showing it off...that wouldn't be right. I'm just adding to it!!! ;) (there's a little bit of bugeyes mind set in every post!!)lol
Jump for joy at the Bad Lands!! :)

Lovely, lovely.

Look!! i could actually touch the top!! :O wooo..... i guess my arms felt super stretchy that afternoon!!ha. (ok, that was lame!) But notice my parents in the background...it looks like they are in a very intense discussion...if you know what i mean!!lol

"For by Him all things were created, both in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones, or power, or rulers, or authorities-all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things and through Him all things hold together" ~Colossians 1:16-17

Vacation Time!!

Actually, i think i'm vacationed out!! If that is even a word. Anyways...it's about time that i get to upload some Vah-K pictures....but since there's sooo many, i will try to do at least a post a day (if i ever have time to get on here!) and i will do them in order of the states we were in.

So...let's begin, shall we!?

<---i was not picking Kirsten's nose here, i swear!! :O

Cute rock pose --->



Jumping for joy at our first attraction of many here on our journey west. --->

Ok, so this is my South Dakota post, Mt. Rushmore to be specific if you can't tell!! :) yeayy!! And i dnnt feel like doing much explaining b/c i hardly have any time...plus, i want to go try to improve on my summer tan,and i'm still pretty white and summer is almost done! :(

Well, seeing as how it was the 4th of July we just had to have family matching day!! hahaha-yea, kind of embarrassing...but i was the one who stressed the idea. Surprised!?lol But it turned out that quite a lot of other families had the same idea! :)

And here me and Kels decided to take a picture and dedicate it to all our Ukrainian friends...b/c there are sooo many!!haha. Don't we look oh sooo "fly?" lol. But the cashier lady over near us thought we were Ukrainian...b/c she was also!! :)

Me and Kirsten after our looonngggg hike up to the top!! Great view up there by the way!!

Beautiful views from quite a closer look!!! :) Man, i loved going here....but i must admit...the next time i think i'm gonna see this is w/ my husband and kids!!! (God willing!) ;) So...we'll see who shows up in Mt. Rushmore pictures next time....:)

Thought i'd end this post w/ the best picture on the camera!!! (Sry, bugeye's conceitedness has somehow slipped into me!!)lol!!! :-)

"But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it." ~Romans 8:25