Yellowstone Park Pictures

Last weekend we went to Yellowstone National Park. Lindsey and her family were coming north for a visit and decided to take a couple of days in the park, so we decided to join them. It was a great weekend, although next time I think I'll go during the week. It was very crowded, and people are weird. There was a three mile backup because people got out of their car to take a picture of an eagle's nest. I don't know if it's because we live here and we've seen lots of eagles nests, or because people are just weird, but causing a three mile bumper to bumper backup to take a picture of an eagle's nest seems weird to me. But, who knows, maybe I'm the weird one.

I am so happy to live in this beautiful part of the country, though. I love looking out our door and seeing beauty all around us. And not to far away is - I think - the most beautiful scenery in the world (I might be biased, but that's okay). I spent a lot of time in the Beartooths as a kid, and I will forever love it. I always tell Ben that it's my "happy place". When I was in labor, or sometimes when I'm trying to get to sleep, I imagine the old dude ranch. I can walk around it in my mind, and remember every nook and cranny, every rock and tree. It was good to go to that country again, and breathe in the fresh air.

Anyway, enough of my reminiscing. Here are some pictures of our adventure. The kids did remarkably well in the car for so long. Joey kept saying, "When are we gonna get out of this place!" And when we got home that night before family prayer, Ben had everybody say what their favorite part was. Mine and Grace's was the mountains, Haley's was the bear, Andrew's was the wolf place in West Yellowstone, and Joey's favorite thing was "coming back home". What am I going to do with that kid? I had to throw in this picture of Joey's fat lip. He's always got some sort of boo boo on his face. We're having their pictures taken later this week, so hopefully it will heal in time.

We stopped in Bozeman to let our butts feel better. We went to their Children's Museum and played for an hour before hitting the road again. Haley sucked it up and breathed Bozeman air, even though she's a major Griz fan. Thanks, Haley, for being understanding. We'll make a trip to Missoula soon.

The first thing we did in W Yellowstone was eat, and the second thing was swimming at the hotel. Zach didn't like it in his floaty.

Matt loved splashing and splashing and splashing.

The boys had a great time, and were so glad to finally be with Brenlee again.

The girls hung out in the pool. Grace finally learned how to keep her head out of the water with the life jacket on.

The wildflowers were plentiful in the park this year. They made the meadows and grass so pretty. The fairies must have been busy!

This is one of the first places we stopped, Firehole Falls. This isn't the actual waterfall - it was up the canyon a bit more, but it was really pretty. The kids were yelling at dad not to drive off the cliff. Those little monsters have no faith in their daddy's driving skills!

This was a geyser spring. The water was a beautiful blue, but we didn't get any pictures of that because Grace was disturbing the peace with her screaming fit. She wanted to push Matt's stroller, but I wanted him to live.

This was a picture on our way to Cooke City. The picture doesn't do it justice, but it was absolutely beautiful. I couldn't get a great picture from the window, so I stuck Haley's camera out the window going 55 mph, and took this picture. I thought she might have pooped her pants a little, but I don't know what the big deal was. I had it wrapped around my wrist. And I didn't even drop it. We would have gone back to pick it up if I did, anyway.

This is Old Faithful. It was poring rain, so we took shelter under some trees because I wasn't smart enough to bring jackets or umbrellas.

This is what we all looked like after our sprint to the car, which, of course, was parked in the very farthest spot in the very farthest parking lot. The poor baby was drowning in the rain, but we all thought it was a pretty funny adventure to get soaked. It felt good after the hot morning.

This was one of Andrew's favorite spots. It was the first geyser "distraction" we stopped at. (After the eagle's nest incident, where Ben kept saying, 'I wonder what the attraction is up here', Andrew started calling all the attractions "distractions".) This was an inactive geyser, and it made a hissing sound. Andrew thought it was evil. Could be, I'm not sure. Maybe there's a hissing monster that lives down there.

This was a picture of Firehole Falls. The kids didn't want to get closer to the edge than this. Probably because I lectured them on staying close to us because of all the dangerous boiling water. Then all I heard from Joey was, "I don't want to fall into the volcano!" He kept "spotting" volcanoes everywhere we went.

This was our second geyser. It splashed us a little bit.

This is the brink of the Lower Falls of the Yellowstone. Ben took the girls and Andrew while I stayed in the car with Joey and Matthew. Joey was just wanting to "get the heck out of this place and go home already." It was the end of the day. He had done great until then.

Here's the boys at one of the distractions. They always have a great time together.

We're looking forward to the rest of the week with the cousins! Goodbye Yellowstone, we'll miss ya!