Our Yellowstone trip part 3

We headed out of Island Park, Idaho bright and semi-early to get into Yellowstone. After entering the park we saw a moose, our first of many bison, mule deer, squirrels and chipmunks. The ranger had given Sam and Afton a sheet with pictures of all the park's animals on it and for each one you saw, you got ten points, so the kids (especially Sam) went crazy trying to see everything they could (and possibly fibbing a little) in order to get the most points. It was a blessing and a curse throughout our visit to the park. Sam would see a lot more than Afton and Afton would constantly say, "But I can't see it!"

Sam counted up his points over and over and over again.

Anyhow, our first official stop was the Midway Geyser Basin, home of the Grand Prismatic Geyser. Dan took the kids to see it while I nursed Eli in the car (this happened a lot on our trip). Afterwards, I did a quick walk-by of it and then we took an unofficial hike up a hill across the street to get a birds-eye view. Here it is from ground level.

Kind of hard to see a lot of it.

I had checked out a book from our library about Yellowstone and it proved to be well worth bringing. It recommended a few hikes that we ended up doing and it also gave us a lot of good general information about the history of the park, etc.

Here's the view from the trail:

See how small the people are? You got a much better perspective from where we were of the colors and size. The boardwalk only went by a portion of the spring.

Ethan, Matt, Luke, Noah, and Hunter.

 So neat!

 We ate lunch down by the road. Sam is continuing his cross-eyed shenanigans, as you can see.

After lunch we headed over to hike Mystic Falls. There was a sign warning that this was a popular bear area, so along with two cans of bear spray, two guns, and two walking sticks with bells on them, Matt's family would also randomly yell, "Hey, bear!" I'm pretty sure any bears in the vicinity heard us coming a mile away.

 The hike was 3.4 miles (roundtrip). By the time we got there, Eli had had it. He was hot, tired, and hungry. So I hightailed it back to the car with Sam and Dan's parents. Dan and Afton stayed a little bit longer with everyone else.

 I thought it was a beautiful hike and a prefect distance for the kids. We forgot water (duh), so that was dumb. I'd totally recommend the hike, though.

After the hike we headed over to see Old Faithful. We couldn't find a parking spot, and we knew it was going to erupt really soon, so Dan kind of idled the car in a random spot where he could see it, and Afton and I got out to watch it.

Before:

 During:

 Tapering off:

We next headed over to see Old Faithful Inn. Super cool inside. The chimney is seven stories high.

On our way out of the park that day we saw some more bison. They were all halfway done shedding their winter coats so they look mangy.

Even though some people think they are glorified cows, these guys are no joke! Before our trip I heard about two people getting attacked by bison this summer in Yellowstone. One was five feet away and turned her back to have her picture taken. The other was a man who got THREE feet away and tried to take a picture with his tablet. Come on, people. I can't imagine getting three feet away from one. I was about 15 feet away from one who was sleeping and then suddenly woke up and it freaked me out.

 We also spotted a bald eagle. You can kind of see him in the tree. He's on the top right.

After our fun filled day we stopped in the town of West Yellowstone for delicious pizza (Wild West Pizzeria), then headed back to the cabin. Matt, Amy, Dan and I also played Blokus. I didn't win.

Our Yellowstone trip part 2

Monday morning Dan picked up our rental car (which only had 84 miles on it!) and we headed out over the scenic beauty of central Idaho. It's really gorgeous for anyone who likes shrubs. And dust. We stopped for lunch in the small town of Carey, Idaho at a place called 93 Express. We'd recommend it. It was either that or the grill at the Sinclair gas station. But really, it was good. And their chicken nuggets were shaped like dinosaurs, which immediately won over Sam and Afton. We drove by Craters of the Moon state park and I made the kids get out and take a picture.

That's a keeper.

Right after passing Craters of the Moon we got a big rock chip in the windshield of our rental car. Of course. We'll see if they charge us for it... The lady at the return said they'd had so many rock chips lately that they'd stopped charging. But ours was big enough that it was questionable.

We arrived in Yellowstone around 5 and met up with Dan's parents and Dan's brother's family (Matt, Amy, Noah, Ethan, Mack, Hunter, and Luke) at our rental cabin. It was Dan's parents' birthday (they have the same birthday!) so we celebrated with cake, cupcakes, and ice cream.

 We visited the rest of the night and planned our adventures for the next day.

Our Yellowstone trip part 1

Our trip to Yellowstone was so much fun! We took a late flight out of Baltimore last Saturday which we almost missed due to a deluge of rain (which made our drive take 2 hours longer than normal). We got in to Boise at midnight and Kirk was kind enough to pick us up. We got to spend Sunday with Kirk, Gretchen, Carter, Wendy, and Sherri. Gretchen made a delicious breakfast, we went to church, we tested out a remote controlled car on a remote controlled car dirt track, we dipped our toes in the Boise River, ate way too many cookies, and we visited. The kids played like they'd never been separated. It was fantastic.

We only lasted 15 minutes at the track. It was like 112 degrees.

 Sam got some dust in his eye that really hurt. He also got his glasses in time for our trip!

 Outtake:

 The best we got.

Summertime fun

Sam had his last week of school two weeks ago. He loves school, but was excited for summer. On national donut day, the school clinic called to say that Sam had hit his head pretty hard on the asphalt at recess and that they were keeping an eye on him for a while. I thought, since it was national donut day, "Hey, I'll be a great mom and go get him some donuts so that when I pick him up, I can cheer him with sugary pastries." I got into the store and it looks like this:

Worst idea I've ever had. The manager wasn't even helping his employees. He was all smiles just taking pictures and distracting the employees from getting their work done. It took so long to get the donuts that I was then LATE to pick him up from school and I felt even worse. Fortunately for me, he was very forgiving.

Eli managed to turn himself perpendicular while napping.

 Sam adores his little brother. I think the feeling is mutual.

 I took the kids to some water feature thing.

Sam's last day of school he came home and we pulled out his top left tooth.

Last Saturday my dad's work had a King's Dominion day, so they invited us and we had a great time! It was super hot that day.

It was so fun. Dan and I got to ride something together and that hasn't happened in a long time!

I took the kids swimming at our gym the other day. It is quite the production getting everything ready, but they had fun.

We got out the playmate and Afton reverted to a six-month-old.

Thursday I met Destiny and her cute baby at Jamestown before she moves away this weekend. :(    Again, it was so hot! Man, I was sweaty.

 Ninety-five degrees and a giant ice cream cone aren't a good match. He had ice cream dripping off his elbow all over everything. When he bit into the cone, his front right tooth got loose and started to bleed.

 I love seeing this lady and I'll miss our visits!

Friday morning, I pulled out Sam's tooth,

 took him to the doctor for a well-check,

and found out he needs glasses. We went and picked them out today. We should get them in a few weeks.

Afton hijacked my phone and took a selfie.

Summer is cruisin' by!