We recently returned from about a week and half long trip to Yellowstone and Hub's family cabin. I would say overall we had a great time. We did learn that Yellowstone is a bit of an older children activity. After the first day of constantly yelling at kids not to kill themselves by falling over cliffs or into boiling water features we drove out of the park to hear E ask, "Where were all the swings?" We tried to explain that they should just enjoy the beautiful landscape and animals but it didn't fly. In G's words, "All Yellowstone has is a bunch of trees." So while we did enjoy our trip, I think in the future we will wait to do more of Yellowstone until we don't have to wonder why we brought our young children to a deathtrap only to complain and be bored. :-)
The kids liked Old Faithful, though they did get bored waiting for it.
One of the boiling hot pots. Super cool--pretty scary with kids who keep asking why they can't touch it or get off the board walk and walk through it.
Can't go to Yellowstone without some buffalo encounters.
Isn't this one so ugly? He cracked me up.
This is after we got to Grandma's cabin. Miss H was missing for a while and Hubs found her locked in the bathroom applying mascara. Isn't she lovely?
Everyone swinging in the broken hammock. Miss H played the harmonica and we all felt like we were in a prison movie.
It was so fun to play badmiton--I haven't played since I was a kid. Thanks to Aunt Cindy for bringing it and letting it stay for us to play with.
We went back into Yellowstone a couple of days later to see Mammoth Hot Springs. It was hot, smelly, and again the children were less than impressed. It is cool that these things are just in the middle of the woods, though. Very interesting.
E refused to have his picture taken so I told him that I was taking a picture of the nice man behind him. Then he was offended that I took a picture of a stranger rather than him. Haha.
E with his favorite person ever, Uncle Brett.
The best part of this Mammoth was this herd of Elk that just came and hung out around everyone. They laid in all the shade so we people had to sit in the sun. Smart.
We saw a coyote and got a picture of most of him. :-)
We also did a short horseback ride. Well, all non pregnant people and kids over 6 did. Grandma also stayed and helped me walk E around on a horse.
Here's the whole crew that was at the house right before they went on their ride.
G rode his own horse and did a really nice job. I have to admit that as a mom I was a tiny bit nervous when I saw him up there controlling the horse all on his own. He did awesome, though.
E was the last on a horse because he just got to ride around the meadow with Grandma leading him. He kept yelling, "WHY AM I NOT ON A HORSE?" as he watched everyone else mount up before him.
Miss H had a very short ride around the hitching post while I held onto her to make sure she didn't fall off. She loved it!
We went on a long 4 wheeler ride to Lake Abundance. It was so beautiful, I almost felt like the scenery couldn't be real.
On the way home, G and Hubs saw a momma and baby moose!
We went on a walk to a waterfall--thank heavens for the railings.
See what I mean?
Miss H pulled Dad's hair and thought she was adorable.
We fished
We fought over the fishing net...
And we panned for gold. We actually found a few flakes--which all of the boys thought was super awesome.
Finally on our way home we went through a couple more things in Yellowstone. We saw tower falls.
Then we went to the grand canyon of Yellowstone where our children scared the tar out of us and everyone around them as they immediately ran to the rocks and tried to see how close they could get to the edge without falling in. This is my "why did I bring my children to a deathtrap for vacation?" face.
This is G's attempt to take a picture and then E stuck his face in. I couldn't help but laugh.
You have to admit, it is so beautiful it was almost unreal.
Overall we had a really great time. They kids came back and told the neighbors that it was awesome so I'm going to call that a success. Thanks to everyone who came along and to Grandma for letting us use her cabin and all of her toys.
