Yellowstone National Park

Friday night we drove into Cody, Wyoming, a small town 50 miles outside of Yellowstone. Sam has been through Yellowstone twice since we got to Idaho, and he recommended we get up extra early and get to and through the park before the heavy traffic hits later in the day. He has been there when it was bumper to bumper and miserable.

Though I am about the most UN-morning person you will ever meet, I agreed. Because one thing I hate worse then really early mornings, are people in the background when I am trying to take pictures!

We drove up to the Skyline Motor Inn about 8:30 PM. On a scale of 1 - 10 of the  hotels we have stayed in on this trip, with Dallas being a 10, this was a 1.6. Clean, but seedy looking, and the two cop cars in front of this small place didn't help the ambiance any either. This was the first person who came right out and asked how many were staying in the room. They were full, so we couldn't get another room, so we kind of had to sneak in 2 kids, so we went in shifts. This place was so seedy the TV didn't even have a remote. I think someone stole it.

We showered off all the kids and dressed them in the clothes they would wear the next day, so the next morning, at 5:50!!!!!! We just had to roll them out of bed, send them potty, run a brush through hair or put a hat on their head, and load up the van. We were on the road by 6:12!! We got to the park around 7 am and I am so glad we took Sam's advice. It was basically empty. The morning light was really pretty and we were able to drive at our own pace and see LOTS of wildlife.

Minutes after me telling the kids I REALLY wanted to see a moose in the wild, and Collin telling me that would never happen, VIOLA!! WILD MOOSE!

Sam climbed over the fence (he said the fences were just suggestions here as there were no NO TRESPASSING signs) and walked down with Collin to get some close up pictures. Kaitlynn took the one below of Sam taking pictures. Sam took the moose pictures. There were 2 males and one female. Christopher was really nervous about them charging Daddy. I think he has watched to many of Collin's nature shows. The moose did pick up those enormous heads and watch Sam and Collin pretty closely, then they ran off in the other direction.

It was REALLY neat!

We saw a LOT of deer, several skunks, adult and baby elk, a bald eagle, but no bears. We were really hoping to see some actual real wild bears!

We arrived at Old Faithful 5 minutes AFTER the previous eruption.  We walked the gift shop, took a potty break, then sat in the van for 35 minutes, Sam took a nap, the kids watched yet another Brady Bunch episode, and I strolled through 500 pictures in the viewfinder of my camera finding a bunch to delete so I would have more room for the rest of the days pictures!

The crowd was minimal that early in the morning, we had the perfect front row seats, and the eruption was the biggest in a long , long time. It even rained down on us for a few minutes when the steam condensed. It was really cool.

Kaebrie's one souvenir from the whole trip, was this baby bear she just got from the gift shop. She had been making up stories in the car about seeing a baby bear, and the bear would come into the van and kiss her and hug her and be so happy to see her. I knew she would love it, so I surprised her with it. And love it she did! She immediately told us that Larry had named the baby bear Preenta. (Larry Boy was with us the entire trip, joined sometimes by Alfred and also a few times with MO. It really got crowded in that van!)

I LOVE this one below where she and Preenta and watching and waiting.

We then drove over to the Prismatic Springs.

This place was really neat. Boiling water and steam coming out of the earth all over the place.

The steam reacts to the heavy levels of bacteria and turns colors. Scientifically and photographically, I was enthralled!

This was the last shot as we were leaving. Kaebrie ran ahead and asked Daddy if she could hold his hand. So sweet.

It is kind of sad to me that she won't have any memories of this trip because we made so many great ones.

Christopher was kind of upset as we were leaving the park, and as Daddy and I were laughing at all the HEAVY traffic trying to drive in { heehee }, he asked,

"When am I going to get to see the YELLOW  STONE?"

:)

Well, what better way to end this incredible family vacation then a field trip through the worlds first nuclear power plant!?!?! Sam said he had always wanted to stop here. It was about 2 hours away from home out in the middle of NOWHERE.

At least they had a potty!

This was how we all felt!

We arrived home safely about 6:30 Saturday night. Sunday was the going away for Sam's boss and his sweet wife. We unpacked and cleaned the house quickly that afternoon as we had company for dinner on Sunday night, great friends who were leaving for California the next day. Monday we got the van super cleaned out as we had a triple date to Carabbas. A good bye dinner for our best friends next door who are leaving for Alaska and another couple whose husband is leaving for Korea for a year. It was kind of sad in a way, because this is our once a month double date couple, but we had so much fun. Our favorite waitress had our table, and I laughed so much and so hard that my stomach hurt. We were so loud and silly that I am surprised the manager didn't tell us to hush. I guess it was OK since it was a slow Monday night. We shared a sitter for our combined 7 children, so even the kids had a blast that night.

And that is the end of the FAMILY VACATION 2008 stories and photos. Now I can get busy doing other stuff that really needs to be done, that I should have been doing all along, but I didn't want to do until I got all of this done!  :)

Thanks for following us along!

MUCH more to come soon!