we made a two day quick trip up to yellowstone national park. i remember spending many summers up at yellowstone and macks inn with my grandma. we ALWAYS went shopping in west, played gin rummy and laughed. i have so many great memories of my grandma.
we had a blast up there! i always remember going to yellowstone and it being SO hot. walking on the pathways, with steaming hot pots all around you and just sweating to death.
this time, the weather was amazing. it was in the high 60's/low 70's and fantastic!
we saw tons of buffalo. the kids were amazed at their size and strength.
try to spot the buffalo. getting a better look.
part of our awesome group
these two are two peas in a pod.
the geysers and hot pots were so amazing.
me and my cute sis.
we spotted some elk from the road
this guy was right next to the side of the road
some of our long lost friends from china....or some people who wanted their picture with the kids and more and more chinese people kept jumping in. it was hysterical.
this was boiling mud. pretty cool to watch it.
the kiddos at old faithful
beautiful sky and mountains!
this little gal was not impressed with the smell of the hot pots.
again, with the smell....
of course, shopping is a must
we were busy all day! we didn't get to our cabin until 10 pm at night. we were all exhausted. their office closes at 4, but they said they would leave a key and map in a drop box for us. we pulled up in the pitch dark to the office, i hopped out and checked the key box. no key. really?! nothing. empty. we drove around looking for someone who might have an emergency contact number for the office. couldn't find anyone. we were getting a little worried. what do we do with 10 kids, in the middle of the mountains at 10 pm at night with no where to sleep....
we finally decided to try to find our cabin that was assigned to us. we found it and the lights were on inside. we of course knocked on the door and an elderly couple answered. my husband explained that he thought they were in the wrong cabin and that they were in fact, in our cabin. they said, that was a possibility. they were suppose to have a key left in the drop box, but the only key there was ours, so they thought maybe we had taken their key accidentally. so.....what to do.... they have no cabin and neither do we. there is NOTHING around. it's 10:15.... and everyone is tired.
the wife suggests that we share the cabin. her husband has sleep apnea and brought a chair to sleep in. she was planning on sleeping on the couch... so, we shared. don't think about the negatives that could have happened or what kind of people they were. (i don't think any of the adults slept well that night). having said that, they were a very nice couple. served a mission in outer mongolia. but still.... you never know. but everything worked out. they left at 5 for fishing with friends (after a very loud phone call in which the husband stated 'have we got a story for you'...) but everything worked out. phew.
cereal in the morning.
wish we would have had more time to enjoy it up there.
but we headed back to yellowstone for the day.
lunch at old faithful
this little on helped herself to cheetos.
tired kids on the way home.
we really had such a great trip. the kids loved it. we were hoping to travel home through teton national park but the road between old faithful and the south exit was closed, maybe another time.
we loved it!
