Yellowstone ( part II)

We started our trip on Friday at the wee hour of 6am. With 3 sleepy kids (and a sleepy mom) in tow we headed North. The first thing we did when we got to Island Park was to pay a visit to the big fish at Big Springs. The girls loved feeding the fish and the ducks and dipping their hands in the lake and seeing who could stand the freezing water the best. The rest of the evening consisted of dinner, relaxing and a little moose hunting.

Saturday we headed into the park after breakfast. We saw so many herds of elk and a couple of eagles. I think that the elk are my favorite. We also stopped at all of the crazy things that they only have at Yellowstone like the hot pots and Old Faithful. We drove out to were the fire was and took a little break by the lake. The kids (including Jared and McKay) had a great time throwing rocks and messing around.

Sunday was more of the same. Our goal was to make it to Mammoth so we did not stop to see all of the animals along the way except for the buffalo. One of them actually came to see us. We tried to see some bears on the way but I think you really need to take a day, camp out, and let the bears come to you. Maybe next year. We did stop at the mud pots and the mud volcano. So cool and sooo stinky.

When we got to Mammoth we heard that the fire had crossed the only road to get back to the condo. We would have to drive an extra couple of hours to get home. We would have gotten on the road except for one pissy obstacle. A rather large bull elk brought his harem of lady elk over to hang out right in front of our car. We could not go near it until he decided to leave. One of the rangers was standing at the back of our car waving his arms at something and the big bull charged and slammed his antlers down to our hood. ( I screamed ) He did not leave any scratches or dents thank goodness. It did make for an exciting show for the 30 -40 spectators standing on the other side of the road. We got tot he condo at 11:30, not to bad.

Sadly our last day came. The girls finally got to go swimming and decorate cookies at the club house. Brother took a little nap. We all were just a little lazy. It was nice. We had planned on leaving around 2pm, when we finally drove out it was 4:30pm. We had a hard time pulling ourselves away. We loved it. If you ask Madeline or Rylie what their favorite part was I think that they would say sleeping in the closet.

Thank you to Nana and Papa for sharing your vacation with us and thanks to Tori for letting Rylie come. We had a great time.