Yellowstone 2018

Puna and Papa joined us for our annual Yellowstone trip this year. It was a chilly day and the park was surprisingly busy, but we got to see a lot and we visited a new spot that we've never seen before.

Uncle Brady was able to come along too. He took so many cute pictures of the kids. It was fun to go back and look at all of them. We had over 700 pictures from just one day in the park.

Puna and Papa gave Joey this little cow toy the day before our Yellowstone trip. He carried his little cow everywhere. He even helped the cow walk along the handrails and boardwalks.

Who knew a little cow could bring so much joy?
We decided that every year we will try a new spot in the park. This year we stopped at Black Sand Basin. It was a great place. There was almost no one else there. And we found lots of active pools and geysers. It was a great place for kids to get closer to the geysers.

We had one hang up with the little cow. Joey was getting tired of carrying it and wanted the adults to carry the cow for him. When we all refused, Joey threw a tantrum.

Annie helped Joey and offered to hold his cow for a little while. Things were going fine until Joey wanted his cow back and then accidentally dropped it into an active geyser area.

To rescue the cow we had to hang Lily over the railing by her feet. Papa had one foot, Daddy had another. She reached down and retreived the cow. Joey was so happy. And from that point forward, the cow was locked in the car at every stop.

The one hang up to keeping cow locked up was - now Joey didn't have anything to slow him down. He ran through the park most of the day.

After Black Sand Basin we drove to the West Thumb area of Yellowstone Lake. The kids liked walking the boardwalks and getting up close to the lake, but it was almost lunch time and they got a little cranky near the end of the walk.

I love all the amazing colors.

Tommy was so tired, he collapsed on the bench at the collapsing pool. He rested there until we told him it was time to keep moving.

Joey was ready for adventure and silliness at every turn. He loved walking with Papa, Daddy and Uncle Brady.

We had some fun wildlife experiences while we ate lunch near the lake.  The kids played hide and seek in the trees and we got to feed birds, chase squirrels, and watch grazing elk.

The kids wanted to see Old Faithful and get a hot chocolate at the lodge. One of their favorite things about this stop is all the fallen trees to play on.

Joey tried to wait patiently for the eruption, but his three year old attention span just couldn't understand why we were sitting in one spot for so long looking at nothing.

We were rewarded with a great eruption and some resting time.

After the eruption we made our way to the lodge for hot cocoa and french fries. Papa patiently poured cocoa into a little creamer cup for Joey because the cocoa was too hot. Then Papa would stir and blow on the tiny little cup until it was just right. Thank heaven for grandparents.

Tommy looked over the map and helped us choose our next adventure. We decided to try and see Beehive Geyser and Anemone Geyser.

This Raven helped us find the right trail.

After walking over a mile and a half on the Geyser loop, the kids were wiped out. When we returned to Old Faithful we found someone dressed as a T-Rex playing with the kids in the area. The boys were so excited to see the T-Rex until we got close to him. Once they were within touching distance, they chickened out and wouldn't even look at dino guy.

We realized that another eruption of Old Faithful was coming soon so we waited to watch it again.

The girls got teeter-totter rides from Uncle Brady.

Tommy tried to sit down and rest, but it didn't work out so well.

We made our way back to the boardwalk for a better view. The boys were totally done at this point.

We waited......

and waited.....

and waited.....

Finally someone had to go potty, someone was crying, someone was hungry, someone was cold, so we started back to the car....and then the geyser decided to go.

Tommy was cold and tired. He snuggled down for some rest time in the car.
We made one last stop at another geyser basin before exiting the park. We got lucky here with an up close view of a bison.

Papa was brave (or crazy) enough to stay on the path near the bison. He was very close.

We were happy to see this amazing creature and equally happy to be safe in our car to go home. It was a long day in the park. Puna wasn't feeling well most of the day. The kids wore themselves out walking and running. A warm dinner in a warm restaurant felt so good that night. And a trip to the candy store after dinner was lots of fun too.

This year was a success. No one got carsick, we didn't have any potty accidents, we lost a toy cow, but he was rescued by Lily, we visited two new places in the park, and we saw a lot of animals. Lily's smile says it all. We were tired buy happy after our annual day in Yellowstone.