While that title may suggest I am going to do an entire post about our terrible two year old (or our sassy pants 6 year old), it actually a travel report of our vacation to Yellowstone! Just a couple days after school wrapped up, we packed up our car and headed to Jackson Hole.
We always have a bit of reservations taking road trips with Miss B, who asks how long it is going to take us to get to any destination we have to go to-the grocery store, the library, school etc. So, spending hours in the car was a bit daunting, but everyone survived. Can I say how grateful I am for modern technology? Ipads for the win! We did feel a bit out of place sneaking into a church in our grubbies to use the bathroom, but that was necessary to prevent a toddler accident!
We stayed in a really nice hotel that was larger than our townhome we used to live in. Pretty spoiled. We felt pretty fancy. We loved walking around the city, running through their main park, going to dinner and enjoying the sights.
The next day, we went to Jenny Lake. We took the ferry across and Harrison talked about 'the green boat' for the duration of the trip...apparently a highlight.
The Tetons are gorgeous! We did an easy and fabulous hike to Hidden Falls
and since we had plenty of time, we thought we'd try another short-ish hike. Well, turned out it was a bit more than we were prepared for, but still we conquered. Harrison became dead weight as he fell asleep in our arms, the kids (one small girl) in particular may have thought we were torturing her with the walking, but we survived.
The next morning, we took our small circus to Yellowstone. Chris and Co. were having a vacation in Yellowstone the same week, so we met up the first day at none other but Old Faithful. All of us were impressed with the geysers and hot pots and that smell is just something you can't replicate!
One of the prettiest sites in Yellowstone is the Grand Prismatic Spring. The colors are amazing!
After we separated from the Petrick bunch, we went to dinner and drove around the lake to our hotel. The Yellowstone hotel had buffalo wandering all over, sat on the edge of the calm water, and NO tv or wifi! This caused a mild heart attack for certain members of the family. But, we ended up loving it. We played games and walked around. It was camping in a nice hot room with a bathroom and shower.
The next day we really explored everything we could. There was a sad situation with someone passing away at Norris Geyser Basin the previous day, so we had an interesting perspective as we walked around observing the thermal area.
We met up with the extended familia again and Dave loved hearing about how great their cabin was compared with our hotel! ha ha! Dave entertained everyone with plank challenges.
We traveled to the Canyon area to view the falls. Seriously, this part of the world is breathtaking
We finished up our time with Chris and Leslee and family in Mammoth. We walked up the terrace ourselves after we said goodbye.
It's nice to have big kid helpers and it's the best when siblings are kind to each other. I have to document the momentous occasions...
We went to some hot pots and mud pots after Mammoth and finished up the West Thumb area the following morning. It had been a good 18 years or so since I had visited Yellowstone and it is so incredible. It is just a place like no other in the world. Dave and the kids loved their first visit, well, all except the smell!
We saw lots of wildlife, but no bears in their natural habitat, so we cheated and stopped at Bear World in Idaho on the long drive home. It is pretty unreal to just drive the little path and have bears walking along your car. Some bears were dancing (must have been circus performers before!), some rolling around, lots sleeping. Our trip was overall, fantabulous and we hope these little critters of ours remember our time in the wild!
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