So for our biannual family reunion for Johnny's side of the family, we went to Yellowstone. Surprisingly enough, Johnny had never been before. Neither had the children, though that is not very surprising. We only spent one day of the three there, and even though it was a hot day and almost all of us got sunburned, we still think we need to go back, hopefully soon. There was just so much to see that we didn't have time for with this trip.
But back to the show, our first stop was Old Faithful, of course. And we had a bit of a wait before it erupted. So we walked around it. Then we sat and tried to keep busy.
For some this meant phones
Some slept
Grandma passed around snacks
The Captain showed to his cousin how geysers work. At least he retold my preschool level explanation.
Finally it went off. We were all excited cause that meant we could eat lunch.
When everyone was feed and therefore much happier, we decided to back track a little and see some of the things we had driven past on our way to Old Faithful. We only stopped at one spot, but it had a little bit of everything, so we felt pretty good about that.
There were pools. And thanks to the Young Scientist section of the Yellowstone Discovery Center we found out that the amazing blue color of the water is caused by bacteria and that different bacteria live in different temperatures. So you can tell the temperature of the water from it's color. Blue is the hottest.
Didn't know you'd be learning something today, did you?
As a side note, while we were in the Discovery Center, Miss Joy randomly started squeezing her fists, shaking, and making a growling face. She did this on command for about 5 minutes and a few times since then. I still have no idea where it came from, but it was hilarious.
There were steam vents. These were producers of the stinky, rotten egg smell I associated with Yellowstone in my youth. Luckily for us the wind was blowing, so it wasn't very bad.
There were mud pots. Full disclosure, I did not take this picture, I yonked it from the internet. I was way too fascinated by the real thing to take pictures. They were definitely my favorite.
And there was another geyser. Not as big as Old Faithful, but we did get there in perfect time to see it erupt. It even sprayed us because of the wind.
Speaking of wind, this was my lame attempt to demonstrate how ridiculous the wind was. It was one step above a gale and two steps below tornado. The Captain is holding hands with Johnny because he was liable to blow away. I might have been in danger of blowing away. But as you can see, we were all still happy.
On our ride back both kids conked out. So we took a little detour to Fire Hole Falls.
We went out and took some pictures while the grandparents stayed in the car with the kiddos. Sadly, that is not a fashionable belt I am sporting, but rather the back support to the child carrier which saves me a little pain. Also, I am terribly afraid of heights and the wind was very strong, as I mentioned, which means it is somewhat crazy that I am this close to the cliff edge. What is crazier is that I got even closer to take some pictures of my own. I guess having a lens to look through counteracts the inborn panic.
We spent lots of time at our amazing cabin. The cousins were playing games. Sorry for the fuzzy picture, there was rarely a moment were everyone was sitting still.
We spent the 4th of July in West Yellowstone at the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center. There was a bald eagle. Very patriotic.
Actually, this particular bald eagle has brain damage and spent most of the time with his head upside down. Not sure if that's a symptom of a brain damaged bird, but it was interesting.
Here I am mere moments before discovering a major blow out from Joy. Why do I look so grumpy when I haven't yet held my child's poop in my hand? Well, I was already having a bad day, and I had a bad day until my meds kicked in about mid-day.
My bad day aside, the bears were really cool. They let 2 or 3 in the exhibit at a time for about 45 mins at a time, so they are really active.
My favorite picture. Check out those claws. Definitely do not want to run into a bear in the wild.
That night after dinner, we had the family talent show. There was much dancing and singing and a little joke telling. I didn't get a good picture of The Captain's talent, but it was ballet related. At my friend's house a week earlier he said, "look what I can do" and stood on his toes. Not just the balls of his feet like the picture, but up and over onto his knuckles.
This is him rolling up onto them.
Joy's talent was her clinched fists. But we did choose a good time to be with our family. In the time we were there she became a confident crawler, pulled herself up on things,
And moved her feet and generally enjoyed moving around.
After Joy went to bed, those of us who wanted to parked by the side of the road mere yards away from the fireworks spread and waited for the show to start. We had an amazing sunset to play with while we waited.
This will forever be known as the Yoga picture.
The boys (and K) showing off their ninja skills. Notice how The Captain is not in this picture. He fell asleep in the car in the 2 minutes it took to drive down the road. He stayed asleep in the car until right before the fireworks started. He was really really sad and scared, so he spent the fireworks display in the car, with his blanket. And in true toddler fashion, he can't stop talking about it.
