Yellowstone!

When I was talking to my mom about our visit to Utah, we were originally coming home on September 1st. My mom told me how they had a quick little trip planned to Yellowstone over Labor day weekend the following day (the 2nd - 5th). I sighed and told my mom that if I was only flying home a few days later we could tag along. Without missing a beat my mom asked why I didn't just change my flight and go with them. 

With that invitation I got my flight changed and went to Yellowstone with them.

It was so much fun. I feel a little guilty, because I'm sure it was a much different trip that it would have been with out two stir crazy little ones. But I hope they had fun with us there. I know that Sarah and Abby are so glad that we got to go.

Okay... now onto the photo-documentation!

All packed up and ready to go!

Pitstop for lunch on the way up.

It was very windy, and chilly!

Right after this we stopped at the Rainey Creek Country Store in Swan Valley, Idaho for some famous Square Ice Cream cones. Yum, yum! 

Almost there. Here is G'ma and Abby in front of the Tetons. 

Here are the girls and G'pa getting the fire ready for dinner.

I love how my Dad can so easily be one of the kids.

Every time my parents go up to Yellowstone they rent a lil' trailer. It is the perfect size and has a toilet and shower... not really camping I guess, but it is great to have running water (especially with kiddos).

It was even better to have electricity, so at night, we could let the kiddos unwind and watch a movie
(101 Dalmations, they'd never seen it so it was great for distracting them from trouble)

Saturday we spent in Yellowstone.

See proof:

Uncle Alex teaching Sarah how to skip rocks.

My brother is amazing at skipping rocks. He can skip up rock 20+ times. Its pretty incredible!

Testing it out.

Oh it was so beautiful up there.

We decided that a must see in Yellowstone would have to be Old Faithful.

We pulled in to find out we had just missed it and so headed over to the new visitors center to wait for the next eruption.

Here are the girls learning about animal tracks.

Taking a close look at animal bones.

What Sarah does... Abby does too!

Okay, here is the sad part of the story.

At the visitor center they had a movie all about geysers and how they work. We thought it would be fun to take the girls in and let the understand a little better about how they work, and get to see some cool footage of hot spots. 

Boy were we wrong!

The show started showing how there is lava under the earth, and it heats up the water and that is what make Old Faithful erupt. Sarah, wide-eyed and terrified began to panic that we had brought her to a place where lava was going to make hot water explode all over us!

We had to leave the movie early and spend the next twenty minutes explaining how it was safe and that we would never take her somewhere she'd get hurt.

After much convincing we headed over to watch Old Faithful.

Abby had a great time. She got to sit on G'pa's lap and play games with him.

Sarah on the other hand was still pretty terrified and kept reminding us that she didn't want to do this, and wanted to go inside where it was safe. We got her to sit through it, but I don't think she really enjoyed it.

G'ma had the perfect solution. She took Sarah to the Old Faithful Gift shop and got her a pin (badge of honor) for Sarah to be able to show all of her friends how brave she was to watch Old Faithful. 

We then headed to a beautiful picnic spot off of the Firehole River and had some lunch...and of course, threw some more rocks!

So happy to be out and running in the sun!

Goofy Sarah!

On our way to some mud pots we got to see a coyote hunting. It was pretty cool.  

What? You can't tell what that is?

Let me zoom in...

 Yeah, not much better, but that blurry thing is a coyote. Ha!

I forgot my zoom lense, I never used it, so I didn't even pack it to Utah.

Wish I would have remembered it. It would have been perfect for taking pictures of animals in Yellowstone!

Here we are at the Dragon's Mouth Hot Pot (not sure if thats the name). It was cool because it sounded like a dragon breathing fire or something when you sat there.

We also got to see some Bison (of course) and Elk.

Here is Sarah in front of the Elk.

Of course the Elk bends down to eat grass as I get a cute picture of Sarah. 

He was massive though. Had about 6 points on each side of his rack. 

We finished up our day in Yellowstone with dinner at Fishing Bridge. 

It was a great day!

The next day we spent in the Tetons.

I was wiped out... didn't sleep good, and well, this baby boy I'm growing took most of my energy.

So after checking out a Native American Museum and Signal Mountain I fell asleep in the car on the way to a new visitors center. Abby did too, so they left us in the car while they went and saw a movie about the Tetons and the wild life found there (Sarah did great, loved learning about the gray wolf).

After that we headed to the Finger lakes to skip more rocks.

Shoulder rides are our friend. :)

 It was beautiful! Perfect weather too. It was around 80 and so the girls took of their pants and played in the water until the sun went down behind the Tetons.

 The water was crystal clear!

 They were being such cute sisters.

 Isn't that just GORGEOUS!

Love this cute lil' picture of Abby.

My cute parents in front of the Tetons.

*sigh* Can I move up here?

The next day was Labor day, and we packed up early to head home. 

It was such a fun, short trip. I loved every minute of it and felt so lucky to be able to go with my parents and brother. Thanks for letting us tag along. 

We love you guys!