Yellowstone!

We took two weeks in July and went to Yellowstone, Cooke City, and Island Park.  It has been 5 years since we went to Island Park and Yellowstone and 7 years since we have been to Cooke City and Grandma's cabin.  Life got busy with kids and kids and... kids.  Time slipped by and before we realized we had not been in too many years!  This was our year!  We were happy that most of my siblings could be there at the same time so we could have some cousin time too!  

We caravaned up with Liz and Dave and met Matt and Jenny at Old Faithful.  

Cousins doing the rain dance at Old Faithful, they were so happy to get out of the car... even if it was raining!  We missed Old Faithful by a parking spot... it went off while we were in the parking lot looking for a spot, so we decided to go check out Grand Geyser first.  We did see Old Faithful before we left, standing the rain waiting for Dad to go get the car...

Our human road block... the best buddy boys!  

Best buddy girls.

The big kids holding hands too...

Indentured servitude of Uncle Matt begins... he and Jenny were super helpers the whole trip, they do babies and dishes and sword fights...  everything!  Oh and look holding hands... :)

And then lonely little Steve... someone should hold his hand!  ;)

My boys 30 seconds before Johnny threw a rock into the hot spring and cost me $5,000... if a ranger had seen... they all got a good long lecture about Yellowstone etiquette after that!

The silliest of the silly bunch, the grown ups!  

"That is my tiny, tiny geyser..."  - Leo
The kids all loved the geysers and hot springs, except the smell, "stinky eggs" according to John.

Kyla with Grand geyser, it was cold and rainy, which meant more steam, the geyser was still really cool!

Mae wasn't sure what to think, she was just along for the ride!

Do you see it?!

Neither did we... we had a train of three cars going through the park so anytime we stopped we caused a buffalo jam, people thought we were stopping for animals...   We only did it intentionally once... :)!! 

COUSINS!  

Pretty waterfall!

It was great to spend some time with Matt and Jenny!!

My Boys!!

Maeli LOVES ice cream!!  Thanks Grandma and Grandpa O!!

Little boys with their ice cream!  Buggie and Leo had AWESOME chocolate beards when they finished!

Big boys with ice cream!  They did pretty good at keeping their faces clean...  :)

After our day in Yellowstone we ended up in Cook City at Grandma Grover's cabin.  Steve took off from there and went to Bozeman to work, he drove through the park and saw tons of animals, two bears... not fair, we didn't see one.
We went down to the barn and rode horses around the meadow.  The kids liked it so much we went back another day for a trail ride!
Kyla taking her first ride around the meadow!

Johnny's turn!

"Yee Haw!!"  

That night we had a camp fire dinner, it was our only night with EVERYONE there, it was a fun night.  Steve showed up just in time to deliver the doughnuts to roast.  

We went fishing on Wednesday.  I didn't take my huge camera...  Our 2 mile hike turned into a 3 mile one way hike and we about got eaten alive by mosquitoes when we finally made it to the lake BUT the kids all caught fish, so it was worth it!  We ended up with 25+ brookies and we ate them...  most of them...


I didn't take my camera on the trail ride either...  But here is Kyla on Sage before we left...  Ky said she wants her very own horse now, no more hiking to fish for her...  Steve told her he would get her one at Target...

At "Leckie Falls" with Grandma.  The new walk way is great and safe... but you can't see the falls from the bottom anymore...  Still pretty!  

Steve thought this sign was hilarious... the first one we saw didn't have a picture of a bear under it...

Bannock Falls.  We went here just once before with Crosby leading the way... it was an adventure, David bent a running board on his Suburban I think and we did something to our transmission...  this time we asked directions in Silvergate, "take a left at the T then park on your right..."  a little easier this time!  

And very pretty again!

Leo and Steve behind the waterfall touching the water.  

The love birds... they are good at posing!  

With our little 86 year old Grandma, she is a trooper!

We drove up Lulu Pass, the views are amazing!

We found a snow field to go sledding on.  Leo rocked his garbage bag snow suit!

Sledding in July!

More...

The big boys sliding down the hill, Leo called it "surf uping."

Matt

Leo giving surf uping a try!

You had to lean way back at the bottom to keep momentum... :)

Pilot and Index.  One of my favorite views of all time!

The wild flowers were gorgeous!

From here we went to Island Park for a week of fun with the Seamons', I'll have to do a separate post for that week...

Paradise Acres is an amazing heritage that I was so happy to share with my kids.  It was fun to take my kids to do all the cool things I did as a kid.  We won't be waiting another 7 years before we go back!