Yellowstone Trip - Part 1

Last fall we went to Yellowstone and froze our you-know-whats-off.  The kids kept asking to go back when it was "warmer."  Is it warm yet?  I seems like it is 102 degrees every single day!  Whaddaya say we drive north until the temperature drops by 20 or 30 degrees. 

Preston had to work for part of the week, so we picked up Grandma and Grandpa and me and the kids headed out last Saturday morning.  The drive was long but not too bad.  We decided to take a quick stop into the very bottom corner of Yellowstone, a place I had never been before.  There is only one little road down there, but it was a really pretty road with tons of wildflowers.  My camera was still AWOL, so my mom took a couple of pictures for us.  Here is Dax balancing along a fallen log:

Then here is Cave Falls!

It is called Cave Falls because there is kind of a hollowed out "cave" on one side, but unfortunately due to rock slides we couldn't really see this part.  Oh well.

We also had our first experiences with the mosquitoes and deer flies.  They especially liked to bother Cora, who hadn't really had any mosquito bites in her whole little life before.  That changed quickly.  We fled after a little while and headed to the cabin we were renting in Island Park.  Turns out someone else was already there.  Here is Arden and her new friend, John Wayne!

We got settled in, made some homemade pizzas for dinner, and then it was bedtime!  I made the mistake of trying to put the kids to bed at the regular 8 o'clock hour, which only resulted in an epic bedtime battle that lasted until the sun actually went down at around 9:30.  After that, I decided that since it was vacation I was not going to even try to put the kids to bed until it was dark-ish. 

The next morning I got up early (but not before Dax, of course) and went for a run in the beautiful, crisp, 50-ish degrees morning air. My hands were actually cold.  Awesome.  While I was looking around for the shower stuff, guess what I found?  My camera!  In Cora's overnight bag!  I have noooo idea how it got in there, but YAY!  

After breakfast, we headed over to Big Springs to feed the fish.  The fish were unfortunately still sleeping, so we ended up feeding the seagulls instead.  We did see the resident muskrat too.

 After that we headed over the Mesa Falls.  My mom remembered the days when I was young and they didn't have guard rails.  She was telling the kids about how they had to be very careful and stay on the walkways because if they don't they might fall down.  She told them a lady actually fell down over the falls a few years ago.  When we all got down to the waterfall, the kids ran to the guardrails and looked over the edge.  Dax turned to my mom and said, "Where is she?"  All the kids thought that she would still be floating down there I guess.  Sillies.

Here is the beautiful waterfall.  We were there at the right time of day and were treated to a double-rainbow in the spray.  I actually got to take a picture of it with my newly found camera!  

My mom still had her camera too, so she caught me.  I am not used to being the one in the pictures.

Here are the kids next to the Falls.  If you haven't been here before, give it a try next time you are driving up to Yellowstone.  It is really pretty.

There were quite a few stairs coming up, and Cora started crying/yelling for someone to carry her.  She was a little tired after the bedtime battle from the night before.  I told her that I don't carry screaming kids, so she started to scream louder and had a little meltdown by the pretty waterfall.  Joy.  Luckily, Grandpa was there to talk her down and get her to ask nicely to be carried, or me and Cora might still be there having another battle of wills.  Ah, the joys.  We were all a little "hangry" I guess, so we stopped and ate some lunch.  Cora wanted Nutella on her bread.  And her face.

After lunch we drove over to the Herriman Ranch to check and see about going horseback riding.  Unfortunately, they require kids to be 6 years old before they can ride.  We could probably pass Dax off as 6, but no one would believe little Cora to be more than 3, so we had to bag that idea for this trip.  We went over to Mack's Inn and let the kids throw rocks into the river for a while (everyone ended up soaking wet, of course).  Here are the girls, racing along the dock:

Dax liked finding 8 or so great big rocks, and then throwing them into the water.  Then he would find them again.  Here he is in the hunt:

Lucky for me and Grandpa, there were some nice comfy chairs by the river so we could watch the kids play in comfort (and shade!)  Ahhhh.

After everyone was nice and wet, we took them back and threw them in the tub.  Then we took some little hikes around our cabin (where Cora ended up getting tons more mosquito bites since I had washed all of her bug spray off).  We covered everyone with Calamine and played Uno for a while.  I kicked butt.  Then when it started getting dark it was bedtime.  Maybe it was because it was later, maybe it was because they hadn't been sitting in the car all day, but whatever the reason, bedtime was much easier, thank heavens and goodness and my lucky stars.

It is my bedtime now too, so I will pick this up later!