Our Yellowstone Adventure

This was our major family trip (I call it trip because it is with kids...A vacation is without kids!) We had SOOOOO much fun. This is our only family picture by the upper falls of the Yellowstone canyon. It is amazing to have everyone looking! Our hike down the canyons was interesting. We got down there and there were so many people, we just hiked back up. Dave caught a picture thank goodness. On the way up, he had Brooklyn in the baby backpack and was carrying Braden...He said he couldn't have done that if it weren't for his bike training. He had tons of sympathy from fellow hikers, one guy confessing that he had to do the same thing.

We enjoyed the wildlife - The park gave the kids little checklists of animals to see, and I think we saw 60% of the checklist. Brooklyn ate hers:)

Braden and I LOVED the mud volcano site. They had a spot called "dragon's breath" and it was a cave with steam pouring out and boiling water sloshing on the bottom. It sounded just like you would imagine a dragon to sound like. Dave's favorite spot was "Morning Glory Pool" around the Old Faithful site. It was a beautiful pool of turquoise to orange water after an amazing hike around geysers. (Braden called them volcanoes also.) Keep in mind that all of these things smelled like sulfur, and Dave kept asking Tina if she wanted an egg sandwich:) The hike was probably a good 2 miles, and Braden is not very patient, so for Dave to keep him occupied, he had him hold his fingers and hum a song. Every finger played a different song. My favorite was "Squishy - pointer finger." I was behind them with the girls and I loved seeing the people pass us who would smile and laugh at Braden's songs. He was not shy and sang many different versions:)
The kids did so well sleeping in the tent and we were not cold at all with the amount of blankets we had, but despite that, it did hail on us the last night we were there! I don't know if this picture does it any justice, but this was the hail buildup on our truck. Thank goodness for Dave's great camping setup, and a burger joint around the corner! I told him there was no way in "hail" we were going to start a fire to cook dinner:) Pardon the language!When we were done eating, and leaving the shop, a guy told me that he was watching our little family in the cafe and said, "You guys are really blessed." That sure made me think, "yeah, we are" and realize that although it was a crazy little trip with so much to do and see, it was nice to take time and realize that we loved every minute of it we could spend with the kids!

Here's proof we went to Mammoth Hot Springs. Overall, I'd say it was a successful family trip!