Yellowstone 2012

At the end of June, we went on a family trip with the Farr’s to one of my favorite spots, Yellowstone!  Growing up, my family would come here every year and I have yet to get sick of driving through this gorgeous national park.  We stayed outside of West Yellowstone in Island Park, ID in a beautiful cabin.  A cabin with a hot tub.  Here’s the attempt at a family pic in the hot tub with the camera on self timer.  My boys were smiling while I was arranging the camera, but I think I freaked them out as I was trying to run to the hot tub and get in without falling in head first before the timer went off: 

My boys love anything water and they were not disappointed with the hot tub.  They were tall enough that they could walk around the edges on the seats inside of the hot tub, but it was slippery enough that occasionally they would take a plunge into the water going completely under.  They thought it was hilarious. We were circling the hot tub for about and hour!  And for those of you that are stunned,offended, and appalled that we would subject our little children to the hellish temperatures of a hot tub, have no worries and sleep easy tonight.  The water pump on the hot tub was left off overnight and so the water temp was a measly 89 degrees.

We of course had a fire pit, which meant we had smores.  And fires. And fire sticks.  I was on high alert.





The boys did a bit of exploring, although I am shocked that for the most part they stayed relatively nearby and mostly  just wanted to be held for most of the trip.  I’m hoping this is just a stage they’re going through cuz they are getting too old and HEAVY to be carried around everywhere.  
 


The cabin also came equipped with a foosball table and an airhockey table.  I’m convinced we NEED a foosball table.  Fun times were had with this game.  And Cameron is convinced we NEED an air hockey table.  Every morning, he and Nate would wake up and immediately go upstairs.  After a few minutes you would hear *click* as Cameron turned on the air hockey table.  Soon after they would start playing against each other.   Cameron would actually hit the puck and try to make it in the goal across from him.  Nate just liked to grab the puck and stick it in his own goal. 

Nate and Cam playing air hockey

And then there was Yellowstone National Park. 
Dev and I  have a tradition every time we go to Yellowstone.  We picked this up because it sort of became a tradition with my family.  There is a small hot spring off to the side of the road next to a river.  It is hot enough that you don’t want to leave your hand in there for more than a few seconds.  There are also small pebbles at the bottom of this hot spring.  Our tradition is to reach in the hot spring and pull out a designated pebble. 
Dev:


And as this was Cam and Nate’s first trip to Yellowstone, here’s Cam and Nate doing it for the first (but not last) time.  This tradition will last as long as me and Dev are around :)


And once again for those of you that are concerned about the hellish temperatures of this hot spring and the fact that we are subjecting our children to such treatment, while it is hot it isn’t THAT hot.  Goodness.

We saw a lot of wildlife

Buffalo everywhere!
Blocking the road:

More buffalo blocking the road.  These guys pay not attention to all of the traffic:



And we saw a bear right next to the road!

And elk:

At the artist paint pots.  Paint pots are hilarious to watch and listen to.

Hiking to Upper Falls:

Picture of upper falls.  If you look closely on the right hand side of the falls, you can see some people standing on the top of the cliff right before the water goes over the edge.  That is where me and Cam are standing in the picture above. 

source

Cam was very concerned about the steam in the lower geyser basin:

Nate just had a good time:

And of course we had to go to see Old Faithful. 
One day I want to stay at the Old Faithful lodge.  It’s gorgeous and cozy inside:

Before the eruption:

And there she blows!

Nate and Cam didn’t seem to really pay attention.

And here’s Cam after the eruption wondering when something exciting is going to happen:


Walking around the Old Faithful loop:


Castle Geyser, one of my favorites:

Up closer to Castle Geyser


I was worried that a trip through Yellowstone would not go over well with one year olds.  However, thanks to technology they loved being in the car.  They watched movies the entire time we were driving and would occasionally ask to go back to the car during some of our hikes.  While I’d rather my children sit quietly  looking out the window at the beauties of nature instead of being sucked in to a Tom and Jerry movie,  that just doesn’t happen at this age.  And Dev and I were able to enjoy our drive through Yellowstone while looking out the windows at the beauties of nature.