Family Adventure ---- YELLOWSTONE!

We got back from our Yellowstone tour this past Tuesday night. Here's a recap...

Last Wednesday we flew out real early to Salt Lake City(Amelia's favorite - going in the car in her jammies at night). Within an hour of landing in Salt Lake Drew had a runny nose, which we knew would turn into an outright cold. We stayed in Layton, UT the first night. Kids went swimming, had pizza and went to bed east coast time (2 hours difference).

We were ready by morning to take the four or so hour drive to West Yellowstone, Montana. We arrived to our hotel - the one with the wooden bears climbing all over it and went to the Grizzly Zoo which was across the street. We watched the grizzlies and also the wolf feeding, more importantly the girls played on the playground.

The next morning we went into the park. The girls got their wildlife look out papers from the Rangers. Amelia was looking for big horn sheep, while Ava was looking for bear. We were all very excited with our first animal sighting - elk, and then a lonely bison walking along side the road. We weren't ever able to find those bear or those big horn sheep. We stopped at many of the thermal feature boardwalks and enjoyed them even more than on our past trips. It was great to see how interested the girls were, especially Amelia. We made it a short day in the park to get back to the pharmacy to pick up Drew's antibiotic which I called our doctor at home for. Drew and Jenna were in full cold mode at this point. The girls did some more swimming at the hotel while dad and Drew got some much needed rest. After the swim and Ava now napping Amelia, Jenna and I walked into town for ice cream and to find Dave's favorite beer - Moose Drool. Mission Accomplished. We spent the night shopping - happy kids out at night like college kids (late at night).

The next morning we drove back into the park to see Old Faithful, the Lodge, waterfalls and more geysers. We made our way to Mammoth Hot Springs - our next hotel stay.

We arrived at Mammoth ready to get out of the car, but unfortunately to find out how little bitty, bitty our hotel room was. It would be a long night, but staying there in Mammoth with the Elk herd right outside the window (Drew & Dave being bugled at by a very concerned bull elk) and with the beautiful scenery this would all take away from those tight quarters. We celebrated Ava's third Adoption Day (September 27th) in Mammoth. That night, Jenna and I wandered the hotel lobby from 2:30-3:30 am. Just us, the front desk clerk, a very cold wind and a very very dark sky.

Morning came kind of quickly..... We had to change travel plans - we were to head south, but fires in the park closed some roads, so off we went - north to Chico Hot Springs (as planned) and then back to West Yellowstone (a change). Chico Hot Springs is a resort outside of Yellowstone where there is a natural flowing hot spring pool. The air temps were warmer than normal (60's). The water temps were very warm (100's). The kids loved our time at the hot pool. The girls found friends and Drew sang a happy song for all of Montana! We drove through Bozeman and on Dave's favorite route back to West Yellowstone. We spent the last day with one last short drive in the park and then driving back through Idaho to the same hotel in Layton, Utah.

Our kids seem to love to travel and are very good at it! This makes Dave and I happy. We love this kind of travel and are loving sharing these adventures with our kids. We weren't ready to come home! While driving to the airport Tuesday morning, we contemplated a different adventure...... heading east to Cheyenne, but no..... home and our day to day lives were there waiting for us.... When can we go back? or Where can we explore next?