Yellowstone 2010

(I really want to blog about our trip to California, but first I must blog our adventure in Yellowstone. September was a crazy month so I didn't get this done when I wanted to :)

We went to Yellowstone over Labor Day Weekend with Andy, Mycah and Will.

We got a late start so we didn't arrive in West Yellowstone till 9pm on Friday night.

The campsite that we stayed at was falsely advertised as a campground.

It was nothing more than a dirt parking lot behind a motel. But it was late and a holiday weekend so we set up the trailer. The original plan was for Andy and Mycah to sleep in our cool truck tent, but Ches didn't feel right about that, so we squeezed them into the trailer. It was soo freezing cold that weekend that we were all glad to be snuggled together for warmth.



Saturday morning Andy and I planned our course for seeing Yellowstone

Ches brought along his binoculars to see the wild life. He was looking at some elk across the river. The kids loved to stop and see the animals.



One the geysers along the road.

Here we are at Upper Geyser Basin

So Beautiful

Andy, Mycah, and Will at Norris Geyser Basin

Mammoth Falls

More Mammoth Falls, I loved the two colors of the Falls

Kids being crazy at Mammoth

After a bathroom break at Mammoth, Andy and Mycah's car wouldn't start.

We tried jumping the battery, but it didn't help.

A storm had blown in so it was windy and rainy, so we spent a lot of time in the van. Kimmie and Willl had a lot of fun playing together.

The boys were really good at helping keep Will entertained as well.

Andy ended up calling a tow truck, they had the car towed back to West Yellowstone. By the time we got back into town and got things settled with the tow truck it was almost 8pm, so we bagged our original dinner plans (of beans and hot dogs) and went out for Mexican food. The food was soo good. It was Lee's birthday so he got a piece of pie ala mode and was a bit embarrassed by the attention.

Our original plan was to break camp Sunday morning and head home. But things were not going as planned. It was a great blessing that we brought the van and the truck, so we could figure out what to do about the broken car, and safely drive around. After breakfast Mycah and I broke camp while Ches and Andy took the car battery over to the local auto store to have it tested, it showed a charge, so they put it back in the car and it started!
What a blessing that they didn't have to get the car repaired in West Yellowstone.

We didn't get to Old Faithful on Saturday, so we decided to go back to Yellowstone to see more of the park. We left the car with the trailer and took the van and truck.

We stopped at Fountain Paint Pot Geysers. It was really cold and windy ~ helped keep the sulfur smell from being too strong.

Around lunch time we made it to Old Faithful. Kimmie and I are waiting on the bench.

The wait was a bit long so Mycah and Andy took the kids over to some fallen Lodge Pole pines and they played till it was time for the eruption. The boys made teeter totters out of the pines.

Ches passed the time watching YouTube on his Droid.

There were some ravens circling the geyser.

Family Photo after the eruption.

We loved having Mycah, Andy and Will with us. We drove home after seeing Old Faithful. Andy and Mycah stayed the night with us at home, (we were happy to get an extra day with them) and luckily car had no more problems.
In the end, we had a great adventure in Yellowstone this year.