It was discovered this past summer that Mr. Blue has never been to Yellowstone.
Seriously?
Um, I feel like I practically grew up there!
So, I marched myself over to Target and bought us a tent.
Then we begged and borrowed everything else from our parents, shoved (literally) everything in the trunk of our car (we only shifted the trunk a bit when we closed it - oops!), and headed out an hour or so behind right on schedule.
The kids were great on the drive thanks to a few books on CD.
We arrived at the Yellowstone KOA with just enough time to set up camp, eat dinner, and hit the sack.
Mr. Orange made sure we had a fire going at all times when we were at the campground.
We call him "Fire" now.
Our first day in the park we did the west side of the loop and then headed up to Mammoth.
We found out that Miss Pink absolutely, will not, under any circumstances, not even if her fingernails are going to be pried off, or if a bear is attacking, use a pit toilet.
I have no idea where that came from. I only vaguely, all right, vividly remember refusing to do the same thing when I was her age. Luckily for her we were able to find a flush toilet - a little too late - that were pretty much non-existant when I was young.
The kids were troopers and hiked all over the place. We walked up and down and up and down the stairs and Mammoth, then we needed ice cream. We even ran into the kids former preschool teacher in the line. Small world. After our snack the kids attacked Mr. Blue, pinned him on the ground, and then enjoyed being tossed in the air.
The guys looked at the scenery, Miss Pink and I kicked rocks on the side of the road.
We did see a bear. Way up on the side of the hill.
That was about it for wildlife on this trip.
The next morning, Mr. Orange (aka Patch) helped out with the fire again - right after his bath.
Figures. :)
We decided to do the Lower Loop over to Old Faithful.
We certainly took our time!
We saw lots and lots of geysers going off.
Miss Pink let us know how high they were going.
I'm sure everyone loves people like us. Not only do we stand in front of the signs we hang on them too.
Mr. Orange absolutely refused to smile in any pictures until we got here.
He decided Grand Prismatic Spring was his favorite place so far, so he smiled.
He's a cutie, right?
Miss Pink was doing well, right up until she developed huge blisters on her feet.
Poor thing.
I think that must be one of the reasons that moms and dads have arms.
We finally made it to the Old Faithful area in the late afternoon. We waited for a long time for Old Faithful to be faithful. She was.
Then we walked around the geyser basin.
I have learned to be prepared at Yellowstone so when it started to rain, I pulled out our handy ponchos and off we went.
There were lots of geysers going off. One of them was shooting so high in the air and the wind was blowing and we just about got soaked! It was hilarious to watch everyone running this way and that to avoid getting wet.
We had a great time in Yellowstone. Next trip will have to be a bit longer. And we will head home earlier in the day. Leaving West Yellowstone at 7:30 makes for a late night. We thought the kids would pass out right after dinner, but boy were we wrong! Mr. Orange started his hyperdrive chatting in the backseat and went on and on and on and on and, well you get the idea. I took a nap, woke up, and he was still going! Then all of a sudden it was quiet. Mr. Blue and I looked at each other, then back at Mr. Orange and he was out like a light. He fell asleep mid-sentence.
Phew. Sorry for the long and picture-laden post, but too bad.
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