We left after tumbling got over on Wednesday to spend the night at my parents house. We thought taking two hours off our drive up to Island Park would help. It was fun. We got there and put the kids to bed and got to chat with my dad. We got up pretty early, because Tannen is a morning bug. It was October 14th, and Marcus and mine 10 year anniversary. Love you baby!! We got ready and left. Since Aria is so little we decided to wander our way up to Island Park. We were not in any hurry, and knew we would have to make lots of stops for feeding and such.
We drove up and found Yellowstone's Bear World over by Rexburg and decided to take a stop and play there for a couple of hours. It was around 10:00 or 11:00 in the morning. We had a great time there.
What is Bear World without bears? It was really neat, they let you in gates and you get to slowly drive around and look out in the fields where the animals were. They had elk, deer, wolves and of course bears.
Having a snack
I knew I had wild animals for kids.
More bears
They also had small carnival rides that you could play on that were part of the ticket price to get in. Since it was a Thursday and in the morning there weren't a lot of people there. My kids didn't wait in line and pretty much took the operators and told them which ride they wanted to go on next.
Tannen enjoyed the train ride.
But his favorite was the car rides.
Here we all are at Bear World. They had a petting zoo also. The kids got to feed ducks, pigs, goats, and got to pet them also. Tannen like to chase the animals around. And the pig liked to follow us around after we feed him hoping for more food. I did buy fudge there and it was delicious.
We stopped off in Rexburg for lunch, and got to drive by the new Temple. It was very beautiful, and another good break for the kids. We made it up to Island park probably around 4:00. We checked in and let the kids play around on the grounds at the bed and breakfast. Then we decided to go our for dinner. After that we made our way back and put the kids to bed and hung out. Aria wasn't a good sleeper and she cried really late into the night.
We woke up once again pretty early and set out on Friday for Yellowstone. We left probably before 8:30. The kids were very excited because they really wanted to see Old Faithful. They thought it was pretty neat to drive through three states in one day.
Right when we got into the park we hadn't driven very far and there was a huge pile of cars pulled of to the side. We decided to follow the crowd and see what was going on. There was a large herd of Elk that everyone was stopping to look at. They were just peacefully grazing, and we were able to get out of our car and get some pictures. What is Yellowstone without the animals?
Landon and Kylie standing close to the elk.
We didn't get too far and I was able to see some bison. Marcus pulled over and we got a picture, but we were not interested in getting out of the car. We were chatting in the car with the kids and Kylie asked if it was a boy or girl bison. We said it was a boy. Looking later she spotted another bison and informed us that it was a girl one. We asked her why and she said "You can see it boobs." We chuckled as it was another male, but as you can see they really are pretty top heavy.
Firehole Falls
Bison on the road. It actually kind of freaked me out because they started jumping and bumping into each other and I didn't want them to kill our Yukon. They were very close to us.
Fountain Paint Pots. They were very fun to look at. But the kids did notice how much they stunk. They would hold there breath when the steam would blow over by us. And of course there was much discussion on farting and such. We also had great snacks, as you can tell by Landon they liked their tongues changing colors.
We were able to go on small detours in the car and not get out. We took the Firehole Lake Drive and I was able to nurse Aria in the car. The kids enjoyed looking at the geyers, but we didn't see any erupt on that drive.
We made it to Old Faithful!!! The kids had such a long wait to see Old Faithful. After which Kylie informed us that it sucked. The wait was so long and the geyser didn't go off for very long.
They built a new visitor center at Old Faithful. We were able to walk around and read. They also had interactive stuff for the kids to play with. We stopped off for lunch here and stayed for a little bit. The kids were able to pick out a small souvenir. Landon was able to get a small pocket knife. Marcus was in charge of deciding that it was allowed. And Kylie picked out some twisty up crayons to color in the back seat. She was given a coloring book to help her stay entertained on the drive at the beginning. Landon got a really neat 3D book on animals.
More bison by the road. There was big grassy fields and large herds of animals out grazing.
Walking Walking Walking, we did a lot of walking. On our way to the Artists Paintpots.
Wendi and Aria, I think she is asleep at the Artist Paintpots
I this was a mud paint pot. This area was really neat. There was a long walk to get to it, and then you hiked up the stair way to look over the area. But when you were at the top there was a variety of pots and colors and it did look like an Artists Paint board.
Landon loved loved loved Yellowstone. He loved being in a huge volcano, and learning about it. During the walks and trip he decided to be a scientist, because he thinks like one. He kept spouting off information that he made up about geysers and such. We had to tell him to preface everything he said with his own hypothesis. But that he was free to make any assumptions that he wanted.
Tannen cute as ever.
Our last stop was the Norris Geyser Basin. They had tons of geysers to look at. What seemed amazing to me was being able to walk and just a few feet away there was another one that seemed totally different. The day was really nice, just jacket weather, but by the last stop it started to sprinkle and rain. We were worn out and exhausted from all our adventures. It was 6:00 by the time we left Norris.
Cutie patutie
Family picture taken by Landon.
On the way home there was a huge herd of Elk again, except this time they were on the move on the side and crossing the road. Tons of people were pulled over and trying to walk up close to get pictures. Marcus the brilliant person that he is just drove stopped in the middle of the road real quick (it was stop and go anyways) and snapped a picture of the male. Then he was watching all the female where they were heading and drove up where no one was and pulled over and waited for the male to come. We got a pretty cool video of him running up into the trees. Then we drove off, and tons of cars behind us went off chasing the male.
We stopped in West Yellowstone for dinner and headed off to Island Park. We got back late and put the kids to bed. Aria was a stinker again, but I gave her to Marcus instead.
We got up again early, but really hung out in the morning not in any hurry. After we had us all packed and loaded we headed on out to make a nice long wandering way home. We stopped off at Big Springs in Island Park and the lady at the bed and breakfast gave us some bread to feed the trout. It was a rainy day so I took Landon and Kylie and Tannen out in the rain to feed the fish. The trout were huge and would almost jump up in the water to get the bread after it had fallen. If the fish didn't get it the the ducks waiting behind the fish would. I thought it was interesting that the ducks didn't get any closer to the trout. Marcus thought it was because the trout might nibble their feet to fight them off. I had Tannen on my shoulders and would give him pieces of bread to throw in. After a few pieces of being dropped in they stopped coming down and he started eating them.
Then we stopped off in Mesa Falls. It was gorgeous. But it did make me nervous of the height.
Had to sneak in a picture of Marcus because he always seemed behind the camera.
Cheese!
Landon really likes his pocket knife, can you tell?
We continued on our adventure and decided to stop in Idaho Falls and show the kids the Temple and Falls. Landon and Kylie best buds aren't they cute!!
The Girls
We then decided to eat in Blackfoot since Rochelle and Brendon always talked about Rupes. We got directions from them and ate their. And it was delicious. We then stopped off in Pocatello at Rochelle's and looked at Halloween costumes. Marcus filled up on gas and stayed in the car because Tannen had fallen asleep. Then we journeyed on down to McCammon and stopped by because it was Marilyn's birthday. We hung out and had cake. Then we finally made it home. It was late but the kids had a wonderful time.
2 comments:
Sounds like it was a really fun trip. I liked the pictures, very cute.
what a fun trip! it's so nice to get away sometimes.
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