As we all know, packing up for camping and coming home from camping are all part of the experience of camping. For the adults, it's a lot of work (and kind of stinky). For the kids, getting ready is very exciting! Peter, Elsie, and Kimball ran around in these life-jackets we scrounged for a couple days. They even wore them to the library!
To get them excited about the animals we were going to look for, I made buffalo sugar cookies. We all had fun frosting them. Kimball really caught on to the frosting part. They were fun to eat on those many drives around Yellowstone.
Since this blog is about trying to remember the happy memories our family makes, I won't bother to talk about our drive to Yellowstone, but we were all really excited once we finally got there. We stayed in the campsite Canyon, and loved it. While there we drove along Hayden Valley and Lamar Valley, in search of wildlife. We also went to Mud Volcano and saw lots of neat stuff. The kids were fascinated! We saw lots of wildlife, as these pictures can attest.
There are almost a dozen elk behind the kids, if you squint a little. They (the kids, not the elk) are all in their pajamas. The hope was they would eventually fall asleep as we drove back to our campsite that evening. It worked!
Here's a buffalo we saw about 2 feet from our car. I rolled down my window a smidgen and quickly took this picture. Although they're not typically dangerous, a 1 ton animal isn't something I'm willing to test much luck with. My heart was pumpin'.
These buffalo were hangin' out at the Mud Volcanoes, rolling in the dirt, and keeping each other company.
We saw herds of buffalo in Lamar Valley, right up against and on the road. This was really fun for the kids. We saw baby buffalo, mommy buffalo, and even a couple male buffaloes fighting. That was exciting.
While in Lamar Valley we saw a couple coyotes and a wolf. Apparently, the official wolf expert in Yellowstone stopped by and told us we were watching the Alpha Wolf himself. This was more fun for the adults, but the kids had a hard time getting excited looking for animals through binoculars. After this trip, the kids had it with looking for more animals.
This is how we bribed Elsie to get out of the car to look at animals towards the end - she could bring her coloring. That girl loves to color!
This buck was just wandering through our campsite. He's staring me down in this picture.
A huge elk lounging along the side of the road
A bald eagle. This was one of the highlights for Peter. He's fascinated with them right now.
Between the sugar cookies and these we ate in the car, it's no wonder Mike took a hose to the inside of our car when we came home. It was SOOOO filthy! Half way through our trip we moved camp to Grant Village. This was closer to the Southern part of Yellowstone. Now onto geysers and hot pots!
The Famous Old Faithful! This is never a disappointment.
In the top picture, one must note the sling shot in Peter's hand. All the kids got one as their souvenir. There were rocks and pine cones flying all around our campsite. Peter packed it everywhere. He was on a true adventure! At first, Elsie was afraid of the steam in the hot pots. I don't blame her - the heat and stink is a little unnerving. She eventually got to where she was excited about them though. By the later half of our trip, Kimball was really excited about hot pots and geysers. Every 10 seconds Mike or I were getting whacked by Kimball trying to get our attention as he pointed in a direction and said excitedly, "Water, Water, Water!"
When I told Elsie I was going to take a picture, she got into the pose above. Where did she learn to do that? Just a pretty picture below.
We went on Uncle Tom's Hike, recommended to us by a good neighbor. This was fun for the kids, and included 258 steps (or something like that). Peter felt really tough hiking the hole thing - he was pretty proud of himself. By the end Kimball was tired of being in the backpack, and Elsie wanted to be carried. The scenery was beautiful though and well worth it!
Peter and his dad even managed to squeeze in a couple fishing trips.
During this time Elsie, Kimball and I became expert rock throwers.
Next: Hanging out at the Campsite. I think this was the kids's favorite.
Breakfast - already they're a mess!
We had to watch Kimball close by the fire. He wanted to do everything Peter and his dad were doing. I'm raising some boy scouts, for sure. We really enjoyed our smores in the evenings!
We played tag and we all had special powers we ran around with that Peter and Elsie assigned everyone. It was a lot of fun.
On the way home we stopped in Jackson and walked around for a bit. It was nice, but we were really glad to get home to a clean house.
2 comments:
Now wait a second. This couldn't be the same Yellowstone I went to many years ago, where there were only 2 buffalo and 3 or 4 deer off in the distance, and missing Old Faithful by 5 minutes.
Still sounds like so much fun!
I see Elsie's pose in nearly all her pictures! whahahahah! Eden is a coloring feign as well. and speaking of a one ton buffalo, Mom and I visited yellowstone after I graduated and one ran into our car-yah, woah be careful.
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