This year we went to Yellowstone for our family vacation. We got up early on Saturday, July 23rd to begin our trip to Wyoming. Our first stop was in Cheyenne, where we met up with Grandma, Grandpa, Marshall and Trevor. This stop gave the kids a chance to play around and get the wiggles out before we hit the road again. Our next stop was outside of Kemmer where we stopped for a lunch. This was such a pretty drive, we saw so many antelope and wind mills. Around 4:00 that afternoon, we finally made it to Jackson Hole. Jeremy and I were able to take the kids around down town to show them Antler Arch and some of the fun shops around the park. They had fun seeing all of the neat statues outside the shops. We then headed off to Colter Bay. After being pulled over by a Park Ranger for Jeremy not putting his seat belt on before he put the car in drive and giving the kids complete panic, we soon made it to Colter Bay. We ended checking into our cabin and then headed to the campground spots where Grandpa and Grandma and Jason and Mary were staying. Jeremy and I were in charge of dinner this night. We served hamburgers, hot dogs, chips, pasta salad, and finished with a yummy cobbler. We then hung out for a while and then we headed into our cabin. Our first night, we stayed in a single room cabin with two double beds and one twin. This worked out great and the kids thought it was lots of fun.
On Sunday morning, we woke up and ate breakfast with everyone at the trailers. We then decided we would go hang out down by Jenny Lake. Almost everybody went on the hike around the lake and then rode the ferry boat back to shore. This area of Jackson Hole was very pretty. The water was so calm and amazingly blue. This hike took almost four hours and those that stayed back enjoyed visiting with everyone. After everyone got back from the hike, we headed back to Colter Bay. Once we arrived, the kids quickly got their swimming suits on to play in the lake near the camp ground. The weather was so great and the water was so calm. They had so much fun playing in the water with all their cousins. McKenna, Tyler, Brynn, Trevor, Porter, and Marshall all swam out to the buoy.
Monday morning, we got up early to head off to Yellowstone. Grandpa had picked up some really cute 'Smokey' hats from the Forest Service to take on the trip. When we got to the famous 'Yellowstone National Park' sign, we all wore a hat for a group shot. It was hilarious. Everyone who was waiting for their turn in front of the sign watching us, had to think that we were nuts, but oh well, it made a great Kodak moment. I think Jeremy had more fun with that had than any of the kids. He decided to wear the hat as we went through the Yellowstone entrance. The Park Ranger even commented on his nice hat.
Our trip through Yellowstone was so fun. We started off by seeing 'Old Faithful'. This was fun for the kids to see this amazing, reliable geyser. We were able to get the kids some really fun souvenirs here at the gift shop. After 'Old Faithful', we rode around to see some of the hot pots. This was so fun for the kids to see this natural beauty. After leaving the hot pots, were were able to see one big bull elk off the side of the road. We then stopped to see the Lower Falls waterfall. It is amazing the amount of water and height of this waterfall.
This trip around the south end of Yellowstone, we were able to see three grizzly bears, it was two cubs and their mom. Even though it was quite far away, through the binoculars, we were able to see the mom and two cubs swim across the river, talk about amazing. We also saw several buffalo and mule deer, a lot of these we were able to see up close and personal. After a long day in the car, we stopped at a lodge on our way out of Yellowstone and ate some dinner. We made it back to our cabins where everyone was wore out from a long day.
Our plan for Tuesday was to go tour Jackson Hole. We all met at the Antler Arch park and after that we split up for a couple of hours. McKenna and Trey decided that rather than go shopping, they wanted to go through the 'Ripley's Believe It or Not' museum. This was very interesting to see, yet more fun to watch McKenna take pictures of about everything. She was totally amazed by it all. At 2:00 we met everyone else at the Cadillac Diner for lunch. After a great meal, we spent some time and some of the other shops in town where we bought Trey his sunglasses and the rest of us all got new baseball caps. He then headed out of town to go look for more animals. The only thing that we saw more of was buffalo.
The kids wanted to head to get back in the water, but before we got back to Colter Bay, we stopped when we saw all the traffic to see what the attraction was nearby. We soon found out that there were two bull moose at this swampy area nearby. We walked where we were able to see the larger of the two rested up in some brush. We stayed for quite sometime in hopes he would stand up, but since he never did, we left and then came back later. This time, we were able to watch the big one stand up to eat. With the sun going down, it made it hard to see him, so we began walking back to the car when the small moose came out from the trees and began to eat. It was so so neat to see a moose that close. What made it even more fun was that we were able to stay long enough to watch them both come out from the trees and eat to where we could see them pretty close. What a truly amazing animal. To me, that made the whole trip. Crazy thing of it was is that they were only about a mile outside of Colter Bay, we didn't even have to go into Yellowstone so see such a thing!
After the moose sighting, we went back and had a delicious dinner provided by Jason and Mary. We then headed back to the cabin and got everything ready so we could head out early on Wednesday morning.
We got up around 6:30 a.m. on Wednesday, and soon after getting ready, began our trip home. Our way home we ended up going through Idaho to break up the ride. The ride up was definitely a lot prettier and quicker than the ride home. Even though mileage ways it should only take eight hours, we stopped here and there to give everyone a chance to run and relax. Luckily, our stops were short and sweet and we made it home in 10 hours. Unlike Tyler and Ashley, they ran into traffic jams and it took them a lot longer.
Thank you Jason and Mary for planning such a memorable vacation. There were 20 of the 24 of us in attendance. Since Alyssa was only a couple of weeks old, Justin, Tammy, and Morgan stayed home. We missed them, but hope we can do this again in the future with all of us! We have had this trip planned since November of 2010, back then we thought it would never get here. Now that we have gone and spent this time with family, it will definitely be a trip that we will never forget.
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