Yellowstone

Had a great time with my family in Yellowstone. Along the way we stopped at Mesa Falls.

And along the path to see the falls we found a caterpillar.

My sister put together backpacks and lanyards with flashlights, magnifying glasses and other goodies for the three girls. Then throughout the week they earned buttons by helping with meals, finding animals, etc. that she sewed onto the lanyards. They absolutely LOVED them!

My mom got all the grand-girls matching pjs and Alvin a new set, too.

The first morning we went to Old Faithful

It got a little crazy in our car.

Waiting for Old Faithful

The park was fun but the kids had the best time playing at the house around the yard and under the deck. They built houses out of rocks.

And just played in the dirt.

It was gorgeous!

Just hanging out.

  

Bedtime is always . . . interesting when we're all together. We ended up separating all the kids and then sitting with them and telling stories until they got sleepy. It worked, except the kids were the ones that kept talking and the aunts got sleepy.

On our way to Upper and Lower Falls

Picnic in the woods

We went on the best hike along the Yellowstone River.

The rapids were amazing and a bit freaky at times. 

After trying in vain to take a nice picture of just the two of us we gave up and let the cute, but grumpy little photo bomber be.

We took the kiddos on another little hike/picnic near the house.

I really wanted to take our girls to see the horses down the road or maybe take Richard on a trail ride for his birthday but we ended up not going. Then on our hike a group on horseback came riding down the hill. This sweet woman jumped down and let the kids pet her horse and posed for a picture. It was even better than what I had in mind.

When we got back we did some fishing in the hot tub. Yeah, it's a thing.

Grizzly and Wolf Center

Sometimes nature is lost on children. There are amazing creatures roaming around just yards away and our niece is about to feed the grizzly bears. But there was also a playground nearby. Guess which attraction won out?

Back at the house we got out the parachute, kites and popsicles and then we had one epic squirt gun fight.

Some things to remember:

These wildflowers the girls gathered.

The food. Specifically this food.

This.

And these hand prints I found on the front door just moments before we left. My grandma would leave the fingerprints on her windows for days and days after the grandchildren left to make her feel like they were still around. Well this week went by way too fast and I wanted to leave the fingerprints around a little longer, too.

The kids were AMAZING during the long drive. Lots of activities, snacks and stops did the trick.

Thank you Mom and Dad for a wonderful time spent together!