Saturday morning we got up and got dressed and packed up our stuff, loaded up the cars and then it was time to find some breakfast. Someone at the hotel made some recommendations and then we were off to drive around town to find something. We ended up eating at ‘Running Bear Restaurant’. And after, we made a stop at a local market to get some more sandwich fixings so that we could make our own lunch, since there really wasn’t anyplace to get food IN Yellowstone National Park. When Kyle got back in the car he mentioned that the t-shirt shops were going to be closing for the season in the next day or two and wondered if I wanted to go get the kids some shirts. So we went to do that. We left Alex and Sylvia to watch the kiddos while we went to check out the various shops that sold t-shirts and sweatshirts. We walked into one that had some nice looking shirts, walked around, asked about prices and went to check out another store. The funny thing is that while we were in the other store the SAME guy that was working at the other store was in the back room at this store. I think the back rooms for all of them are somehow connected, and they were all run by the same people. After picking out some cute shirts for the kids (and not really feeling like taking extra time to find shirts for us) we left and headed back to the vans. Then Kyle noticed the candy shop across the street that also sells ice cream and homemade fudge. So we decided to quickly go across the street and get some fudge and some treats for the kids. 😉 We got the kids some rock candy on sticks and we tried a few of their different fudges. The huckleberry fudge was really neat, not to mention that it was a lovely shade of purple. Upon inquiring after the fudge we learned that used real fruit juice in it, that it wasn’t just flavored and colored (so now I wonder how to make my own homemade fruit fudge 😛 ). After getting back to the vans and apologizing for being gone so long, we appeased the kids with rock candy and headed back to the entrance of Yellowstone National Park.
This time when we got to the split in the road, since we had gone south yesterday, we went north toward Mammoth Hot Springs. We made our first stop of the day at Gibbon falls:
The kids spent more time running up and down the ramp at the view point than they did actually looking at the waterfall. But I guess they needed to get rid of some of that energy someway.
Here is a picture of Ethan with the Gibbon River in the background. 🙂
After Gibbon falls on our way northward we spotted these bison taking a nap out in the prairie grass:
The next stop we made was at “Artists Paintpots”. Here we got out and got to go for a short hike/nature walk through some trees:
The boiling mud that we were there to look at was rather thick and really did look like different shades of paint. There was even a mudpot that looked like bubbling marshmallow creme! Here is a view from the top of the hike out on the valley:
Do you see those white dots off to the right side of the picture? That’s where we left our vans. 😉
And just for future reference….”Artists Paintpots” is not a stroller friendly location:
There were lots of stairs, and lots of uneven ground which made steering very difficult. Look at how cute Chloe is. She’s going through this phase where if I ask her to smile, she blinks several times really fast. 🙂
After the paintpots I decided to sit in the back with Ethan so he and I both could see the map. To work on one of the cub scout belt loops he had to show how to orient a map, so I pointed out where we were and we watched the signs so we could see where we were on the map. Also, sitting in the back meant I got to see this cute little face:
She’s so happy to see me. 🙂
Our next stop was at the Mammoth Hot Springs Visitor center. There were elk EVERYWHERE. They were just right there munching the grass right next to the buildings!
There were also a bunch of private houses all around the visitor center. Kyle and I wondered who could be so lucky to get to live in those cute houses with such beautiful surroundings. After we all used the bathroom we got back in the van and went to the parking lot near the hot springs so we could get out and check them out. This was to be our last stop of the day at Yellowstone. It was really windy, and we had to walk uphill to see everything we could. Also we had been told that there was no way for us to use strollers on this trail (hey at least they warned us).
The formations that the hot water had carved out of the rock were very beautiful. The whole trip was fun. It was funny to hear the older kids whine and complain about not wanting to be there, and then in the end admit that they enjoyed the trip. Honestly the only thing could have made the trip better (in my opinion) is if everyone had stayed together. There were way too many times when our whole group was totally spread out and we weren’t really a group anymore. At one point Laurel and a whole bunch of the kids just totally ditched Kyle and myself. I was still unloading Lydia from the car into her stroller and noticed that I was alone. I didn’t think Kyle would leave me. In fact he didn’t, he was still at the bathrooms because Tyra and Dinah needed to relieve their bladders. When he got back to the van I had the lovely joy of telling him we had been ditched! It was really difficult to actually keep the group together, and by the end of the trip I was just getting annoyed at everyone wandering off. How were we to make sure that each of the kids were safe when we couldn’t see them all at all times?
After we saw the hot springs we went back to the car and passed out sandwiches, and grapes and then made our way out of the park, and back to the Adam’s again to spend the night. Some of us went to see the business that they own and run. Ethan and Tyra had a lot of fun watching a couple of the Adam’s boys make snow cones. We got back to the house pretty late and finished putting the kids that were still awake to bed.
We we were able to go to Yellowstone National Park, saw all kinds of things, Ethan and Lars got to work on some cub scout stuff, and we didn’t lose anybody, and HEY Kyle didn’t get into any kind of an accident while trying to save a child! So I consider the trip a success. Although I must say, I think Laurel has a problem driving the speed limit…I mean every time we were driving, we were consistently going a few over the speed limit and that still wasn’t fast enough for her. She was constantly getting in front of us and zooming off! And when we called her on it she had the nerve to tell us to drive faster! Like we wanted to risk getting a ticket for speeding. 😛