Yellowstone

For the past four or five years I believe that Donna has considered disowning me from the family because I'd never been to Yellowstone. Luckily Donna is the merciful/generous type so instead of taking those rash actions she just planned a trip to Yellowstone for while we were in Idaho!

We invited Luke to join us. Luke is a sweet little nephew of ours, 4 years of age, who has twin brothers just older than him and another set of twins that were born in February. He is a Luke sandwich with twins for bread.

So, we decided (with permission) to steal Luke from preschool and his family to give him some attention - but soon we realized, he also provided the entertainment!

I got to sit in the back of the car with him and we read lots of Curious George and learned all about trucks, and then things got pretty crazy when he taught us his "knight song" and his "army song" (basically these songs are just sound effects of what a knight or army battle might sound like).

We stopped at Big Judds on the way to Island Park and big-boy Luke ordered for himself. He looked at the waitress and said...

"I want chicken nuggets and ranch and a beer!"

 He loved that (root) beer. And Paul, Donna, and I split the giant Judd hamburger. I love restaurants that provide me with fry sauce instead of making me ask for Mayo (which I do at every fry-serving restaurant, I'll have you know).

We got to Island Park and Donna saved us from freezing to death (the overnight low was 17 degrees) by renting a nice little cabin right on the river. We went down to the dock to throw some rocks and even spotted some Moose!

We played card games and ate yummy treats then went to sleep. We woke up to a chillllyyyyy morning. (By the way, this was on September 13th - I know I'm behind on blogging, but I just needed to remind myself/everyone that is was supposed to still be summer).

But is there anything better then waking up in a chilly cabin, and seeing this out the window?

Luke asked Paul to take him back down to the dock. I loved watching them skip rocks from the porch. 

 Then they froze, so it was time for some good wrestling before we headed out to Yellowstone.

(Dad, please forgive me for the through-the-car-window picture. Sometimes I just need to remember those beautiful colors and far reaching landscapes and it was 26 degrees outside!)

Evidence of the famous 1988 fires (I think).

I loved Yellowstone with my whole heart. Every stinky, steamy, scenic moment of it. 

Who knew there was a huge canyon in Yellowstone? Not me!

But I had heard about the Buffalo/Bison hanging out by the cars. I loved that part.

This was Lukey's favorite. Let's first remember that he called Yellowstone "Lellowstone" and Geysers were pronounced "Guyyyys-as". This particular mud pit was called "Dragon's Mouth" because the lapping of the liquid in the cave sounded like a dragon was in there, plus the great steaminess of it all. Luke couldn't wait to tell his brothers about it and had me take a video so he could show them. 

We got stopped in a line of cars and soon realized all my Asian tourist friends were taking pictures of some Elk in the distance. Another animal to check off the Yellowstone-sighting list! I stepped out of the car to take some shots and soon the Papa Elk and its baby just decided to the come down the hill right at me. I had to run to the other side of the car to protect myself and I jumped in the back seat as quick as I could. Poor Lukey was asleep and I had to climb over him to save myself from Elk-trampling and woke him up. But, I did get some nice Elk pictures!

 I also never knew Yellowstone had a lake. What more could you ask for??

Maybe a glow in the dark animal friends shirt?

whyyyy didn't i buy this??

Time for some Old Faithful and bonus finger of the stranger who took the picture!

I loved our company. 

Old Faithful Lodge was awesome yet pompous and I want to live in that treehouse.

I liked having that blue dot be in Yellowstone, and next we were driving through Grand Teton National Park. All that green of National Parks is such a beautiful thing to me. 

We got back on the road and Luke and I loved some more curious George. We pretended the forest fire in the book was a geyser.

I really wanted to see the Tetons, and it just so happened that our timing was perfect, and also mother nature added in some smokey/haziness for special effects. Get ready for a million mountain/sunset pictures but each one is better than the last!

Thanks to Paul and Donna for pulling over and letting me take pictures that weren't out of the car with the windows rolled down. 

After we got our breaths back after that sunset, we continued our drive and stopped for dinner in Jackson Hole, WY - which was a fantastic place to be.

Forever thanks for Donna to making this trip happen, for Paul for driving a million hours in one day, and for Luke for being the best traveler and little buddy you could ask for.

I loved every second of it.