After visiting family, they came to our house, and together we drove up to our cabin. Somehow Julie was able to cram all their gear in their car to get to Utah. But on the way, they decided to order a car-top carrier and have it delivered to their relatives house. We kept remarking that it was a miracle they could fit in the car without it.
We also went to Palisades Reservoir one day and let the kids play in the water. We had some tubes and our little blow-up raft. The kids had a blast playing in the water.
After spending a couple days at the cabin, we drove to Yellowstone. On the way, we drove through the Tetons. We have been to the Tetons a few times, but never got very deep into the park. So we stopped a few places and took some pictures.
Then we got to Yellowstone, and saw a bison walking right by the road as we were driving in. We stopped at one place to go hiking. On the way to the trailhead, the bison was heading down the road toward us. Our family hurried and ran down a slope toward the river to get out the the bison's way, but the Brinkerhoff's hurried back and hid in their car. We didn't know where they vanished to for quite a while. It was pretty funny. The Brinkerhoff girls named that bison "Hot Cheeks". The next day, while driving in the car, Luke asked, "What was the name of that bison again? Butt cheeks?" From then on, he named every bison "Butt Cheeks".
Another time as we were hiking along, I was right behind Luke and he was talking to himself. I overheard my favorite quote by Luke. He said, "I feel like I'm walking like an eagle with broken wings." That kid is nutso!
After the first geyser hike, we finally reached the campground and set up camp.
Unfortunately Isaac forgot to pack a sleeping bag and air mattress for Hazel. So the first night was pretty terrible. She was freezing and had to come in my sleeping bag, which meant that I didn't get much sleep. But then we ended up zipping Sophie and Aspen's bags together (which are really big) and letting Hazel sleep in between them. That ended up working much better.
We spent a day going to see Old Faithful and the geysers in the surrounding area. I didn't realize there were so many geysers in such a small area. It was interesting to see how many different kinds of geysers there were. Some exploded, like Old Faithful. Some went off regularly, and others randomly. Some were really steamy, others super stinky. Some were really clear, others were deep. Others farted mud (those were Luke's favorites). I think Brian took a picture of every single geyser we saw.
We hiked quite a few miles along the paved trails around Old Faithful. The kids were getting really tired of hiking by the end, so we stopped and got them an ice cream cone at one of the gift shops. I kept telling Isaac and Brian that ice cream makes everything better, and they seemed surprised that the kids perked right back up after that.
Another day we hiked to Yellowstone Falls. There were a few falls that we hiked to. The kids were getting really sick of walking by the end, so I had to distract them with spelling games. It actually worked quite well. Interestingly, Hazel was the kid who wanted to walk the most. She would scream and scream that she wanted to walk, but unfortunately she was also the one who wouldn't stay on the trail, hold anyone's hand, or not get distracted by every little thing. So she was the one kid that we didn't want to let walk.
We let each kid pick one souvenir from the gift shop. Sophie chose a pocketknife. She had a lot of fun trying to learn to whittle things.
One afternoon we decided to drive to an area of the park that was further away. The kids were all getting worn out, so we thought I nice long drive would give them a break. It turned out to be perfect timing because a big rainstorm came through while we were in the car, and ended just about the time we parked. We hiking around a little more and then walked into "town" to get more ice cream.
On the final morning, Brian and Isaac got up early to do one last hike before we had to pack up. They said the geyser was really creepy because a bunch of mist was coming off it from the cold morning air. The kids were sad to say goodbye. It was so nice to have friends with kids who got along so well (except for poor Luke being the only boy).
We stopped for one last lunch and played in the river for a few minutes before parting ways. The kids were all sad to say goodbye and are looking forward to the next time we can get together.
On the way home, we stopped at a pizza place in the middle of nowhere. It was actually really good, and Hazel was posing so adorably, we thought they should use it for their ad.
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