Yellowstone!

This is how Jude reacts to skipping a nap. Just drags all us stuff to the kitchen floor.

Right now it is the evening of Tuesday, July 22nd. I know this because I checked my phone. Yep. That’s how totally out of the loop we are. Two nights ago, Shawn and I were at dinner (date night #4 – Holla) and I asked him what day it was. He didn’t know either. We had to look at our phones. It’s hard to describe how great that feeling is after all the years of living and dying by the clock, end of the month, end of the quarter, end of the year. For the last 10 years or so, Shawn’s alarm has gone off at 3:30 in the morning. Now, you might catch him in bed at 5:45 – that’s a rare sighting – even on vacation! We have also had a severe lack of phone and internet signals, so it has been quite the technilogical detox!

The last few days in Yellowstone have been amazing. (The word Yellowstone always makes me think of my dear friend Fran who worked here for a summer when we were in college! J) We had heard from multiple people that you just cannot describe what Yellowstone is like, and they are totally right. The topography here (apparently I use that word now) is crazy. It is actually hard to believe that this area is a part of the same country that we live in because it is so insanely different and exotic and just beautiful. Everyone needs to come here. My pictures just won’t do it justice.

We started off our first full day with laundry. Lots and lots of laundry. My mother in law has been amazing at doing SO much of our laundry in her coach, but with 3 small children, two of which are boys, it is literally never ending. I think the boys each go through about 2-3 outfits a day. Especially Jude. Between the fact that he is the most accident prone human I have ever met (one look at his legs and I think someone would call social services) and his pacifier that we still let him have (which is totally embarrassing and self-serving) that causes him to drool all over the front of his shirts, it is just a party of clothes up in here. So we got all of the clothes washed and sheets washed and eventually dried and it was already after lunch. So we decided to be smart for a change. Let’s do something close by and quick. We figured Jude could go without a nap for a day and there wasn’t much point in trying to go explore part of the park right now – we will save that for later. So we took the kids about .02 miles to the Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center. It was exactly what the name states. Kind of a hybrid between a museum and a zoo and we got there just in time. The workers were hiding food for the bears in their “field” and right after we got there, at 2:30, they let 5 different grizzly bears out, one at a time in order to introduce them, and we got to watch them in very close proximity as they searched for their food, ate it and then played with each other for about 90 minutes. Of course after about 7 minutes, the kids were ready to keep exploring. We saw Raptors, Owls, Bald Eagles and a few packs of wolves. We had been the only people in the Wolf viewing area and then a group with a tour guide came in and started giving all of this history and background on the “wolfpacks”. It was all I could do to not think of ‘The Hangover’ and giggle. We got to watch the bears “westlewing” before leaving – super fun for all of us!

The next morning we ate breakfast and hit the road. We headed to Old Faithful where we had some lunch and got to watch it explode right in front of us while we ate! Very cool. After that we headed to the Midway Geysers. They are simply amazing. There is a little boardwalk that you walk on and the geysers are basically all around you. The wind was really strong that day so the steam from the geysers was just smacking us in the face. I was fine with that. Free facial. Toward the end of the walk, a huge gust came and off blew my hat. The only hat I brought on this trip and that I basically wear every day. Luke screamed and cried so loudly like I had fallen into the darn thing. Poor kid. He must like that hat as much as I do. Thankfully there was some unusually tall teenage boy right next to me and he laid on his stomach on the boardwalk and was able to extend his go-go gadget arm and grab my hat. Whew.

When we got back to the RV, Jude was exhausted from skipping his 2nd nap in a row, and my in-laws decided to do another early dinner so we could go out after them. Trusty Tripadvisor hooked us up with an awesome little gem and we loved every bite. Bratwurst & sauerkraut with balsamic glaze (my first!), flat iron steak with chimmichurri sauce (ridiculous – Shawn had total order envy) and we ended it with Huckleberry bread pudding. Huckleberry is the local fruit here so you can find it in any form and it was totally delish as a bread pudding! The bartender was also outstanding so that was a huge bonus – fun grown up night!

The next day we had planned a full day of sightseeing. We packed a cooler and woke the kids up early and headed out at 7am. Okay, not really. That was the plan. We left at 8:30. But that was still good for us. We saw many of the must see sights including the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone and the Lower and Upper Falls. I am pretty sure the Falls took about ten years off of Shawn’s life. My mom would have been proud to have seen the full on freak out he was having on this walk/hike, and rightfully so. You descended down a path that kept doing switchbacks, was fairly slippery as it was made of loose gravel, and was pretty crowded. One side did not have a railing, which was the side that led straight down to the falls. Mamaw had a death grip on Macy, I had Luke and Shawn had Jude. On every turn, Mamaw and I would switch Macy and Luke to hold our hands on the other side. Shawn flat out refused to let Jude walk so he held him the whole time. (Holy workout. That kid is a beast.) Once we got to the bottom where you can view the waterfall, Shawn’s freak out mode was in full effect. He wouldn’t even go view the falls because he was gripping the kids. I had to walk away from the view and then hold the kids, before he would go to the railing and look. If I didn’t love that man a ton already, I loved him more that day. We did a good job on him, mom. J In all seriousness, it was really crazy at the view point and the falls so severe that it wasn’t like they would just get hurt if they slipped in. That would be the end of them. And it wasn’t nearly as secure of an area as you would think.  A crappy metal fence with holes in it. If there is anything I have learned about my boys while being in a 350 square foot radius of them for 4 weeks, is that they are clumsy and they do not have the ability to think about what might happen to them in the next 30 seconds. It’s astonishing really. So there was good reason for his (and my) fear on that hike. We got our photos and headed right back up the mountain. Shawn and I each got to hold one boy so extra bonus points for us!

During the day we had the good fortune of spotting 3 buffalo, which are MASSIVE, but no bear yet. (Totally fine with that.) We headed to the best ranked pizza joint, ate our tired faces off and hit the hay.

I think yesterday took a lot out of all of us. Today we took it easy and hit the playground, did some shopping in town and cooked up some yummy spaghetti for dinner. Tomorrow is our last full day and we plan to cram in as much as we can. I have our cooler ready to go! This park is 2.2 million acres and definitely not something you can see in a few days. We were talking to Marty and Julie across the spot from us this morning and they have been coming here for 38 years from Colorado and said it is different and more beautiful every year. Looks like we will be coming back for sure.

Oh and a washer update! The campground gave us some suggestions as to people to call to help us with the washer. Mr. Randy, who lives about 2 hours away and works in West Yellowstone Monday – Friday, showed up last night and not only does he know what is wrong with the washer, he has a technician buddy at the washing machine company and the part is being overnighted as we speak. We should be washing some stinky little boy clothes as early as 4pm tomorrow! Whoo hoo! J

Final HUGE update! Macy just started riding her bike without training wheels! All our cautious, rule following child needed was a little competition from 3 sweet sisters from New Mexico and she took off – outstanding!

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