Yellowstone July 2009

Jay waiting around

Joel and I thought we'd try our hand at a good old fashioned family trip--and what says family trip more than Yellowstone National Park? Nothing does. Days off were taken, bags were packed and reservations made. We started off our trip with a luxurious one-night-stay in exotic Layton, Utah. Let me explain. We went to Lagoon all day our first day, then since we were over an hour into our trip we stayed over night there on our way up to Yellowstone. Here are some pics of the not-so-magical kingdom (But hey, we did have fun--the kids liked the Pioneer village best . . . go figure). Followed by some of Yellowstone.

the famous (or is it infamous?) log flume ride. one corner, one climb, one drop, then another corner . . .and . . . done.

one cutey paTOOTHy!

love this Roooobs

Now, try to pose fancily (they succeeded!)

scared or happy?

Old Faithful (all of our first time seeing it!! check!)

Yeah! a picture with Daddy in it! This was at Mammoth Springs (?) in Yellowstone-- I loved how the steps formed coming off the geysers.

Who wants to see Old Faithful when you can look at this cute face instead?

Eden, Ruby and some dude waiting for Old Faithful to erupt

We pulled over to see this Buffalo grazing. We were out of the car for a total of 2 minutes and Ruby received 9 mosquito bites on her little legs. ITCHY! But isn't this place beautiful?

We went on a little boardwalk around this river the first day we were there.

A REAL eagle sitting in her nest--very cool! (So cool, in fact, that she caused a 30 minute delay getting into the park every day!)

Mommy, Deedee and grumper pants

Shhhhhhhh. she doesn't know I'm taking her picture! :)

my 2 favorite gals!

Laying on the dock, just feeding gigantic fish with processed cheese! This was at Big Springs.



We met up with Mimi and Grandpa for a day on our trip-- its always more fun to see big fish when there's little people around! We had so much fun with them--especially when we got to see the wolves howling and the kids (not our kids--we got there too late--rats!) hide food for bears to find (at the Grizzly and wolf discovery center). We also got to picnic together at Mammoth Springs.

Jay was just glad to get home and get out of that suitcase!

Pheeeeeww!

Yellowstone was great--but we always love being home together too!

We had a great time--we loved The grand Teton National Park with its breathtaking jagged mountainous points. We stopped in Jackson Hole then drove on through Star Valley Wyoming and stayed in a motel/cabin where we were so tired that we plopped down and watched probably 4 episodes of Hannah Montana then went out for pizza. It was beautiful and relaxing there--in the middle of farms, rivers and mountains ( I guess I've got some Johnson blood runnin' through m' veins!)

Back to summer nights at home--AAAAHHHHHHH! the best!