Yellowstone

We always enjoy going to Idaho Falls in the summer. This trip we had planned specifically so that we could go to Yellowstone. Brandon was the only one in our family that has been there. Plus my parents wanted to go there. So we decided to make it a duel trip with them. Right before our trip to Idaho/Yellowstone there was historical flooding in Yellowstone that shut it completely down for like a week. We thought for sure our hopes and plans of going there were over and that we would have to try it again another year. Thankfully, the lower loop reopened the middle of that week and we were able to go. When they first opened up the park they were only allowing even license plates on even days and odd numbers on odd days. So it worked out that both my parents and our car had odd license plates. So we rearranged our plan of which day we were heading to Yellowstone and planned to attempt it. We were not sure how busy it would be an we were a little bit worried that it was going to be insanely busy because of some pictures that we saw of the line heading in to the park. We decided to try for it anyways since we were already so close. So we got up early Wednesday morning and made our way to Yellowstone. We were pretty excited to see the line was not that bad as we got to the line to enter the park. In fact, we made it in the park in less than 10 minutes. It was great!! We were super excited that we had made it and were ready for our day of site seeing. 

5 minutes in to our drive through Yellowstone the cars slowed down. I thought we were hitting the traffic blockage and that it was going to be an extra long day. However, we soon figured out the cause of the slow down. There was a Bison right off the road. The kids were stoked to see the wild animal so close. What was funny is I told Brandon that we were only 5 minutes in and we had already seen more wild life than my parents had seen on their Alaskan cruise. Which is crazy! haha The boys were really hoping to see bears and a moose and other animals. Sadly, we didn't see much else besides Bison. I do believe we saw a couple of dear and we saw a dead Elk on our way to the park. 

Our first stop of the day was at the "Paint Pots" 

The boys thought our first stop was pretty cool. They liked the boiling bubbling muddy water. We all felt pretty lucky that we were able to already see a geyser blow. So that was fun! It was kind of crazy to see all of the boiling water bubbling all around us. Even the little bit of streams of water around the dying trees was slightly bubbling. The only thing that made me nervous was Kayden. I could just see him jumping off the walkway into the boiling water and unstable crust of the earth. So I was glad that he stayed close and listened! 

Our next stop was the Grand Prismatic! 

It took us a little bit to find a parking spot at this location since it was one of the more popular sights. Thankfully, we both found parking spots and were headed out to see the sights.

It was crazy how much steam was coming off that pretty pool of blue water. Kayden was not a fan. He would cover his nose and start to cry and say, "stinky smoke". He did not like it at all. Plus his glasses would get all foggy and then he couldn't see anything. So he was not a fan of the smokey part. However, the rest of it was really pretty. Kayden was so tired from getting to bed too late and up too early. So by this second spot he was tired and wanting to be carried. He made it through this spot walking and then we got a stroller out for the next stop. The other boys all thought it was pretty cool. We didn't make it to the top viewing spot to get the big picture of the Grand Prismatic but the colors were pretty from down below as well. 

Then we were off to our next destination. 

More Bison!

Lunch Time!!! 

We packed lunches and after our first 2 stops it was lunch time. We were planning to be away from the cars for a couple of hours so we figured we better eat lunch first. There were ant hills all over the spot we parked and the kids kept complaining that they were getting ants on them and that they were biting them. So we had them sit in the trunk to keep away from them. After some sandwiches, water and chips we were off to see some more Geysers. 

Biscuit Bason!

This pool of water reminded me of "Hoyo Azul" in the D.R. Except this one wouldn't be nice a cool. It would have been boiling. haha Sure looked refreshing and pretty though. 

We got to watch a few more Geysers go off while we were at Biscuit Bason. 

From there we decided to walk to Old Faithful so we wouldn't have to find a parking spot at the most popular spot. Plus we thought it would be fun to see a few more Geysers on the way over. My Dad brought his electric scooter to help his knees while we were out and about. Kayden was in the stroller and as we started on our trek to Old Faithful we realized that we were taking more of a hiking trail than a path. So it was a little rough for the stroller and the electric scooter. 

One plus to going the back roads was seeing Gem Pool! It was another pretty Geyser. It was pretty crazy to think that all of these were full of boiling hot water that was all part of a volcano! 

Then we finally made it to the main path again. 

This rock formation looked like a face so I had Emmett make this face. It matched so perfectly! haha

Emmetts legs got pretty tired on our walk to Old Faithful and Papa was nice enough to let him ride for just a little bit. 

Poor Kayden was so tired that he fell asleep on our way to Old Faithful. So he completely missed it going off! Bummer for him. Although, he is young enough that he probably wouldn't have cared all that much since we had already seen some Geysers going off.

Thankfully, we made it to Old Faithful like 5 minutes before it went off. We were so lucky!! It was perfect timing! We couldn't believe that we had made it in such perfect timing. It goes off like every 2 hours. We were so glad that we wouldn't have to sit and wait around for it to go off. So we picked a spot on the floor and waited for it to blow! 

There she BLOWS!!!! 

The boys thought Old Faithful was super cool! When it went off and really started to blow they were all so surprised at how big it was that they even said "wow" out loud. It was cute!! Wyatt even said that he wanted to wait and see it go off again. 

This Bison kept getting closer and closer to the path. There was a person who even walked even closer to the Bison. Ya he got yelled at! 

Once we got done with Old Faithful we walked over to the visitors center and got the kids some ice cream while we waited for my Dad to take his electric scooter back to get the car. The kids were not ready to walk all the way back to the car. Kayden finally woke up and was pretty grumpy and eventually cheered up when he started to eat his ice cream. 

It took like 40 minutes for my Dad to bring the car back. Then we were off to our last destination before calling it a day at Yellowstone. 

Yellowstone was ginormous and really pretty. 

The kids had so much fun counting the number on Bison they saw. While we were driving around the music stopped playing because of loss of reception. So the boys started making music of their own. haha Our car sounded like a lily pad of frogs oh and a heard of sheep. It was quite funny!!

 

Our last stop of the waterfall I don't recall what the name was but it was pretty!

It was a really pretty waterfall. The kids seemed to have fun exploring all of the sights that day. It was a very long but fun day. 

Once we were done with the waterfall we headed back to Idaho Falls. 

Before making it all the way to Idaho Falls we had to stop at Big Judds for some massive burgers and tasty fries with fry sauce! 

This was my parents first time going to Big Judds. 

In fact this was Emmett's first time that he will actually remember how big the burger was and how tasty it was. 

What a super fun and long day! We left at like 6 in the morning and didn't get back to Idaho Falls until 8:30 that night. The kids were exhausted! We were glad that we decided to try and go to Yellowstone. It was good to be able to finally get to see these beautiful sights!