Yellowstone National Park

Yellowstone was amazing!!! We drove in from Jackson Hole through Grand Teton National Park and went through Moose Junction. It was not pretty. There was a lot of sage brush and not much else, well except for the giant Teton mountain range in the background LOL! I had my concerns that Yellowstone was going to be a bust but as we got to the park we realized that it was going to be much prettier than expected.

Our first stop was at these falls. We were so excited to see something besides sage brush that we spent a lot of time here walking around and throwing rocks.

Old Faithful was at the top of my must do list. We had to wait 15 minutes before it went off. It kept teasing us. I liked the building anticipation but Andrew did not. 

We actually had a pretty long and spectacular show. Apparently you never know what it's going to do. It could be a long eruption or it could be short. It could be a tall spout or it could be short and weak. According to the park rangers we got lucky and had a really good show!

This buffalo was our first wildlife sighting and it was pretty exciting for us.

This place we stopped was awesome. (I'm going to have to get our map out and see where this was) There was steam popping up everywhere. The colors were so vivid they can't even be described. Everywhere we turned we were oohing and awing. 

This picture looks like a post-apocalyptic wasteland or something, doesn't it?

This was another geyser. It was a spunky little thing that kept spouting off.

I have been seeing pictures of the Grand Prismatic Geyser on Pinterest so that was high on my priority list. Unfortunately all of the pictures we see are taken from the sky so we didn't get to see what we thought we were going to see but this mid-basis geyser stop did not disappoint. 

After leaving we saw more buffalo on our drive through the park.

They owned the road and cause a bit of a traffic jam. They weren't in a hurry either.

We (the kids and I) added a new state on this trip. Montana! 

On our way back to the hotel we saw more wildlife. This is an Elk I believe. It was quite majestic just hanging out on this little island in the middle of the river. It was like he was posing for us.

Then he had enough and he left.

Our last stop of the day was the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. It was so impressive. I wish I could have conveyed the grander through pictures but we were losing light fast and this is the best I could do without my tri-pod. I still can't believe I forgot to bring it.

There was so much more in the park that we wanted to see. We never even saw any of the mud pots. The next day the weather wasn't great so we didn't take the time to drive all the way back to Yellowstone. I guess that gives us something to do the next time. We had a long drive (about two hours) to get back to our hotel. It was incredible dark with very little in the way of civilization between us and our hotel. It was a bit of a nerve wracking drive. We saw wolves, a fox and the largest elk ever while driving back. Thankfully we didn't hit anything while driving through the dark and dead park.

Fall Break 2012

This year we didn't think we were going to get go anywhere for fall break. It was a depressing though, especially since the kids had an extra day off this year. Paul and I did a little looking around and decided to do something small and simple. We booked a few nights in Jackson Hole, Wy. I had never been so I was very excited. The kids were up for anything. 

We left Wednesday night with the plan of staying at my parent's that night so we were an hour closer to  our destination. Ever since we bought our new car last year it has had a TPMS light that is always coming on. We've taken it to the dealer and they fix it each time but it still comes on. We've decided to ignore it for the most part. 

As we hit Salt Lake City on our way up to my parent's a new light came on. Paul figured it was just something else and planned to ignore it. I got out the manual and read that it meant that the tire was significantly under inflated and that we should pull over immediately. 

Paul got off the freeway, drove through downtown for a while until we got somewhere "safe" and then pulled over. We got out and watched the tire flatten right before our eyes. I have no idea how we drove on it so long. I'm going with a miracle. 

We called roadside assistance and my parents. My parents got there first and took all of our stuff including the children. We sat in our dark car in downtown with sketchy people walking by for TWO HOURS waiting for assistance. We could have changed the tire ourselves but we would have been putting ourselves at risk on a busy road in a not so nice area. Finally we got help and got to my parents at close to midnight.

Thursday morning we took the tire to my uncles shop and found out the tire was ruined. We had run over a razor blade and it sliced right through the tire. It left a gash about four inches long before it imbedded into the tire. That was an unexpected expense that we had NOT planned on. The tires had less than 10,000 miles on them and were in perfect shape, except for the razor. We put on our happy face and made the best of the situation. What else can you do? 

After getting our car all fixed up we hit the road. We drove through Idaho Falls on the way up. I had never been there before. We stopped at the temple and went through the visitor's center there. It was a nice break in our drive.

After we were done in the visitor's center we went to the other side of the river to see the falls. 

They had a bunch of fun benches in the park that the kids had fun with.

Another fun bench. This one was a double sided horse.

It was time to hit the road again. It was beautiful seeing all the fall leaves.

We arrived at our hotel safe and sound. It was very pretty! We weren't sure what to expect when we booked it. The website didn't have a lot of information so we were very pleasantly surprised.  

We loved the fire pits out front!

The decor inside the hotel was just what I expected for a Jackson Hole hotel. The lobby had a coffee/hot chocolate bar that the kids immediately put to use. They love their hot chocolate! 

Our room was super nice, exceptionally clean and very new looking. I was so relieved! 

We headed into town for dinner and exploring. It was so cute. There were a ton of fun stores and of course the famous antler arches on the corners of town square. This corner was lit up for breast cancer awareness month. It was so pretty!

We went back to the hotel where the boys tested the out the hot tub and Emma and I drank hot cocoa by the fire.

It didn't take long before the boys were joining us. It was such a gorgeous evening! 

We finally went back inside and got to bed. We were all very excited to see the parks in the morning!