Yellowstone in Pictures

We spent 3 nights in Yellowstone and I took 700 pictures. Seriously.  There is no way I can adequately summarize the whole trip so here is a quick photographic journey through our adventures. I know I love to look at pictures as I blog-stalk others, so I'm humoring myself to think you want to do the same to us. Here it goes, a quick photographic summary of our time in Yellowstone. It is in no way complete, think of it as the Cliff-notes version of our stay.

The sign pic. Enough said.

When we were about a mile into the park traffic stopped abruptly. It turns out a tree fell across the road about four cars ahead of us. Jim went and volunteered his man-muscle to help get it moved away. We were stopped for a half hour or so in which time I heard "I want to go see Grandma" at least 6000 times.

After making it through the traffic jam we stopped to see how soon Old Faithful was supposed to erupt. Since it was only about 20 minutes later we waited for the show. The girls tired quickly of the waiting, but thought the eruption was pretty neat.

There were Bison - of course. We had a great show from this guy who stood right next to the road licking his lips until he dropped and rolled in the dirt. 

And then there was jumping...

And more jumping...

Along with hiking...

And some more jumping...

Followed by some needed meditation. Seriously, who doesn't like to ponder quietly while in nature?

This is perhaps my favorite picture of the entire trip. Ellie and her Moose Tracks. I really would love to know what kids are thinking sometimes. I looked at this picture probably 20 times in the hour after I took it because it makes me laugh every time.

Grandma and Grandpa gave each of the girls $5 to pick out something from the gift shop. That is quite a feat since everything there is a bit more than that. Ellie decided to buy the first thing she saw that was in her price range (a little black bear with velcro on it's paws) but Aeryn stewed over that money for a long time before settling on the little brown moose with velcro on it's feet. I swear the money was burning a hole in her pocket and she could think of nothing else except how to try and multiply it so she could get the $20 bear in the pink ranger vest.

Practicing reading the geyser signs.

Smooches by a waterfall.

Gorgeous colored pools.

Enamored with their new hydration packs.

Self portrait by the falls. Aeryn wore this scarf of Grandma's for probably two days straight. She wasn't even cold. I think she just likes to wear things of Grandma's.

And another. What can I say? It's what I do.

Hiking down a million and a half steps to see the lower Yosemite falls. I think there were actually 340, but it felt like a million and a half by the time we were at the top again. On the way back up we saw the tail end of a marmot scurrying across the rocky outcroppings.

Seeing rainbows in the waterfalls.

It was an amazingly full few days. The weather was gorgeous and for the first time I didn't freeze to death at night while camping, thank you to the air mattress! We all had fun. 

The end.