Summer Vacay 2011

Can you guess where we're at here? Since nobody reads my blog I would assume I am asking myself this...but yes, it is in Yellowstone. We were going to be going down to Cedar City for Jaeden's baseball tournament and make a vacation out of that, but things changed and they decided not to do the tourney anymore...so we said, bag that! We hadn't been to Yellowstone in a few years and decided it would be fun to go up that way again and camp. Yes, as in ROUGHING IT. Let's face it, we couldn't swallow forking over a few bills just for lodging so we'd rough it the old-fashioned way...besides, our boys love camping and we hadn't done it as a family since Braxton was in my belly.

I figured since we'd be going along the same way as Lava Hot Springs, and given the fact we've never been there, we'd add that to our to do list. So I struggled to be organized and make a list of everything we'd need and make sure we didn't forget anything, as we were having to take our food AND lodging with us. Fast forward to the day of, and I suddenly felt my stomach drop as I realized there was no way in hell we'd be able to fit everything into our car, and into our storage unit on top of the roof...the way I pack things, you'd think we were going to be gone a month, not 4 days! So I really thought our little vacation wasn't going to work out afterall and call it quits before we even set out. But luckily I had a BRILLIANT idea, right? Let's rent a trailer to put all of our crap into! That way we will actually have ROOM inside of our car and then we won't even have to take our cargo carrier..good thing, because our key broke off of it last year and so we ordered a new one from Thule and turns out the key they sent us didn't even fit...yay!!! So to make an extremely frustrating situation much shorter, we packed that Uhaul up and even had room to throw in our bikes and take them with us!

So our first night we stayed in LHS. We got there late afternoon, set up camp, and then went swimming. We didn't go to the actual heated thermal pools, but the public pool with waterslides and diving boards. I went on a couple of the waterslides which were a lot of fun; I'm not one to usually go on thoses kinds of things, but wanted to do it this time for some reason, and glad I did!

We didn't sleep very well there, as there was a band of gypsies, literally, up all night partying it up...so much for a family-friendly campground that they claimed to have!! There were also trains roaring through that would blast their horn, waking us from a not-so-slumber sleep...comical to say the least! All-in-all we had a good time, though, and it was fun for us to have our bikes to ride around town in, and there were plenty of s'mores eatin' as well! I'm sure I ate my caloric intake of s'mores for the rest of the year, blech ;-P

Here is a picture of our campground at LHS


The older boys and their daddy at the pool


My cute boys all packed up and ready to head up to Jellystone! I mean Yellowstone!



Entrance into Yellowstone, finally!





Well, gone are the days of heading over to Yellowstone to stop and feed the bears as they'd come up to your car...you can't even leave a scrap of food out at your campground so you don't end up attracting one to your campsite and deal with the threat of being attacked. We went into the heart of Yellowstone to camp in a campground called Canyon Campground. They have other places to camp but I wanted to make sure we had access to a shower and toilets if necessary ;)

We had 3 nights planned for Yellowstone, and as we were driving up, up, and up to our campground area, we realized there was an awful lot of snow where we were to be going, and that it was probably going to get REALLY COLD...yikes! Where's a camper trailer when you need one?!? Luckily for our trailer towing behind us, we were able to pack a lot of extra blankets.

We brought up our own food to make up the majority of our meals, so a lot of time went into prepping and cooking/preparing. We only ate 1 or 2 meals from an actual restaurant, as trying to feed a family of 7 on a restaurant budget ain't cheap! It was a good time, though, as we'd pack a lunch and then find a pretty place to stop and eat it, out in the beautiful scenery of Yellowstone and its surrounding parks.

At nighttime we would make up a load of s'mores to eat and then play some games around the fire...just over the last month, Braxton decided he liked the idea of lighting matches and starting fires, so we figured this was as good a time as any while were wer camping to let him have more practice at it...just hoping he doesn't go into a full-blown pyromaniac someday, unless he can make a lot of money doing it! LOL...Since we just have boys, I figure its important for them to know how to do these kinds of things, and as long as they're being supervised, why not?

Here are the boys all snuggled up in the tent for the night...boy it got COLD!! Probably down in the 30's one night...





Don't mind the Bison walking alongside the road, this is a regular occurance :)



Beautiful, isn't it? I wish I had of payed attention to the name of this place!






One of the coolest things were these "mud pots"...bubbling, sulfuric mud. They made the best bubbling noise, you would have to be there to see for yourself!


It looks so inviting, I wish I could jump right in! Which would in turn, probably melt my skin right off my body :-/


Me 'n 4 of my boys, Jaeden sure missed out!



Old Faithful in all its glory


Gibbon Falls with my boys...again, Jaeden missed out on this pic~ gotta love preteens!


Some more Bison...


Perhaps the most picturesque area of the Yellowstone region is the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. The canyon is approximately 10,000 years old, 20 miles long, 1000 ft deep, and 2500 ft wide.




We hiked down to the brink of the lower falls, which is where we get this first picture. You will notice a white mound in the background which looks like a big collection or pile of snow. That is actually the upper falls pouring out millions of gallons of water per second.


This was at the top of where this hike took place that switches back down into the steep canyon, which we hiked down into. It was amazing to see in person, a picture just doesn't do it justice! The water was overflowing practically, so its no wonder the waterfalls were so amazing to watch.

Here, you could practically touch the water, we were so close to it! I wouldn't dare, though...as you can see, this is the point of no return, baby!!


And its over the edge!!!


Where the waterfall empties out...


My little family, finally down at the bottom of the canyon where the river meets another amazing waterfall, pouring millions of gallons of water down below...


Me and Jason


Jaeden and Teagan


Cameron, Payton, and Braxton


Here we are near Mammoth Hot Springs area...



There is a back road that you take to see a petrified tree stump. A few year ago when we were there, we saw 2 black bears eating berries not more than about 50 feet from us! This time, we came upon this cute little guy you see below...can you tell what it is?


Yep, it's a cute little fox! We, along with a few other people spotted him on the mountainside in front of us. Before we knew it, he was coming down the trail towards us, ever so carefully. By now he was attracting a lot of attention; nobody cared about the petrified tree at this point :) As you can see from the picture, he sat down after he figured it was safe enough to do so, and started checking US out!! It's as if he knew we were all fixated on him, so he just sat there and posed for a while, before taking off back up the hillside. This was one of the funnest things for us to see, indeed. Would have loved to take him back home as a pet, LOL!

We did remember to take a look at the tree stump, so here it is! Pretty cool, I must say...



So this picture is taken at the Dragon's mouth cauldron spring...the water flows back into the cave structure and then spews steam back out, created a dragon-like sound; its really cool.


Here is the mud volcano


Sour Lake behind Dragon's mouth...notice the Bison just chillin' :)


Notice the hot spring whirlpool in the lake, and the bubbling water around it


Some beautiful little foliage growing around the springs


Baterial growth, I just love the colors!



So here we are at the end of our little trip...my boys at a lake with the Grand Tetons behind them.


Let's just say this was one, crazy trip that I don't plan on doing again for a LONG TIME :) Camping for such a long time, roughing it in a tent, nontheless, with young children, is HARD WORK. The kind of hard work you don't truly appreciate until you reflect back on all of the good memories left behind amidst all of the craziness that took place while we were in the thick of it!

Our boys were cranky and fought with eachother most of the time, and I ended up smashing my pinky in the stroller which turned completely black, and has yet to fall off, LOL! But these are the times when our little family, our boys, are creating the memories of their childhood; the glue that holds us together and I'm only creating this annoyingly long blog for myself to be able to look back on one day, when my boys are all grown up. I can then remind them of the fun, yet crazy times we've had together and hope they will want to keep on spending time with their old farts for parents, long after they've had their own families :) THE END.