Yellowstone 2

Saturday we had pancakes, bacon, cereal and poppy seed muffins for breakfast.  It was so nice to have a full kitchen to actually cook on vacation.  Then we set out to see some wild animals.  Some of the roads were still closed and there was a section of road under construction, but besides that the roads were great and there wasn't much traffic (a benefit to coming during the off season).   First up- Bison and calves.  The calves are hilarious to watch.  They are so cute, but very spastic.  Bison are 6 feet tall, weigh 2000 pounds and can run 30 mph.  We also saw some elk, mule deer, sand hill crane and a grizzly bear with her cub.

Old Faithful Geyser.  The heat from the volcano's magma combined with ground water creates the park's hot springs, geysers and other thermal features.  Every 60-90 minutes the most predictable geyser on Earth shoots thousands of gallons of water 106-180 feet in the air.  It lasts for 2-5 minutes.

 That evening Kaiden baked some play doh star cookies.

 Mammoth Hot Springs- hot pools and rocky formations with dissolved limestone.  The water flows over and forms the travertine.  There is a terrace that wraps around so you can hike to the top. 

 Liberty Cone

Yellowstone National Park

I packed all the clothes, bathroom gear, went Costco shopping for tons of food, loaded up the 4-runner and drove to Jason's work Wednesday afternoon.  He had road his bike to work that morning.  Then we took off.  I drove 3 1/2 hours to Missoula, where we stayed in a hotel for the night.  The following morning we hit the road and I drove another 4 hours to the West Entrance of Yellowstone.  We stayed with Lee, Debra and Faith in their 2 bedroom Time Share Condo, which was 1 mile from the entrance.  About 20 minutes from the condo Connor got car sick and we had to stop by the river to walk around for a bit until his stomach settled down.  We met some fishermen and saw some crawdads while we rested.  The roads were windy and it's typical for Connor to get car sick, so we travel with a puke bucket just for such occasions.  We spent the evening visiting and resting in the condo.  The boys laid on their Murphy bed and watched movies, while we visited. 

 Thursday after breakfast we set out to explore.  Lee, Debbie and Faith have been to Yellowstone about 6 times now.  They love exploring the park, so they showed us around.  We had walkie talkies in the car, which Debra was a fantastic tour guide and pointed things out along the way.  The weather was colder than we had expected, in the 40-50's with rain.  When I had looked up the temperature to pack it said 60's, but I didn't realize Yellowstone is 2.2 million acres... so, I'm not sure which part of Yellowstone I was getting the forcasted weather for.  Even if it was a bit chilly we had a blast exploring.  We walked the boardwalks and drove around. 
First stop was Midway Geyser Basin.  Celestine Pool

 Silex Spring.  The hot pools get their colors from a collection of tiny organisms called thermophiles.  Different species are different colors and live in the different water temperatures.

 Fountain Paint Pots, which are thermal mud pots.  They smell like rotten eggs from the hydrogen sulfide gas.  Jason bought Connor a heat gun, which tells you how hot each of the geysers are.

 Excelsior Geyser Crater.  It was so misty that we couldn't see the crater very well, but we still had fun walking around the board walk checking things out.

 Grand Prismatic Spring- the largest hot spring in the U.S.

Fishing and Cirque du soleil

We took the boat out fishing on Silver lake in the morning.  Connor's friend TeJon came with us.  Connor is the only one who caught a fish.  Then that night Jason and I went to see the Cirque du Soleil on ice show.

mom time

Kaiden and I took Connor to school for Muffins with Mom in the morning.  Then the two of us went for a bike ride to the park to play.  Kaiden likes to bring his toy cars to play with on the slides.  It must have wore him out because I noticed the last 10 minutes of the ride he was quiet, which is something rare around Kaiden.  He is such a chatter box!  This kid talks ALL the time and he's so loud.  When I got home I realize the reason he was quiet was because he fell asleep.  He was so tired I took him out of the trailer and laid him on the couch without him ever waking up.