bike ride

I was hoping Kaiden would be tall enough to use the tag-along for bike rides this summer, but unfortunately he's just a little bit short still.  So, I hooked up the bike trailer and I pulled Kaiden while Connor rode his bike from our house to Water Front Park, which is just under 6 miles round trip.  We rode to the park, played for a while, then started to ride home when we heard someone yell Connor's name... it happened to be Connor's girlfriend, Rachel.  We were riding past her house.  So, we stopped and I got a chance to meet her mom and 2 sisters.  We exchanged numbers so the kids can play this summer now.  Then we continued on our way to the store for some ice cream before finishing our ride.  The boys had fun and got some exercise too.  While we were having fun Jason was out on a 75 mile ride.

Yellowstone 4

Our original plan was to spend the day at Yellowstone Sunday and then drive home Monday, but Lee is a train engineer and had to go home Sunday night.  The boys and Faith went fishing in the morning.  Connor caught a trout.  Debra and I walked into town to shop.  Then when they got back the kids had so much fun at the discovery center the prior day that we decided to go back for the bear feeding.  At 1:00 the kids can go into the bear enclosure (after the bears are removed of course) and hide food for the bears.  They each get a bucket of dog kibble and chopped fruit.  They hide most of the food under rocks so the ravens don't eat it before the bear.  Faith, Connor and Kaiden all participated.  First up was the educational training center.  After that we packed up and hit the road.  We planned on staying in Missoula again to split up the trip, but both boys slept pretty much from Yellowstone to Missoula, so we decided to grab some dinner at Dairy Queen and power through.  They watched 2 movies and we were home.  Jason did all the driving on the way home.

yellowstone 3

Roosevelt Arch dedicated to President Theodore Roosevelt in 1903.

 The Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center was located just across  the street from the condo.  Every night and morning we got to hear the wolves howling.  It was such a cool thing to hear, so we checked out the center.  Faith went with us too.  The center is a not-for-profit wildlife park and educational facility with grizzly bears, 3 wolf packs with gray wolves, a raptor exhibit and museum.  Below is Sam, which is 975 pound grizzly bear from Alaska.  The wolves were our favorites.  Jason, myself, Faith, Connor and Kaiden all decided to howl when we were at one of the wolf enclosures.  The wolf perked up her ears, came over to the glass where we were howling and started howling back at us.  A few seconds later and all the wolves were howling.  The boys thought it was pretty cool that we started a group howl.

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

  

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