We went to Yellowstone for an Anderson family reunion. We had a great time! Here are some of the highlights:
We flew in late Friday night and Aunt Mary picked us up and let us crash at her place for the evening. Emma didn't sleep a wink on the flight and so she got a half a night's sleep. It was a little piece of awesome. In reality she did totally wonderful given the circumstances. She loved to see Mary's cat, Gracie, in the morning. Gracie, on the other hand, wasn't not as excited to see Emma and made the wise decision to hide. The funny thing was that Emma thought a cat would come up to you to be petted like a dog would. She was grossly mistaken.
We got to Island Park, ID where our cabin was and reveled in its awesomeness. Everyone had their own bedroom and there were 3 bathrooms and 2 sets of washers and driers and 3 different floors and a nicely stocked kitchen. There are some families out there that can cram tens of people in one room and be happy with one another after a week. I don't know that ours is that family. We value personal space. I think it is the Norwegian in us. It certainly isn't the Tongan. So having plenty of space lent itself to a very nice time with everyone.
We went to see Johnny Sack Cabin and to watch the fish in the river. These fish just hang out waiting for food. And seeing as there is plenty of people willing to drop pellets down to them, they are quite large. The seagulls also fare well.
On the way home we saw a moose and its baby. The mom had the intelligence to run away before we could get a picture. The baby hung around.
On Monday we went into Yellowstone and saw old faithful. It was pretty cool. I think I was the most excited to see Old Faithful going into the trip. It was a unique thing but it wasn't the coolest thing in Yellowstone, according to my opinion. On the way we saw some elk along the way.
We also saw some bison cheeks as well.
Most impressively is a chipmunk.
Back to Old Faithful.
We also saw the Lodge and that was pretty cool - beautiful woodwork. The we went to the Grand Prismatic Springs and that was one of my top favorites. They were absolutely gorgeous and our pictures don't do justice. Toward the end we saw how we could get an over head picture but Emma was losing it so we had to take off.
To knock Emma out we drove around Yellowstone for a while and it was beautiful! We got to enjoy the time with my dad and then we made our way to a cowboy cookout. Some of the kids rode horses and the rest of us went via a wagon pulled by a tractor. The alternative was a horse drawn wagon and I was grateful not to be on the horse drawn wagon. I have never had good luck behind a horse.
The next day we went to Norris Geyser basin.
We tried to knock Emma out with another scenic drive but she has some great stamina. So instead of being responsible and taking her home, we went to the Grizzly and Wolf Museum. I wanted to make sure we could see a bear before we left. I wanted it to be in the wild but I had to make sure I would get one in.
The coolest part was that we didn't get to see was that Emily's kids got to go in the bear area and hide food and then watch to see if the bears could find it. Apparently the bears are quite skillful at finding food. Emma was in hyperactive mode because of the lack of nap so we took her home to feed and take her to the pillow and blanket show.
The next day we went to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. We saw the upper and lower falls. The lower falls are larger than the Niagara falls.
Then we all met up and went to dinner at a restaurant at Canyon Village. We had a great time visiting and enjoying each others company.
And then we went on an adventure of adventures. We drove through Hayden Valley just before it was getting dark. We came across a place with a spring but all around the spring and on the boardwalk were bison galore. It was a whole herd. We took some pictures and Aaron and Brian even adventured to go off the boardwalk to get closer to the really mean and dangerous animals. Aaron reported that at one point one snarled at them.
I suspect it was this guy that snarled at them. He just looks like the type. So after that we drove down the road some and along the way we would see elk or more bison. It was getting late and way past every one's bedtime. So we turn around. When we got to the previous spring/bison herd they had also decided that it was their bedtime as well. The whole herd was crossing the street and more like they were walking down the street on either side of our car. These were big suckers. And the sad fact of the matter is that our pictures didn't turn out so well because we couldn't zoom out far enough. They were that close to the car. If they were friendly or I didn't like my arm, and I had no concern for Mary's car, I could have petted them. So here are some stinky pictures as proof:
The next morning the true Aunt Mary came out to play. She has been rather squishy with Emma but it reached its peak that morning. Emma took note that Mary was putting on her makeup and wanted to participate. Aunt Mary let her play with her expensive makeup. This is something I don't think I can bring myself to do.... maybe ever.
Emma remembered Mary's makeup bag the following morning and begged to play with it. Later that day we went to Mammoth and saw some cool springs. On the way to the springs we hit a traffic jam. There was a bison walking down the street on the opposing lane of traffic. There was a police car with its lights on right behind the bison. The police man was telling cars in our lane to just drive past the bison because he wasn't in our lane of traffic. Well, the car in front of us moved on and then the bison started to run at our car head on. I was pretty sure we would need to buy Mary a new car at that point. We froze there. Then the bison moved to the passenger side of the car really, really close to the car. We were still frozen. The police man over his blow horn told us to move now that the bison wasn't in our lane. Never mind mister police man that he is a foot from our car and the last thing we want to do is tick off the thing. But we unfroze and followed orders and moved on. Scary - I tell you what!
We stopped and had lunch in Mammoth on some lawn in front of the Calvary officer's houses. Now I think they just house employees but back in the day they were for the officers of the army that were watching over the park. While we were having lunch Josh and Aaron got into a WWF wrestling match. It lasted for quite some time. Then afterwards we were relaxing when a bison walked up to some kids 3 houses down and snarled at them and another group of kids. At that point everyone just ran to the car and high tailed it out of there.
Some of my favorite memories from the trip were just sitting around in the evening visiting and Aaron and Brian inflicting pain on Josh and Josh just loving it. By inflicting pain, I mean WWF style wrestling and other boy games. Emma loved to play with cousins and family. There was one morning where she woke up and would just yell for Grandpa to come get her. Never mind Grandpa was 2 stories above her. We played games and chatted away and laughed. It was sad to say good bye to everyone. Now that we are home Emma doesn't understand that I have responsibilities. She adjusted to having someone to play with all day everyday really fast. She had requested that we call grandma and grandpa every day since we have been home and sometimes multiple times a day.
At one point Grandpa Rich taught Emma to throw stuff over the balcony on the second floor. In Grandpa's defense it started with stuffed animals. Emma loved it. It didn't take long before Emma was launching a cabbage patch kid over the balcony and squealing with delight. We had to put the kabosh on it at that point since the cabbage patch kid has some weight to it and a hard face and Emma has no common sense.
On our way back to Houston we got to spend a evening in Provo with the Russells. Emma had fun playing with Grandma and Grandpa and Bentley. We got to follow tradition and play games with them before we headed out in the morning for home.
