Yellowstone Part 2

On our drive to Mammoth Hot Springs this little guy walked right in front of us. We had a caravan of about 6 or 7 cars and unfortunately not everyone saw the bear as good as we did. I guess that is the advantage to being in the lead car. We all had walkie talkies in our car so I was able to quickly radio back that there was a bear crossing the road so everybody knew what to look for. Very funny commentary took place on those walkie talkies. Pretty cool seeing this baby black bear cross in front of our car.

Mammoth Hot Springs usually has a ton of elk but there wasn't really that many this time and lots of the hot springs seem to be drying out, kind of sad.

We of course visited the grand canyon of Yellowstone, loved it! One of my favorite parts of Yellowstone. Then we stopped at a couple smaller falls on the way out as we were heading to Old Faithful. We drove A TON this day. Well we actually drove a lot the whole trip. Sam did pretty good with the driving. He would cry if he got super tired and then he would usually fall asleep. Dan sat in the back with him most of the time and did an amazing job keeping him entertained during the long drives. We got to Old Faithful just as it was going off but not everybody saw it so we stayed for a couple hours so everybody could see it. I also had an amazing frozen yogurt from the old faithful lodge. Probably not the healthiest dinner but soooo worth it. I don't know why the underline is on and I can't find out where to turn it off so I'm just going to let it be.

This picture of Sam above is showing how happy he was when he wasn't stuck in his car seat driving all day. He loved being able to crawl around. He also loved being with all my nieces and nephews and they were so great to entertain him. My niece Ashley is hilarious and every time she would see him she would act like she was sneezing. I told her that I don't think he was liking it anymore and she would say "no way, he loves it" and then just keep doing it over and over and over. It was pretty funny. She also made sure to tell me that if he got fussy to just come and get her and she would make him stop. Can she come live with me? All my nieces and nephews are so stinkin' cute. I love it when we can all get together.

The morning that we were leaving to drive to Jackson Hole I went with my sister Jen and her family to look for wildlife early in the morning. I think we left at about 5:30ish. It was early but it was worth it. We saw a grizzly bear, coyote and then of course elk and bison. The grizzly bear was way off on a hill but there were some die hard animal searchers that had a sweet scope that we were able to look through and watch the bear dig around. We actually saw another bear running but he was too fast so I couldn't get any pictures. I was really glad I got up early to go. Friday we drove to Jackson Hole to go white water rafting. It rained the whole day except for the 3 hours we were running the river and then it was beautiful and sunny. The crazy thing was how it got rainy and cloudy almost the second we pulled up after we were done. We really lucked out. We had a great time on the river and of course Sam was an angel for my parents who were so kind to stay back with the little ones, thanks guys! They said he was just laughing and crawling and climbing all over the hotel room. Again, very excited to be out of the car seat and move. The water was so high that we only had to paddle through the rapids. Other then that the water would just push us along. I have been on a few rafting trips where we had to paddle A LOT b/c the water wasn't moving very fast. We made it down the river in under an hour. Fastest river run I have ever done but sooo much fun. We all had a great time. Oh and if you are wondering why we all have the very flattering wet suits on, they were required. As were helmets due to the high/fast water conditions. Sexy aren't they? What a fun crew we had. A bunch of goof balls yes but so much fun. I wish we would have had more time to spend with one another. We only get to see my cousins every 3 years or so. The time goes by way to fast. Looking forward to the next vacation already.

If you were wondering how else we kept Sam happy while driving the proof is in the picture above. Don't judge me please. Nothing better then crackers and beef jerky right?. Yeah we feed him a lot of crackers and such to keep him happy. It was a great vacation and I'm bummed it is over but we had so much fun and look forward to the next one. Thanks Mom and Dad for all the planning and money that went into making it such a great trip, we really appreciate it!