Friday, June 25, 2010

Smiths in Yellowstone 2010

After postponing our annual Memorial Day trip due to cold, we finally made it to Yellowstone....and it was still cold. But it was fun and we made memories as we do every year. Get ready for a slew of pictures.

First animal sighting of the trip. "I want to see! I want to see!" And just what were they looking at? You can see a little black-ish dot in the middle of the sage brush meadow.

It was this Grizzly Mama and her two cute cubs. (The cubs had just popped back down below the sage brush.) Later that night the park rangers came to our campsite warning us of a Grizzly sighting in the campground.

We decided we'd take the opportunity to get a couple of close up shots with the bear.

Okay, not really. We never saw the bear, and the rangers patrolled the campground all night long with their trusty bear spray. In all my years camping at Yellowstone, I've NEVER had a bear come right into the campground. It was a little exciting.

Ants on a log. We had a fun time with cousins.



Halle and Liberty had a great time coming up with poses for the camera.

Silly girls.

They even came up with a pose of two for Grammy.



We picnicked outside, until the we could no longer stand the chill. (Then we had to move things indoors.)

We played in the fire.

We used the outdoor outhouses.

We enjoyed the wildlife.

We climbed trees. (Kate felt SO high in the tree. She was so proud of herself. It was hilarious. Jarom kept telling her she was going to get a tick from the tree. We all poo-pooed that. I've never gotten (is that a word?) a tick in Yellowstone.)

We raced back to the car after playing on Frog Rock.

We played so hard, some of us had to squeeze in a nap, right on the boardwalk while waiting for Old Faithful to blow. (The best part of this was when the Asian tourist whipped out his camera and took a couple shots of the sleepers. HILARIOUS!)

In the end, we went home warn out, dirty, and smelling like campfire. Until next time Yellowstone!

5 comments:

Mama Williams said...

Always fun to see and hear about Yellowstone. That is exciting you saw a bear! We need to catch up soon. 1 more week of work and I'm free!

Brenda said...

Loving the outdoor outhouses!! Boys, Boys, Boys!! What a fun tradition, and I impressed that you were excited about the bear!! Not so much here...not a fan of bears. I like them far away!! Your kids look darling, clean and dirty:)

Lee Ann said...

Love it! Especially that they get to do it with their cousings. I love camping with cousins!

Trish said...

I want to take my kids to Yellowstone!!!

And still further proof that CARTER CAN SLEEP ANYWHERE!

Miki said...

Oh my goodness (I keep saying that) Jarom totally predicted Kate's fate. I now see what you were saying in your tick post, about Jarom's (not intended to be taken seriously) comment about getting a tick.

man.......weird