Perfect Weekend

The original plan was to have a pretty low key weekend over the 4th. Mark was planning to work and with our visitors just leaving and girls camp around the corner, I had PLENTY to do to keep busy. Well, Mark's work plans changed and I think we were all longing to be back in Yellowstone. So we loaded the van and headed up after church on Sunday. We were lucky enough to get a last minute reservation at Bridge Bay where we spent the night.

It's funny how the girls play in the tent like it's the first time they have been camping:)


We took a trip over to West Thumb to see the geysers and we ran into this guy. Right there with hundreds of other tourists, he comes right out of this patch of trees smack dab in the middle of the basin...unbelievable!! You would never expect to see a Grizzly at this location.

Once Mr. Grizz had made his way back down by the lake, we began to walk the boardwalk again. Only to be interrupted by this gal.

On the way back to camp we saw even more elk...it was our lucky day I tell ya!

Smore's around the fire that evening were mandatory:)

The following morning we headed to Old Faithful to check out the new visitor center which is also interactive for kids.

We had a picnic at one of our favorite spots and it was so warm the girls played in the water. Bailee spent a lot of time finding wildflowers in her book.

After lunch we ventured out for a hike to Monument Geyser Basin. This is an actual trail off the beaten path. However, our trail guide (Mr. Smith) assured us that it was maybe 1.5 miles...no problem. Well, initially you hike along the Gibbon River at a very gentle slope and then quite suddenly you are catapulted up a steep hill for a half a mile or so. Not so easy when you are towing 3 little ones and it is 85 degrees of direct sun. We made it to the top at last and after taking in the geyser we began our decent. Remember how steep it was coming up? Now we had to try and prevent the kiddos from rolling back down. Poor little Emmrey took fall after fall and was pretty beat up by the end. But hey we all made it (even if Emmrey had to be carried the last little bit) I am so proud of my little troopers!!

Mark decided they deserved a stop at the Geyser Grill at Old Faithful...boy did they ever!!
We made it back to Cody just in time for the Fireworks. We had a great view from the pullout we ended up at, but we only watched about half of them. Karsy still does not do well with Fireworks and she was in bad shape. Hope everyone had a wonderful 4th....we had the perfect weekend!!!