Yellowstone with Easton's

We pulled into the garage from McCall, unpacked and then started packing for Yellowstone.  We left bright and early the next morning.  It was really fun for the kids to meet up with Nani, Randy, Kya, Parkinsons, Beth and her kiddos, and Brad to share this place that we love so much.  

There were lots of animal sightings but for those details you will have to reference Greg's journal.  I remember watching the cousins get excited about waking up early in the morning in order to catch better animal viewing.  They got sucked right into Andrew and Greg's passion.

Much to Natali's pleasure, we stopped at lots of geothermal sites and enjoyed their beauty and mystery inspite of their lack of wildlife.  It rained intermittently the whole first day we were there and we got absolutely soaked walking around the paint pots; minutes later there wasn't a drop of rain.  Our rain coats came in handy but with that much rain we were all pretty drippy getting back into the car.

We took a 6 mile hike with all of us sans Nani and Randy who dropped us off and then drove around to pick us up on at the end of the trail.  The hike was fabulous, although a little too sunny (I carried a burn on the back of my neck for the next full week).  Brad caught a snake.  It bit him and wouldn't let go.  He had to use a stick to pry it off.  Yikes!  The kids were pretty good sports but we were really grateful they had each other to dissipate the whining.  Towards the end of the hike we found this deep crack.  It was amazingly deep.  We dropped large sticks down and listened as they fell and fell and fell.  The kids named it "Nature's Butt Crack". It really was pretty cool.

There were bears on the road not half a mile from where we ended the hike - good thing we were hiking in  such a huge loud group.  We gave the bears plenty of warning.

We all stayed at Greg's favorite hotel in Gardner.  It was a perfect spot.  Nani took the kids to climb on the Yellowstone gate and they also played at multiple playgrounds in town.

One early morning trip to Lamar Valley payed off with a wolf running across the road not far in front of us.  We got to watch it walk around for at least 20 minutes.  So incredible.  Moments like that remind me of how exciting it can be to see animals in the wild.

Returning from that morning drive, my phone went crazy with texts.  Keeley (who had been in the hospital for a week and who they thought was stable) had gone into labor and had baby Winston at 24 weeks along.  We went out for the afternoon but I skipped the evening drive to make phone calls, read, and bathe.  Spencer asked me to come to Florida and help with the girls for a week.  So I started making plans for when I got home from Yellowstone.

Not surprisingly, Brad became the pied piper and had the kids following him around - especially Lily.  She could find him anywhere and was right beside him.  We spent one evening with Brad in our van rocking out to all of our favorite tunes - everyone took turns picking.  It was a simple but fun memory of all of us singing together.  The kids loved all the time talking on walkie talkies, hiking, teasing, and just enjoing beauty together.  We had a simple but special Sacrament Meeting with the Parkinsons and Beth before hitting the road Sunday morning.  I got home and was on an airplane to Florida in less than 12 hours.