Yellowstone National Park

On Saturday, we spent the day driving around the main loop of "Yellowstone National Park", as Logan calls it. We thought it would just take a couple hours, but it took from about 10 am to 5 pm with all the stops we made. We had a great time and saw so many beautiful sights! We grabbed a quick continental breakfast at our hotel and Logan and Rylee entertained many of the other guests, and then we were on the road! We saw a few animals right away - A bald eagle in his nest and a huge buffalo in the road. Logan said "Hi Big Guy" to him and then when we were a little ways down the road, Rylee started crying because she wanted to say hi to the buffalo, too. Luckily, we saw lots more buffalo for her to say hi to!
Our first stop was this waterfall - Gibbon Falls. As soon as we were close enough to see it, Rylee said "Ohhh.... I like it!"

Family Picture at the Falls....which you can't see! That is what happens when you have someone else take the picture!One with the Falls...but not happy kids! I guess you can't win!
Our next stop was the Artist's Paintpots. It was a HIKE!!! It was a ways off the road and then we had to climb lots of stairs! I felt like I might induce labor, but we did make it ALL the way to the top! The kids loved this place! There was lots of conversation about toots while we were here because of the sulfur smell. Logan proudly announced that "Geysers smell like toots" and Rylee told Darren, "I tell him, Geyser you Toot!"
Darren and I at the top of Artist's Paintpots

Rylee getting a ride on Daddy's shoulders! She loves this! The funny thing is that she will NEVER hold on! Even when she is bobbing all around and looks like she might fall, she still won't hold on. We pulled over and watched this bull elk for awhile. Rylee named him "Barryessa" Once again, I have no idea where that came from!

We stopped for lunch and a little break at the Canyon Visitor Center. We took a walk around the Visitor's Center, which the kids liked. They had some hands on exhibits and one of those huge rolling balls with water that looked like a globe that my kids always love. We also got some lunch. Logan found this little Jr Ranger badge that had his name on it and was SO excited that something said his name, (he read it all by himself!) He was so proud and told Darren, "Dad! Look - it says Logan Webber!!!", so we had to let him get it!

Since Logan picked a souvenir, we let Rylee pick one, too. She picked this little bear and LOVED him! She wasn't without him for the rest of the trip and several days after. She named him Joey. That is what she names all her babies and wants to name our new baby, too. (I don't think that one is going to pass...) I don't think she knows anyone named Joey, so I am guessing this is after the baby kangaroo???? I don't really know where she came up with it. As soon as she had "her Joey", she snuggled down and went to sleep!

We also drove around the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone for a bit. Here are Logan and Daddy at Upper Falls.Poor Rylee was asleep in the car, so we tried to get her in the stroller asleep. She slept through the Falls, but woke up when we got back into the car.

Me and Logan at Upper Falls

A view of Yellowstone Grand Canyon from Artist Point

Logan and Daddy - The background almost looks fake but I promise it was real!

Me and Rylee

Darren and the kiddies

The whole family! Not a great picture, but the best we did that day!

We were all about done for the day, but we did make a stop at Fishing Bridge. It was really windy!

Me and Logan at Fishing Bridge. He wanted to stay all day and watch the pelicans that he named "Nigel" since that is the pelican on Finding Nemo

We also stopped at the Yellowstone Lake visitor Center. The kids loved all the taxidermy stuff they had in there (mostly birds) and before we left, Rylee had to say hi and good-bye to each and every one of them! Logan really loved that they had pelicans for some reason. Rylee also really wanted to go play on the "beach", but it was WAY too cold! This was as close as we got!

Mom and kids at Yellowstone Lake

Fam picture at Yellowstone Lake - Logan is looking sad because Darren sat down on his hand when we were getting set for the picture! And because he was ready for a nap after our long day on the road!

That was our last stop of the day! After this, both kids took a long nap so Darren and I just kept driving until we made it back to our hotel in West Yellowstone. We had one almost bear sighting - We were conviced it was a bear, but after watching for awhile, we decided it wasn't. Bummer! I have been to Yellowstone about 6 times and have NEVER seen a bear there, so I like to say that they don't exist! We also saw about a million more buffalo and 4 bull elk. The coolest thing we saw though was a BIG bald eagle chasing an osprey or hawk or some other bird with something in its claws. They swooped down right over the road really close to us. We stopped and watched them for quite awhile. It was one of the neatest things I have ever seen! We were all starving when we got back to West Yellowstone, so we headed to dinner next at The Outpost.

Rylee LOVES to have spaghetti! I am usually hesitant to get it for her at restaurants because she makes such a mess, but she was hungry, so I figured we could deal with it.

Daddy and Logan at dinner

Mom and Rylee, the Spaghetti girl.

After dinner, it was off to the pool! The kids would have been happy to just swim and stay at the hotel every day of the trip, so we wanted to be sure they got a little more swimming in. While I was changing Ry into her swimming suit, she peed all over me! I guess it was better me than the bed, since we had to sleep there that night, but it was gross. We were finally all ready and all excited to go to the pool!

Logan and Daddy swimming! Logan loves to swim and was all over the place and loved his life jacket because he could swim by himself!

Logan's favorite thing was to go from the Hot tub to the big pool - He went back and forth over and over again! He also loved to jump in over and over and could jump half way across the pool!

Ry started out only wanting to splash from the side of the pool. She thought she was so funny splashing all of us!

Her favorite part was kicking her legs in the water!

Rylee decided to finally get in the pool and she loved it! She wanted to swim all by herself and even loved jumping in! I don't know what changed, but she ended up loving the pool!

Rylee got brave and decided to jump in over and over again!

Poor Rylee was FREEZING when we finally dragged her out of the pool! She loved laying on the pool chairs all wrapped up.

Logan all tired out after lots of swimming! After swimming, we went back to our room and the kids had a warm bath and then we found Home Alone 2 on TV so we all cuddled up and watched that. It was a great way to relax after a really busy and fun day! We were sad our vacation went by a little too quickly!