Yellowstone, Day 3, beaver-squirrel sighting

Surprised to see pictures from my kids' points of view pop up on photo stream. Fun to have their perspective of our trip and not just mine as family photographer/chronicler.

 

Breath-taking beauty: birds-eye view of the Grand Prismatic Spring and a family hike up to see it. There are boardwalks that circle the spring below, but the steam prevents you from seeing the incredible color. A hike via the Fairy Falls trail gives a beautiful treasure.

The boardwalk view gives you a muggy view of the colors reflected off the steam. Here you can read about tiny animals that are extremophiles, able to survive in impossibly hot waters.

Like most things in life, it takes a bit of work, but oh so worth it!

At the top, near one of many burned trees in the 1988 fires.

 

 

Bubbling springs, geysers and children blowing off steam with preadolescent hiker comments such as "They call this (boiling, spewing sulfurous Dragon's Cauldron) an attraction?" Parental restraint to not smack some ingratitude with my maternal backhand as we walked through grassy meadows under brilliant blue skies. Vision people! Open up your eyes and soak it all in.

Snow-capped mountains, rolling green hills, and craggy red rock formations all in one drive.

Yoga moments by Lake Yellowstone

A picnic eaten INSIDE our rental car as the blustery winds and mosquitos would have discouraged even Yogi Bear from a picnic by the water. "Hey, Boo Boo! You are about to blow away!" (We are terrible campers.)

Beaver-squirrel second sighting properly identified as a marmot.

 

 

"Moose on road" flashing street signs and grizzly bear warnings keeping us hopeful and camera ready, but we're still on a bear hunt and tracking moose.

A pitiful attempt at teaching my family the art of singing a round on a scenic by-way to Cody. Hoping the fireside cowboys can teach what I could not.

Wooden Indians outside of trading posts. Browsing through arrowheads and polished rocks and admiring turquoise and silver and other Western artistry.

Around-the-clock cries for Chapstick (adjusting to the more arid climate)

A's attempts at speaking Western-ese "Don't rightly know, Missy" when I ask random questions like "Are those sage green plants sagebrush?" Realizing that we have become dependent on Googling things in cell service areas to satisfy our curiosity instantaneously. Seeing a Shoney's Big Boy in the middle of a field and wondering what the significance is.

Referring to one another as Darlin' and Pardner

Saying "happy trails" to the historic Old Faithful Inn and "howdy" to the Best Western (Kid comment on hotel chain name: Where else would you stay?) They were very happy to re-enter the wi-fi zone.

This hotel is amazing. We have stayed at Wilderness Lodge at Disney and Great Wolf Lodge in Concord, NC. They were copies. This was the historic model. I loved watching Old Faithful blow from the balcony porch as people did one hundred years ago.

After all the walking and driving, it felt great to get a shower and settle into our hotel for tomorrow's day in Cody.

 

Yellowstone, Day 2, Driving the Loop

 

 

In an electronic age, there is nothing that makes my mama heart sing more than seeing the kids choose to play cards together and laugh together instead of crying out "Can we use your hot spot?" the moment the sun creeps over the horizon. Today was a day of admiring geological hot spots instead of electronic ones, of walking instead of sitting, and laughing more than squabbling.

We loved the bubbling mud pots, fumaroles, and less famous geysers. We stopped for scenic overlooks and took way too many pictures besides waterfalls. We hiked down and up trails. Some of us admired a lone petrified tree that had not been chipped away by thoughtless souvenir seekers. Some of us declared that they could admire the stone tree quite nicely from the parking lot.

We braked for wildlife, nearly causing wrecks in our sightings, and braked for stumps and shadows that may have possibly been bears (but weren't). We saw so many bison that we started saying, "oh, it's just bison" when we saw cars lining up by the roadside. (Just yesterday, we were that family). Today, we are the family trying buffalo burgers.

The morning's fresh enthusiasm

Lost count on the bison talley. A bison? Snore.

(By the evening of our second day)

We ate ice cream, got too much sun on our pale-skinned faces, and refilled our water bottles at the eco-friendly water filling stations they have inside of gift stores. We browsed in said gift shops and were content to take home memories. We stamped activity books like passports. We identified elk, pronghorn deer, mule deer, raven, magpies and chipmunks, but are still trying to figure out a camouflaged snake. (See below)

These two have grown so much in the three years that we have loved them, and the two years that we have been family.

This was not our rental car, but we felt like we were kickin' it old style with the see America family vacation!

 

We badly sang parts of songs in cars and made up collaborative stories that always seemed to return to the subject of gas. We rolled down windows to ascertain if the noxious fumes were from within our car, or from within the sulfurous bowels of the earth. We punched each other at the sight of punch-buggies to let off travel steam, much like the terrain around us.

P.U. Whodunit?

 

We were quieted by the mesmerizing sounds of rushing river waters. We marveled at rock slides and forests that were reseeded by the devastating forest fires of 1988. We were fascinated by trees that miraculously grow out of boulders in the middle of rivers. We were awed by the power of water over time that can carve a canyon out of rock. Everywhere we turned the heavens cried out glory, and we are thankful to have spent a Sabbath day together in Yellowstone.

 

I could look at these forever.

 

Go West, Young Family

 

Less than 24 hours after school let out, we are up in the air, flying to Wyoming.

Moments of day one include: MJ's first flight (and the first that B can remember), flying over the Grand Tetons

Spending $113 on burgers and fries at the airport (Yikes!)

Reading a good book in preparation for an upcoming movie during the ten travel hours.

Bison crossing the road, stopping traffic.

 

Taking a family photo under the antler arches in Jackson Hole.

 

 

Fighting off mosquitos by the Yellowstone National Park sign.

Throwing snowballs at one another by the side of the highway.

Ears popping at the Continental Divide

A family member's insistence of seeing "beaver-squirrels" in our quest for wildlife viewings. Hmmmm. No one else can confirm these sightings. Seeing pronghorn deer, mule deer, and a lady moose but getting whiplash trying to photograph these creatures turned around backwards in the rental car.

Seeing canyons, rivers, snow capped peaks, and waterfalls

Where the bison roam

The kids astonishment that there are places in the US with no cell phone service and power outages.

 

The end is (almost) here

The beginning of June wraps up the end of the school year and multiple end-of-school activities.

Circle of moms hugging the shade

My twelve-year-old trying to give me selfie-pointers

 

3 buds since birth ... Rising fifth graders

My children keep asking why they need to go to the last (half) day of school. I know as well as they do that the grades are already printed and stuffed into envelopes. I simply reply that we are Davises and Davises strive to finish well, even if the fun has gone. I pray that they will grow into people of perseverance that do the right thing, whether they feel like it, or not.