Thursday, September 13, 2012

Yellowstone

We left for Yellowstone Monday (Labor Day) morning. It's not a terribly long drive, but with stops it took us most of the day.

{I just love PJ's face in this one!}



One of our stops was in Idaho Falls, so we made sure to see the falls and the temple.

{It's nearly impossible to get a good picture of the 4 of us, so we take what we can get.}



Peyton was so happy to be out of her car seat when we finally got there. We stayed in a hotel in West Yellowstone. I like camping well enough, but I have no desire to sleep in a tent with 2 young kids!



On Tuesday we went to see Old Faithful first thing. We got there just as it was erupting. (I saw it over some trees as we were pulling into the parking lot.) We had time to kill before the next one, so we walked around the path that goes above Old Faithful with Corbyn in the lead and then made our way back down to see Old Faithful erupt.



{This is the best picture we got at Old Faithful and of course Roger and Corbyn are blocking most of it.}



By then it was lunchtime and we were all hungry, so we got lunch at the Old Faithful Lodge and ice cream at the Old Faithful Inn.



And by the time we were finished with that, it was almost time for another eruption, so we stuck around and saw it again. And it's a good thing we did because the second one we saw was much better than the first!

On the way back to our hotel we stopped at Lower Geyser Basin to see some more hot springs and mud pots. The blue ones are my favorite!



Then we hit up the pool. Corbyn had to have all the noodles with him at all times. I floated around with him on them for awhile.



And then of course the boys had a sword fight with them.



We found a cute 50's-style diner for dinner and played games after putting the kids to bed.

On Wednesday we hit up all the views of the Upper and Lower Falls in the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. (If you are short on time, Artist Point is by far the best viewpoint. You could skip the others, but don't miss that one!)

Then we did Uncle Tom's Trail. No one wanted to stay behind with the kids, so Corbyn and Peyton got to come too. We took turns carrying Peyton. (Too bad we didn't think to bring our baby carrier.)



Corbyn walked a good portion of the trail himself, but at times he got carried too.



{All of us at the bottom. It is such an amazing view - definitely the coolest thing to do at Yellowstone (that I've done anyway) and totally worth going down and up the 328 steep stairs.}



We decided Corbyn has the Ririe heart. He really was such a trooper.



But he is only 2, so Rog helped him up the second half of the stairs.



That night we did a little souvenir shopping, saw the Bear IMAX movie for my mom (She loves bears!), played some more games, and had the best peach pie I've ever had in my life!

On Thursday we packed up and headed home.

We decided to drive through Ririe, ID because it was only a little out of our way and we had never been there before. (Ririe is my maiden name.)



It was nice to be able to go after the summer rush because it wasn't crowded and hot, but it was still nice weather. Thanks mom and dad for a great trip!! (They took Diana and Jason on a cruise in January when I was pregnant, so this was our cruise.)
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3 comments:

  1. I love Yellowstone and have so many great memories there!! I'm so glad you got a good view of Old Faithful and also that you got the delicious ice cream inside :) Yum!

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  2. We have lots of good memories from our Yellowstone cruise (hehe) that we will always cherish - Thanks Roger and Shauna for letting us tag along :)

    Glad we finally made it to Ririe Idaho - there wasn't much to see though!

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  3. Mom Lori

    Well, at least you got to go on a trip with your cute family!

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