It's a Wonderful Life

Our last morning in the cabin meant they we needed a group shot of all of the kids of course!  Leave it my boys to be super goofy! :) We decided to do a trail ride through Harriman State Park, right outside Island Park.  The prices were very reasonable and it seemed like a fun "last day" activity. First, all of the small kids who couldn't go on the trail ride were able to ride a horse around the corral.  Anna enjoyed it for about 30 seconds, then was done!  Wyatt decided he just wanted to enjoy the horses by looking at them.  Toa and Manaia loved their corral ride though! Jackson wanted to go out with the Hunts while Erik and I stayed with the younger kids.  He had no problem getting on his horse and taking off. While we waited for the Hunts and Jackson to come back, we were able to pet the horses and any kids that wanted to sit on one again could. Wyatt got on! Next was Erik and my turn.  Jac...

After the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center, we drove around West Yellowstone trying to find a place to eat dinner.  We stopped at the perfect pizza place that worked out great. Afterwards, we walked around the cute streets and stopped in a couple of shops. I can't remember what caused me to get separated from the group, but on my way to the car (or maybe I was headed to the theater?), there was a huge hail storm!  It was seriously crazy!  I found shelter under a restaurant awning and took the time to instagram :) Then we met back up and got some ice cream!  Erik and I split the Huckleberry sundae and it was DELICIOUS! The last stop for the day was the Playmill Theatre.  It is a really small, cute theater that does musicals all summer long.  Most of the actors are theater majors at BYU-Idaho and they were pretty good. The theater was very tiny and cramped and it seemed like the kids had to keep going out to the bathroom.  Fi...

Tuesday morning, Josh and Erik went to play a round of golf at the golf course right next to our cabin.  When they got to the hole next to us, Wyatt and Anna ran out to say hi and hit the golf ball :) Anna requested three braids that morning :) Kaitlin was so great and brought clay for the kids to play with.  They even collected leaves, rocks, and other nature stuff to decorate with. Got a Montant pic for our photo map! I was excited to check out the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center in West Yellowstone.  It was super cool! The Wolves are there are wolves that Hollywood uses in movies and such.  The bears were all bears that had become dangerous (roaming into town in search of food and such), so they were sent to this center to live the rest of their lives.  It was pretty neat to see such cool animals so close. There were also lots of cool birds and raptors.  It was very interesting learning about t...

So next we drove to Norris Geyser?  Or maybe that was the first stop and this was Fountain Paint Pots . . . I obviously need to look at a map and figure that out!  Anyway, it was all very beautiful and amazing natural wonders caused by millions of years of erosion and the earth's hot core heating the water below the ground :) Nice sweet picture face Wyatt ;) On the way out, we saw a mama bear and cub!  Of course we pulled to the side of the road and took lots of pictures! A stop at the petrified tree.  Cool to think how old that tree is! more mama bear and cub Last stop was Mammoth for some food (well ice cream) and a look at the elk roaming through the streets. It was an exhausting but great day at Yellowstone!  A couple of times, Jackson said, "Mom this is better than Disney World!"  Which is a) crazy since a Yellowstone vacation costs a fraction of a Disney vacation and b) awesome! I'm so h...