Yellowstone/Colter Bay Trip Part One...

This will probably be a long post, and I have tons of pictures so I apologize in advance.

The girls and I left Thursday the 9th, and went to Thermopolis for a couple of days. We helped my Grandma get ready, and were there to drive with her to meet my parent's in Riverton. We left Thermopolis on Saturday, and headed for Riverton. After waiting for what seemed like an eternity for my parents to show up, they finally arrived, and we were able to finish driving the rest of the way to Colter Bay. We finally arrived, and set up camp for the night. My brother Brian, and his little family were already there waiting for us. We ate dinner, and then called it a night. Everyone was exhausted, and we had to get up early to move to another camp site the next morning.
So the next morning, Sunday, we moved, and got three really nice camp sites right next to each other. They were big so the kids had tons of space, and we were kind of away from other campers so that was really nice.

Monday we went into Yellowstone. We left probably around 11:30 (not sure on the exact time, I was too busy putting on make-up. BTW...did you know that bears will eat you no matter what you look like? Not me, I was so confused!!) We didn't realize that they were doing TONS of construction on the roads up there so we spent quite awhile waiting in traffic. It wasn't too bad it gave the girls the opportunity to take a nap.

This is how excited we were that kids were napping in the back seat...ahh, the sound of peace and quite!!!

When we finally arrived at our destination of OLD FAITHFUL we decided to eat, and then go check things out. Once we were done eating we took off to go see Old Faithful. Once my sister and I got up there we realized that Duran (my nephew with Down Syndrome) was missing. We frantically took off to find him. He doesn't respond to his name, and he could have been anywhere. My sister was hysterical, which I don't blame her I would be hysterical too! My mom and her went to tell a park ranger, and I continued to walk up and down trying to see if I could spot him. As I was walking a nice lady asked if I was looking for someone. It amazed me that a stranger was willing to stop and help when it wasn't even her problem. Once I explained to her what happened she found a park ranger and told her what happened. I heard her tell her husband that she didn't want to leave until we found him. After about 30 minutes my nephew Calvin finally found Duran. We were so relieved to see him. After we found him we were able to walk around and do some sight seeing. The rest of the day was spent making the loop around Yellowstone. We ended up at the Yellowstone Lake Lodge later that night and all enjoyed dinner. The food was fabulous, and it was a perfect way to end the day!!

This was the view from the Lodge when we arrived.

The falls...so pretty

One of the "hot pots"

The kids at Old Faithful
Scout, Calvin, Estelle, Duran, Austin, and Tegan

Old Faithful

The girls and I at the upper falls

My parent's and the girls

Tuesday we spent some time at the Lake. The girls had a lot of fun playing in the water, and I was SO surprised to see Scout get right in, and at one point even lay down in it. After enjoying the water for a bit we went back to camp the rest of the day.

Here are the kids, and my brother getting warm on the rocks

Scout enjoying the water



The beautiful Tetons!

Another beautiful view, and the kids throwing rocks

Tegan enjoying the water

Scout getting right in

Throwing rocks

The kiddos

The kiddos

The view

Well, that is the first part of our trip. I will finish the rest of the trip in another post.