Coooookie!

Mindy made chocolate chip cookies for us the other day. (I asked her to make them because she is an awesome cookie baker. The cookies always turn out perfectly!) Anyway, this picture of Alex was great. He showed a lot of enthusiasm!

Yellowstone

We spent 3 days exploring Yellowstone National Park.
We found more snow. It was pretty deep in places still - about 3 -6 feet in shady spots. There is still lots of evidence of the wild fires from the eighties. So much of the park is scarred still. But it has it's own beauty anyway.

We threw rocks in Yellowstone Lake. (I think that this was the kids' favorite activity of the entire vacation. It was also the only activity that the kids requested to do more than once.)

We saw lots of geysers and and hot springs. This is the Grand Prismatic Spring. It was my favorite.

Of course, all the geo thermal activity is a little smelly. The kids found all sorts of ways to plug their noses. Isaac wished for a clothespin.

Hazel complained about the smell too. But she was a trooper hiker.

I was amazed to realize that the water just under the surface is boiling and it just kills all the vegetation. But the starkness of the contrast is pretty cool. The white ground and trees have been boiled.
Sometimes the springs are as acidic as battery acid!

There were lots of cool rock formations:

Mammoth Hot Springs

We saw lots of animal life:

We saw a grey wolf walking along the river,

Lots of elk and a pronghorn.

This nest belongs to a bald eagle. We saw it in the nest but missed getting the picture.

We saw 4 different black bears.
We saw lots of bison.

This herd decided to cross the road while we were trying to get by. Most of the herd stopped in the middle of the road so that cars couldn't get by. We were stopped for about 45 minutes.

Glad that I wasn't stuck so far back.

We found more snow to play in. Isaac was trying to melt it with his huge magnifying glass.

We watched Old Faithful go off. Luckily we got there only a few minutes before it went off, so we didn't have to wait too long.

We could have stayed a week more. There is so much more to see. We'll have to go back. We were ready to go to Jake and Amy's though. The kids needed some down time. But we really enjoyed our visit.

wet 'n wild

We've been having lots of fun with cousins here for the week. Yesterday we played outside in the water and sand box. Here's a few pictures to show you:

The big kids buried Aaron in the sand box.

Then it was Aspen's turn.

Amy cooling off.

Hazel and Alex needed a drink.

This is Andee.

Cody, Wyoming

We drove out to Cody, Wyoming next. I didn't realize there were things to do in Cody until we drove in. There is a rodeo every night there (We didn't go because it was Sunday.) There is also a Buffalo Bill Wild West historical musem. So the next morning we headed over to check it out.

The boys liked the wing dedicated to fire arms best.

Aspen liked the part about the indians.

Hazel enjoyed the wildlife exhibits that were touchable and made specifically for kids.




We drove through some more high rocky mountains on our way out of Cody. The kids spied some snow and we had to stop. We texans didn't get any this year and the kids were so excited to go play. It was a little cold since everyone was in sandals, shorts and skirts. But I was able to dig the jackets out so that at least part of their southern selves was a bit warmer.

Powder River Pass was the hightest elevation we were in on our whole trip: nearly 10000 feet.

Frozen T-Shirt Contest

I got this idea from the Family Fun magazine for July (I think). Anyway, the kids are having a ball playing this game over and over.

Instructions:
* Get a t-shirt wet and wring out the water.

* Fold it (or crumple in a ball, as long as everyone does the same thing)

* Put it in the freezer until frozen (this doesn't actually take very long - maybe an half an hour)

* The contest is to see who can unfold their shirt first and put it on.

This is harder than you would think. But it is very fun on a hot summer day.

The long and winding road

We drove a 20 mile dirt road through The Badlands National Park. It was a very scenic drive. We saw some beautiful formations. It rock was a striking contrast to the green prairie on the other side. It reminded me a lot of Bryce Canyon in Utah. Just not as red.

We stopped to see 100's of prairie dogs in Prairie Dog Towne. There were also many bison. It was a scenic drive, but I was very tired of the washboard gravel road. My poor car is still very dusty. We only went through the northern part of the park. But if we went back again, I'd drive down to the other part and do some hiking Next we drove to see Mount Rushmore. It was a pretty drive up into the black hills. The sculptures were cool to see. We hiked a little. It was late in the day and we enjoyed hiking around.
This one is just to prove that I was there, just behind the camera mostly. If we go again, I would stay here longer. There were lots more places to see that would have been fun. Hiking up to the sculptures, the cave that National Treasure was filmed in; a fun town below Mount Rushmore to explore and/or stay in. There was also Crazy Horse Monument, Wind Caves, Custer National Monument, Wounded Knee Museum, Minute Man Missile Silo, and much more. We'll just have to go back again.