Yellowstone:Part One

Finally getting to it. I started this post, like, a month ago, and finally added some pictures this morning. But I think this will have to be part one. The kiddos woke up, and it's time for breakfast. I'll maybe get to the rest later today.

Last week we took our family vacation. The initial plan was to go to Washington DC. There was a conference there that Nate needed to attend, his brother was there for the summer, my family is there... It just didn't work out. So, plan B was to go to Ohio and visit my family... tickets were just so high every time I looked, and with the price tag on our kitchen and basement repairs mounting quickly, I just couldn't do it. So, we went with plan C. Yellowstone. We could have stayed home and stayed busy from sun up to sun down getting some work done around here, but we all needed a break from the chaos around here.
We headed up to Jackson late Monday afternoon and stopped in Star Valley to visit the Johnsons (dental school friends). It was so great to catch up, and let the kids play.

Now Emma keeps asking why we don't ever go to Kammi's house more. We visited a little too long and ended up parking the camper and staying the night.
On Tuesday we made it to Jackson. Lunch at Bubba's (where else?) and then we played at the Snow King Resort at the Alpine Slide. Emma did not want anything to do with it until she watched all the other kids do it, and decided it would be fun. We walked around town briefly before it was time for the Bar J Wranglers show.

We've seen them a handful of times, and it's always entertaining. The girls were tired, and Emma hates to be around too many people, so she was unbearable until I took them outside. They just happily walked around and played with rocks. I still enjoyed the show with a little cooler air for my heat-sensitive pregnant self. It all worked out just fine. Clay was so tired that he fell asleep on Nate's lap for half the program. Good thing we had found a place to stay that was close. Too bad we had to wreck the bumper on the trailer to find it. {That's a story for later}
Wednesday we finally made it to the park. {good thing the guy parked next to us had WD-40 and a hammer: darn trailer} Although instead of before noon, it was way afternoon before we got there due to a bit of construction that we waited through FOREVER. Nonetheless, we were able to park the trailer and head off fishing. The kids were all so excited to fish. They were relentless in asking, and it was the very first thing that they all wanted to do. We acquired the proper permits and regulations and found a quiet spot on Yellowstone Lake to try our hand at fishing. The boys just fished and the girls sporadically fished as they waded in the water and played in the sand, looking for bugs and other treasures. Of course Sam had to get wet too so that he could retrieve the lure that got stuck on a rock. Although Sam's clothes stayed dry {only because he stripped down to underwear} , the girls both ended up soaking wet and we had to take a stop for some dry, clean clothes before we could find a little better spot for fishing.
The "better" spot for fishing caught Nate an 8 inch baby trout. He let Amelia reel it in, then let it go back to its growing. The boys spent most of their fishing time trying to catch a lure out of a tree. We seemed to have a pattern developing here. {spending our fishing time retrieving lures}

A great way to end the night.