yellow stone national park

day #2 of our vacation to island park...

we decided to spend the day exploring yellowstone. i haven't been here since i was about kamryn's age. so i didn't have a clue the beauty this part of the country holds!

this pic was taken out the window going about 70- so forgive the blur. i was so in awe with all the wild flowers and how green everything was. i took way too many scenic shots! but one day when i'm craving a little r&r i'll lock myself in my room and look through them- cause it might be a while before we get back up there.

when we got to yellowstone one of the rangers at the pay station told us there was a wreck up ahead and we would be waiting in traffic for at least 30 minutes until the helicopter arrived to haul off the victims. so we decided to turn off the main road the first chance we got and let the kids stretch their legs before we spent a very long day living out of the vehicles. we ran into a few fly fishermen and they offered to take the groups picture. we went for a little walk down the river bank. one word... WOW!

(me, hunter, jeff, murray, kathy, katherine, isaac, lori, max (in front), justin, kenzie, kate, ally, kamryn, and brayden)

once again- i went a little picture crazy! i'll spare you from most, but i will show you some of my favorites! all these flowers... everywhere you look!!! yellow, blue, purple, white... it was beautiful!

here is hunter with his best buddy. in case you don't know, hunter's world revolves around his grandpas!!!!

and when grandpa's aren't around he's more than happy to settle for his daddy!

when the road finally cleared we headed up to norris geyser basin. there were raven's everywhere! they were ripping open peoples luggage in the back of the pick ups and helping themselves to lunch. one raven actually flew off with a big bag of cheetos!

i've decided my kids are little troopers when it comes to traveling. they were both pretty happy the entire time...

..and of coarse jeff was happy- he was surrounded by wild life and mountains- and that's his idea of heaven!!!

i decided to actually be in some pics this trip (i'm usually behind the camera), so ignore the double chin and 'baby weight' (yes- i know he's 2 1/2- but can't i please still call it that????)

after leaving norris we headed up to mammoth. on they way we saw the one thing we were ALL dying to see.

he was running right along side the road. i don't think he was full grown, but it was soooo cool!!! we ended up seeing 6 bears...

a couple heard of elk...

buffalo everywhere...

(not shown) one deer, pelicans, bald eagles, osprey (hawk), some kind of herring, grizzly, geese, ducks, and a few more that have escaped my head at the time.

entire trip we kept seeing all the cool old cars. i guess there was some convention up near yellow stone while we were there. hunter couldn't resist touching this car when we stopped for our picnic in mammoth. and i couldn't resist taking a picture of my 2 boys with it. isn't it beautiful???

we stopped canyon village and hiked down to the falls (ok- so it was only a jont... but with 2 kids and a lot of stairs it felt like a hike to me!!!)

they were even nice enough to stop running for a couple of seconds so i could get a picture.

the crew 'hiking' back to the cars to continue with exploration...

(grandpa, justin, max, jeff, and hunter)

and then the drama started!!!! but it deserves its very own post!