Yellowstone Trip 2008!!

Last week we made our yearly trip to Yellowstone National Park. We haven't specifically said we would go up there every year, but we just manage to make it up there just about every year. Call it luck I guess. We love it up there and take every chance we get to go up. This year we went with Gary's Parents (Dave & Gae), and his brother and his family (Bryce, Lisha, & Makayla)! We had a great time as we always do when we go up! Here are some pictures from the trip! There's a bunch so I hope you have some extra time to look through them!!

We left Tuesday, the 12th of August and stayed with our wonderful friends the Robisons. They live up in Pocatello, ID and are so nice to let us stay there whenever we go to Yellowstone. It's just far enough that we can get a jump start on the drive, but close enough we can after Gary gets home from work and it's not too late when we arrive at their house. We left Wednesday morning and made the rest of the drive up to Yellowstone. These pictures are from the first day we were there. We were on our way to meet up with the family in Cooke City Montana. We stopped to see a bear that was hiding behind a bush. This is in Lamar Valley, our favorite part of the park!!


That black thing in the bushes is the first bear we saw!! We thought we were lucky to see a bear on our first day.

Lisha brought some of these pipe cleaners to do crafts with the kids. She made some glasses and some flowers for Madi. I wanted to take a picture of Madi with them on, but she said she wanted me to wear them....

This coyote was walking down the road. I swear it's the same one we saw last year in that same area.. Probably not, but you still wonder.

So many pretty pictures to take! Everywhere you looked was so beautiful!

This is a picture of bear #2. We stopped because all the cars in front of us had stopped. We heard someone say there was a bear that just crossed the road up ahead. We were mad because we were sure we would miss any photo opportunity and the next thing I knew this bear was walking right past my car door. This picture is not zoomed at all.. Very cool.

After the bear had past our car and was down the road the road a little Gary and I got out of our car (yes, I know we are stupid...) and followed the bear a little.. Here is a video I took. In the video I had to get after Gary for whistling at the bear so he could get his attention.. Really, if you were in that same situation you would have gotten after your hubby too!! Who whistles at a bear to turn around anyways!? I know Gary was just trying to get a good picture for me, so thanks Gary for trying to help..

This is a great little lake we go to every year. It's just up the road from Mammoth Hot Springs. I love it because not very many people know about it. Just about every time we have gone to this lake we have had the lake to ourselves. This trip Gary brought his float tube. Madi wanted to go on it with him, but he wanted to float out and make sure the tube was floating okay before he let Madi get on with him.. This is a picture of Madi waiting for him to come back..

After a few minutes he finally came back to get her!

Aunt Lisha found a snake while we were there. Madi said she wasn't afraid, but judging by the look on her face in this picture I think she was a little nervous having a snake that close to her.

After the guys were done on thier float tubes we hiked up above the lake to fish the steam that feeds into it. I caught myself a fish!!! Not to shabby if you ask me.


There were pretty wild flowers all over the place! I wish I had a really nice camera at times like this!


After we fished above the river we went on a little hike to another river close by. Here's Bryce, Dave (Gary's Dad), & Gary with Jackson.. You wonder if they were trying to beat the other to the first great fishing hole of the river.. You know they were at least thinking about it..


There were wild strawberries that were the best thing you had ever tasted!!

A lone little pine cone on the tree.. Just liked this picture..

Bear #3!! You can see his little body cresting the hill. We didn't get there in time for a good shot, but he really is there.

A little dark, I know, but this is a picture of Lamar Valley after a rain storm.. This picture doesn't do it justice! It was so pretty!

Another great picture after the rain storm! I love the shade of green in this shot!!

OUCH!!! These were the gas prices in Cooke City Montana where our cabin was. We always filled up inside the park where gas was "only" $4.30..

No bath tubs so Jackson had to make due with the kitchen sink... Madi wasn't too happy about showering in our shower with NOOOO water pressure so she showered in the other cabin we had..

These next couple shots are of Norris Geysers! I love this place! It is so pretty everywhere you look.

Nope, the water isn't green and it isn't moss or algae.. It's just mineral deposits, pretty cool huh??

My curious husband wanted to see if the water was as hot as they said it was.. He said the signs were correct, the water was very hot!!

Jackson did so well on this trip!! I love my boy!

Mommy/daughter shot!

Gary and Bryce were great to take the kids and let Lisha and I enjoy some quiet time. It was nice to stay behind a little and chat.

It turns out we probably should have supervised Gary and Bryce a little more. We found them racing the strollers through Norris on the dirt roads. At least there wasn't anyone near by...

Family shot. Thanks Lisha for being our personal photographer that day!

Daddy/daughter shot!

Pretty picture!

Madi kept telling everyone that the steam was coming from the earth. Every time we saw some steam she would get excited and say, "it's coming from the earth!"

After walking through Norris we went back to the cabin, but stopped to fish a stream. I think this is another one of my favorite spots. We had driven past this area in the past, but this year we stopped to fish. Loved this area! I really can't get over the beautiful colors! Of course, the picture doesn't show you what I saw, but I did my best to capture it.

Here's Madi taking a break with Grandma!

I loved this picture I got of Bryce, Lisha, & Makayla. Lisha is in her third trimester and she didn't complain once!! What a tough chick!!

Bear #4! Yep, you heard me, BEAR #4!! Wow, we couldn't believe how many bears we saw this trip! This one was right on the side of the road eating. It was just a cub so we didn't stick around too long. We didn't really want to be the car the momma bear shredded because we were too close to her baby!!

We were in the car A LOT this trip. I got bored so I spent some of my time sitting backwards trying to get some fun pictures of the kids.


I discovered that Jackson's hair does some pretty funky things when there's a lot of sun block in it :)..

After awhile Madi wasn't too thrilled about me snapping her pictures.

I love this part of the drive back to Cooke City (it's at the NE entrance). This is another picture of Lamar Valley right when you turn the corner and barely pull into the valley!

Behind our cabin there's a trail that we followed. We found a pretty stream and a bunch of daiseys!



More fishing.. Here's Madi holding a fish I caught up by Tower Falls.

Madi loves fishing and playing in the water. The trick is to find a great fishing hole with another spot close enough to watch her, but far enough away that she doesn't ruin the fishing hole when she throws rocks or plays in the water..


After our little fishing trip to the Tower Falls area the kids were very hungry and thirsty.

Every time Jackson took a drink from his cup I thought he was going to suck the whole cup down his throat! I felt bad he was that thirsty..


We were on our way to one more fishing spot before we called it a night.. Normally we don't stop to look at the buffalo, but in this case we really didn't have any choice.

Here is our last stop to fish of the trip. We have managed to find another great spot to fish! Great views and the fishing was great too!

I think I have found myself a new hole to fish out of. For a long time "my hole" was in Lamar Valley along the Soda Butte River. Over the years the hole has changed so I didn't really like it anymore. This hole Gary and I found was great. It was hard to fish it because you had to land your fly right under an old tree, but when I was able to land it in the perfect spot I'd always get a hit on my fly! The fish were small, but it's still a lot of fun. I would have liked to fish that hole longer, but the sun went down and the fish weren't biting anymore. Oh well, there's always next year.

If you're squinting your eyes really hard trying to figure out if that is a diaper on Jackson's head, squint no more... It is a diaper, but rest ashured, that diaper is clean. Jackson fell asleep and the sun was beating down on his head. I was afraid that if I rubbed sunblock all over his head I'd wake him up. I used the next best thing (I didn't have a hat..).

It was on this last fishing spot Gary manages to land the biggest fish that Gary and I had caught that trip! Gary had caught many many fish, but they just didn't measure up to this one! Great job Gary!


Well, Sunday came and we packed up and headed for home. On our way out, right before we hit West Yellowstone we stopped to get this picture of Madi by the Madison River. Gary came up with the name Madison when I was pregnant with her. He suggested it and I loved it. It turns out that he wanted to name her that after the Madison River in Yellowstone. His father taught Gary to fly fish in that river so that river holds a special place in Gary's heart! I thought it was a great name for our daughter.


Here's a picture of the family in front of the Madison River. Gotta love the timer on your camera!!

We met up in West Yellowstone to let the kids get some wiggles out before we headed the rest of the way home.


I love this picture of Jackson! He looks like such a tough boy with that facial expression!!!

Thanks Dave, Gae, Bryce, Lisha, & Makayla for making this years trip a great one! We had a great time with all of you!! Let's do it again next year ;)!!