Yellowstone trip Day 1

We made it to Yellowstone!!! The plan was to leave at nine a.m. sharp. We got out the door by nine-thirty. Boom. Off to a good start.

It is only an hour and forty-five minutes to West Yellowstone. That is one movie on the DVD player. Boom-chicka-locka-chicka.

Our first stop was the Wolf and Grizzley Discovery Center. The weather was still nippy but since we live in Siberia/Idaho it didn't really cause us problems. Most of the muesum is outside and actually worth stopping at because the kids are guarenteed to see animals. I would rather see a close-up bear behind bars than in the wild anyway, but that is just my preference.

I'm still trying to figure out my new camera which means most of my pictures look like this: Incorrect settings and decent pose=worthless picture.

Or this: Still incorrect settings, only on picture number 2, everyone is done being patient with me.

This bear is testing this special Kevlar bear bag for durabilty. It reminded me of this time when I was young, naive, and camping and we hung a bear bag in the middle of a terrible rainstorm only to find a jar of peanut butter in our tent in the morning. The bear got the bag open. It kind of makes backpacking in remote places a little less apealing to me.

Testing out the equipment. AKA messing around.

Petting a bear. (Skin. Whew).

As part of our "Vacation Studies" We learned about reintroducing the wolves into Yellowstone. The books we read were all propaganda which I find irritating regardless of what I actually think. Seeing the wolves was pretty awesome though, and I really liked reading about the wolf packs and all the pack-drama that unfolded once they got situated. (Wolves could make some good reality tv).

This is a bear trap. It works on little boys too. Sadly, it was just for display.

After the Wolf Muesum we took the kids to a park and let them play. This was actually one of my favorite parts of our trip because Jason and I had decided to be "chill" on this trip--to take it easy, and to make it about good memories and not just seeing things. We chased the kids around and pretended to be trolls. Actually, Jason did since I am more like a beached whale. Anyway, I think the kids loved it.

We checked in to the hotel fairly early and took the kids right to the pool. We purposefully used this hotel because they have a pool AND a waterslide. Its not a waterpark--but for our kids it was perfect. We were the only ones there and we went up and down a gazillon times. A big sign said pregnant women weren't allowed to ride(along with: 1. People with only 2 days left to live, and 2. Quadropalegics.) I found that irritating so I ignored the sign. Unless someone can give me some evidence about why it is bad for me.....I might file a Prejudge Against Soon-To-Be-Moms Lawsuit.

At this point we had officially worn our kids out. Since we planned on going to a musical we thought this would be good for Jadon. Well, we wore out the wrong kid. Noelle was so tired we couldn't even get her to eat dinner. When I had bought tickets to the musical I had the choice to pick seats. I picked the side thinking we could easily slip out if "someone" was being disruptive. We got to theater to find that our row was ON the stage and that much of the play was on a raised stage right next to us. I about walked out then and there because I could just imagine Jadon trying to "participate" in the singing/dancing portions and ad-libing the role of the town fool when things got slow.

I shouldn't have worried. The play (Beauty and the Beast) was awesome. The actors were so fantastic, the sets constantly changing (on a tiny stage) and the costumes very fun. Jadon sat on my lap the whole time, except for one small part involving a fight between the Beast and Gaston where I kind of threw Jadon towards Jason to get out of the way of the Beast falling on us. (I told you we were close!) Jadon loved it and was clapping his hands and singing along.

Noelle was still super-tired. So much so that at intermission the actors brought her a sucker and tried to cheer her up. They even told her that they would give her a secret wave while they were performing--which they did. Essentially, the theater did a fantastic job which made me feel really pleased because I think origonally I was the only one who wanted to go. It was different than everything else we did on our trip and very family friendly so I would totally recommend it.

Oh yea! On the drive up I gave my kids brand new binoculars to keep them busy. It was a good idea. The binoculars entertained them for a sufficent amount of time on the first day, and by day three had become a jet-packs for a stuffed bear and cougar. Gifts that do double duty are my kind of gifts.