Day 14 & 15

We took our time getting ready once again, having breakfast, chatting, and doing more laundry. We were hoping the weather would have been nicer because Patrick was going to take us up in his airplane to get a better view of the parks. But unfortunately it was raining. That would have been awesome! Instead, we drove north into Great Teton National Park. Patrick rode with George and Renee and would stop every once and a while to tell us about the land and how the mountains were formed. He was once the Chief Naturalist of the park at one time.

We stopped and had lunch in the park where JC meet up with us so her and Patrick could head back home and we could continue on our journey. We continued right on up into Yellowstone National Park and pulled up to Old Faithful geyser 15 minutes before it was going to erupt. We couldn't have timed it more perfectly since we had no idea when it was going to erupt. I could tell Sophia was very concerned as we were waiting for the eruption. She kept asking me,"what is it doing?" and no matter what I told her she would keep on asking. I think she thought something was going to spray on her. So luckily as we watched from afar, her tension subsided.

We tried to make dinner reservations at the Old Faithful Inn but they couldn't get us in until 9:30 so there was no way that would have worked. What a magnificent building though! The entire thing was constructed of huge logs. It was easy to imagine Yellowstone's first visitors coming to marvel at all the amazing sights!

I wanted to see the Grand Prismatic Spring, but because it was so cold and windy, the steam took over everywhere and you could barely see anything. I wanted to see the aqua blue center with the orange rim.

We left there and started towards West Yellowstone through many herds of buffalo. They were all over the place, even in the middle of the street. I really wanted to see a bear, but no luck. We came across a heard where there was an elk in the middle of the field with her baby. A woman told us that the baby was just born that morning!! Its so amazing to see them in the wild, knowing that some zoo keeper wasn't watching and taking notes every time it stood up or to be sure it was nursing enough.

We pulled into the KOA but they were way over priced so we found another small town friendly campground to stay for the night. Neither Lance or I were very hungry, especially not for any fast food. We tried to get some salads at McDonald's but they had run out and their burgers were $1.50 more than what you would normally find. So we decided to go to the grocery store to get some milk and eat the cereal we already had!

The next morning, Lance was stressing about missing his first class last week so he stayed behind to listen to his lecture while we all walked to breakfast at a little diner down the street. It was neat because they had 3 real stuffed bears! Grandma had Sophia pose as Goldilocks for some cute pictures! (don't mind the sign that says 'please don't touch!') Once Lance was ready, we picked up some lunch at the grocery store and made our way back through the park. We left the trailer at one junction we were going to come back too to head north and George and Renee got in the motor home with us to go see the falls. We stopped at all the vista points along the Yellowstone Grand Canyon to see the lower falls and had our picnic lunch.

Next we went up the road to see the Upper Falls where we got to stand right at the top of the brink of the falls! Sophia was very excited to see the rainbow in the mist.

Next we headed towards the Mud Volcano and drove through the Hayden Valley. I was searching so hard to see a bear, but of course, only saw buffalo. The Mud Volcano smelled absolutely disgusting. I almost lost my lunch on the hike up the hill. Sophia kept on saying, “What does that smell like?” and made an “icky” face!

I could have lived without ever having seen the muddy sulfur caldrons! I would have much rather seen a bear!

It was time to leave Yellowstone National Park, but not before one last drive through the valley for another bear hunt. But no luck. I think because I was looking so hard, they were no where to be found.We drove past Mammoth Hot Springs but only got to take a picture from the car, which is not very exciting, because both kids were asleep and if we would have stopped chances are they would have woken up.

We wanted to make it as far as we could, to get a head start on the 900 miles to Bellingham, Washington. We looked at our KOA map and decided to go to Missoula, Montana, about a 5 hour drive. The kids both took about a 2 hour nap! I was almost going to bet that Brett was out for the night even though it was only 5 o'clock. But they both woke up. We made a stop at a walmart to pick up a few things for dinner and for Lance to buy a gun. But because he has a Florida drivers license the Montana state law said they couldn't sell him a gun. He was so bummed!

Lance rode with George in the Yukon so he could read his book for his class the next day, while Renee rode with me to entertain the kids and get them ready for bed. Once the sun set, Brett started getting anxious and would not settle down. Renee tried everything I thought would work to get him to stop crying and go to sleep but nothing helped. I pulled over to switch drivers and he went right to sleep. But only long enough for me to get Sophia's bed set up and to kiss her good night. He was so tired but something was up. He had a bad tummy ache. We didn't know if it was from drinking too much milk, or if the chicken he had from walmart was bad because George and Renee also had upset stomachs who also ate the chicken. He kept wanting to fall asleep but kept waking up so squirmy and fussy. I felt so bad for the little guy. So for the rest of the 2 hour drive, he was in and out of sleep with a bad tummy ache.

Once we settled into camp, at about 1 o'clock, he finally fell asleep, prayerfully for the whole night!