July Roadtrip videos

 

 

Day 3 Vacation-West Yellowstone Wolf and Grizzly Center

We stayed the night in a neat little log cabin hotel in West Yellowstone called the Yellowstone Inn. I would definitely stay there again!  

The next morning, we explored the Wolf and Grizzly Center. It was a rehabilitation center for wolves and grizzlies who either couldn't survive in the wild due to illness or injury or who were causing humans issues (getting into campgrounds, etc). 

Some wolves on patrol. 

This grizzly was 980 pounds! He has to be outside by himself because if they let the other bears out with him, he might hurt them unintentionally. The other bears came out later in the day. He's the only bear we saw the whole trip. He was humongous. 

There was a little ground squirrel display. 

3 bald eagles who could no longer survive in the wild. 

My little wolf howling at the moon apparently. 

Day 2 Vacation-Yellowstone South Loop

On Day 2, we left Twin Falls really early so we could make it to Yellowstone as soon as possible. 

On the way, we stopped in Rexburg and had a quick visit at the bank with my friend Denys from Royal City. I hadn't seen her in forever! 

She lives only a few hours from Yellowstone so we were there in no time. We decided to do all the "south loop" stuff that day. It was the geothermal area. 

Our first stop was Old Faithful and it was faithful as usual. 

The rest of the pictures are just pictures of pools of hot liquids that will burn and maim you. Very pretty to see and very unique. Also usually very stinky. Nathan didn't notice of course.  We spent Day 1 doing all the "south" adventures which was mostly pools of color. 

We made it just in time for Old Faithful. 

We did have a favorite pool. It was this blue one called "sapphire pool." You could see how deep it was and the blue was a deeper blue the deeper it got. It was quite beautiful. 

Boiling waterfall behind her. 

Orange colors. 

Steamy

We stayed until sunset

Jeremy's favorite thing of the day was the boiling waterfall. 

More pictures he took of a boiling waterfall. 

As we headed back up to West Yellowstone for the night, we got stuck in some traffic. There was ONE buffalo crossing and apparently it was a really big deal! 

Day 1 Vacation

Day 1 we packed up and headed out! We needed to make it to Twin Falls, Idaho that night to get to our hotel. 

Here is our van packed up all nice and neat! We had the plug in cooler, the box of food, the supplies box, and everyone's suitcases and pillows. Jeremy figured out a great "system" to make everything fit neatly and make the cooler and food easily accessible when we were on the road. 

                                                   

At the start of the trip, the car was so clean! Look! The floor by their feet was empty

I missed the Welcome to Oregon sign. Oops. Well, in Oregon, we stopped for a picnic and then moved on to Idaho so nothing exciting happened in Oregon this trip anyway. 

We made a quick stop in Boise to see Auntie LeAnne. Nathan hadn't been to Boise since he was 1 year old, so it had been a long time! We didn't stay long as we had to make it to Twin Falls. The kids spoiled Henry and he had a lot of good petting. LeAnne was super busy, so I didn't get any pictures with her. 

We found a cool canyon past Boise. It contained the Snake River and was very pretty. 

The landscape was just like home!! Large sagebrush!!  

We made it to Twin Falls for the night. I heated up dinners in our hotel room and the kids swam. This was the best of all the hotel pools by FAR. The kids had a great time in this pool.  For future info for myself, it was the Twin Falls Best Western. Pools are important to remember! 

Vacation Statistics

We just got back from our big road trip! We visited 23 different locations so I will probably make lots of posts with pictures and details. As an overview, here are some of the statistics about the trip.

Total Days: 11

Total Miles: 3,403

Total States: 7

Tourist Stops: 23

Road Construction Projects: 52

License Plates: 48 (We didn't find Rhode Island or West Virginia). We did, however, find 6 Canadian provinces and 1 plate from Qatar.


Here is where our list gets a bit sillier as the kids helped me:

Hats seen blown into geothermic vents/pools/geysers: 21

Rocks collected: 89

Stuffed Animals purchased: 5

Wooden guns acquired: 3

One room schoolhouses toured: 4

Total allergic reactions: 3

Hotels: 5

9 3/4

Before Nathan turns 10 in a month, he reminded me yet again that he is currently 9 3/4 and that I needed to mark that on the blog. It is an important number for Harry Potter fans and one he wanted to remember.

Police Work

Jeremy had a hot and dusty day at the range yesterday. They were basically rolling around in the dirt shooting.  He had to bring his gear home to clean it up. He decided to have me try it all on to see how it really felt to wear it all. It was very heavy and cumbersome! 

Just the belt was heavy. I didn't know where to put my arms. They can't go straight down your sides. 

Then he added the vest. That was quite restrictive. 

THEN, he made me carry the rifle. Quite heavy!! 

He got it all cleaned up and took it back to work today. 

Ernest Impressions.

If you've ever seen the old Ernest movies, you will have a good laugh at this short video. 

Evening Play

I just snapped a few pictures of the kids playing outside in the evenings when it gets cooler in the shady areas. They like to play with sidewalk chalk. 

Sherman occasionally ventures over to play. Yes, my hydrangeas are now crispy rather than pink. We try to think of it as a glaze. They do not like the 100+ degree heat and the full sun they are in. Guess I should have thought of that before I planted them. Oops. 

Birthday

I had a birthday a few days ago. Jeremy was very busy working, but bought me a little cake and we had a celebration before he had to take off to work.