Yellowstone Day 2

After a quick breakfast of cereal, yogurt and donuts we packed up the van and drove back to Yellowstone.  We didn't have any specific thing on the agenda, but did want to see Yellowstone Falls and the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. 
Once we got to the Park, our first item of business was to feed Guard.  This was consistently the hardest part of our trip.  We could not find warm water anywhere for Guard's bottles.  The water in the bathrooms was lukewarm and we discovered that water in this area has nitrates in it that is not good for babies.  We purchases some bottled water, but had no way to warm it.  Guard is very picky about the temperature of his bottles and would refuse to eat if it wasn't warm enough.  Greg finally came up with the idea of warming the bottles on the hot car engine.  We would stop to look at something and we would stick Guard's glass bottle in by the engine and then when we got back to the car, it was warm.  What a brilliant idea!
We spent some time hiking today.  We went on some small hikes to see the canyon and falls.  It was beautiful and the kids loved it.  Enoch said, "So now I know why it is called Yellowstone!  Now it makes sense!"

 

 

 

 

 

Enoch spotted this snow across the canyon and asked, "Why did someone put a giant piece of Styrofoam over there?"  It does look like Styrofoam, doesn't it?

The kids are such good hikers and they did great.  Gavin was a great help with the small kids and Enoch kept us all going (because we had to catch up to him and not lose him again).  Kate did well as long as she could hold Dad's hand.  Guard did great and fell asleep during the bumpy stroller ride. 

 

We went on a few shorter hikes to see more geysers.  Enoch and Kate would point out all the geysers and say, "That's a Guard geyser (very small)," or, "That's a Gavin geyser (bigger)."  It was a fun game they played.

 

The favorite spot of the trip was the Dragon's Lair (do you see the dragon's breath coming out?).  The kids all thought it was very fun.

 After seeing so many geyser and 'stink pots' the kids did get a bit bored. Their favorite game to play was 'gate'.  You had to guess the password to get through.  It was all fun and even some indulgent strangers played along.

 

We had a wonderfully fun time, but when the kids were done, they were done.  We couldn't stretch out the fun anymore.

 

We got a later start home than we wanted.  We left Yellowstone around 4pm, stopped in Ashton for dinner and finally got on the road.  We drove for a few hours before Guard couldn't take anymore (or we couldn't take anymore of his screaming).  We pulled over in Farm Country, ID, and on the exit ramp walked and walked with Guard, while the other kids ate snacks and watched TV in the car.  After Guard finally asleep and we got back on the road, I thought we were good to go, but we ran into road construction in Ogden.  Seriously.  It felt like it took us forever to get home.  We finally pulled into our driveway after midnight.  Of course, the kids were awake because they had slept the last few hours.  It took us a while to get everyone in bed and calmed down.

It was a great time.  I now wonder if that is why Gavin wasn't suppose to be on the bus.  Maybe our family needed this trip and the great memories.