Day 8: YELLOWSTONE!

Happy 4th of July!!  We spent the day in Yellowstone, doing our best to see as much as possible.  Here's a sampling of what we saw:

A bison crossing the street
A bald eagle perched by a river
Waterfalls!
A grey wolf
An elk
A geyser erupting
Hot springs bubbling from the earth (and stinking up the joint)
A mama bison nursing her baby bison
Burned out forests
Majestic mountains across an equally majestic lake
Cousins running and playing and hiking together
A baby girl falling asleep in her Daddy's hiking backpack (then later shrieking with joy in her daddy's Baby Bjorn carrier.  My shoulders thank that Daddy for the break they received from slinging the baby girl!)
A sister-in-law grilling hot dogs and cooking beans on the shore of Yellowstone Lake
A little boy playing with his 4th of July pinwheel that he got last year in Chatham, has kept for a full year, and insisted on bringing it on the road trip.
A brother finally getting to Yellowstone and loving every second of it
A sister filling the favorite aunt roll to the 7 nieces and nephews on this trip
Ice cream for dinner
Beer for dessert
Thunder and lightning before bed
And finally, a baby girl and little boy who slept well enough to let me sleep for 6 straight hours for the first time in... a while.

Rowans on hike of Upper Falls

Betsy leading the kids on a hike inYellowstone

The grown-ups! (Photo credit: Sam Bowman, the eldest cousin on the trip)

Purple mountains majesty

Jenny, the cook extraordinaire.  I'm so glad she's on our team.

Danny rocks the patriotic shirt, plate and pinwheel at lunch

Not a bad view for lunch

Happy hikers! 

Liam is an awesome big cousin to Danny (who brought Baby along on the hike) 

MVPs, 6 weeks away from their 15th anniversary

Happiest baby girl with her sweet Daddy

Old Faithful erupts!  Pretty darn cool.

A river runs through it

Yellowstone is awesome!  We could have spent another week or two and still not seen everything.  Plus we have a wedding to get to!!