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!!

Day 7: Wall, SD to Yellowstone

Good afternoon from Montana!  We've been remiss in our posting because of the lack of internet connectivity in Yellowstone National Park (not necessarily a bad thing!)  So, I'll do my best to update the previous days, since technically it's Day 9, but we'll go back and review the last few days.  Bottom line: Yellowstone rocks and we need to spend a week or two there next time!

The morning of Day 7 (Sunday, July 3, incidentally our 7th anniversary!) began after a rather difficult night's sleep.  We finally went to bed Saturday night after a crazy storm had come through our area, forcing us to our vehicles to ride it out.  Thankfully the really heavy stuff hit us (we had been in a tornado watch for the afternoon and evening), but we still were treated to some loud thunder and crazy lightning.  The best part was definitely the full rainbow that painted the sky, slowly turning into a double rainbow!  It was incredible.  After we finally fell asleep, though, the good times started with the screeching trains outside our campsite throughout the night.  Jim's training in sleeping well in hotels in downtown Manhattan really paid off, though, since he didn't even wake up.  Amazing.

On the way out of South Dakota we stopped at Mount Rushmore which, while impressive to see, especially on the July 4th weekend, we were unimpressed with the rip-you-off nature of the parking and concession area.  Boooo!  So, that ended up slowing us down for a bit and making me a little grumpy at "donating" $11 to the non-profit hoo-ha of Mt. Rushmore.  The bathrooms were lovely.

The road to Yellowstone was long but beautiful!  We ate dinner in the mountains of Wyoming at the Elk View Inn.  I did not get the Elk burger, but was tempted.  We were treated to a gorgeous sunset over the plains in Wyoming.  We stopped in Cody (the last city before Yellowstone) to get groceries and more ice for the coolers (no mini-fridges in the cabins!)  We had a lot of sleepy people as we finally made it to the gate at Yellowstone sometime around 11:30 p.m.  Jim was piloting, Betsy was co-piloting, and I was keeping the kids happy in the back while trying to stay awake (sort of).  I was bummed we arrived after dark, but it was kind of neat to wind through the park and try to avoid any potential wildlife darting out into the street.  We saw some neat rock formations on the side that, whoops! not rock!  It's SNOW!

Sleepy Mary: that's what happens when you wake up at 4, silly goose!

Happy Independence Day!

Daddy, Danny and Biscuit Buddy with the presidents

Don't we all need some Moose Drool?  Who was in charge of their marketing department?

Big long trains in southern Wyoming

Puffy clouds in the mountains of Wyoming

Such a pretty landscape

Heading into higher elevation

Gorgeous sunset, heading west in Wyoming

Good night, Wyoming

In bed by 1:15 a.m., ready to see the park in the daylight!

Picture Post! (From Day 4)

Here are those pictures I promised from yesterday (Day 4, Ludington to La Crosse via Champion, Green Bay and Appleton, WI)

Mary and Meg, ready to board the S.S. Badger car ferry from Ludington, MI to Manitowoc, WI

Danny and Daddy, and lots of bags

Watching our car board the ferry!

There were some HUGE trucks being loaded to the ship

Em, Sam and Molly on the ship

Saying goodbye to Michigan and Eastern Standard Time

Jim and Jenny, enjoying adult conversation!

Billy, representing with the Reggie White jersey

Cousins!

Molly and the Lake

Billy and G-Money

Danny peeking out to the water

Molly, Liam and Emily looking out the back of the ship

I assure you he was in no way part of the crew

Greg steals Dad's sunglasses

Sweet Emily

Greg's punishment if he doesn't behave...

No, Dad!  We really do like him!

Heading into Manitowoc, WI!

 

One of the many beautiful farms in northern Wisconsin

The Our Lady of Good Help Shrine in Champion, WI 

The Apparition Crypt, where Mary appeared to a local woman

Just hangin' around!

Looking out from the back of the shrine toward the land where Jenny's ancestors lived.  

The front of the shrine; Jen's ancestors actually used to own this land, too 

Heading to the promised land: Green Bay!

Titletown, USA!

Lambeau Field, finally

Joe's favorite place on earth

Danny had an awesome time running through the atrium with his cousins

Billy had an awesome time wearing the Super Bowl Championship  ring

This one's for you, Papa Joe! 

The Rowans and The Ring

Wait, you mean it's real?  And we can touch it?!

Go, Pack, Go!

Sam and The Ring

Liam, future season ticket holder (Thanks, Joe), and The Ring 

Jenny with some extra bling

Multitasking with The Ring (My hair hadn't seen a hairbrush in a while...)

Is this cousin love?  Or is Danny trying to wrap Greg up for the tackle?   

Sunset over western Wisconsin, on our way to La Crosse!