Yellow Stone 2012

Our big family trip this year was Yellow Stone! We were so excited to visit because neither of us had ever been. We flew into Idaho Falls (there was no way I was taking a 1 year old on the 16 hour drive) and decided to spend a few days at the Grand Tetons before we met the rest of the family in Yellow Stone. Porter did so well on his first plane ride. He pretty much slept the entire 2 hours.

Day one in Jackson Hole was so fun. We went out with Tim and Jeanne to explore the town, and we came across a park with these huge antler arches. In the evening we went to a Chuck Wagon that came with a folk song show. It was really good!

The next day Autumn's family flew in. We got to enjoy a nice hike with them, a trip to the Grand Tetons Visitor Center, and a trip to a shopping center where we were able to feed some horses. Porter has no fear, he was feeding those horses just like the rest of us. 

The Teton's were so beautiful!

After our quick visit to these pretty mountains, we were on our way to the highlight of our trip, Yellowstone National Park!

We were excited to meet the rest of the family at the cabin. Porter had so much fun playing with his cousins.

Here's a breakdown of our week...(Thanks Carla for being so organized!)

Sunday: Our first day in Yellowstone also happened to be Father's Day. Autumn did such a good job setting up a devotional and some fun games that focused on the dad's. This was Scott's first Father's Day, and he really enjoyed it.  We also went to see the Johnny Sack Cabin and went on a little hike along the beautiful river.

Monday was our first day in the park. We saw tons of bison and some amazing sulfur pools. Of  course we stayed and watched Old Faithful erupt. 

Tuesday was our big rafting day.  I've never been before, and this was the thing I was most excited about, so my amazing husband let me go with the family while he stayed back with Port. 

We also got to see a bit more sulfuric activity going on at Mammoth Springs. 

We found the South entrance to the park, so we had to take a pic in front of the arch.

Wednesday was Nicholas's birthday so some of us went to the Grizzly and Wolf Center while Scott and a few of the other boys went fishing.

During this trip Porter's favorite word to say was "bear", he pronounced it "burr". It was so funny because every animal he saw he would point and call it a bear.

Thursday was when we went to see many of the beautiful falls in Yellowstone, we did a lot of hiking, and we saw a bear in the wild!

Friday, Scott and I were able to go out on our own and rent a quad (thanks Grandma and Grandpa for babysitting!). We ended up going on a trail that led us to this beautiful waterfall. 

 

When we got back Scott went horseback riding with Carla and enjoyed the peaceful country side. 

We packed up to leave the cabin on Saturday, but our fun wasn't over yet...we still got to spend one more day in Idaho Falls. 

Since Porter's new favorite animal is a bear we had to take him to Bear World. He loved it! There were bears all over the place, and every time one got close to the car Porter would get so excited! We had to take him to the gift shop to pick out a stuffed animal.

After Bear World we went to the local museum and checked out the King Tut exhibit. I think our next trip will be to Egypt :)

We had such a fun time bonding with the family, and we look forward to many more vacations with them.