Yellowstone with the Cowleys

 

We left for Yellowstone at about 5am Sunday morning so that we could get there early and have the whole day. We stopped at Winco in Idaho and bought lots of food for the week. Brent was screaming at the prices- everything SO cheap!

I had rented a little jeep and we were packed to the brim. Then we bought stuff at Costco and Winco, and we were REALLY packed to the brim. We all had groceries in our laps.

We arrived to West Yellowstone and unpacked and immediately started playing. We went to the hot tub, and Brent was SO tired, he just took a nap right there on the side of the hot tub. Remember how he had just traveled for over 30 hours from Singapore and arrived late Friday night, and then we left on Sunday at 5am. Between lack of sleep and jet lag, he was out. I've hardly ever seen him take a nap! I was like, Brent, do you want to go sleep in the room? People are going to think you're dead. 

Ava went with Grandma and Grandpa to visit a friend that lives in the area who is a quilter. Ava said she liked this quit, so she gave it to Ava! It's beautiful.

Bob & Tammy (and Marcie's family) were staying in the Presidential Suite. It was so big and nice and fun as the gathering spot.

My friend in Hawaii had given us this Baby yoda jacket, and it's a good thing, because it's chilly in Yellowstone and this is the only jacket he had! I bought the boys each a couple pairs of pants before the trip because they didn't own any.

Monday we went into the park with Marcie, Mitch, Daniel and Tim. Any time there was a traffic jam, there was either an animal on the side of the road grazing, or people thought they had seen an animal on the side of the road. Here's Mitch trying to spot anything while we sit in traffic.

We followed Tim for what felt like forever, and finally ended up at Tower Fall. 

The waterfall is a bit bigger than it appears, obviously haha. But still after living in Oregon, all waterfalls seem pretty small.

The rest of the group found a great fishing spot, so we separated from them and headed toward Mammoth Hot Springs. I don't think I quite remembered from when I was here last at the age of 6, that Yellowstone is HUGE and you drive for hours to get places! 

I looked back to check on the kids and Audrey looked so funny, sleeping with her mouth open, one eye cracked open, and leaning into Coen's personal space. He looked up to see her inches from his face and he literally jumped back in fear. It was SO funny.

Mammoth Hot Springs. There were elk soaking in a hot spring here! 

I should mention that since we had only rented a 5 seater car, we only took up to 3 kids at a time on our adventures in the park. It worked out this day, since Ava had just been in the park before we got there, and she preferred to stay back and play with Boston and McKenna. 

I had carried Kai all the way up to the top and I got so tired! Coen and Audrey were tired too, so Brent carried all THREE kids back down. Benefits of marrying a man with endless energy.

Each family took a night to cook dinner for everyone in presidential suite. Here after dinner we sang happy birthday to Josie.

We went to the Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center in a couple different groups. It was directly next to our hotel, so we walked over and got to see some wolves and grizzlies up close.

Brent has a picture like this with his cousins when he was younger. 

He also has this picture when he went in 2008:

Ava made glasses with Natalie (one of the many crafts she brought). Ava loves dressing up Kai, her little baby doll.

Most everyone except Kai and I went to float the river in Island Park, Idaho. Some people were in rafts, and a few were in tubes. 

While everyone was floating the river, I worked while Kai slept, and then we had some giggle time:

My mom gave us this Brazil shirt- oh the nostalgia!

The next day Brent took Coen to the Wolf & Grizzly Center and Coen got a chance to feed the grizzlies- or more accurately, hide food for them. Ava was able to do this a few days before when she went with Natalie. They give the kids dog food to hide in the rocks, and apples to throw in the pond. Ava says they were supposed to make it like a puzzle for the bears. Then they let the kids out of the enclosure and the bears into the enclosure, and they watch the bears eat the food. Here's Coen watching the bears eat his food:

A video:

Coen at the bear activity:

That afternoon just Brent and I and our two little ones went into Yellowstone. We went to Gibbon Falls first:

We took this so that when Kai grows up we can tell him he was at Yellowstone :)

Next we went to Artists' Paintpots. So much of Yellowstone feels like we're on another planet.

Here you can see Brent and our new friend chatting and walking. We met lots of people as we were walking around, and everyone becomes a friend to Brent. This couple was from Germany and was touring around the entire US for 6 months!

The next day we got everyone together to go to Old Faithful. Grandma and Grandpa took Audrey for us this day so we could fit the rest of us in our car.

Everything in Yellowstone was SO crowded. We tried going into the park later in the afternoons and that helped, otherwise some of the parking lots were completely full.

Watching Old Faithful- it's pretty fun to wait with anticipation and then watch it blow! 

We walked around the geysers behind Old Faithful:

We ended up staying in the area for quite a few hours that we saw Old Faithful erupt like 5 times.

We ate lunch at the Old Faithful Lodge:

Then we took a tour of the Old Faithful Inn: 

On our way out we listened to these Native American singers:

More beautiful pools at the Fountain Paint Pot Trail:

Maybe my favorite picture I took this trip- so beautiful!

Brent took this- how is this real life?! Grand Prismatic Spring

Kai went from sitting to leaning forward, looking like he was getting prepped to crawl.

A video- the kids trying to teach Kai how to crawl. 

Baby Yoda laughing

Another day in the park, on Friday. We got to see a bison close up! We're really across the parking lot from the bison at a safe distance, don't worry.

The boys with the bison. 

We ended up meeting up with almost everyone at Norris Geyser Basin. We didn't have cell service in most of Yellowstone, so it was kind of a miracle we all ended up in the same part of the trail at the same time.

Next we went to the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. This is soooo far down, it made my stomach flip looking at it. 

Finally, a picture with all 6 of us!

Back at the hotel, I had to get a picture of Coen's favorite spot to be. Our room was just down the hall from the game room, and every morning we'd wake up to find Coen playing the arcades. 

His particular favorite was Rootbeer Tapper. If you zoom in on this picture, you'll se all 10 high scores belong to CAC (Coen). Ha!

We got everyone together to take a selfie before some of the group left for home.

Had to get a picture of Mark holding the baby:

Then we went into the overlook of the Grand Prismatic Spring (about a 45 minute drive from the hotel). It was a pretty easy hike up to the overlook. Brent ran into a student from BYUH there!

On our way out of the park we stopped at a river to play and skip rocks. 

There were so many tiny little black frogs! You can see how tiny, in Ava's hand:

That evening we had a leftovers dinner in our condo with everyone. It was quite the feast!

The next morning we got up pretty early to head back home. Daniel was driving Boston and Ava home for us, so we all caravanned home. We had decided to go through the Tetons. As we were just outside of Yellowstone Park, before we entered the Tetons, there was a backup on the road. People were out of their cars, and someone told us there was a black bear! It was very close to the road and we were able to see it!

A video:

I was so happy to see a bear because I had really wanted to see a bear, but I didn't want to drive as far as Natalie and Daniel had driven the other days in the park to find bears. Lucky us, the bear was just right there!

We stopped at the visitor center at the Tetons and the kids all had fun together.

McKenna, Coen, and Ava did a photo shoot with Kai with lots of different hats and props. I only included one of the very many pictures.

I couldn't believe that the Tetons are so close to Utah and I had never seen them. They were so gorgeous!

It's hard to capture the size and beauty of the mountains in the pictures, but I kept saying that it looked like we were in Whoville.

We all dipped our toes in the water:

Also I had to document that all along the trip I was nursing Kai and/or pumping in the car and handing bottles back to Coen to feed his little brother. I still did about half/half breastmilk and formula.

Such a beautiful area!

We went to Jackson Hole and saw the town square with the antler arches:

We went to lunch at at BBQ restaurant, and then headed toward SLC. We got home at bedtime. What an amazing trip! Thank you Grandma & Grandpa!