Yellowstone

Yellowstone was great as usual and Ethan did much better than I expected, I guess. He slept in the bathtub in G&G Summers trailer. We could put him to bed at 7:00 pm, turn the fan on and still be in the trailer, it worked out great. (We figured this out when G&G Summers camped just down the lane from me while I was at girls camp and had Luke and Ethan with them. It was so great of them!) Danny's sister was there for the first two days at Colter Bay in Teton National Park and then it was just us and G&G in Yellowstone. We wondered if it would be hard for Luke to not have his cousins to play with, but he put us all to work playing with him. Probably Grandpa the most.

We all took turns staying at the trailer in the evening while Ethan slept, and everyone else went out looking for aminals (as Luke still says), but on the nights that Grandpa stayed at the trailer, Luke decided that he would rather stay at the trailer too! Grandpa was his little buddy all week, it was pretty cute. On the last night, back at Colter Bay, I stayed and Luke decided to stay with me. We played "Grandpa" games. We "teased" each other, i.e. "hey that's my coat, give me back my coat!" We "be funny" with each other, i.e. "hey you hambone," "hey you moose face!" and we looked at train magazines. We also played hide-and-seek every day in Yellowstone which he loved. Needless to say there is always a bit of crying when we tell him it's time to go home. Luckily this year we had my nephew's wedding to go to so that was a bit of a buffer for him to see his other cousins and there weren't as many tears this time. As usual too many pictures, but we just can't help ourselves.

Yellowstone 2009

We just got back on Saturday. It was fantastic. We went with Danny's parents and sister and kids. Not much to say about it other than show you the photos...lots of photos! We camped half way the first night and Luke was SO excited to sleep in our new (to us) tent trailer that my mom and her husband gave us, which we love and are so happy to have. He was excited to put his jammies on, brush his teeth and get in bed. Quite miraculous. So this first picture is him, just being so excited he can hardly contain himself.




































Day 1 in Yellowstone...nice and foggy. I love fog.


















































































































Day 2 Clear Lake hike...it's beautiful. I loved this tree.






























































Stinky hot pot, or "hot puddle" as Luke called them.






































































Fun with pipe cleaner...










































This one cracks me up of Luke...does he remind anyone of the kid in Sandlot?
















































































This big ol' bruiser wasn't there when we parked the jeep (we were watching a grizzly on the other side of the road in Hayden Valley) but he found a nice little spot next to the jeep. These things gore people every year, I don't like to mess with them.


Day 3 Playing in Yellowstone Lake


Can you tell he's tired?



Day 4 Tower Falls hike










































Eating ice cream after the hike. It was hot.

























































Day 5 Craft Day
I meant to do this fun little craft that I found in Family Fun on the first day that we were there so we could have them all week, but I completely forgot. So we did it on the last day when it was a little rainy for an hour or two. I did Grandpa and Alyssa did the other three. It was really fun, I quite enjoyed myself.


All the kids in their Yellowstone shirts that Grandma Summers bought for them. That's the best they've every posed for a picture.