On the fly!

I believe the last sentence of my last post was that we were now in need of a vacation.  Jeremy must have agreed because when I came home from the gym on Friday he said "Let's go to Yellowstone!"  I am always game for a trip, especially the impromptu ones, so we packed the car and left an hour later!  The first night we stayed in Idaho Falls.  It was fun to tell the girls how their daddy was born there.  We had an excellent room at an incredible rate (Saving $60 thanks to our travel agent status!) that overlooked the falls.  We were on the eighth floor looking down at the falls and out at the mountains.  For just a little town, it was a big view!  The girls thought the luggage cart was a jungle gym and ended up playing on that all night (sorry to the other guests who missed out on using it!)  We swam in the pool and then got take out from Chili's. 

In the morning we headed down the road to West Yellowstone where along the way we saw Bear World.  We've never been there but were out to make this a great trip so we squealed the tires as we swung around to catch it.  It was awesome.  You first drive through a park area where there are tons of deer, antelope and best of all... BEARS.  Tons of them.  We saw them swimming in the pond, following the cars and lounging about.  The girls loved it and couldn't believe it.  We were glad to catch the bears here because we didn't see any in the park.  After the drive you go into bear world.  They have some really cute rides, a petting zoo and a baby bear cub area.  It was so fun to see them all and Neeley even dared to touch a baby dear.  If you know Neeley you know this is some progress!

After Bear World we headed down the road for West Yellowstone where we found the cutest little cabins to stay in there.  We shopped around a bit and then relaxed at the cabin.  In the morning we headed into the park.  Neeley asked if there would be slides and swings there.  I think she was disappointed until we started finding the deer.  I had to explain to them that Bear World was a cage and that if you find animals in the park that it was much more special.  We stood and watched a doe eat her breakfast for a long time.  Then we moved on to the hot pots.  The girls didn't like the smell but they sure loved looking for the troll under the walkway.  They walked along chanting, "Troll, troll come out now.  Troll, troll come out now!"  Any time there was a knot hole in the wood we had to check to see if we could see him!

On to Old Faithful for lunch and the big show. I have never seen so many people gathered to watch it before. Kayla loved it until it started to spray us but Neeley thought it was all great. On our way to Jackson the girls slept and watched movies while Jer and I sat in awe at the beauty that surrounded us. Jer was ith'in for his fishing pole and I was having visions of tent camping (just a short burst, mind you, but then it quickly left when I thought of the cabin!) When we got to the hotel and started to get the girls ready for bed Neeley said we couldn't go home the next day because we hadn't been to Yellowstone yet. Where did we go wrong??? The whole "park" word really can throw a kid off!The next morning we went shopping in Jackson Hole for a while before heading home. And of course, the last stop we had to make... the candy store!

This trip brought back memories of being a kid riding around Yellowstone in the camper. My mind was flooded with memories of traveling with the family as a kid and I am so glad we hopped in the car even with only an hours notice so that we could make those same memories with our kids.