Saturday, July 20, 2013

Day 5 Yellowstone-Yellow Brick Road- The Road that Never Ends!

Today was the first day we woke up in our destination cabin with an awesome view of the mountains I might add. So we have left an Alabama summer mornings to come to a Wyoming summer morning that is quite different! We walk out & walk right back in to get a jacket. It is quite cool. We have breakfast at our doorstep, which is an awesome feature of the cabins we are staying. It is in a sweet country bucket no doubt! Strawberry breakfast bread, peaches, & I'm pretty sure sunny D was the breakfast of champions. We drive out after Kati, Alli, & Isaac decide they are hot (since they are running around) & have tossed their jackets back in the cabins. We arrive at Yellowstone after a beautiful yet torturous slow winding drive. It is about a 30 minute drive from our cabin- have we mentioned we've driven over 1800 miles already. Kati on the ride there states her stomach is hurting & is sitting in grandma's lap. Eli has crawled up in mommy's lap just because.. Eli seems to be sleepy, this is the child that likes sleep like his mommy.. THEN the face comes, then the question.. "Eli do you feel sick?", the nod, the mad dash for the emergency ice cream bucket.. What a waste of good strawberry breakfast bread! Well Dad didn't get the torture of vomit duty this time, mom's turn. We do arrive at Yellowstone to find out it's even colder in the shade. Go figure in the land of plethora of trees/shade its even chillier. I discover the smart mom who has brought her jacket has lost her jacket to the child whose belly still hurts. Defeated I complain in my head. Somehow it's taken off & being the good mom I volunteer to give it back if the child becomes cold. A small voice says can you give me a jacket too, I'm cold. This voice is from another one of the wise children that tossed their jacket back inside. Crazy children! We do warm up after going to the visitor center/gift shop/torture for parents. We make it out basically unscathed but after being smushed in a small room with lots of people we are all toasty! So we then proceed further into the park & come across an awesome site of lots of cars on the side of the road. No really if you see lots of cars at Yellowstone know some awesome animal is close by. We got to get some pretty cool pics of elk. They were pretty uninterested, as if "more humans to take my picture, whatever". God's creation is truly awesome! We randomly pulled over to take pictures where the kids & I go down a slight hill where they can put their feet in an awesomely beautiful lake, where my sweet niece Alli cat about drowns herself(not really)! She stumbles in the water & is completely soaks herself, wouldn't be so bad if we had a towel, change of clothes, or if it was warmer. She does dry out, thank goodness. Grandma closes her shorts in the window so they can air dry. I did use to drive to church with my head hanging out to dry my hair so I agree this is super redneck but will work. We do have MS license so I figure we'll be forgiven!  We then proceeded on. We were going to see "Old Faithful". I mean you can't come to Yellowstone without seeing that, right? So we press on. Then I see a road sign inside Yellowstone that said 49 miles! Slowly the van walls start to close in on me. I hear children being loud all around me & we have to drive more. Did I mention that we've already driven over 1800 miles(Bruce and I over 2000)??? So to remain sane as the van walls close in I kick everyone off the last row and lay down, not really intending to sleep but i do get a cat nap in. I wake up much more (well at least a little) sane & ready to go. We get out & of course stop at another gift shop. This time getting matching t-shirts-yes we are now that family! We make it out just in time to walk over to see "Old Faithful" erupt. In the process we lose Melissa and 4 kids. I mean who would have thunk that 11 people can't stay together. So after worrying that they've been kidnapped, lost, or who knows, & even walking around to attempt to find them we find out they are about 8 people down from us. Meanwhile, "Old Faithful" is a big fat tease. There would be a little bubbling, then nothing. Finally she does erupt... Hate to destroy anyone's hopes & dreams & not quite sure what I expected but not so super impressed. Pretty cool how it shoots up & all but I guess I was expecting a large "BOOM" or something. I guess maybe she's just a quiet gal. We then drive more (have I mentioned we've already driven over 1800 miles) to see some of the basins. New fact the basin pools are scalding, boiling water that comes to the surface from underground-Continuous volcano clear water-beautiful. You are not even supposed to get off the path in these areas due to the ground being fragile & people having fell through the ground & essentially died per boiling. We thoroughly frightened the children with these stories- for safety purposes of course! They were good for the most part except for Hunter walking on the edge & stumbling to the ground beside the boardwalk. His mother then reminded him of the stories & I don't think it'll happen again! After all our grand walking we decide it's time to get back to the cabin, everyone being on the tired side(did I mention we've driven over 1800 miles). We begin the long drive out of the park, which is slow & winding. We did make one other stop to catch a site of a grizzly bear, pretty awesome. Only Bruce and Justin got out for that one. Mrs Teresa said she can't run at all (hence she's not gonna outrun anyone else or the bear) so she would stay put. I was ok watching from a distance. We continue our winding drive back out of the park, where I'm glad Mr. Gary still has blood flow to his hands, he was gripping the handle pretty tightly. It's yet to be determined if it was the winding road or Justin's driving as i'm pretty sure he was looking for animals. I would just hold my hands up like a roller coaster ride. We did make it back, did I mention we've driven over 1800 miles (not complaining {Phil 2:14} just stating the facts)?? Definitely could have used the warning that we will be driving lots every day! We rounded up a left over supper, had some family drama, and finally made some plans for tomorrow. Ever hear that marriage is to make you holy not happy? It's true by the way. Family vacation upsizes that statement! I love my family that God has blessed me with! We are super imperfect learning to serve a perfect God! We are learning to be patient, humble,  & to put ourselves aside. Phil 2:3-4. We have not arrived but I'm sure vaca will help! Family & Friends we wish you were here. Thanks for keeping up with the crazy adventures!



























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