Yellowstone Trip

(by Aubree)

We have been trying to figure out where to go on vacation this year. Our choices are limited with Clara because she's still too young to leave with anyone, and she's not old enough to really enjoy what's going on. So we figured we would try to stay fairly close to home, and that's why we decided to go to Wyoming.

We left last Wednesday night and stayed at Jeff's parents' house so we could get an hour out of the way. Thursday we left for Alpine Junction where we met up with Jeff's brother Ben and his family who were camping out just outside of Alpine Junction.

We enjoyed some beautiful views

We thought this was really pretty with the fall colored trees and the snow frosted Pine Trees.

As you can imagine, it was extremely cold. And yes, that's Clara. We had three different people call her a boy because of her blueish/purple jacket. It has hearts on it for heavens sakes! :) Plus I didn't put any bows in her hair the whole time either.

Ben took us on a ride in his ranger. On the ride my eye started to tear up and all of the sudden it went blurry. I later realized that my tears had frozen onto my contact!

We didn't last very long, so we went in their camper and played games while the kids (Wes, Clara, and Kelsey) watched a movie. Wes and Clara didn't last very long at all.

That night we stayed in Alpine Junction. We stayed in a little cabin that a hotel there rents out. It ended up working out really well. We really enjoyed our stay there.

On Friday we headed out for Yellowstone. It ended up being a LOT longer drive than we realized, and Clara let us hear all about it both ways.

Old Faithful

While we were waiting for the geyser to go off, we saw the most unusual animal that I bet none of you have ever seen!
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-

A pink bear!

On the way back, we stopped at West Thumb Geyser Basin to see the thermal pools.

While we were there, we saw a group of elk. There were probably about 20 in the group.

On our way out of the parking lot, there were a bunch of people that were stopped taking pictures, and we figured it was just a bunch of females that we had seen earlier. But when we pulled past the cars, we saw this bull elk that was right next to our car! So we pulled forward and took a picture. It must have been an old elk because it walked like it had arthritis and look at his antlers! They're huge!

A pretty waterfall on the way back.

We're kind of lucky that it took so long to get there, because on our way back the sun was settling and it was the perfect time to take pictures of the Grand Tetons and other beautiful mountains.

This one was actually taken on our way up.

It was a beautiful sunset that night.

Saturday was our last day and we spent it in Jackson Hole. We met up with Ben and his family again. We first went to Ripley's Believe It or Not Museum. Then we went to lunch at Jeff's favorite BBQ place, Bubba's. And we finished off looking around at the many shops.

We had to take a picture in front of one of the famous antler archways.

We ended our trip by spending the night with my parents in Grace, and then had lunch at Jeff's parents house. It was a great trip!