Yellowstone

Day 39:  The alarm went off at 4:45 and we set off for Yellowstone.  These driving days are ALWAYS longer than anticipated.  Note to self:  Texas driving miles vs the rest of the US are NOT the same.  We pulled into the entrance of West Yellowstone 480 miles and still had 50 slow miles to go.  

Luckily, Old Faithful was right on our way to our campsite in Grant Village, so we stopped for a treat....nice dinner at Old Faithful Lodge.

The goal was to beat the dinner rush...We arrived at 4:45 and were seated right away!  YES!!!!  This was our nicest dinner since the boat cruise in Lake Tahoe, and we were ready for it after two weeks of cooking at the Floathouse.  We finished our dinner just in time to find a good spot to wait for Old Faithful to erupt.

The boys have been talking about Old Faithful all summer!  Last year, we came at sunrise, so I think they were still a bit sleepy.  Also, my awesome Mom, Grandma Becki, bought the boys Laura and Jenna Bush's new book "My Great Big Backyard".  I highly recommend it!  The family takes a summer road trip and visits National Park....why didn't I write this book?!  Anyways...it's Carson's favorite book.  We read it to him every night, and talk about the different parks we've visited along the way.  His favorite part of the book is when they're in Yellowstone and see Old Faithful.  He was super excited!!!!  Our Geyser watcher was a little off because it didn't erupt until 13 minutes after predicted, but when it happened...BLAST OFF!

By this point, it was 7:30, and we were whipped, so we found our campsite by the Lake, played a game of Up and Down the River and hit the hay.  

Day 40:  Wow!  We've been gone a long time!!!!  We only have two nights in Yellowstone this year....it was our midpoint destination to get to Grand Teton, so instead of driving all day again, we decided to enjoy Lake Yellowstone.

We brought our shovels and chairs and hiked down to the lake to relax and play.  Carson and Cole decided they'd try to dig down to the magma and create their own geyser.

There was so much air under the surface bubbles kept lifting and frothing, and the water was warm in some places and freezing in others.  We really were playing on a super volcano!

By this point, we were gross with sand and covered in volcanic ash, so we hit the wonderful showers to clean off our lake funk that had acquired over our two weeks at the Floathouse.  The BEST shower ever!!!!!  Once we were clean again, we set off on the 2 mile drive to West Thumb Geysers on the lake.

This was my favorite spot last year so I was excited to revisit with the boys.

The blues of the lake against the geysers was absolutely incredible!

We returned to the TicTac for chicken tacos, hit the General Store for Ice Cresm Day, played another game of Up and Down the River and crashed.  Tomorrow, we head to Grand Teton!