Old Yeller Stone

We went on a crazy trip up to Yellowstone the weekend before Macey started school. Lachelle was blessing her sweet baby (pictures of that day are on her blog here) but they had family stuff going on the whole weekend before the blessing. I didn't really want to drive up to Idaho just for Sunday morning (because school started the very next day...) so I decided we might as well go to Yellowstone if we were planning to make the drive!

It was a great idea and we are so glad that we were able to go. Thomas and I had both never been and it's been on our list for ages. 

We all needed new shoes... Thomas and I both had holes in ours (they were SO bad!) and the kids have just grown since last summer (make that stop...), so on the way up we ran into a Big 5 and 20 minutes later we all came out with new sneakers. Sweet huh!

I made reservations at a KOA just outside of West Yellowstone and we planned on tenting it up. When we got there I asked to make sure there were no more little cabins still (because there were none when I booked) and one was open! We snatched that thing up fast and paid the difference. Best. Idea. Ever. It gets COLD there at night and I think the ground would have been worse than their cheap mattresses. Mark my words... when I'm rich I'm staying in a hotel. One day, one day...

The park is HUGE. We spent a lot of time in the car driving from place to place just because it's so massive. We'd pop out where ever we thought looked fun and had a great time. Two-days in Yellowstone was well spent and totally memorable.

Here's the photo dump:

Thomas is a ninja. We went down a million steep switch-backs to look at a waterfall and Macey was so done when it came time to go back up. He hauled BOTH Henry and Macey up that hill. It was so sweet. He didn't even complain once... he just does it because he loves his kids. *sigh*

My siblings who are living with us this summer went with us and they were total nuts. But we are glad they came to pack kids around and entertain us in the car with song.

Yellowstone Lake - awesome

Old Faithful - very faithful

The KOA had a super ghetto mini-golf (or putt-putt as us Hoosiers like to call it) set up. We played the last night we were there and the kids had SO MUCH FUN. I never would have thought they would have liked it but they sure did. There was no one else playing, we didn't follow any rules, and we just kind of let them skip from place to place, so they were happy as clams. Henry and Macey were totally into it and Kimball just liked hitting everything with his club.

And we made our way to the candy shop, a Christmas shop (have to get my ornament souvenir!), and to the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center in West Yellowstone. We didn't see bears or wolves in the park but paying to see them was totally worth it. It was really neat.

Oh Sarah and her selfies...

We only ate out twice our whole 5 day trip (I planned, packed, and cooked like a mad woman for weeks before!) And one stop was at KFC. We had a few pieces of chicken left so we threw them in the car. The kids ate them on the way to my sister house. I have no idea why but eating these HUGE pieces of chicken in the car was one of the funniest parts of the trip. The kids loved it...

It's a "you had to be there" kind of thing I guess...

After a fun night at Lachelle's in-laws, the blessing the next day, and a tasty lunch at Lachelle's house it was already time to go home :(

Macey woke up bright and early to start SCHOOL!

She came home with an assignment to make a picture of herself and Henry wanted to work on "homework" too. So he did one too! Cute huh...

I've totally struggled with letting Macey go. It's not her that has the problem, it's totally me. But while she's not around me and "the little boys" as we call them (who aren't all that little) have some fun.

I'll be 33 weeks on Thursday and couldn't be more pleased. I'm really looking forward to having the baby!

Boys and bugs

Henry is an awesome helper and he LOVES the garden. He likes to weed, he loves to pick things that are ready, he loves to eat everything in it, he like to help can. Him and I are two peas in a pod in a lot of ways and it's really fun for me.

An my, don't I grow a mean cabbage :) That thing is the size of my head and I have a big head...

That's life lately!