Three Boys and a Little Girl: Yellowstone

This past weekend we went camping in Yellowstone with my aunt and uncle, Lloyd and Colleen. We love going there with them. They know so much about the park; best places to camp, good hikes, where you're most likely to see animals. And they are also very experienced campers, so it's nice to have them there to help us not so experienced campers. :) This was the first time we spent two nights in the park. We drove up Thursday, set up camp and talked for a while that night. That night a bunch of Elk tromped through our campsite, it was crazy to listen to!! And we also heard coyotes howling in the night as well as wolves. It was pretty cool. We saw lots of animals over the weekend: a bear, elk, buffalo, snake. The kids loved that.

Anyway, Friday we went on this big hike up Mt. Washburn. It was a lot tougher than we had anticipated (Colleen's easy is our difficult...hahaha), but we are so glad we did it. The view was absolutely beautiful and I was so impressed by all three of our boys. It was 2.5 miles all up and pretty steep at times and then 2.5 miles down. The two older boys kept the lead and just hiked and hiked. I didn't hear one complaint. And I figured Luca would sit in the stroller for it, but no, he hiked the WHOLE way!!! I was shocked!! He didn't complain once! He was at the tail end of the hike, but he's only 4!! He was going as fast as his little legs could handle, and would stop when he needed a little rest. I was really proud of him. I about died on the hike. My out of shape, overweight body didn't handle it the best. Plus I was carrying Mia on my back which added even more pounds. I probably wouldn't have made it to the top, but when we were getting close, Colleen put Mia in the stroller with Audrey (their granddaughter) and ran up the hill with them. She's amazing. Then the hike down was nice and easy. I was so proud to see all of my boys accomplish that hike, and it was so fun to be able to just walk and talk.

Getting ready to go

We're hiking to the top of that mountain where you see the overlook on top.

Luca taking his little water breaks and resting his legs.

There were tons of bighorn sheep towards the top of the mountain. The one in the picture above was on the pathway.

We made it!! Way to go Luca!!! Amazing!!

The older boys LOVED looking out the telescope.

Heading down...Mia fell asleep in the stroller.

Finished! We were amazed that the kids did so well on this hike!!

Another view of where we hiked to...beautiful

Hangin out at the campsite

Audrey and Mia (they are only 3 weeks apart in age)

Silly girls

Roasting marshmallows

On Saturday we hiked to a beautiful waterfall. At the overlook, even though there were fences so you wouldn't fall over, it made me nervous with the little ones. The water was rushing so fast that you knew it was dangerous. It was a beautiful site. Then we went to see Old Faithful. It was a little disappointing. The kids were not as excited as we thought they would be. Lloyd and Colleen told us about another geyser that you hike to that is more impressive, maybe next year we'll try that one. It sounds fun.

Our hike to the waterfall

Old Faithful

After that, we drove back to Lloyd and Colleens and had a late dinner with Kirk, Ashley, Megan and baby Derek. This was the first time we met Derek, and he is the most calm, easy going baby I have ever seen!! What a cutie. Sunday we came home. It was such a fun trip and we're so grateful to Lloyd and Colleen for always being willing to take us camping and letting us invade their house. :) It was a great weekend.

Some of the animals we saw...