Yellowstone - The Girls

I promise, this is my last Yellowstone post! But it is probably my favorite. Having 5 gorgeous nieces leads to lots of fun pictures. So this post is all my random pictures of my favorite girls!

My mom made each of the girls matching dresses for the trip. The turned out adorable, and the girls loved them!

This is quite possibly my favorite picture from the whole trip.
And it isn't posed:

Ivy showing off her blue tongue.
And Brookie trying to figure out how to stick out her tongue.

Swimming at the hotel was one of the girls favorite parts of the vacation.



Look at our creepy, red, vampire eyes!

Liz brought stuff for the girls to make Monster shirts. They each got to design their own, and they turned out to be so stinkin cute!

Our little monsters:

HA!

HA! HA!

Everywhere we went we saw the name "Madison". Maddie would always say "I think they really like me here!"

How can you not love these little ladies?

They are just too cute!

Yellowstone - Part 4

Some pictures from our last few days in Yellowstone:

One of my favorite stops on our trip was Artist's Point. It really looks like a painting, it is that stunning. Lacey, Dad, Violet and I went one day after our hike, and were so impressed we took the whole family back the next day.

After a long day touring Yellowstone, we were all ready for some cold, yummy ice cream! I would highly recommend the Buffalo Chip flavor, though Brookie will probably vouch for the mint chocolate chip. Even if it does have some dirt from the ground mixed in it!

On our last day we went to two IMAX movies (it was raining really hard, and the first one was so good we wanted to see a soecnd. Plus you get a discount if you see two!) We went to one called Amazing Caves that follows a couple of extreme cavers through mountain caves, underwater caves, and ice caves. It was awesome! The second was about the Lewis and Clark expedition. I learned a ton and left with a desire to learn more about the trip!

After we went to the shows we stopped by the Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center across the street from our hotel. Each night they allow kids between the ages of 6 & 12 to go into the bear habitat (while the bears are safely in cages, of course) and hide bear food. Then they escort the kids out of the habitat, and open the cages. Visitors can watch the bears search out the food. It is really fun!

So we did see a bear and a wolf on our vacation, but it wasn't in the wild. They were still cool, though!

There was even a playground to play on before we headed home.

We had such a fantastic time. Yellowstone was beautiful, and we got to do a lot of really fun things. We missed having Karl there, that was really the only thing that was missing. I love getting to spend time with my family!

Yellowstone Trip - Part 3

Now we come to one of my most favorite days of the whole vacation - Fairy Falls. Dad, Steve, and I left on our adventure early one morning while everyone was asleep. The first thing we did was hop on our bikes for a very senic bike ride.

It was gorgeous! How often do you get to ride your bike with a backdrop like this? Seriously phenomenal.

After a 6 mile bike ride we ditched the bikes and started the hike.

First we hiked through the flat fields filled with hot pots.

Then over the grasslands, using the "Lincoln logs" to keep us out of the marshy ground.

Finally we went through an evergreen forest,

All to lead us here:

Fairy Falls!

The hike was about 5 miles round trip, and so much fun because the landscape changed SO MUCH as you went along. The falls are also beautiful, which doesn't hurt! It rained a bit while we were hiking (if you look close in the pictures we have water dripping off of us) but it was totally worth it! Really, my favorite part of Yellowstone.

You would think that with a 6 mile bike ride and 5 mile hike in Yellowstone we would see some really cool wildlife, right? Well, we saw these on the side of the road as we were driving to the trail head:

And this little guy on our hike:

And this guy:

Well, we saw him in the parking lot when we got back to our car! I was so ready for my chance to see wildlife close up, but it wasn't meant to be! However, it was still a marvelous day!

Yellowstone - Part 2

One morning we decided to pack everyone up and hike to the brink of Lower Falls.

The girls were troopers

Violet really had it made!

For most of the hike Brooklyn insisted on wearing her backpack (aka, leash) backwards so she could hug the monkey. It was darling!

We all made it to the bottom. And all the girls (except for the ones who can't walk yet) hiked the whole way down on their own!

It is magnificent! You feel so tiny next to the enormous waterfall!

Do you see the people standing on the top right hand side above the falls? That is where we hiked to.

After lunch, most of the family went home while Dad, Lacey, Violet and I hiked down Uncle Tom's Trail to see the Lower Falls from a different perspective.

Lacey took this picture when we were on the first trail. If you look closely in the middle-ish section of the picture you can see some of the 328 steps you climb down to get there.

While the hike was quite a bit more intense than the first one, we all made it. Even Lacey with Violet in tow! We were quite dead legged and shaky when we got to the top!

Another hike, another day, not sure where:

Lace, Liz, and the Babes.

Nana, Papa, and the girls.

Going to the Obsidian Cliffs was a priority for our family. We went when I was a kid, and have some of the funnest pictures. It is just a gorgeous backdrop! It led to lots of fun pictures!

A family picture for the Christmas letter. We will need to photoshop Karl in, but it turned out pretty well for as many people as we had in it!