Yellowstone Vacation!

The last week in June we took a family vacation to Yellowstone with my parents and all my siblings, their spouses and kids.  There were 11 adults and 12 kids.  It was a ton of fun!  We stayed in a big cabin in Island Park for four nights.  The kids had a blast hanging out with each other all week.  The cabin had six bedrooms so each family got their own room plus there was a big room for all the kids (except the two babies) with 2 bunk beds on one side of the room where the boys stayed and a few roll-away beds on the other side of the room where the girls stayed.  The first night getting the kids to settle down didn't go so well. After that they were so tired by the end of the day the fell asleep pretty quickly.  TJ slept in his playpen next to our bed every night and did great!  I thought he would have a hard time at night but he went right to sleep and slept through the night every night. 

Saturday morning we went to Pocatello, Idaho.  We went to the Zoo and played at the park.  We stayed the night in a hotel and the next day we were on our way to Island Park.  On the way we stopped at a rest stop by a river for lunch.  We were by the river and there was a tank for the kids to play on.  They really enjoyed climbing on it.

We stopped at Mesa Falls on the way to Island Park.  It was a short walk to the falls and it was beautiful!

Our first day in Yellowstone Park we did the upper loop.  We went on a little hike to Upper Falls.  It was really beautiful!

We also went to Tower Falls, Mamoth Hot Springs and the Norris Geyser Basin.

It was a really long day, we ended up spending about 11 hrs in the park.  Tj got a little restless in the car a few times but he did pretty good.

When we bought our pass for Yellowstone they gave the kids a yellow paper that had a picture of all the types of animals and birds you could see in Yellowstone.  Delma called it her map and was so excited to see the animals on her map. 

We saw a lot of Buffalo!

I really really wanted to see a bear.  Our first day in Yellowstone we got to see one while we were driving to Tower Falls.  It was awesome!

It is on the grassy area above the road.

Click on this picture to see it bigger, really great picture!

We did some hiking throughout the day and Delma insisted on holding her aunt Becky's hand the whole time.  She really adores her aunt Becky.

Travis and Becky swinging Kiara and Delma.

TJ LOVED goinghiking.  Once he got in the backpack he was really happy and just loved to look around and see everything.

The kids had a lot of fun hanging out with their cousins.  Brennen took turns riding in different cars, he thought it was pretty awesome to not have to hang out with mom/dad/little siblings the whole time.  :-)

Here are a few pictures of some of the geysers and springs that we were able to see.

Old Faithful.  Delma was scared of it so she refused to watch.

Jason and Brennen did some fly fishing at the nearby rivers.

One of the days was pretty hot so we decided to go tubing down the river.  The Buffalo river was very close to our cabin and it was pretty slow, shallow and warm.  Perfect for kids!  It was a lot of fun!

Jason and Kiara

Jan and Delma

My brother, his wife and two daughters

Brennen didn't want to stay on his tube.  The second time down the river he didn't even take a tube and just swam along with everyone.  (with a life jacket of course).

One night after Delma got her pj's on she took one of her stories to grandpa and asked him to read to her.

Eventually the other little kids came and joined the story time.

My cute nephew Zaxton.  Instead of sucking his thumb he sucks his two fingers.

Delma really wanted to see a moose.  It was one of the only animals left on her "map" that we hadn't spotted yet.  Jason saw one while driving around to find a spot to float down the river but the kids weren't with him.  One day when we were driving back to the cabin Kiara started yelling that she saw a moose we hurried and turned around and sure enough...there was a moose!

We all laughed so hard!  Good eye Kiara!!!

We really enjoyed our vacation.  The kids thought Yellowstone was really awesome!  It was so fun watching them see all the amazing sights for the first time.  Delma couldn't stop talking about the "steam water".  She even put her hands over her head a few times and would say that steam was coming out of her.  Funny girl!  It was really fun to go with all of my family the kids had such a good time playing with their cousins.

12 kids and counting!!!