Second Trip to Yellowstone National Park

We wanted to see a little bit more of the park while we had the chance. We decided that Thursday 24 August was a great day to do it, but we had quite a few things to do that day and were not able to depart until almost noon; however it was well worth the trip.Before going to Yellowstone, we decided to stop at Mesa Falls. Scott and I had not been there since our honeymoon over 3 years ago. We started out at the lower falls. The lower falls are only visible from a distance and the park is not as kept up as the upper falls.The kids were still thoroughly thrilled by the waterfall, the scenery, and the people who were visiting the water fall as well. 

 We only stayed here a brief time before continuing on up to the upper falls. Before we left, we had to take the same picture we took on our honeymoon. We've changed a little, but the love is ever as strong. It was really fun retracing our footsteps from our honeymoon with our kids.
We went on to the upper falls and proceeded to have a picnic lunch before taking the hike down to the falls. There was no way I was going to be going any further without some sort of sustenance. We found a picnic table in the shade and enjoyed our Subway sandwiches and chips.
Once finished we proceeded down the steps. And man there were a lot of steps. It was worth it though. The waterfall was even more beautiful than I had remembered it. The river was really cool, too.  There were quite a lot of people visiting the area and Mr. Independent Daniel insisted on going up the steps on his own. It finally got to the point that Scott scooped him up and carried him. It only took a few moments before Daniel realized he got a better end of the deal.
Once we finished taking all of our pictures and hiking back up the steps, we all used the outhouses and continued on our way to Yellowstone.When we got there, we went in through the west entrance. Ironically, Yellowstone is only 1 1/2 hours from our house but we rarely ever go. Continuing on, once we made it into the park, we soon saw this lone bison. We then proceeded on and made it to Gibbon Falls. While we were touring around the area, we read about it and the wall that kept all of us tourist from falling off into the falls was the wall that had been originally used for the roadway back in the 1800's.
Also at that site was a board that had been updated with the latest wildfire information. On that day, there were about 5 fires being monitored. Throughout the park were road signs, similar to construction signs, that said "Monitored Fire in the Area." I'm assuming they were to cut down on the 911 calls reporting fires.
Continuing on, we hurried over to Norris Basin, right near the Yellowstone Volcano. Norris Basin had many different trails to take, but due to our lack of time, we took the ones that went right down onto the basin. Most of the trail we took was a boardwalk. The picture on the right is overlooking most of the basin.
All over the place were signs warning against going off the boardwalk. The ground may look solid, but it could just be a thin crust that could give way to a hot pool or worse, fall into a deep, empty vault.
I was really nervous keeping a 2 year old on the boardwalk. Whenever I tried to hold his hand, he would pull away even more and get even closer, even one teetering, on the edge. We couldn't get out of there soon enough. We saw absolutely gorgeous pools though. The colloidal pool was favorite.

 Not only did we hurry through Norris Basin because it was getting dark and we were trying to make sure our two year old didn't disappear off the face of the earth, we hurried because a huge tour bus full of an Oriental tour group was quickly gaining on us. They were being lead by a guy holding a flag pole with a neon flag. I hope they were unable to understand what we were saying because Scott and I kept telling the kids, "We've got to hurry! They are coming after us!" They did look a little bit like a disorganized army...

Once we left Norris Basin, the firefighter/curiosity in Scott got the best of all of us and we ended up hunting down one of the fires in the Park. This was as close as we were able to get. As best as we could tell, the fire was about 2 miles away from this location. As we were headed out of the area where the fire was, we could see the line of smoke. I thought this picture was cool with the moon in the background. The smoke showed up much better in person.
 That pretty much concluded our second adventure into the park. We still have not taken the kids to see all of the park yet. The park is so massive. I want to go back just after the park opens in the spring. Scott and I went in mid-May when we were on our honeymoon. I want the kids to experience the herds of buffalo right by the car or the grizzlies coming out looking for food or all of the baby bison. But that will have to be next year. Thankfully we have an annual pass at out disposal now...  :)

Tautphaus Park Zoo

We all had quite a busy day.  The day started off with Ashlynn having a dentist appointment at 9:00 am. That doesn't sound too early, but it seemed early enough. After getting some of her molars sealed, we had to go drop some stuff off for Scott at the AYSO director's house, the kids and I headed off to the zoo! Daniel had recently been with Scott and I, so as soon as I said we were going to go the zoo, Daniel just kept saying, "Go see
ANIMALS!!!!"
Once we got to the zoo, we started off seeing the birds. This one in particular was cooling itself off by sticking its head underneath the waterfall. Ashlynn thought it was pretty cool, too. Meanwhile, Daniel was off and running, literally. We got to see the ring-tailed lemurs from Madagascar.


This little guy thought we were pretty cool and put on quite a show. He is one of my favorite monkeys at the zoo. We continued on our tour, and once leaving the primate house, we went on to see the otters. We read about them but unfortunately, the little guys would not put on a show.

We did luck out with the donkeys. The zookeepers were letting them graze on the grassy lawn by the pavilion. I asked and they readily agreed to let the kids pet them.

Ashlynn found some really pretty flowers and she begged to have her picture taken with them. I obliged. I think her blue outfit contrasts beautifully.

We continued on our tour seeing all sorts of crazy birds. We were running short on time so I gave the kids the choice between seeing the lions and tigers and zebras, or seeing the pelicans and penguins. The penguins quickly won out. It was a good choice because the penguins were actually swimming. We watched them swim for a while. 

That pretty much concluded our visit to the zoo. All in all a good time.

First Trip to Yellowstone 2012

 

 

 

Part of Scott's travels for his job take him through Yellowstone National Park. To save money, Scott's employer purchased him an annual pass. On two of Scott's days off, we took trips to tour the park before Ashlynn started school.  On the first trip, we had to go through the Beartooth Highway- a beautiful, windy, 2-lane road getting up to almost 11,000 ft. I had no idea it was such a destination. The overlooks were breathtaking.

 

Once we reached the park entrance, we entered though the NE entrance and began eagerly looking for wildlife. Most of the area between the NE entrance and the Grand Loop is Lamar Valley. If Ivremember correctly, Lamar Valley is where the animals spend their summer? Either way, it is known for its high concentration of grizzlies, elk, bison, wolves, etc. Its reputation held true, at least partly, and we saw our first (and only) herd of bison! Ashlynn about came unglued when she saw them.

 

The next big adventure in Yellowstone was the Yellowstone Grand Canyon. The signs said this is a fairly new part of the park, appearing to only be 14,000 years old. No matter how old it is, the beauty is astounding. The Yellowstone River flows through the canyon, creating multiple waterfalls. Some of the different colors on the canyon walls are caused iron and other minerals. Ashlynn was way more excited by all of the different colors. Daniel really only seemed to care about seeing "WATERFALL!!" He would run around, either entertaining or irritating most of the people there. On our way to the next place, we came to a stretching halt. In Yellowstone, if there are a whole bunch of people pulled off to the side of the road, getting out, holding cameras and binoculars, it is safe to say there is something worthy of seeing. We got out, and carefully made our way to where the people were gather. We quickly saw they were looking at this.

To get to the see the elk safely, Daniel had to be carried. Unfortunately, he didn't want to be carried any way except on Momma's shoulders. Momma gained a new appreciation for when Daddy carries Daniel like that for what must feel like ages.  So on our way back to our car, Scott quickly and bravely took this picture to document how we had had to travel so that neither of the kids ended up mowed over.

The next stop were the mud caldrons. Both kids were fascinated by the bubbling, muddy waters. Daniel would run up to the next one and point! Ashlynn thought they smelled just awful. I can't saw as I blame her. The infamous sulphur smell permeated this stop.

Another stop featured the Dragon's Mouth.  The sign said the name came from the original explorers who thought the sound the escaping steam made was similar to that of a dragon. It did have a roaring sound to it, so I can understand why it got the name it did. It was rather fun to watch which we did for a bit.



We pushed on and our next major stop was Old Faithful! The last time Daniel had scene it he was only 6 weeks old. This time was much more memorable for him. We had tried to look up the schedule on line, but had had no luck.

As we pulled into the parking lot, we noticed there were a lot of people milling about Old Faithful. We figured either it had just gone off or was about to go off. We were hoping it was the later, so we took off running!  We got there in plenty of time to find a spot and wait for the big show. As usual, Old Faithful did not disappoint.


Daniel kept pointing to it and saying "Whoa!" He was rather impressed. Whenever Ashlynn would look away, he would point and say, "Look, Ashlynn! It goes up!" Once it had finally slowed, we started heading back to the car. It had been a long day and the kids started to let us know it about this point. There were a couple of more very pretty places to see before getting to the park exit, so we pushed on.

From Old Faithful we continued on to other sites such as the Grand Prismatic Spring, Fountain Paint Pot, and Firehole Bridge. Here are a few cool pictures from those:

  

We finally left the park around 9:00pm and then did some shopping around West Yellowstone. Since it was so late, we got the kids ready for bed, at some food that had been chilling in the cooler all day, then hit the road to come back home. We got home a little after midnight, put the sleeping into thei beds, then fells asleep ourselves. We all slept very well from our big day.

New Stand Mixer!!!!

For the past 5+ years I have been wanting a Kitchenaid Stand Mixer. I walked passed them everyday when I worked at Sears, but even with my discount, I could not afford one. When my sister, Jessica Patton, got one for her wedding, I really wanted one, however my finances still would not allow it. Once Scott began working at Sears and we had some Christmas money still laying around, we decided that NOW was finally the time to make  my dreams come true.

After we decided that we were getting one, we had to figure out which one we wanted. I had no idea there were so many types. I did much research and find websites like this one to be very helpful. I wanted one that would last a very long time and wanted a Kitchenaid so that I could eventually get some of the very cool attachments.

Scott went into Sears to purchase the Kitchenaid Artisan Stand Mixer however by the time we decided, the sale was over. I was quite sad.  Since Scott knew how badly I wanted this, he looked around to see if maybe there was a different version that was on sale. That's when one of his knowledgeable coworkers started helping him and drew his attention to the Kenmore stand mixer.  It had 400 watts instead of 325, came with a 5 quart bowl and a 2.5 quart bowl, plus it has the LED light over the bowl that the Kitchenaid did not have. Those were all the icing on the cake, but the selling point was that the Kitchenaid attachments work with the Kenmore! Oh, did I mention that between the sale and Scott's associate discount, it rang up at $170 less than the normal price of the Kitchenaid? So amazing!


It took a few days, but I was determined to use it.  The first thing I made was Challah bread. I did some research and found this Challah Bread recipe and got to work. It called for the maximum amount of flour that the instructions said it could handle so I thought it was perfect! I thought it was great being able to just dump stuff in the bowl and walk away!

The bread turned out great! We all enjoyed snacking on it - so much so that Daniel learned a new word (bread) and they only lasted about a week. Delicious! Such a good investment.

Ashlynn's Snow Bike!

For Christmas, Grandmomma and Grandaddy got Ashlynn a snow bike. We barely had enough snow, but she had a BLAST!

Daniel's First Time Sledding

Daniel had so much fun sledding. This cute little inflatable sled I got for him last year, but somehow he wasn't interested when he was 10 months old! But he's enjoying it now!