Yellowstone National Park

It just sort of happened.

The family decided we wanted to drive up to Island Park, Idaho and check things out up there. Island Park is a VERY popular destination place for water skiing, hiking, weekend get aways, and it seems like every other person you meet has a cabin up in Island Park that they frequent.

We got up there and discovered that it seemed pretty good, I mean we really didn't know what to do or where to go. Anyway, we saw a sign that said 20 miles to Montana and then just a bit farther to West Yellowstone National Park. We were having a nice time in the van and thought what the heck and headed up North.

Once we got to West Yellowstone we decided to get a hotel room and make a party of it. One problem, we didn't pack anything little lone a diaper bag.

Once we got the essential shopping done (diapers, wipes, and two sale priced swimming trunks..one for Dalton and one for Zoie to wear with a sports bra she had on...her first and last two piece swimming suit.) we were ready to go. We swam in the hotel pool, ate Bison at a local restaurant, and watched too much TV in the hotel room before we all crashed for the night.

After our lovely continental breakfast we headed out for the Park and were thrilled to discover that they were having a FREE day at the park ($25 deal) that day. Our mini van erupt with cheers and celebration over the news and our day was set to be the best day ever. Almost immediately upon entering the park we came across our first bit of wildlife...a buffalo (hopefully no relation the one we ate for dinner the night before). It was so amazing.

Stevey was like a kid in a candy store (or a life long lover of nature in Yellowstone for the first time) and took so many beautiful pictures and just couldn't get enough of the beautiful sights everywhere.

Enjoy only a couple of the pictures of our spontaneous trip and it really was one of the funnest activities ever. By the way, it was so awesome that my kid want to leave Idaho and move to Montana because it is so cool...go figure.


The final stretch home...crashed.


Here we come...


A natural boiling mud pot.


Hello handsome.



We got here five minutes before eruption...perfect timing.

This was so amazing and there were thousands of people there.

This was the highlight of out trip. I don't remember the name of this hot pool but the colors were incredible. We hiked up a steep mountain side to get birds eye view and we were not disappointed (yep...I carried Sunny up in my arms and we both survived).

Another natural hot spring...there are over 10,000 of these things all over the park.

Snack time...

More buffalo in the distance.

They are SO massive

In the city of West Yellowstone they have these painted buffalo all over the town and will auction them off later in the year....remember the cow thing in San Antonio...same thing.