Yellowstone!

Last week, we went to Yellowstone!  We took two days to get there, stopping at a few places along the way.  Our first stop was at Chimney Rock in Nebraska. 



Then we headed further west into Wyoming.  We saw Devil's Tower (there's kind of a cute story that goes along with Devil's Tower, google it!).



Guess what happened to me at Devil's Tower?  I set my brand new camera on the hood of the car to take a self portrait, and the wind blew it right off of the hood and onto the hot, hard ground.  My brand new camera no longer works at all :(

See all those bikes in the behind the girls?  There were tons of bikers everywhere!  Maybe they were headed to Sturgis?  We're not sure, but there were tons of bikes even in Yellowstone. 

Anyway, we stopped for lunch in Cody, WY and then kept on truckin right up to Yellowstone. 

We made it!!  Finally!  Excitement levels were pretty high at this point. 

We spent the next four days in Yellowstone, trying to see as much of it as possible (although according to a youtube video that I watched, you cannot see all of yellowstone in your lifetime.  Wow, it's a lot like the Louvre in Paris!!). 

We saw tons of waterfalls, buffalo and elk.  We saw guysers, hot springs and mountains.  The mountains are everywhere!  Why do we not have mountains in Omaha?  They are soo pretty!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Old Faithful!

 

This is a really cool hotel in Yellowstone.  It looks like a tree house.  Very cool!

Girls playing in snow on the top of a mountain.

Happy Birthday to Mike!!

Elk

Then there was a super fun hike called Uncle Tom's Trail.  Mike really wanted to go on this hike, where you hike down a huge incline, then go down a million rickety metal steps, and at the bottom is this amazing waterfall.  The kids opted to stay in the car for this one, but since it was Mike's birthday, I said I would go with him.  As we are hiking down this steep incline, we keep seeing signs that say things like "Change in altitude.  Take breaks from hiking often!  Stay hydrated!"  Of course, I am in flip flops, and I left my Dr. Pepper in the car.  But I trudged on, getting more nervous by the minute.  The hike down was fine.  No problems there.  The waterfall was so pretty, and we even saw a rainbow!

 

Then we had to go back up.  Not fun.  I had gone about 30 steps up before I was affected by the altitude.  I say this because Mike thought I was just being a baby and was tired.  But I swear, it was the altitude!  I had to take breaks all the time.  I just couldn't catch my breath.  I even thought I was going to faint at one point.  And I told Mike.  But he just rolled his eyes and hiked on up without me.  I got to the top without fainting or dying, luckily.  Then I wandered around the parking lot for about ten minutes because I couldn't remember where we parked.  I was a real mess.  Mike finally found me and even brought me a bottle of water.  It still took most of the day for me to recover. 

Our last day, we went and saw the Grand Teton Mountains.  Very pretty! 

 

We had a picnic on the lake, and then the girls got their swimsuits on and played in the water.  It was the perfect way to end the vacation. 

We got back home on Sunday, and now we are in full back to school mode!  Pictures of that to come on Wednesday!!