The sites in Yellowstone

One of the first places we visited in the park was the mud volcanos on the west side of the park.


Both kids loved hiking through the mud volcano site. Little N listened well and stayed on the path, which made our lives a lot easier. Big N was pretty thrilled using my old digital camera to take his own photos.




Little N was not a fan of the sulfur smell that was prevalent at the geothermic sites in the park.




I harassed one of the other park visitors in order to get a rare photo of the entire family.




Later that day we stumbled across the Lower Falls at Yellowstone. This area appears to be responsible for the name of the park. It was spectacular to see.

Summer Trip to Yellowstone

This summer en route to the family reunion in North Dakota, we drove through Yellowstone National Park. We left on the morning of June 18th and arrived in the park on Father's Day (June 19th).


We camped in Bozeman, Montana the night before and entered at the West entrance on Father's day. The drive into the park was beautiful on its own.

From what I have heard about trips to Yellowstone, Father's day weekend must be an ideal time to arrive. The park was not at all crowded. We've heard stories of long traffic jams throughout the park. Apparently, everyone else was busy honoring their dad on Father's day because we hardly saw any other cars. Sorry, Dad.



However, we did see buffalo almost immediately upon entering the park.


The rivers were really high. This was actually the case for about every river we saw along the drive through Washington, Idaho and into Montana.


There was snow on the ground in the passes, which shouldn't surprise anyone. The passes were over 8600 feet.



When we stayed in the park, we camped at the Fishing Bridge campground. This was a great location requiring hard sided vehicles. We figured out why on our last day in the park when we saw a bear wandering through the campground as we were pulling. It did make me rethink having let the kids play in the snow in the woods near our spot.

The campground is over 7000 feet high, meaning it was very cold at night! We had some very cuddly kids every morning. The kids even played in the snow around the campsite using their sand buckets.

Family Reunion in North Dakota

I owe the blog a number of posts. We've been so busy this summer, I feel like I am just now starting to catch up.

At the end of June we went to my family reunion in Rock Lake, North Dakota.


It was nice to see everyone and to meet my cousin's baby, G. His smile could warm anyone's heart.


The kids got to see cousin A, who is walking up a storm


More photos of baby A at the Family blog
It is always nice to see Grandma. We miss her.

Off to the Park

We have taken a two week vacation! I cannot remember ever taking this much time off in my adult life, other than maternity leave.

We started off heading towards Yellowstone National Park. After a few days, we headed to Rocklake North Dakota. After the trip to North Dakota, we headed to South Dakota to visit My Rushmore. It has been a whirlwind trip. Overall this has been a very positive family vacation.

It did start out a little hard for Little N. We drove two days to go to Yellowstone Park. As we're driving through the park to reach our campground passing herds of Bison and beautiful rivers, we hear from the back, "Where is the slide and the swings at this park?"

Little N was heartbroken to find out that a National Park is a different designation of the word park. She started crying, but we were able to make her smile after that.


Swedish Fish made it better

Snow-snow-snow!

It snowed over the weekend and continued through Monday. Tuesday morning, we woke to 4+ inches. It has been an excellent week to take a few days off. While Big N was at school, Little N and I took the opportunity to play in the back yard. Little N is officially an excellent snow angel artist.

Vacation!

The kids spent an entire week at Grandpa and Grandma's house. They were able to go to Vacation Bible School at Grandma and Grandpa's church in Everett. Pete and I took advantage of the quiet and went on vacation!

Pete and I drove to Winthrop over the Cascade highway, starting in Everett. We spent a few days at Sun Mountain, horse back riding and hiking. It was gorgeous! I have never seen so many deer in my life. We drove home through Wenatchee.

This was a really nice trip and the view was spectacular. It didn't hurt that the hotel was pretty empty on a Monday night with most of the crowds showing up as we were checking out.

A picnic and a day at the park

The kids and I had a picnic the other day. It was 70 degrees out and the wind was mild. We drove over to the west Ellensburg park and sat down next to the play structure. Both kids had a blast. We watched the kites, played on the play structure and blew bubbles. It was a great day. By the time we got Little N home, she took a 2 hour nap.

Looking for Dinosaurs

We spent a day and a half in New York City and we were able to take the kids, my parents and my sister Jenny to the Natural History Museum. Little N was looking for the dinosaurs and she had a blast. Big N wanted to find the space ship. I think we were all completely worn out by the end of the day.



Little N's dinosaur teeth


Big N and Pete


Trying to find the space ship

The kindness of strangers

It has been a while since I have posted and I have been meaning to talk about the recent... or at this point, not so recent, cross country flights to Auntie Jenny and Uncle Chris's wedding.

I am fairly certain I am not alone in this, but flying with your kids is scary. You pray that the kids won't kick the seat in front of them for the entire 5 hour flight. Perhaps they will fall asleep shortly before take-off and the hard part will be getting them off the plane at the end. Or, perhaps every single person around you will have giant ear-muff sized headphones and will be able to drown out any possible whines or tantrums.

We weren't quite that lucky, but we were very happy with how the flights did go.

Our flight began at a very early hour. Little N flew with me while Big N and Pete planed on flying out a few days later. We managed to book our flights on the same schedule as Auntie Sarah, Grandma and Grandpa. Even with most of the family flying together, only little N and I were seated together.

On the first leg of the flight out of Seattle, Little N decided the woman sitting next to her was someone who would enjoy the full attention of a four year old. Luckily, the woman was thrilled to have little N lay her head on her and talk to her for the entire flight. She had a book with her which I believe she only was able to read as we were boarding the plane. Her daughters, in their early 20s, were seated behind us. She really enjoyed talking to Little N. The second leg of the flight, Auntie Sarah was given a window seat to sit next to Little N. Auntie Sarah also did not read much, but I was a lot more relaxed.

The route home from Baltimore was a somewhat hairier. When we arrived at the airport, the airline had managed to place both kids rows apart from us. Luckily the gate attendant was able to find a way for Little N and Big N to sit with one of us. My parents put up with center seats in separate rows, allowing Little N to sit with me and Big N to sit with Pete.

The young man in the window seat where Little N and I were assigned immediately offered up his window seat for Little N. This made the flight a lot easier. He even seemed to enjoy the flying teddy bear that hit him in his ear shortly after take-off.

All in all, the kids were great on the trip, but a lot of that was due to the kindness of strangers.

Train Ride

The first time big N ever saw the life size Thomas was when he was 2 years old. We drove up to snoqualmie and had not told him who he was going to see. While we were looking for parking he was in the back seat, chatting a mile a minute. We drove by Thomas and suddenly there was complete and utter silence from the back seat. About 30 seconds later, big N whispered, "Turn around! Go back! That was Thomas!"


We took the kids out to Day out with Thomas. This is Big N's third ride on Thomas and the first year he didn't cover his ears due to the train horn. Well, he had them covered the minute we pulled up and wouldn't take them off his ears for a bit. We finally got on the train and the main train blew his horn. Big N looked over and tentatively uncovered his ears. It occurred to him that it wasn't so bad. He relaxed and really enjoyed the ride. He waved at everyone along the road and then chatted with a buddy across the aisle when we came up over snoqualmie falls.


Big N was chatting the entire ride. I have hardly any photos of him not talking.

Big N's first fish

Big N reeled this one in all by himself.



We just got back from a family trip to Mt Baker. The weather was gorgeous, the kids had a blast and we did a lot of dog walking. Ok, fine, I'll admit it, my husband did a ton of dog walking.



We rented a cabin about 20 miles below the ski resort near Glacier, Washington. We spent one day up near the top and the kids got to play in snow in their shorts and tennis shoes. Both kids kept asking why we didn't borrow their friend and former neighbor's sled. Not to mention, "where are my snow clothes, mommy?" Big N did get upset when he got snow inside his shoe and he let the entire mountain know what he thought of that.







Picture lake was beautiful. The name was exactly right. There was a small paved path all the way around the lake to keep the rest of the meadow natural. The kids were really good about staying on the path and enjoyed looking at the birds and plants.



The kids both tried fishing with dad, Little N wasn't as successful as Big N. She would get excited when her rod would move and she would shake the fish off the hook. Then she would attempt to reel the fish in. Her dad would work on the knot after each bite. Big N was a little easier on his rod. He reeled in three fish and then told us he was reeling in Nemo and putting him in his backpack. He'll show you Nemo if you ask him, his pretend fish.


Vacation was sweet! We need to to do this type of thing more often.