Yellowstone

Last weekend we went to Yellowstone.  Ryan decided we should go last minute and I was a little nervous about taking Kaden because I knew it would be a lot of driving, but I didn’t want Ryan to take the kids without me and Kaden so we decided to just do it.

Kaden started out well.  He slept almost all the way to West Yellowstone.  He started getting fussy and we stopped at a park in West Yellowstone to let the kids play while I fed him.  He even did well for the first part of all the driving.  We drove towards Old Faithful, stopping at a few stops along the way.

My favorite was the pink, spitting mud.  Sadie liked that one too.

Ryan's favorite was this pretty blue color.

Sadie thought this sign was great and kept talking about the boy so I took a picture of her with it.  She kept saying things like, “I never knew there was a place this beautiful!”  She is such a happy little girl. 

We had packed some food for lunch so we ate lunch in the car and then waited a few minutes for Old Faithful to go off.  Dylan is good at finding weapons.

(Honestly, I thought it would be bigger… But it’s still cool.)

Ryan wanted to hit up a few other spots so we got back in the car.  We made a few stops here and there.  We talked a lot with the kids about how these things are made, about volcanoes, about animals, etc, etc.  

Sadie wasn't a fan of the sulfur smell.  She has a sensitive nose...

We saw a lot of buffalo, a few elk, but not much else.  We also saw a car that had driven into the river.  The kids thought that was pretty crazy.  Not sure how that happened, but we're glad it wasn't us!

Kaden was great whenever we would get out of the car, but he screamed when we put him back in his car seat.  We were hoping he would fall asleep, but he just screamed.  Sadie fell asleep and I nursed Kaden while Ryan took the other two to see another spot.

And we all went to this cool green one.  It was a really pretty area.

And then we decided that everyone was pretty tired and Kaden wasn’t going to make it to the Canyon one that we had planned.  So we headed towards the exit and dinner.  Kaden screamed the whole time.  I kept thinking he would fall asleep right before we got to the restaurant and then we wouldn’t want to get out to eat.  But he didn’t.  I figured he would be exhausted and fall asleep shortly after I nursed him.  Nope.  He was wide awake and happy.

We had dinner and then headed towards home.  Kaden screamed again.  But he did fall asleep after a few minutes.  Unfortunately he didn’t even sleep for half of the drive.  We stopped again about 45 minutes from home and I tried nursing him to get him to be calm.  He was fine when he was not in his seat, but when we strapped him in again he screamed and screamed.  Then out of nowhere, about 20 minutes from home, he just gave up and stopped crying.  He stared at the kids while they talked to him and played.  He giggled and smiled at them.  He is so strange.

The kids were all really tired!  Really, really tired!  I guess a lot of driving and “hiking” will do that to you.  I know it seems like the only memorable part is Kaden’s screaming, but really it was a fun, fun day.  Sadie has been talking about it a lot all week and asking when we can go again.  They had fun looking for animals and feeling the water in different spots to see if it was warm or cold.