Yellowstone

The Waite family always goes to Yellowstone over the 4th of July.  I'm not really a fan of Yellowstone, I think I went there too many times as a child.  I know I'm the only one of my siblings that feels this way.  However, Mark is less of a fan than I am.  When we first got married he agreed that we could go to Yellowstone every five years.  So when everyone started talking about this year's trip Mark knew he didn't want to go.  One night I started to explain to him how much Luke would love Yellowstone and we haven't really been on a trip with my family in a while.  His only response was, "I said we would go every five years, we're not going this year."  I then had to remind him that this year was the fifth year.  This silenced Mark for a few minutes before he muttered, "Damn it."  Even though Mark really dreaded going and I wasn't too excited about the forecast and didn't feel good about leaving Lewie off we went to make Luke happy!  

My dad, mom, Thomas, Pat, Becca, and Grandpa and Grandma Talbot went the day before us and had a great day with perfect weather and seeing lots of wildlife.  Our first day also started out great, we went a fun hike which was something Mark wanted to do.  The best part of the hike was the suspended walking bridge over a huge river.  Luke found himself a walking stick and was set.  He loved watching Uncle Pat throw huge rocks over the bridge and crash into the water.  Brods was a champ in his backpack.  He stuck his binky in and didn't complain once!  I started to feel good about the trip until my prediction came true...the rain hit.  

This was not just a little bit of rain...it was a downpour.  Everyday we realized we only had about a few hours in the morning before the rain would hit.  We tried to do as much as we could in the mornings.  Somedays we were confined to eating lunch in our cars if you were lucky enough to be in the food car. Our car was the snack car so we lived on donut holes and Hi-Chews.  Mark didn't complain about that diet!  At night we would hang out in our cozy cabins with the fire lit.  One night we were exhausted and dirty.  Becca and I were just excited to get back to our clean cabin.  When we arrived we found that they had forgotten to clean our cabin and there was no one still working.  This didn't improve Aunt Becca's night one bit.  

Despite the rain Luke was in heaven and enjoyed every minute of it!  I bought him a pair of Jr. Ranger binoculars at Mammoth and he never took them off.  He was always scoping out wildlife and looking for bears.  Luke was able to see seven bears on our trip so that made the trip worth it.  We were even able to meet up with Will, Rose, and Annie at Old Faithful.  It was fun to see them and eat our hundredth bowl of Yellowstone ice cream!  On our last day we decided to make a quick stop so the boys could see a huge heard of buffalo.  It turned out to be a very good stop.  In about a mile distance we saw a black bear and her cub cross the rode in front of our car,  a large heard of antelope cross the road, and a huge heard of buffalo right off the road.  This was the perfect way for Luke and Brody to end our trip.  The boys had seen lots of wildlife, Mark went on his hike, and I ate my blueberry pancakes at the Roosevelt Lodge.  It was a good trip full of good memories!  As we drove out of Yellowstone Mark told the boys to say goodbye to Yellowstone for five years.  He'll be lucky if he can keep Lukers away for that long!