Yellowstone, Pollyanna-style

Remember the Glad Game?

We're going to play the Glad Game today. For everything about our trip that was sad, there was always something to be glad about. And sometimes there were some great things to be glad about without any sadness attached to them.

Ready to play?

We decided to split-up the trip up there. So we stopped at Cheryl's parents' house in Blackfoot, ID on Wednesday night to spend the night. We got there later than planned. As we were pulling up to their house at 11pm.....

Sad: June started crying and then puked all over herself and her carseat and the van seat.

Glad: It was great that we were pulling up to a house (with a washing machine) instead of our campsite. Everything was ready to go by morning.

-----------

Sad: When we were about 15 minutes outside of our campsite in Yellowstone, June puked again.

Glad: This time there wasn't as much and we were able to clean it up quickly with wipes. Also, June was acting totally fine between these incidents and so we chalked it up to car-sickness. Also, we saw a moose on the way in, but didn't get any pics.

------------

Sad: The realization that it was NOT, in fact, car-sickness came when we were awakened by June puking in bed at 3am the next morning.

Glad: She was still acting totally fine before and after the puking, so at least we weren't dealing with a crabby baby on top of puke. And this was the last bout of puke from June.

------------

Glad: Some deer strolled into camp as we were getting things set up the first day.

------------

Glad: We had yummy wraps and then went for a walk by the lake after dinner. The scenery was breath-taking.

------------

The second day we drove to the mud volcanoes.

Sad: I didn't get to see them since June and Lady were asleep in the van. I stayed with them while everyone else went on a short hike to check them out.

Glad: Brent got some great pics for me to "experience."

The sulfur smell was extremely strong there. :)

------------

Glad: On the way to the mud volcanoes, we ran into a herd of bison (and yes, they are called bison. I had to look it up since other tourists kept calling them buffalo. I was sure they were bison.....and I was right. ;) ). We actually saw a number of herds while up there. Apparently it's quite rare to see that many.

This one walked across the road behind us as we were leaving.

-------------

Sad: It started to rain.

Glad: Luckily it wasn't raining super hard, so we went and saw a beautiful waterfall from a distance. Then we drove around and made the short but steep hike down to the top of it. It started raining much harder right as we were coming back up to the top.

From a distance:

From the top:
This was AJ taking a pic of us trying to recreate the pic in the header of this blog.

--------------

Sad: Since it was raining, we couldn't go do the other hikes we had planned.

Glad: Luckily there were some indoor places we could go hang out for a while. So we went to the museum and watched a movie about Yellowstone.

--------------

Sad: It was still raining hard once we were done at the museum. So we had a dilemma about what to do for dinner. Do we go back to camp and make dinner in the rain? And what do we do with the kids during that time? Or do we go spend a fortune at a restaurant in Yellowstone and also wait in a huge line because everybody else had the same idea?

Glad: So glad we had awesome husbands who made dinner in the rain (they were mostly covered by the awning on our trailer and a canopy that Brandon and Cheryl brought). Also so glad we had the trailer for the kids to hang out in and watch a movie until bedtime. B & C's kids watched a movie in their van and then braved the cold for a bit outside when the rain let up a little before bed. (My kids were already in their jammies and were quite upset with me that I wouldn't let them out to play with their friends.)

--------------

Sad: After the day of rain and little sleep for 2 nights and a pukey baby, I was almost ready to throw in the towel.

Glad: Brent managed to talk me out of that nonsense and the 3rd day was absolutely beautiful. Sunny skies most of the day and the temperature was much more bearable.

Glad: We saw an elk on the way to Old Faithful. While waiting for more puke from Old Faithful, we went in the gift shop and bought souvenirs. Roo got his first pocket knife, lucky kid.

-------------

Glad: After lunch we went to a beachy spot by the lake and decided to just "dip our toes."

You can guess how long that lasted. It's like that book, "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie".....only it's "If you give my kids some water, they're going to get wet."

Dipping our toes.
Going a little deeper.
Splashing in the "waves."

Deeper still.
I didn't get a picture of it, but AJ ended up going all the way under. She's a fish.
June got her first taste of black sand.....literally.
And Lady made her first sandcastle.

------------

Sad: It took us longer to get packed up than we thought it would, so we didn't leave camp until 11am.

Glad: But the timing worked out perfectly for us to see a bear on our way out. We were supposed to stay at least 100 yds away, but we got a bit closer than that. I'd say more like 50. It made Brandon quite nervous, but I was banking on the fact that there were other people much closer than us and so they'd be the first targets. :p

------------

Sad:
- The kids were......"restless" (read: horrible) on the way home. I'm showing a picture of June sleeping as proof that there was at least one moment where she wasn't crying.


- Somewhere in Star Valley, WY Roo said from the backseat, "Mom?" And I turned to see him holding his fingers to his mouth. I yelled at Brent to pull over, to which he responded, "Are you sure? Is he really going to throw up?" To which I yelled louder, "PULL OVER!" We got him out just in the nick of time. I was probably a little too forceful when grabbing his shirt and yanking him out of the van, but luckily he's very forgiving and was grateful (along with Brent and me) that most of the puke ended up on the side of the highway.

- Upon returning home at 9:40pm , all 5 kids had fallen asleep about 10 minutes prior. After helping Lady out of the van, she looks at me and happily says, "Momma, I not frow up!" And promptly threw up on the driveway.

Glad: Uh.....we were glad to be home and glad that more puke didn't end up in the van.

Oh, and one more thing to be glad about......
After discussing with Brent WHY our kids had been so "restless" on the way home, we realized it was most likely because we'd brought a bunch of sugary snacks in the car thinking it would be a special treat for them since they don't get them often. In hindsight, that was a very stupid thing to do. Lesson learned.
On another "glad" note, about halfway through the trip, the kids were telling me they were hungry, so I offered them more "treats." They all responded that they wanted "real" food, so we stopped and got in the trailer and retrieved "real" food for them: apples, oranges, bananas, and whole wheat bread and bagels. Turns out my kids are more sensible than me.

Our spectacular weekend

We were invited by some good friends to go up to Bear Lake with them this past weekend. We figured with all the work needing to be done with our house and having a baby this summer, this might be the last chance we'd get for a vacation. So we happily accepted their invitation. And we're SOOOOO glad we did.

We were able to stay in a great 3 bedroom condo. Our friends have 4 kids also (with a 5th on the way) and their ages are all very close to our kids' ages. It works out quite well. The 6 oldest kids stayed in one bedroom. There were originally 2 twin beds in it with a nightstand in between. We put the nightstand in the closet and pushed the 2 beds against the walls and put down a pull-out mattress from the living in between the 2 beds. 3 girls slept across the big mattress, 2 kids on each twin bed and one kid on a blow-up bed at the foot of one of the twin mattresses. The room was wall-to-wall beds, but the kids LOVED it!

We didn't plan much for the weekend at all since we just wanted it to be a relaxing time. We got there Thursday night and put the kids to bed. Then Friday morning we went swimming at the indoor pool since it was 45 degrees outside. And by afternoon it had warmed up enough to let the kids go play at the small playground they had out behind the condo.

Before the kids went outside to play on Friday, they got bored for a few minutes. There was "nothing to do." (Can you hear the whine?) So Brent told them he had the "best game ever" for them to play. They were all quite excited. He told them to sit in a row and take one hand and cover their eyes, then take their other hand and cover their mouths. They all quickly obeyed. Then he told them we were going to see who could stay that way the longest. The kids all took it quite seriously, much to our surprise, and the game lasted MUCH longer than we all thought it would.

Friday evening we went for a drive to the lake and had fun trying not to get "sucked in" by the water-logged sand.

Across the street from where we stopped at the lake was a field full of cows. The kids were all so excited. (Don't you love the things kids get excited about?) So we stopped to say "hi" to them for a while. (Isn't it great to see a babywearing dad?!!!)

Saturday we went for a fun drive looking for a "ghost town" that we never did find (maybe that's why they call it a ghost town?). We knew we wanted to go for a hike, but since most of the trails aren't open until May or June (they were still covered in snow), we didn't have a lot of options. We found a trail up a hill to Round Valley Cemetery. So we decided that would be our hike. It was farther than I thought it was going to be, but it was great. Good exercise for all of us. We even got a little sunburned. (I brought sunscreen, but didn't think about using it since it was between 50 and 60 degrees.)

After the hike we went to the park in Garden City for a fun picnic and then back to the hotel for the babies to sleep while the menfolk took the older kids swimming again. That night we went out to eat at a little "cafe" (that's for my grandma) in town. I wasn't sure what to expect in the quality of food, but they surprised us and it turned out quite tasty.

Then Sunday morning we got up and packed up and headed into Logan for lunch. We stopped by the temple first, but since it was Sunday the gates were closed. That didn't stop some kids from figuring out a way in, though! We had lunch at a park there in Logan that has a small zoo attached. The kids were in heaven and got some good energy out before we made the trip back home.



I HAD to take this picture. This is what happens whenever you hold Lady. She's got her hand in your hair playing with it the whole time. LOVE IT!!!!
I couldn't believe how well the weekend went. No fighting or major catastrophes. The kids were all very well-behaved. The only trauma we had was about 15 minutes where we "lost" one of the children. It was Friday evening and all the kids (the older ones) were outside playing on the playground while the adults were inside preparing dinner. We called them in when it was time to eat and our friends' 4 yo little boy didn't come in. We called for him off the balcony for a while with no answer, so I stayed w/the other kids while the other 3 adults went on a search party for him. It took a while (it always seems like forever in those situations, doesn't it?), but they found him over by the next building. He'd gotten confused about which building we were in (they all look the same) and had gone to the wrong condo. He'd been knocking and knocking and no one was answering, poor kid. There were tears shed by both mother and son upon seeing each other. (And truth be told, a few by me since I can relate to that feeling of helplessness.....it brought back too many memories of when we "lost" Roo.)

So THANK YOU, Brandon and Cheryl for letting us barge in on your fun vacation! We all had a GREAT time and the kids are already asking when we're going to do it again!

Pics from Sea World

Ok, I lied. Sea World was such an amazing experience, I'm going to have to give it its own post. When we asked the kids what their favorite part of the trip was, they couldn't really decide between Disneyland and Sea World. They were fascinated with the animals at Sea World!

Whole family at front of Sea World.

Kids at Shamu Tank. They loved this. We stayed there for a long time watching 2 killer whales play together and one scratched its back on some rocks at the bottom of the pool. Awesome!

Roo checking out a killer whale.

I think this might have been the most amazing experience at SW. Petting and feeding the dolphins! SOOOO FUN! They feel so cool.

The dolphin show. So fun!

Lady looks so cute clapping along with everybody else!

And here I am looking silly trying to get her to clap again. She knew better....nobody else was clapping. I couldn't fool her.

This was one of Roo's favorite parts.....the SHARK TANK!!!

They have a tube in the tank that you can walk through and see all the sharks swimming around you. Kind of creepy, but quite incredible.

JAWS!!!!!

And the grand finale for the day was watching the Shamu Show. It's spectacular that they have these animals so well-trained.

These next 2 pictures were amazing to me. Isn't this the way the killer whales play with their food in the wild? I'm not sure if I could ever do that.

We also got to pet sting rays and AJ and Brent went on a couple of big rides and we all got to do some fun smaller rides. What a fun park!