July catch-up

I have so many memories of playing the gutter as a kid when it rained.  I LOVED watching my boys as they dashed outside and splashed to their heart's content.  They had gutter races with their shoes.  I was slightly relieved they came back with as many shoes as they left with.

Hannah and McKenzie wanted to be twinners and get all dolled up for the Fourth.  Cambrie even helped by painting designs on their nails.

Because we haven't been going anywhere I haven't really been getting ready in the morning.  (Well, I am.  But my comfy exercise leggings are getting a lot more use).  So I was surprised when one day as I was finishing up that my girls came in and started putting on make up too.  This doesn't happen very often and I thought it was adorable.  I found myself wondering how many dances and night's out these girls are going to go to together.  Give it five or six years and they'll be doing the same thing but in gorgeous dance dresses.

I decided to take my boys to the park.  It felt like when the girls were little: we needed to get some wiggles out, we didn't have anything on the schedule, and the park was just a relaxing place to go.  Isn't it funny how different the lives of our kids our from the first kid to the last?

Here's just another adorable picture of Bob.  After hedgehog sitting a couple different hedgies, we definitely won the jackpot.  Bob is super cuddly and loves the girls.  Cambrie can get him to roll up in this ball and it's my favorite!

I feel like we have had incredible sunsets this summer.  It's at least one small joyous moment where I can breathe, relax, and think that all of my stress doesn't exist.

Baseball rookie

Kelton registered for baseball for the first time and it was a huge blessing for this kid!  It was the first time he's been able to play with boys since this whole covid thing started.  He loves being part of a team, making friends, and trying something new.  He had no idea what baseball really was before he started, but he caught the hang of it pretty quickly.  He ended up with a whole bag full of baseball gear, which he can't wait to use for next season too!  His coaches were fabulous teaching these boys technique and the basics of the game.  I loved watching him play out there.

Warming up on deck.  (He learned all sorts of new words and terminology)

Playing catch with one of the coaches

Hit!  He had a couple really good hits during the season.  

Me enjoying the rainbows during practice.  We didn't have a single one cancelled because of afternoon rains.  How that happened I have no idea.

Little baseball dude LOVED the season.

 

Grant Campground

Right now it is really hard to get a camping site, because EVERYONE is headed to the National Parks right now.  We were lucky enough to get two nights at Grant Campground.  Our spot was perfect for us since it was right on the edge of a loop and gave the kids plenty of room the play.  The entire campsite was covered with a blanket of pine needles, and immediately upon seeing our site, the kids went about making trails through the pine needles.  They used the trails to get from tent to tent, to and from the campfire, to and from the table, and the car.  Their favorite game was playing tag on the trails.  

They couldn't find as much firewood here, but one stick that survived the journey was a stick that looks exactly like Jake and the Neverland Pirates' sword!  

Breakfast all bundled up.  

We were really close to Yellowstone Lake, but didn't even go down to the shore until the morning we packed up.  We hardly spent any time at the campsite, which is a shame because the lake shore was such a wonderful place to explore.  

This picture of Daxton kind of sums up our week.  We just moved every minute of every day.  The poor kid had to grab a nap whenever we were in the car.  It was such a perfect week away.

 

Grand Fountain

After our Old Faithful fiasco, we learned that there was a phone number you could call to get the eruption times of some of the more predictable geysers.  As we made our way back from our marathon day we realized that we were going to be passing by Grand Fountain just a few minutes before it erupted.  We decided to make that our final Yellowstone adventure.  We set up our chairs, pulled out the Pringles, and settled in to wait.  We waited for about thirty minutes, but it was so peaceful that we didn't even care.  

 

While we waited we watched another geyser erupt twice in the distance, so that was a bonus. 

When Grand Fountain finally erupted we were not disappointed.  It wasn't as tall and skinny as Old Faithful, but it was impressive.  Every time it shot water up into the air, that water fell down into the pool and then we had bursts of waterfalls tumbling down the pool steps.  The eruption also went on for at least twenty minutes.  I think it actually kept going longer than that, but we packed up to head back to camp.  

I just thoroughly enjoyed the sunset, the calm, and the beauty of this night.

Norris Geyser Basin

As we made out way back to camp via the huge Yellowstone loop, we stopped at Norris Geyser basin.  Wow, we could have spent a half day at this basin alone.  As it was, we were running out of daylight and energy.  We walked to the beginning of the Porcelain Basin, enjoyed the view, and then walked to the other side of the basin to find Emerald Spring and Steamboat Geyser.  

McKenzie thought that Emerald Spring was made just for her.  She loved the rich color of the water (and the name of course).

At Steamboat Geyser the kids were convinced that McKenzie had some magic powers that would make it erupt.  It is extremely unpredictable, but when it does erupt, it shoots hundreds of feet high.  It would be very impressive to see, and I was crossing my fingers that we would see it in action.  We waited and watched for about fifteen minutes before I pulled them away.  

 I felt bad leaving the basin without exploring everything it had to offer.  We were simply out of time!

Mammoth Hot Springs

I was excited to make it all the way up to Mammoth Hot Springs.  The formations, the colors, the uniqueness of the area sounded awesome.  We parked the car and started walking towards the trailhead.  A ranger was pulling in as we walked past and Daxton held up his truck, "Mom! It's just like my truck!"  He was so excited to find the rangers that I made him pose for a picture.  

The rangers did us one better.  Ranger Paxton climbed out of the driver seat to see Daxton's truck, talked with him for a couple of minutes and gave him a Junior Ranger sticker.  She totally made his day!  I love nice people.  

I don't know if it's because of Covid or something else, but the drive through the terraces were closed.  In order to see and experience the hot springs we had to walk through it all.  At this point in our vacation we were starting to have some small rebellions and had to choose our battles.  We were able to get all of the kids to walk down to Canary Springs.  The way the minerals were coating the ground reminded me a lot of the Bonneville Salt Flats.  

But look at the pools, the levels, the colors!  Isn't it all just beautiful?  

We looked at a map and realized that we needed to make a decision.  In order to see all of the terraces we needed to do a lot more walking.  However, there were parking lots at the bottom of the trail so Jeremy took the girls back to the car and they drove to the end of the trail.  The boys, my mom and I kept walking and saw Cleopatra Terrace and Mound Terrace.  

Jeremy found us at the bottom, then joined us on one more exploratory trek up to Pallette Spring which was a great way to end our excursion up north.

 

Sheepeater cliffs

By now our tummies were telling us that we needed to find another picnic site. We found Roaring Mountain, and while I thought it was cool, the kids didn't approve.

 

We followed the signs for Sheepeater Cliffs, thinking we might find a picnic table.  We found so much more than that!  We found a cliff that looked like it was made out of building blocks, and we perfect for the kids to scamper up.  Hallelujah for kid-friendly activities!  While I set up lunch, they just climbed and climbed and climbed.  Daxton needed some supervision just in case, but I felt pretty confident with my other kids' climbing abilities that I just let them go.  

We had a tasty lunch of taco bowls and were visited by some squirrels to help with clean-up.  They were not shy at all and Cambrie was even able to get one to eat out of her hand.  

After lunch was cleaned up, I decided to go climb the cliffs too.  We tried to get a totem pole picture.  I think the idea was pretty clever.  

After a lunch like that, my kids were ready to tackle to rest of the day.