More Wildlife

It was hard to top the first day, wildlife-wise. After seeing bears and wolves, you don't think it can get much better. But on Friday we moved from Yellowstone over to Grand Teton National Park and we saw moose...along with pronghorn deer and lots more buffalo. But the moose had to be my favorite. It's hard to believe these animals are dangerous, because they are absolutely beautiful creatures. I wanted to go up and pet them!!!

Grand Prismatic

After Old Faithful, we headed over to see the most unique and beautiful thermal feature yet. The colors were amazing, the pictures don't really do it justice. All of the different colors are from different bacterial layers in the water. The buffalo's seem to like it, as you can see there are buffalo tracks through the water. Evan is not pictured here, as he was having a melt down in the car!! Poor guy, Yellowstone can be a bit boring if you are two years old.

Old Faithful

Friday we visited Old Faithful and the Old Faithful Inn. It wasn't the first on my list of things to see there, just because I like to go more "off the beaten path" rather than to huge tourist attractions. But it is a tourist attraction for a reason, and my Mom really wanted to see it. So we did. And it was really worth it. It erupts every hour and a half or so, and steaming water goes hundreds of feet into the air. It was pretty cool. Evan wasn't too impressed, he was more in to playing with rocks and pebbles on the ground, but he was happy nonetheless. So of course I have to sneak a few more pictures of Evan in this post, it is after all, a blog about him!!! Paul also encouraged me to take a picture of Evan near the danger sign, just to make my Mom worry a little more about our parenting skills. He wasn't in any actual danger though. The hot ground and stones were at least a few feet away!!!

Also, I did manage to get one of Kevin's pictures of Old Faithful, that is much better than mine. It is the first picture. But it is unedited, so he may not even want to take credit for it. But I think it's awesome, as usual.

Hayden Valley at Dusk

Thursday night, Grammy (AKA Meema), Uncle Kevin (Unkie/Ugby) and I went to Hayden Valley to try and take pictures of wildlife at one of their most active hours, dusk. Unfortunately we didn't get to see many animals. We saw a some buffalo, but they weren't as close as we would have liked. But the sky looked really cool, a beautiful pink color. There were also tons of bison on a hill that we saw, silhouetted by the pink sky.

They're Alive

Well luckily Paul and Uncle Kevin arrived back safely after their hike up to the top of Mt. Washburn on Wednesday. They ended up going on two hikes actually which is why they took much longer than I expected. The highlight of their trip was running into a herd of big horn sheep. Apparently Kevin was taking pictures of them from a distance while Paul was waiting patiently to the side. After about 200 pictures, they started wandering towards Paul and were literally feet away from him. Kevin came over shortly after and snapped a hundred or so more pictures before the ram clearly had enough. You can just see it in the rams eyes, he is not happy with the situation, which is when the guys decided to move on. I am so jealous that I missed the sheep, but glad they had some baby-free guy time, that was much needed.

Norris Geyser Basin

Day 4 consisted of an early morning trip to Norris Geyser Basin to view thermal features, geysers, and hot mineral springs. We took about a two mile hike around the area... which is somewhat a lot to do with a two year old!! I took the wrong camera lens, so my pictures aren't great. And Uncle Kevin refuses to let me post his pictures without extensive processing (sorry Sarah and Margie!!) so these will have to do.

Day at the Chalet

Today Grammy, Evan and I spent the day hanging out at the chalet. Uncle Kevin and Daddy went on a hike up Mt. Washburn, a five mile hike not fit for preggos and toddlers. I am writing this now to keep myself busy, as they have been gone now for 12 hours, when it should have taken about 8 with the drive. They are probably having a beer at a bar in downtown Gardiner. But nonetheless, I am out on the porch watching for their car, trying to think positive thoughts!!!

We did keep ourselves busy most of the day. We went to some gift shops in Gardiner, took some pictures of Evan around the ranch, watched the horses from the porch, and managed to fit in a little Disney channel. Sounds kinda boring, but it was a much needed relaxing day after the crazy week I had last week. Now if only I can get Paul to come back in one piece, and Kevin too!!!