Yellowstone 2010!

Today the girls and I drove to Yellowstone to meet up with Robin, Roger, and Regan from Indiana. When friends are in our backyard, we will make a little trip to say "HI". It didn't take long for my social butterfly to make "best friends" with Regan. At one point, Hannah was walking Regan on the leash I brought to keep Hannah near by...too cute. She also enjoyed being spoiled rotten. Everytime she even slightly complained about walking, she would get a luxurious shoulder ride. At the top of Dun Raven Pass (elev 8800+ ft) we stopped and played in the snow (which was still three feet deep!). I attempted to snap a quick pic of the girls near Mammoth Hot Springs, but the wind was blowing so hard that both had a hard time smiling...check out the bottom second from right hand corner picture. We finally finished the windy, rainy, cold, yet somehow still quite enjoyable day at the Upper/Lower Falls where we were finally able to snap a picture of the six of us with Lower Falls in the background. It was great seeing everyone...hopefully others will let us know when they are in our neck of the woods!!!

As is standard for Yellowstone, the buffalo were prevalent. We entered into the park and saw a bald eagle nest almost immediately. Too bad I couldn't get a decent picture. Then, as is always the case, the buffalo had us backed-up! All the buffalo shots are from a car. The bottom right hand picture had a buffalo closer than I wanted! I rolled my window up before he came around the mirror!!!! All the fields were scattered with baby calves. Amazing how red they look up against an adult. At Mammoth Hot Springs, two Blue Bird's kept flying right beside us. This is the paler of the two if you can believe it. As we headed away from Mammoth Hot Springs, we saw several small herd of elk. Both elk pictures are bulls ironically, again I took them from the car, so I didn't realize the small bull was actually a bull until I was making this collage!!! You can always tell when there is something worth looking at...the traffic will always be backed up for miles. When we approached a bend, shortly before the Petrified Tree, we saw something messing around in a tree. Wouldn't you know it... a BEAR!!! I was so excited to see one that I was too slow in taking a picture. Luckily for me, Roger was on the ball and captured him nicely. Finally, our last documented picture is of a ferocious chipmunk visiting all the tourists at Lower Falls. Cute.

I was worried how the girls would handle an entire day in the car, but they did fabulously, keeping each other company, giggling, tickling, and sharing toys the entire time. Hannah would sing and Elayna would join in (more like loud babbling, but it was cute anyway). We made it home at 9:00 and both girls CRASHED!!!! It was a very long, fun-filled day for them.