Yellowstone Part 3

We saw lots of wild life in the park and the kids loved pulling the RV over to look and get pictures. We even saw a mama black bear and her 2 baby bears up in a tree, although we didn't get pictures of those. They caused quite a traffic jam. We showed them to Matthew and he said, "No, that's a moose!" It was very cute!  One day we pulled over and watched his herd of Bison move across the plains.

Any time we were driving we were on the lookout for wild life.  Sometimes it was easy to find because cars would be stopped and people out of their cars taking pictures!  That was the case when we saw these elk very close to the road.

We went to Yellowstone Lake and while we waited for a guided tour to start, we had a picnic!

Yellowstone Lake was beautiful and we enjoyed the tour and walking around the lake.

There is always a great place to dab, right Paul?

My monkeys checking out the hot springs.

While we were checking out the springs, a bison just walked right down in front of the path and settled in by the hot springs!

It was so close to the people and it made me so nervous.  So we walked quickly by and then once past him, we got a few pictures before hurrying on our way!

This one was one of the kids' favorites - called the Dragon's Mouth because of the steam it released.

Matthew fell asleep on the car drive there, so Paul and I took turns walking around with the other kids viewing the sites while the other one stayed in the car to let him sleep.  Baby was such a trooper, so when he fell asleep, we tried to let him sleep.

Back to the campsite to play!

Aunt Ginny told the kids ghost stories with a flashlight around the fire!  I love this picture of her having so much fun with the kids!

I really loved the cousin bonding time.

One of Matthew's favorite camp ground activities was digging in the dirt with the tongs!  He would pick up rocks and move them to different spots.  He spent most of his time playing with those tongs!

He had a lot of fun, but got really messy!

The next day we went to Mammoth Hot Springs.  When we parked, there were elk all over the town!

At the visitor center, Ben turned in his junior ranger notebook and earned his junior ranger badge from Yellowstone (he has one from Alaska too).  Here he is taking the oath!

Good work Ben!

Then we went to hike the springs.  They were amazing - one of my favorite sites of the trip!

The coloring and hugeness of the whole thing was amazing.

Uncle Chris checking out the view from the top!

Paul hiking up all those stairs with Matthew on his back - check out that strength!

Half of our group continued on while the rest of us went back down to try to get some naps in.

While I tried to get Matthew to nap in the RV, these three played in a stream they found.