Michael & Amanda and chicklets to call our own: Yellowstone

It's so unreal!

Now that Michael is back, we wanted to celebrate with some of our favorite things. First up on the list, Yellowstone! We kept telling Ivan we would see some buffalo and other animals. The past couple times we've been to the park we've only seen buffalo, so we didn't want to name anything else and get his hopes up. Lucky for us, Ivan was very excited just for the buffalo! Anything else would just be an awesome extra to him. We decided to go on the Friday of Labor Day weekend, hoping we would be able to miss most of the crowds. I really wanted to go camping, but the logistics of it just weren't working out for us. Michael is on a weird work schedule and every camping thing we looked at was full. Plus, we fully enjoy nature by itself, you know, without all the tourists and other people in general. So if we're gonna go camping, it's not gonna be at a time or place where there is a ton of people. What's the fun in that?

He was so excited!

We got up early, not as early as we wanted, but as early as was sensible and comfortable for us. Ivan was so very excited, he got to wear some new clothes and couldn't wait to see the buffalo. Charlotte wasn't too excited to get in the car first thing, but she decided to cooperate and watch a movie. Side note about the DVD player in our car. There are multiple little pieces inside the little plug that plugs into the charge port of the car. At some point, a piece fell off and some other smaller pieces that were on the inside fell out. This must have been months ago since I haven't really used the DVD player at all since our trek across the country. So yesterday we went to plug the thing in and it didn't work. Uh-oh. Then I thought I had a simple fix for it. I unscrewed this little do-hicky, plugged it in, and it worked! Halfway to Yellowstone, it stopped working. Oh no. There goes any kind of peace in the car, which we would be in all day. This wasn't going to work for me. So I took apart all the other little plug things from anything that was in the car, like the phone chargers, the power converters, and the usb plug-in. After 5 or 6 chargers with nothing working, I was starting to get really upset. Then I found it. I took apart the usb thing and it had a spring that just barely fit to make the DVD plug work. Yay! Ok, so that's not that cool of a story, but hey, I'm really proud of myself for persevering and finding a fix to something I really have no idea about. Kudos to me.

First thing we saw as we entered the park, a buffalo!

Ivan and Charlotte thought the mud paint pots were so much fun! They both had a blast watching the bubbles "explode." And while we were on this trail, we had 2 different Asian families take pictures of our kids. They must be pretty dang cute.

We saw deer! For some reason, it's pretty rare for us to see deer in Yellowstone. In fact, looking back on previous trips, we've seen more bears more often than we ever have deer. So we get really excited about it when we do see deer.

Waiting for Old Faithful to go off. We sat next to some pretty cool people and talked about ranches and horses. And the (almost) cutest little girl ever came over and shared her snacks with Ivan and Charlotte. She was very sweet.

Ivan was so excited about the water that shot up into the sky. He said "it goes up into the guy (sky) like an airplane!"

Every time we pass a group of cars pulled over, we just know there's something interesting out there. So we stop and check it out. Turns out, a lot of people stop for less interesting things than what we appreciate. Not that seeing a bald eagle or an elk or buffalo isn't cool, but I always think predator! I wanna see a bear or wolf more than anything, especially since the other animals are a little more common.

That puppy might as well be a member of the family right now. She doesn't put it down!

Cheese!

Ivan is trying so hard to hold her hand, but she's got too good a grip on that dang puppy. Milliseconds after Michael took this picture a squirrel jumped from a tree on my left and ran across the path right behind us. Michael thought the squirrel was gonna land right on us for sure. I sure love these kids.

Charlotte is tickling Ivan. Most of the time, she just pats his head and giggles.

We stopped to see what all the people were looking at and found 3 bighorn sheep. 2 adult females and one baby. As we drew attention to the wildlife, more people stopped and asked what we were looking at. A couple people said it was a mountain goat and a bighorn sheep. Silly heads.

We stopped at our favorite spot for wildlife viewing and didn't see any wildlife. We took the chance to get some energy out and stretch our legs. Michael and the kids walked a ways farther than me and as I headed back to the car I saw this little guy. I was walking on the trail looking down at the camera and almost stepped on this snake. I really didn't even see it until it struck at me! It was very small, but ferocious! It must have struck at me 4 or 5 times before it slithered farther away. I took that as my chance to get a picture. Of course no settings on the camera would actual capture the snake in a clear image, so I used the close up setting. Ha! Thankfully he didn't try to get me while I had the camera right in his face.

Lots and lots of buffalo were viewed. We also saw bighorn sheep, elk, antelope, osprey, pelicans, bald eagles, and a ton of squirrels.

We took a chance on an offshoot and found some people spotting wolves! We could barely see what could maybe be a wolf with our camera, so who knows if that's what it actually was. But Charlotte had a blast riding on my shoulders. I would bounce while I walked and she just laughed and laughed. I started tipping her backwards to make her feel like she was falling and she wrapped her arms around my chin like this. I'm glad she didn't go for my ears or eyes!