Vacation 2010 Part 2 -- Yellowstone

A few more mountain climbing pictures...

Getting ready: Walking sticks, check. Water, check. Cameras, check.

Halfway up the main mountain we climbed.

A beautiful (the fuzziness is due to my picture taking, sorry) view of the Grand Tetons range from the highest point we climbed. There was a big grassy, sage bush covered plain on top of the mountain.

On to Yellowstone!

After spending a few relaxing days in the Teton area (yes, even with the mountain climbing it was relaxing!), we headed up to Yellowstone.

Our good friend Robby Haselwander was working just north of Yellowstone for the summer, so he was able to come down and hang out with us for the weekend.

We also met up with a good portion of Jaired's family on his mom's side for part of the family reunion. It was great to see the non-Missouri relations, and one of Jaired's uncles was able to take us on the main Yellowstone tour loop since he is so familiar with the area, so we didn't have to hire a tour guide. I don't seem to have any good pictures of the adult relations, but one of the boys' second cousins came, and she and Edmund had a great time playing together.

Joanna and Edmund on one of hikes.

Edmund and Jaired resting in the shade.

The boys slept well every night from all the exercise and fresh air they were getting. They shared a bed the entire trip and did a great job.

Edmund loved all the geysers. Here he is watching Old Faithful erupt. We stayed in the Old Faithful cabins, and we could see the geyser from our cabin.

Jeremiah, like his brothers, loves being outside, and he enjoyed being held a lot and getting first dibs on the stroller.

Nathaniel with his Aunt Kimberly, those two are really good buddies.

Nathaniel is a great walker. He doesn't even complain as much as Edmund does about having to walk instead of getting to ride in the stroller.

Visiting Mount Rushmore on the way home.

Oh boy, that trip home was crazy. Ellie returned with us, as the rest of the family continued on to Montana for the rest of the family reunion. We had decided before even starting the trip that going up in Montana was going to be too much driving for our boys, and I sure am glad we came straight home from Yellowstone. The drive through Northern Wyoming was grueling. We left Yellowstone through the East Entrance and drove through the Big Horn Mountains. The pass was crazy -- switchbacks and road construction! It took us about three hours to drive the 60 miles over the mountains, and Jeremiah was screaming almost the entire time!

The second day of driving, is when we saw Mount Rushmore and drove through the Badlands. About halfway through the day Jaired asked Ellie and I if we wanted to just skip that night's hotel and head straight home. We drove right through the night and got home twelve hours earlier than the original plan.

It was so good to be back home, but the humidity that hit us when we stepped out of the car was not welcome. It was 6 a.m. when we got home and the temperatures were already in the high eighties! We turned up our air conditioner and went to bed. :)