This year for the 4th of July we celebrated the weekend in Yellowstone and Jackson with just our little family and had a great time! We stayed two nights in Island Park and two nights in Jackson. The weather was perfect and everything was so green due to all the rain. The mosquitoes were horrible this year and poor Eleanor and John got bitten alive (for some lucky reason they leave me alone)!
July 1st:
One of our favorite place to visit is Big Springs. The water is perfectly clear and it's fun to feed the fish. This year we also attracted a clan of muskrats with our sourdough bread. When we got here we told Eleanor that last time she was here she dropped her toy into the water. She was pretty upset and kept yelling at the fish telling them to give it back to her!
Later that night after a little rainstorm we made tinfoil dinners and smores out on the fire. Eleanor was pretty excited about the fire and kept telling John how much she liked his fire.
July 2nd:
The next day we got an early start and arrived to Yellowstone around 8am. Again, the weather was perfect and surprisingly the park wasn't that crowed. Our first stop was to Norris Geyser Basin. Eleanor was fascinated by the smell of "rotten eggs". At one point while driving John rolled down the window when we were passing a Geyser and Eleanor pulled the funniest face! I totally remember coming here as a child and getting so sick by the smell!!
Eleanor discovered a patch of rocks and HAD to play with them and take a handful of them with her. She also started a collections of pine cones as well.
My favorite part of visiting the park is seeing all the wildlife and especially when they share the road with us!
This was out first time to stop at Mammoth Falls and I'm glad we did.
After Mammoth Falls we stopped for a little break and a picnic. John took Eleanor exploring and they found a few chipmunks and squires. Eleanor chased them for a good half hour determined to catch one.
Eleanor fell asleep just before we got to the Falls so we weren't able to make the hike down to get a better look, but it was still a great view.
While Eleanor slept in the car, John ran down to the Brink of the Upper Falls. I loved that he snapped a photo of himself!!
View form Uncle Tom's trail.
I'm pretty sure there was a sign right next to the buffalo that said, "please don't climb". Oh well...
When we first got into the park Eleanor noticed that quite a few people had binoculars and got it stuck in her head that she also needed a pair of binoculars. Poor girl wanted them so bad and would not stop talking about them for at least 6 hours. Seriously, every 5 minutes she would ask if we were stopping to get her binoculars. We had to threaten her a few times that she would not get her binoculars if she didn't let us take her photo (lately, she HATES getting her picture taken and always wants to put her fingers on her face) or started fussing. When we got into West we had a hard time finding a kid's pair and almost had to spend $50 for her binoculars. Luckily, the last store came through for us!!
*The next day when we were driving through West to go back into the park, Eleanor pointed out the store where we got her binoculars. This little girl is way too smart!!
Taking these two photos was not fun! The mosquitos were horrible and Eleanor would not hold still!! Also, we noticed that our little point and shoot camera is on it's last leg!
July 3rd:
This morning we had kind of a late start. We all slept in and we didn't leave the cabin until 11. That's the nice thing about going on trips with just our little family. We had no set adenda!
We went back into the park to see Old Faithful. While walking around Eleanor found a bear she had to put her arm around and get a photo with. This became something she HAD to do everything she saw a wooden bear!
Checking out the view with her binoculars!
The drive from Yellostone to Jackson was amazing!! John and I found serveral ideal locations fo our future cabin!
Jackson Park
Another pose with the a bear.
July 4th:
We got up early that morning and headed over to our favorite breakfast place, Jebediah's. After breakfast we set up our seats for the parade. While waiting for it to start we ran into my aunt Pat and my cousin Kristen and her family. It was fun sitting with them during the parade and watching Eleanor play with their little drew.
Later that day we were walking around town and we ran into this moose. Eleanor remembered him from the parade and ran up to him and asked him why he wasn't in the parade any more. She was pretty upset about it!
And of course you can't go to Jackson without hitting the candy store. Eleanor was a little ridicouls in the store. She wanted one, no two of everything!! I was so happy to get out of that store!
Enjoyed a great dinner at the cute little hamburger place right across from the park.
Eleanor's favorite part was the glow-sticks. She also actually enjoyed the fireworks this year. We decided not to go right at the base of the mountain, but went to a lot right next to our hotel. The view was actually great and we didn'thave to deal with the crowds. I'm not sure if I can talk John into going to Jackson again next year for the 4th, but I'll try! I seriously LOVE it there!!
