Road Trip 2011- Part 4 Big Sky

So our last bit of adventure on the road trip of 2011 was fun for sure!

On Friday afternoon we headed back to West Yellowstone and visited the Grizzle and Wolf Discovery Center. It was pretty cool. 

They train kids (5 and up-much to Holden's dismay) to hide the bears food and then let them into the cages to get sneaky with the bear's dinner. 

And they had a play area filled with different types of bear traps

um how much? I need one!

Then we went to the West Yellowstone rodeo, which may be the smallest rodeo in the history of the universe, but it sure didn't matter to the kids! Check this out...

Click HERE to watch the calf scramble

Click HERE to watch Ev being wrangled. He was miserable and crying for the remainder of the rodeo.

" I want go in....I want go in again."
"I want to be cowboy."

We didn't get home till 11 that night and we all slept till 9:30 a.m.

Yes, I said 9:30

All of us

Even Scout

Halleluiah

Everett rolled out of bed declaring, "I chase ONE cow! ONE cow! I chased it!"

I think that was the highlight of his life so far. We had a very laid back day Saturday, waking up late, having a delicious brunch looking out over the mountain, swimming in the pool, and having a great cookout at Big Sky Community Park.

Lyndsey and Pete brought some much needed fresh energy and had slide races with the kids. They also prepared a delicious picnic including s'mores. What a wonderful way to spend out last night in Big Sky!

Sunday morning we packed up and began the journey home. We stopped at Old Faithful on our trip through the park.

It went off, just like they said would, it is Old Faithful and all.

Another few hours south and we were in the heart of Grand Teton National Park.

Of course Ian was having a heart attack over the views, the mountains, the hills, the pebbles.... he is such a little excitable kid!

While H and E were gazing into the lake, Holden decided she simply needed to pee immediately and dropped her skirt!

She forgot she doesn't have the dexterity to pee outside like that on her own...well, without peeing all over herself that is. So, we searched the roof top luggage carrier for a clean skirt and in his haste, Ian locked the car keys in it.

Say what? Don't worry we had another set, however the keys for the luggage carrier were now locked inside the a fore mentioned luggage carrier and we spent about an hour trying to pick (or smash) the lock that night at our hotel.

We weaseled our way in and snagged the keys so all was well. On Monday morning we had an eventful detour through Laramie, Wyoming, which you can read about here.

We rolled into our place around 5 on Monday with close to 3,000 miles under our belts. It was an amazing trip seeing and experiencing new things and spending time with great folks we don't get to see often enough.

The past 10 days of my life

Click HERE if you want to hear what Ian and I have been listening to for the past 10 days.

Road Trip 2011- Part 3- Big Sky

The third installment of our road trip adventure brings us to Big Sky where we visited Pete and Lindsey. Lindsey works for the resort and hooked us up with a killer deal at a hotel on the mountain and we kicked back for some luxury. Of course kids being kids, they were not most excited about Yellowstone, Grizzly bears, or a rodeo, no it was the pool.

We hit Yellowstone on Thursday morning and drove to the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone and the amazing Waterfalls there. Holden joined in a Junior ranger program about horns and antlers.

And then we took the short but steep hike down to the Lower Falls.

Whoa, it was amazing!

 Once again, Ian was stuck carrying the kids up the super steep trail. If you are counting, that's 80 pounds!

Luckily, we made it out alive.

On the way out of the park we caught a great view of a herd of Bison.

We also stopped off at Beryl Spring.

H was completely freaked out by the super hot steam blowing on us.

Thursday night we had dinner at Pete and Lindsey's place and then hit the free concert down in the meadow. It was our lucky night because it was a Johnny Cash cover band. Holden was an instant groupie.

Ev was pretty impressed as well.

Holden made 3 friends almost instantly and cried her eyes out when we had to leave at 10 p.m.

Ev logged some serious dance time too!

Join in for the fourth and final episode later this week. You don;t want to miss it. There will be a rodeo, the grizzly and wolf wildlife experience, Old Faithful, and Grand Teton National Park.

UPDATE

I am going to jump to the last 3 hours of our trip for just a moment. 

Head over here and find out why I was copmpelled to write to 

The Food Network.

Road Trip 2011- Part 2- Missoula

Back in the car and on our way to Missoula. I think we only had to pull over 4 times in a 3 hour trip to let Everett try to pee. Potty training on a road trip is not much fun. But we brought the little potty and Mr. Man was not too proud to use it on the side of the road in Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana.

Holden used the facilities as well, but preferred fewer photos.

We spent Monday and Tuesday nights with Uncle Tom and had a blast running in his open fields, picking his raspberries and apricots, and rolling around with the dogs.

We took a little hike on Tuesday morning and discovered a new delight, huckleberries.  They were ALL over the trail and I wish I had a big bucket to collect them because they were delicious. Kind of like blueberries, but super sweet.

We definitely had a few pit stops to partake in the wild treat.

We also had a pit stop to teach Everett how to pee in the woods. It went smoothly, but later that night, he dropped trou in Toms yard and peed all over himself. I guess we need to practice with aim.

There were tons and tons of butterflies on the hike too.  They were almost pesty. like flies swarming around that you had to shoo away. 

And in case you were wondering, purple baby is STILL with us everywhere we go and for everything we do.

Ian is a champ for wearing that backpack and carrying our wimpy kids. Ev weighs like 40 pounds!

Tuesday afternoon we went down to the river and had no idea it was really a beach party. With a sandy beach, drinks, and pool toys. So we stripped the kids down and let them go for it.

There was lots of rock throwing and sandcastle building and we could have spent 5 hours there and the kids would have been happy.

Wednesday morning we packed up once again, said farewell to Tom, hit the Redbox for some new movies, and headed down to Big Sky for our last stop on this journey. Join us for part 3 in a few days, won't you?