Long Weekend

Chad and I decided that we needed to get away for a few days so we packed up the car and headed north to Yellowstone. The weather forecast was not very good, but we still wanted to get out, and Yellowstone is pretty close, and with gas prices like they are, well, let's just say that we wanted to see different scenery. And we did. Down here, we've been having wonderful temperatures, mostly in the 70's, but some in the high 80's, so nice I thought it was spring or something. Anyway, the further north we got, the more snow we saw on the ground. That's right, snow. And it was piled up pretty good. We just kept looking at each other, like oh well, at least we are getting away. But, on Friday, we could actually see blue sky, which was very promising. We decided to take two days in the park so that we weren't rushing it. So, that first day, we hiked all around Norris Geyser Basin. I put Matthew in the Bjorn and Benjamin hiked with us. That's right, all by himself. There were parts that we could tell he was getting tired, but he was a trooper. And it helped that on every puddle, mom and dad would help him jump over. That was a lot of fun. Benjamin also liked to point out the orange algae and the green algae. My boy is so smart!!! Here's some pictures from Norris Geyser Basin.

Then we headed south to Old Faithful. This time we put both boys in the stroller because I was tired from holding Matthew and we didn't think Benjamin could walk as far as we wanted him to. We got there just in time to see Old Faithful go off, but it was kind of a dud, and where we were sitting we got all wet. You know the old saying of smoke follows beauty...Anyway, we walked the trails around Old Faithful, went out the Morning Glory, then got back just in time to watch Old Faithful go off again. This time, the show was more spectacular and we were a little farther away, but we definitely did not get wet! Here's some pictures of Old Faithful.

Then we went back to West and crashed. Saturday was supposed to be even nicer, but guess what, it wasn't. It rained and/or snowed all day. We were able to see the falls and the lake and a lot of snow. And it was cold. Not fun.

We came home through Jackson, which the temps came up the further south we went, but Benjamin was such a nut. He did not take a nap, and here is the result of that.

All in all it was a great weekend. We were very glad to get home on Saturday. Of course, we detoured to get square ice cream. Chad and Benjamin had their own, and Matthew and I shared one. (Matthew ate most of it!) Then we had Sunday and Monday to ourselves. Very nice.