Monday, July 23, 2012

Yellowstone Family Reunion

Overload of pictures and this is not even HALF of them from our trip :)

Back in June we headed to Island Park, and Yellowstone for over a week, it was a family reunion that my grandma wanted to do this year for her 80th birthday! My dad and Aunts told her they would take her anywhere in the world for her birthday out of the country, anywhere she wanted and she told them she wanted to have the whole family in Yellowstone with her kids, grand kids, and great grand kids! We used to go every year when I was younger so it was great to be able to go again!


-Saturday, we got to Island Park and just hung out and visited with family we had not seen in FOREVER! The cabins we stayed in were so beautiful and so nice, they were huge and even had a spa in the front! Saturday night we had dinner and a special tribute to my amazing Grandma Colleen for her 80th birthday! What an amazing grandma me and my family are blessed with, she is one of a kind and we sure love her to death!

-Sunday, We headed into Yellowstone for the day with the whole family, we looked for animals and had lunch while waiting for Old Faithful to go off! It goes off every 90 mins, it is really cool but I remember it being way more awesome as a kid haha so hopefully B thought it was really cool! After Old Faithful we hiked to Fairy Falls (5.3 miles I think it was) me the pregnant woman I was 23 weeks did the whole thing and so did my awesome 80 year old Grandma! It was so beautiful! Brysen held his first fish that my cousin Steve caught and from that point in the trip was OBSESSED with fishys, as B would say! Brysen also peed on Kyle haha, so they both smelled like pee the whole hike!After the hike grandma bought everyone ice cream for being such troopers on the hike! It was such a fun day! Later that night we all got in the spa at the cabins!















-Monday, was just a relaxed do what ever you want day, we headed into West Yellowstone and watched one of the IMAX movies, and went to the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery! They had the baby grizzlies out that didn't look to little till we went back again on tuesday and saw the big grizzlies! They were so funny to watch and have quite the personalities! We got some yummy huckleberry ice cream, which is a must!  Later we had family pictures with EVERYONE in the family, I don't think we have all ever been in one place at one time before so it was pretty amazing! After that we went to a dinner and show at Macks Inn! Kyle got up early and went out fishing on Henry's Lake! Kyle fished EVERYDAY that we were on vacation, needless to say he is so so obsessed with it and so is my brother James and Bro in Law Stewart!









-Tuesday, we went back into West Yellowstone and went back to the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery, we also did some shopping and just hung out in town, it was so fun I have always really enjoyed hanging out in West Yellowstone all the shops are so cool! We also road my Aunt and Uncles 4 wheeler, Kyle did some more fishing of course! We had dinner almost every night at my Aunt and Uncles cabin and our cabins were all also stocked with TONS and TONS of food! Brysen would ask about every 2 mins to ride the 4 wheeler! I wish you could hear how he says it too cause it is so dang cute :)



-Wednesday, everyone but Us and the Christensen's headed into the park to Lamar Valley where they have tons of wolves and bears just out in the Yellowstone park to see! We didn't go cause it is a long drive and didn't want to have the kids in the car all day! So we just went into the park, Stew and James fished and we saw some wildlife and saw a waterfall! Later we went back into West Yellowstone for more ice cream and meet everyone at Gusher pizza which has to be the only good food place!


-Thursday, we went out on my Uncle Dales boat on Henry's Lake with James and the Christensen's! All of us caught fish except Stew haha he was kind of having bad luck! Shana caught like 3 or more she was showing everyone up! Later after fishing we went and floated down the river, I don't think I would ever do it again haha it was so so fun but it took like over 3 hours, we had lots of entertainment my little brother fell out into the river and ella freaked out when she caught a fish and Kyle freaked out when a bee came around, needless to say there was lots of laughing involved in this nice long float down the river! We got stuck about a million times cause the river was not very deep in tons of places haha so Stew and Kyle would get out and have to push us! So fun!








-Friday was the time to head back to Utah, We stopped at Bear World, which I have to say is very awesome, I loved it! You drive threw different sections and they have an albino elk and buffalo and lots of other wildlife that will walk right up to your car and is just all around you, they have TONS of bears and you have to keep driving or the bears will try to get your cars haha, one of my cousins got his license plate frame thing eaten off by a bear haha! You can drive threw as many times as you want and it is seriously so cool! They have rides for little kids and a petting zoo and all the cute little tiny baby bears! The cubs are so cute to watch and play! You can also feed the bears and baby bears but it is a little expensive! This was prolly one of my favorite places that we went on vacation , it was so so cool!






I am sure I am missing other stuff we did but my pregnant brain can't remember everything! This was such an amazing trip and I am so thankful for the memories that will last a lifetime! I am so thankful to have such an amazing family who made this trip so much fun and so glad we got to spend time with everyone on my dad's side of the family, We are so blessed to call them all family and they are all such amazing people! We love all of you and are so grateful for each and everyone of you :) A HUGE thanks to everyone who made this trip happen Kathleen for all your hard work and to my Dad and Grandma :) We sure love all of our family