View from the Road: Mega Trip Part Three

And on the sixth day...

We headed out with some of Troy's family to meet the rest of Troy's family in Yellowstone!  You heard me.  A family reunion!

As luck would have it, for one reason or another, we were all able to meet in Yellowstone for the weekend.  Some of us were just vacationing, but others were moving across the country.  Some of us were meaning to make a trip here anyway, while others were free and along for the ride.  And a ride it was...

We headed out of Twin Falls, Idaho and started making our way to Grand Tetons National Park.  Along the way we stopped at Massacre Rocks State Park in Idaho.

Cousins!

Our pioneer picture...  

Where is Isaac in that last picture, you might ask?  Well, sadly we lost him while fording a river.  And pretty soon we will lose Annie to Scarlet fever.  Troy will then be unsuccessful at shooting any deer with the tiny pellet gun we have and so the rest of us will slowly starve before the game is over.  Come on.  It's the Oregon Trail.  I just couldn't resist.

Back to the subject at hand.  Wyoming.  Beautiful Wyoming.  I just love this state.  If I could marry a state, it would be Wyoming.

These were as big as our faces!

See!

My baby and the Grand Tetons

View from our van

A storm was actually blowing in as we arrived at the Tetons.  Our plan was to camp in Yellowstone for two nights.  The weather reports had it raining in Yellowstone both nights.  Fortunately for us, we never had any rain.  Just beautiful sights and the people we love.  What more could you ask for?

This massive beast walked right in front of our car!

Old Faithful (still pretty faithful)

Our campsite

Unfortunately I didn't get a single photo of our big family in Yellowstone.  But lucky for us someone else did and shared the photo with us and I will, in turn, share it with you.

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We left Yellowstone on the eighth day of our mega trip.  We said a quick "see ya later" to some and a "good bye for now" to others.  Montana was waiting and so we headed north.  The eighth day was spent driving out of Yellowstone and into Montana.  We had our first experience staying at an RV park/campsite.  It was pretty good.  It was so good, in fact, that if you ever find yourself traveling on state highway 93 headed north to God-knows-where, here is the link to the place where we stayed.  I would recommend staying there.

On the ninth day we woke up and drove into Glacier National Park.  At this point I feel like there should be a fanfare of trumpets and a choir singing Hallelujah.  It was a long nine days, but we finally (and safely) made it to our destination!

And I'll pause for now because my bed is calling me and I know that my kids will be up at their normal time, too early...  Stay tuned!

View from the Road: Mega Trip Part Two

It's funny how time gets compressed once you are finished with something.  While on this road trip it seemed like time was passing quickly and before we knew it we were home and back to our normal routines.  Now that I recount the things we did, it seems more substantial.

The fourth day had us driving out of the Painted Desert and up into Utah.  Our first stop was Bryce Canyon National Park.  Bryce is probably one of my favorite parks.  It is simply stunning with the red rocks and the hoodoos.  I was really pumped to have the kids see it and I kept building it up so that they would be as awestruck as I was.  Their reaction wasn't what I had hoped for, but to each his own.

Annie was pretty scared of the canyon edge

I can chalk it up to a couple of possible reasons.  One, we were pretty tired from long days and early mornings.  Two, it was pretty dang hot out there and we decided to go for a hike.  But there is a third reason for sure that I know was keeping their attention elsewhere.  And that was the promise of a dinosaur museum visit once we got into Utah. 

Isaac had no trouble making the connection between Utah and the Utahraptor.  So for the entire length of our drive up Utah, we heard all about the Utahraptor being discovered in Utah.  We couldn't get to that museum fast enough.  No, literally.  We made it with about 1.5 hours to spare before they closed.  But it turns out that we plenty of time to get a good feel of the Museum of Ancient Life.   

If you ever find yourself in Lehi, UT (and I chuckle a bit when I say that), be sure to stop in.  This museum is an awesome place to learn about prehistoric life and it was made with kids in mind.  Lots of things to touch and interact with.  

Mannequins pretending to be paleontologists

Oh, crap.

Build your own dinosaur

Magnetic puzzles

I'm not sure how much time we would have had to spend here for it to be "enough time", but 1.5 hours was not enough for the kiddos.  But closing time is closing time, so we scooted on out of there and hit the road.  We were finally headed for the Becker parent's house!  We didn't arrive until pretty late, but like gracious hosts (and loving grandparent/parents) they stayed up, waiting for our arrival.  It was a sweet reunion.  One that I wish I had captured on my camera.  I did get one good shot on my phone that sort of sums it up:

We spent the next day (day five) washing clothes and getting more supplies for our next leg of the journey, which would start on day six.  I'm getting tired just thinking about it.  So I'll leave it here for now and recharge.  Stay tuned!