Day 11 of vacation began before the sun came up, or did day 10 even end? Neither Keith or Carrie slept very well in our tent made for four and as we scraped out of the tent, all we could think was "this is another activity that parents do just for the enjoyment of their children" as well as "where's the coffee?"
Keith had a fire going and we sat and wondered if the campground ranger station had coffee.
You see, with a 12 day road trip, we didn't have a lot of room for excess supplies. Neither one of us thought of a clever way to bring coffee with us for this moment and there wasn't a Starbucks in site. It was a tad rough.
As we waited for the boys to rise and shine, Keith went in search of coffee and found out that the ranger station would have some fresh and hot coffee at 7:30. This was another hour away.
The boys were perfectly happy with a smoky snuggle and a couple of Capri Sun's to kick start their day.
We opted to pack up camp and take off in search of a hot breakfast in lieu of waiting for ranger station coffee. You see, Yellowstone is entirely more populated and civilized than one would imagine and hot food is usually not far away. Bison on a morning stroll are practically as common as rest stops with hot food and over price souvenirs.
A few miles later, we had another Bison threatening to take on the BMW in a race.
After a hot breakfast with hot coffee, we were back in action. The boys may or may not have heard several times, "we need quiet and slow actions until Mommy and Daddy get coffee, no sudden movements." We all survived.
We stopped for an awesome waterfall and in the parking lot was a very unique motorcycle that was retrofitted as a dragon. The boys may have thought that this was a step up on the cool scale from the waterfall.
It was great to get out and enjoy the views of Yellowstone.
About halfway down the waterfall hike, Oliver announced that he had to pee, NOW!
While Oliver and Daddy took off in search of a bathroom (too many people to use a tree), Kellan and I enjoyed the views and took a few photos. He was quite excited and wanted his photo taken here, there and everywhere. It was music to Mommy's ears.
"Mommy, take my picture up here."
Notice that he is wincing in nervousness. We recently realized that Kellan has a bit of a fear of heights.
Ah, ha! This rock is just the right size.
As we left the waterfall, we headed down the road in search of the next best thing. We were getting a tad hungry but instead of searching out a hot dog stand, we found a great spot right next to the Yellowstone River for a pu pu platter lunch, Ham Fam style.
We loved this picnic spot.
The boys loved wading in the water.
Don't worry, they had boundaries on how far they could venture out.
The "island" was a big draw.
Then... it happened.
The boys may have had boundaries, but Crocs know no boundaries.
Oliver had a Croc take float and Mommy yelled, "Get It!" to Daddy.
Like the awesome Daddy that he is, he bolted for the Croc.
He had to maneuver quite a bit, but he eventually grabbed it.
We then opted for no Crocs in the Creek.
I love seeing these two naturally look alike.
No posing here, all brothers.
Even Mommy ventured out to the island.
After we left, I told Keith that I should have taken a photo of our wild animal sighting, Bison poop.
When I uploaded the photos to my computer, I discovered that he covered the poop base.
Proof! We picnicked next to Bison poop.
The boys picked up ranger books at the park entrance and if they finished them, they would earn Junior Ranger badges. Oliver was determined to get his done. He did make it, but when we left the park there was nowhere to turn them in. We mailed the books to the address on the book and we're still waiting for the badges. Hopefully the ranges come through for this little guy.
This was probably my all time favorite picnic spot. It was so peaceful and gorgeous. We loved it.
After our picnic, we stopped to see some of the sulphur pools.
Spoiler alert: the crowds were so bad that this was the one and only sulfur pool stop that we did. Apparently the rules of being less crowded on Tuesday than Saturday don't apply.
The boys each got to pick out a souvenir that morning after breakfast and they both picked out binoculars so that they could see things like Daddy did. They were quite cute checking out Yellowstone through the eyes of binoculars.
Kellan with his binoculars.
He's still trying to learn how to use them :)
We may have opted out of several other tourist stops, but we couldn't pass up Old Faithful.
If Old Faithful was going to shoot into the sky like clockwork, we were going to be there.
We had just missed Old Faithful blow and it wouldn't go up again for 75 minutes. We thought that it was more often than that, but we weren't in a huge hurry.
What are you to do when you aren't in a hurry and it's a hot summer day? Get ice cream!
So we did, even if we don't have photos to prove it.
The boys also got some refreshing beverages, which we took with us while we found our viewing seats. Kellan clearly loved his.
We waited...
The crowds built up...
We waited...
Then, like clockwork, Old Faithful blew high into the sky.
Kellan was kind of impressed.
Really... neither of the boys were super impressed. Apparently we talked it up too much because it didn't quite meet their expectations.
However, this photo did meet my expectations.
I LOVE it!
After Old Faithful, we were all beat. Mommy and Daddy were running on empty with no sleep in our tank and the boys had had a long day of fun in the sun. So, we opted to head off in search of our camp site.
Once we were settled and we had dinner in our tummies, we busted out the s'mores.
Oliver has mastered the art of roasting marshmallows.
Kellan would prefer marshmallow roasting to be a smoke free event.
YUMMM!!
Oliver working on round two of the perfect marshmallow.
Finally, Mommy got a s'more, complete with a Resse Peanut Butter Cup inside.
Yum-O!
SO GOOD!
As Day 11 came to an end, we were beat. The sun couldn't set fast enough. Granted, neither Keith nor I were looking forward to sleeping on the ground one more night, but in 24 hours, we knew that our tempur pedic would welcome us home.
On a side note: We didn't see any wildlife in the campground. However, Keith did hear the wolves howling TWICE this night. I am SO glad that I was so exhausted that I slept right on through that entertainment.
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