Squad FUN!!

It is important to me to build relationships with those I work with.  This definitely helps during tough times at work.  Cheers to expanding our "Squad" of 4 to 8 people and being able to have some time together even during the summer months. 

Traveling home... (Day 8)

We were very sad to wake up and have to say goodbye to the beauty of Idaho/Wyoming/Montana today.  We did have to do one final thing before we left the house...spray the can of Bear spray.  We thought it was only fitting since we carried it all week long and were given 3 free ones.  Each of us took turns shooting it for a few seconds and then we went in to the cabin to wash our hands before heading to the airport.  Even though we sprayed it into the woods 50 ft from our car and no wind at all...we got quite the surprise when we came out to get in the car.  It basically felt like mace in our faces and our mouths/eyes were burning along with coughing for about 5 minutes until we could get to the highway and roll down windows to let air in the car.  Once we could all talk again, we laughed pretty hard.  We then traveled the 2 hours back to Bozeman airport to return our Kia rental car.  We totaled 1,200 miles in a week and at times 55 miles per gallon. Despite our initial impressions, it truly was a great little car for our needs. We then took two planes home (BZN to DEN, then DEN to IAH).  One plane had a short delay, but other than that the airports were smooth sailing on the way home. After a quick grab of Chick-Fil-A on the way home from dinner, we were ready to be home and sleep in our own beds tonight.  Thank you God for the amazing adventures we had this week and the health and happiness you gave our family.

Favorite Top Trip Highlights-

Caelin: Yellowstone Playhouse, Animals at Yellowstone, Becoming a Junior Ranger

Cade: White Water Rafting and TR's Burgers

Mom: Hiking in Yellowstone, Grand Prismatic Overlook, and Rafting

Dad: The 9 mile hike and the animals in Yellowstone

Last day in Yellowstone (Day 7 of trip)

Since this is our last day in Yellowstone, we woke up early, hit McDonald's and entered the park around 9am. The Bison were out in full force today and LOTS of babies! My Mommy heart was happy watching the babies play and cross the river. Truly a beautiful sight. We also experienced a Bison jam on the roadway. A few bison (likely teenagers) were having a standoff in the roadway and blocking traffic in both directions. Haha!  Here are our adventures for the day:

*Our first stop was to hike to the upper deck of Grand prismatic spring which is the most famous spring you see in pictures with all the rainbow colors in it. The geyser is located in the Midway geyser basin. We took the trail that was about 1.5 miles and it was well worth the hike. I may have teared up a little at the beauty and colors of it. There are just no words. It caused me to stop and just stare. Not only did God create all this beauty, but he took his time with the details of color, texture and different sizes. Thank you God! 

*Next up was Morning Glory hike for Cade.  The trail head for Morning Glory is located across from Biscuit Basin. Along the 1.5 mile hike round trip was several other pools and geysers. My favorite was the Gem Pool which had the most beautiful colors of blue in it and was deep. Cade was excited to see Morning Glory with its vibrant shades of green an yellow.  He told us about how the natural littering and people throwing coins in the pool blocks the hole opening and as a result it has to be cleaned out annually. The hike was a nice shady one through the woods with some shade from the pines. 

*Old Faithful Visitor Education Center was next on our list so that Caelin could turn in her completed Ranger Book. As we walked into the visitor center, Old Faithful erupted! Talk about perfect timing both times! Caelin was sworn in as a Junior and selected her patch. I must say it has been fun to watch her and Cade work together to complete all the activities in the book. After a quick shopping break, we jumped in the car for our typical lunch while driving containing crackers, cheese, apples, squeeze peanut butter and jerkey. 

*Continential Divide was a fun little stop to read about and see how the water starts to flow in different directions toward the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean/Gulf Coast. We took the 8 mile drive through Craig's pass which had beautiful trees and even patches of snow still. 

*West Thumb Geyser Basin (1 mile hike) proved to be a nice little walk with mudpots, geysers, pools, and cones. We had not seen cones yet, which were interesting. Our favorite story came out of our guide book regarding the "Fishing Cone". This cone was used in 1890's and fishermen would fish in Yellowstone lake and then once they had a fish on the hook, they would turn around and put the fish on the hook down into the cone to cook it. Pretty smart if you ask me. Ha!  We also had great views of Yellowstone Lake, which is the largest high-elevation lake in the lower 48 states. 

*Kepler Cascades allowed us to jump out and see the falls for a last photo op before heading out of Yellowstone.  Although we are sad to leave we have decided we will be back for the North loop when that part of the park gets rebuilt. 

Total steps for the day was 16,120 which equaled 8 miles!

Our final event of the evening was the Yellowstone Playhouse for dinner and theatre. We had prime rib plates (Caelin had a mac and cheese plate) that were delicious. The play was so funny and had us all laughing. Wish we could have gotten tickets to some of the other shows they do, but they were al sold out.