day 2. yellowstone.
Davina
in G & G, Just for Fun, Newsflash, Personal
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10 Comments
yellowstone.
After leaving Hooper on Wednesday night we drove straight to west Yellowstone and arrived at 2:30am where we all fell into bed for five short hours of sleep after a very long and intense day.
Thursday morning we piled back into the car and headed out to see the paint pots and Old Faithful in Yellowstone. Shelby, our neighbor gave the kids travel journals When Gracie got out of the car at the paint pots she decided to write in her travel journal. She drew a picture of the fountain paint pot with it’s bubbles and wrote in her travel journal (and then asked me to translate) “Gracie loves this white place.”
The paint pots are just incredible. It’s hard to believe unless you see it. The earth just bubbles up. In some places it bubbles up mud and in some places it bubbles up and creates these gorgeous colors. The blues are my favorite. I don’t know if any one remembers Calvin and Hobbes cartoon strip by Bill Watterson but I remember loving it and looking forward to reading it every day in the paper. Now, my son, Emmett reads all of the books tht we bought back in the 90s. He loves them and laughs at Calvin’s lunacy. When we stood looking at that bubbling Fountain Paint Pot Emmet said, “This looks like a planet Calvin would dream up.” And at that very moment both Mike and I were thinking the very same thing. Funny.
We arrived at Old Faithful to find out we had just missed the geyser irrupting by about 10 mintues. The next explosion wouldn’t be for another 90 minutes or so. We decided that we were all getting a little hungry so we trailed over to the café for a bite to eat. I would NOT recommend eating there if you want something that tastes good, has good service, and has what’s on the menu actually in stock (our first choice of everything we ordered they were out of). There is another place to eat there besides the café…not sure if it’s any better or not. I did see people walking around with ice cream that looked really good, though…I would recommend filling your cooler before going through the park or planning to eat when you are in west Yellowstone. Another thing we hadn’t realized is that west Yellowstone is where all of the hotels are located. If you’re planning to stay somewhere on the east side of Yellowstone the closest place is Cody, Wyoming (and although it IS the rodeo capital of the world it didn’t look like it had a wide variety of places to stay).
We sat waiting for Old Faithful while everyone around us wondering if it really would ever go off. About 10 minutes after it predicted geysering time it exploded into the air…it really is a complete wonder the way the earth is so different in so many places of the world. How one location can have these amazing paint pots and be so hot that no one could even live near them and have a geyser that erupts every 90 minutes or so and then be surrounded by this gorgeous lake and trees and mountains and be so peaceful. In one place it seems like the earth is just rumbling and gurgling and busy. In another it’s quiet and beautiful and relaxing.
This earth and this country are so beautiful and open and wild. There are so many places that no one lives that are untamed country.
I’m not sure if Emma saw the geyser or the paint pots; she did see every flower along the way and kept asking me to take a picture of all of them. Emma is really good at being in the moment of loving whatever she is doing. When she started spinning around and singing about ‘feeling the wonderful wind’ in the middle of the trail and a bunch of people around her it was a perfect moment of who Emma is…oblivious to anything but the wonder of the moment that is right now.
Since I am Gracie’s parent of choice these days (and pretty much since the day she was born) I’m the only one that can hold her hand J . That being the case, I get a lot of cute pictures of the back of everyone else that’s in front of the two of us…
adventure. LIFE.
Reader Comments (10)
Wow. I will admit that I am a bit teary-eyed after reading that part about your Emma "feeling the wind around her". It rained hard the other day, and being new to North Carolina, I didn't get much rain in AZ. I just laid on my couch, opened the door and just listened, I hadn't done that in years. At that point I realized how much of life really passed me by and I didn't notice. Children are so innocent, and I so appreciate this story of yours because you are instilling something so valuable in your children, by taking them places where they can appreciate their surroundings and learn to not take life for granted. God bless you for that. (Amazing photos by the way, I love reading your blog entries as much as I enjoy seeing your pictures.)
What an adventure. Driving cross country with four kids. You guys are going to remember this always.
Oh what an adventure. This is just awesome. How fun for the kids & what great memories!!!!!!
I wish you all the best Davina....you will be missed over here!!!!!
what a trip. my family visited the same place last year on our way up to big sky. i have a very similar picture of that amazing blue hole. i wish that you could jump in and cool off in it! it was a fun adventure...have a safe trip to SC!
beautiful! what a great experience for the kids. i love the journals. that' so exciting because now they can practice writing stories like mom :) bloggers in training!
My favorite place on earth. I went there every summer as a kid for 8 years with my dad. My dad worked at the old faithful gas station in the 50's and my grandmother worked there every summer until she was 80. Recently we had a little memorial for the both of them, we sent my dads ashes over the Yellowstone falls in a chocolate milkshake from the old faithful fountain and a lock of my grandmothers hair followed. :) weird I know, but thats my dad for ya.
Davina,
Your images look great. I don't think that top image looks pixelated at all but I notice that the embedded color profile AdobeRGB where some Windows web browsers (except Safari) and many Mac web browsers ignore an embedded color profile, meaning users of those browsers will see the wrong colors for this image.
Awesome trip...
Davina,
Your kids are so beautiful. You are so blessed to have them :) I am catching up on my blog reading. Oh you would be so proud. I chopped my hair off to my chin and am wearing it down. WOO HOO!!!! I will have to send you a pic soon.
Caroline, thank you so much for telling me that you were so moved by this post. You sound like a wonderful lady. I hope we'll meet someday.
Misty, I think you are right!
Alisha, thank you! I will miss everyone there in Utah!
Brooke, oooo! Big Sky. That sounds fun.
Robin, that's so funny! I do love the journals, too. Of course, I think journaling is extremely important so I thought it was a perfect gift.
Joy! What wonderful childhood memories. They sound like a dream out of another era. How beautiful.
Will, thanks! I have no idea how things got switched to Adobe RGB. I'm always in sRGB. That must be why everything looks good up until my going witht the flow post. I'm going to have to go and see what I did to switch that...
Sarah! You cut your hair! Good for you! I cut mine, too....well, my bangs. I have bangs now and I'm still trying to get used to it. I totally love the rest of my hair. I have lots of layers and they look good (in my opinion) without even fixing my hair. I have to see a pic of your hair! Are you loving it?
Caroline, thank you so much for telling me that you were so moved by this post. You sound like a wonderful lady. I hope we'll meet someday.
Misty, I think you are right!
Alisha, thank you! I will miss everyone there in Utah!
Brooke, oooo! Big Sky. That sounds fun.
Robin, that's so funny! I do love the journals, too. Of course, I think journaling is extremely important so I thought it was a perfect gift.
Joy! What wonderful childhood memories. They sound like a dream out of another era. How beautiful.
Will, thanks! I have no idea how things got switched to Adobe RGB. I'm always in sRGB. That must be why everything looks good up until my going witht the flow post. I'm going to have to go and see what I did to switch that...
Sarah! You cut your hair! Good for you! I cut mine, too....well, my bangs. I have bangs now and I'm still trying to get used to it. I totally love the rest of my hair. I have lots of layers and they look good (in my opinion) without even fixing my hair. I have to see a pic of your hair! Are you loving it?