Because it's ALL about the animals

Have you ever met Kevin? It takes about five minutes of talking to him to figure out that he has two passions in life (other than me and Sadie, of course): sports. Yellowstone.

Our yearly trip to Yellowstone then, as you might then imagine, is a BIG DEAL. My 25-year old husband transforms into a 10-year old kid the week before. He’ll randomly start jumping up and down and yelling, “We’ll be in Yellowstone in four days. Four!” And the morning we leave? Let’s just say it’s only comparable to Christmas morning for, you guessed it, a 10-year old kid. Despite the fact that he wakes me up by jumping up and down on the bed at the unholy hour of 5:00 a.m., I find it quite endearing. You know, in an “I’ll-rip-your-head-off-if-you-keep-jumping-on-me” kind of way...

Another thing that must be known is that his family members are not your typical Yellowstone tourists. We make one obligatory trip to Old Faithful (Kevin and his dad groan about it the whole time), but don’t see any of the typical geysers and hot pots.

That’s because it’s all about the animals. I’m serious. Our whole trip revolves around seeing the park wildlife. If you think this sounds boring, all I can say is "don't knock it 'til you try it." Watching a bear walk past literally three feet from your car is a serious thrill. And then there was the bear vs. wolves fight this year. We got the live-action version of what you can usually only see on Animal Planet. Intense, people. Intense.

Of course, all the animal seeking equals a ridiculous amount of driving. Not so bad when you’ve got a car full of adults. But a toddler? A wiggly, restless, energetic, hates-to-sit-still toddler? Let’s just say she wasn’t quite convinced when we kept telling her, “It will be worth it when we see a grizzly bear, Sadie!” She did okay, but only because (taking a moment to give a little credit where it’s due) I spent the entire time pulling out toy after book after snack after book after book. You're welcome, Sadie.

Okay, enough of my prattling on about the joys of Yellowstone. I’ll let the (lots of) pictures tell the rest of the story:

This was about what I saw of Kevin while we were out and about. Looking for animals is serious business.

One of my favorite pics of Sadie, ever. When she gets tired, she finds an edge on her blanket and rubs it back and forth across her nose like she's doing here. It's adorable.

We call this "Jean's Valley" because Kevin's mom loves it. For good reason - isn't it beautiful?

Sadie's "rock heaven" next to our camping spot. She was obsessed.

When she wasn't digging in rocks, she was running around exploring. I got my workout chasing after her, no doubt!

The bears. They were so close! These pics kind of make you want to go snuggle one, don't they? Just watch out for getting your head swiped off...

Tower falls. We found out later that a guy committed suicide by jumping off it the day before we came. *shudder*


Bull elk with fuzzy velvet antlers.




My attempts at creative picture-taking. :) That's Old Faithful in the background going off (could you tell?)



3 1/2 days of camping = a very tired and camped-out-looking family.