Family Vacation 2010

This year my family went on vacation to Island Park, Idaho. It's a beautiful area and right next to Yellowstone National Park. We had lots of fun hanging with all of my sisters and their families, my brother, my Dad and his wife Kathy, my Aunt Lynne and her boyfriend Don. There were 29 of us total, and we all stayed in the same cabin! We had lots of activities planned.

On Tuesday we went to Yellowstone and saw lots of animals:





We also saw some geysers and hot springs. We didn't stay long in the park, but it was a beautiful drive anyway.




The next day we rented a boat and rode around one of the reservoirs in the area. It was slow and safe enough to take Jane on, though she wasn't crazy about the wind at first.




Even some of the kids, like my niece Ella, got to steer! Fun!








Later that day Michael and I went to the Mesa waterfalls. It was pretty gorgeous.









On Thursday a bunch of us went horseback riding. This involved a LOT of horses.







It was a beautiful area to ride around in. There was a lake, and green meadows, pine trees, wildflowers... gorgeous!





Later that night we had a campfire and smores.




The "grandkids" (a.k.a. my nieces and nephews) had fun decorating bags with the number of what order they were born, starting with my oldest sister's oldest child. Jane falls in at number 14! (#16 is already on the way!) We didn't make a bag for Jane, but her number looked so cute on a onesie!




Friday we were back in Yellowstone! This big guy greeted us just off of the road a few minutes after we had entered the park!



Michael, Jane and I headed straight for Old Faithful, and we saw it go off... over the trees, as we were entering the parking lot. Bummer! It goes off every 92 minutes, so we decided to stick around, take it easy, give Jane time out of her car seat, have something to eat, and wait for the next one. We sat in the lodge in front of some big windows that looked right onto Old Faithful and watched the steam while we waited.




Finally when it was about time we went outside and then...


Wait for it...



Woo!


Here's Michael and Old Faithful:



After that we went to see Grand Prismatic Spring, which has some amazing colors and is the biggest natural hot spring in the world.





This is what it looks like from above (this is not my photo):



We also saw the Excelsior spring which is a deep aquamarine blue, but believe me, you wouldn't want to jump in! Just the steam was HOT.



After that we decided to drive the southern loop of Yellowstone, we passed the lake, and went through some plains with big herds of buffalo (okay, they are bison, but somehow it just doesn't sound as cool). The herds were right next to the roadway, so we just snapped these photos as we drove by (notice the babies!):








We also stopped by Artists Point, which has a stunning view of Yellowstone's Grand Canyon and this massive waterfall. Even from as far as we were, you could hear the pounding of the water:







That night after dinner, we played a trivia game with the whole family, and then had karaoke! It was way fun even though it was hard after a long day!







Now we need a good rest after all that fun!