Yellowstone

In Utah they have this thing called "Fall Break."  Rumor has it that it has it's origins in a hunting holiday.    So the kids had a long weekend (Thursday, Friday and Monday) off school.  Scott was able to come into town and we all headed up to Yellowstone.  I thought going to Yellowstone during fall  break was a genius idea since it wouldn't be as crowded as it is in summer.  But lots of other Utahans who were out of school had the same genius idea.  So it wasn't as empty as I hoped.  And we saw LOTS of minivans with Utah plates and BYU or U of U shirts.  It was a Utah invasion - which we were a part of.  But it still wasn't that crowded and we were able to see lots of good stuff.  Here we are at Old Faithful.  We waited half an hour or so to see Old Faithful erupt.  It was cool.  Scott and I both reminisced about sitting and waiting for Old Faithful to go off when we were kids.  And watching the marmots run under the boards at the viewing area.  And now we're making new memories with our kids.  Yellowstone is just awesome.
And please enjoy Grant's many poses in these pictures.  :)

Here we are waiting for Old Faithful

There goes Old Faithful!

We took a little walk around the the geysers by Old Faithful

We saw lots of buffalo.  Here was one of the first ones we saw (Matthew's pointing to it).

And here we are looking down on a waterfall (Gibbon Falls I think)

At Artist Paint Pots

A mud pot there

Mammoth Hot Springs terraces (in the background)

Hiking near the terraces at Mammoth Hot Springs.  

John and Grant both had to be carried for parts of our hikes.

Look at that super dad!  Scott carried or pushed Emma most of the time and also other children who may have needed carrying.

Here's Emma at lunch one day.  She has started screaming now if we don't feed her fast enough.  Not my favorite thing.

At Yellowstone Falls
Just before going to Yellowstone Matthew lost one of his front teeth.

The Grand Canyon (of Yellowstone)

Dragon's Mouth Spring

This one was really cool.  

The water moved in and out of the cave along with smoke and a nice dragon roar.

THE MUD VOLCANO!!!

This one was very cool too

Anna was getting cold near the mud volcano

John deciding he needs to be carried

Churning Cauldron

And did I mention we saw A LOT of buffalo.  I don't remember seeing so many when I came as a kid.  Maybe there are more around in the fall.  We also saw elk, deer, pronghorn antelope and a BEAR!!

Yellowstone Lake

The weather was great (60s and 70s during the day) but the last day we were there it rained and dropped down to 50ish.  

At the Fountain Paint Pots area

On the way back to Utah we went through Grant Teton National Park

It was overcast so we couldn't see the tops of the mountains, but it was still beautiful.

Here's Matthew at Jenny's Lake in Grand Teton.

And here's our cute Emma (see her two teeth).  She was a good traveler.

We had a fun quick trip to Yellowstone.  On the way back John kept pointing out all the buffalo (cows) on the side of the road.  It was great family time!!