Day 2 – at Yellowstone (Old Faithful)

On Saturday, our second full day there, we drove to Yellowstone. This was going to be my FIRST national park experience!! I am so embarrassed that we never went to the parks in southern Utah while we were at BYU. Oh well!

My back/neck/shoulders were STILL in major pain, so I looked up a chiropractor in West Yellowstone, Montana and made an appointment to go in before we went in to the national park. It wasn’t as expensive as Ben’s speeding ticket, but it wasn’t cheap either. But the chiropractic adjustment was WORTH it! I could turn my head to both sides afterwards and my headache went away. I felt sore still for a few days after that, but I do think it helped to get an adjustment.

The drive from where we were staying to the entrance of Yellowstone was about 90 minutes long. We saw this bison pretty soon after we entered the park, sitting pretty close to the road.

Eli was still feverish on this day, so he wasn’t super charming to be around. We felt bad for him, because it was apparent he didn’t fell well. Ben carried him in the Ergo and I pushed Charlie in the stroller.

We got to see Old Faithful erupt – apparently it erupts about every 90 minutes. Eli kept saying, "Blast off!" Here’s the progression (you can watch it on the video or just look through the pictures):

Old Faithful from Sarah on Vimeo.

After Old Faithful, we had a picnic lunch together with the whole family. We were all wearing our blue reunion t-shirts, which made it easy to spot members of our group. (Charlie’s t-shirt was too big, which is why he’s wearing something else)

Here’s Eli with his favorite cousin, Amanda. She’s turning 12 this year and is the oldest cousin. It was cute to hear him throughout the reunion calling for her, “Manda? Manda?” She definitely has a 2-year-old fan.

It’s always amazing to see Ben’s mom in action with a group this big – she is VERY organized and efficient, so meals went really smoothly.

Rob and Isaac:

The two Lawrences – baby Larry and grandpa Larry:

Ben, Aaron, and Danielle enjoying their sandwiches:

Becca, baby Henry (who is just a little younger than Charlie), and Paul:

Joe, Cami, Becca, Paul & Henry (Larry, Rob, Isaac, and Heather in the background):

Ben’s mom, Cheryl, Emily, Adele, and Halle:

Ansel and Cami:

The kids had a blast playing in the dirt – Samuel’s face was very cute:

After lunch, we stopped to see more geysers and mud pots. It’s amazing to see the steam coming out of them:

It was a little scary that most of Yellowstone just had these open boardwalks, even though there were definitely spots that would have been dangerous for a child to fall off.

Eli loved his cousin Levi too, who is just a little younger than Amanda and the oldest child in his family. We decided Eli connected the best with all of the oldest kids of each family.

The entire group, except for our nephew Nathan, who wanted nothing to do with the picture (there were 35 of us total):

We saw another bison, walking across the road:

Eli after spending most of the day at Yellowstone, was NOT happy to be back in the car:

Charlie was a trooper, not crying too much that day:

Eli perked up a little when we stopped and threw rocks in the river:

He kept saying, “I threw 10 rocks, Mama!”

Baby Henry was really good about falling asleep whenever and wherever while we were out and about :)