Getting to Yellowstone

We are home after 10 days of vacation and I haven’t felt this tired since Charlie was regularly waking up in the night as a newborn! Traveling with two kids this young is tiring. Especially when you’re flying.

We flew on Southwest and left out of Midway Airport. I convinced Ben that we needed to rent a cart to get through the check-in process, and he grudgingly agreed. It was awkward getting everything through the line, but SO much better than if we hadn’t had the cart.

This was Charlie’s first airplane ride. Eli went on many more trips as a baby, but now that we’re paying for Eli, air travel doesn’t feel so cheap (or easy). I have no desire to get on an airplane with these two anytime soon :)

We brought Eli’s car seat on the plane and had Eli sit in it for takeoff and landing. But when Charlie got tired, we put him in the seat (which is why it was rear facing). Eli stayed entertained with movies on the portable DVD player. That was the best purchase that I made for this trip. Eli probably watched more movies on this trip than he has watched in his entire life, but it was worth it for him to be happy on the plane and the many hours we spent driving. Charlie fussed some on the plane, but it wasn’t too bad.

Once we arrived in Salt Lake, my dear husband did not think it was necessary to rent a cart when we arrived at the Salt Lake Airport. I went to rent the car while Ben stayed with the boys and luggage inside the baggage claim. But then I couldn’t find them once I had the car since they were all inside (and the rental car lines were forever long, so this took a while to begin with) and I had to circle two times before we finally connected. Then Ben ran back and forth from inside the baggage claim and out to the car, shuttling all of our bags. I think we’ll be loyal customers of the cart rental from now on. :)

On a brighter note, we stopped at the Cafe Rio in Bountiful, Utah, where I picked up my favorite pork barbacoa burrito and devoured it. I craved Cafe Rio my entire pregnancy with Charlie and never had the chance to eat it. I ended up eating at Cafe Rio four times while we were on this trip and finally feel like I have had my fill for a little while!

The drive up to Idaho wasn’t too bad – I think we landed at 1:55 p.m. and got up to Idaho around 8 p.m. We pumped up Eli the whole way there, practicing the word “Yellowstone” as shown in the video below and talking about his aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents that would be at the cabin. Ben’s mom has been planning this reunion for about a year now and we were excited that it was all coming together.

On our way to Yellowstone from Sarah on Vimeo.

After about five hours of driving, we were getting antsy to just get there. Ben got pulled over in Idaho and got a $140 speeding ticket. That put the $4 cart rental in perspective :) This wasn’t the first time Ben has been pulled over in his life, but it was his first ticket!! He has been so lucky in the past.

We both drove the speed limit (I have the tendency to be speedy too) for the duration of the trip and we were SO happy when we finally arrived at the cabin in Island Park, ID (we stayed at the Outland Pines cabin – it was beautiful, with 8 bedrooms, 6.5 bathrooms, and 5,000 sq. ft). Ben’s family was so nice to us and gave us the master suite so that we could put Eli in the walk-in closet in a pack and play and Charlie in the room with us, in a second pack and play. We had our own huge, wonderful bathroom. It was all very comfortable and nice for the 16 adults and 17 kids staying there!

We missed Ben’s brother Caleb and wife Elizabeth (who have two kids very close to our kids’ ages) who weren’t able to come, but everyone else in his immediate family was there. Eli had a blast being around so many fun relatives and was in full show-off mode when we arrived.