yellowstone

We spent the second half of our vacation with family in Island Park and had such a good time! We stayed in an amazing cabin right on the lake, went boating and fishing every day, went into Yellowstone, and just got to be with family. (It doesn't take all that other stuff to make me happy, just being with family does it when you are as family-deprived as we are!)

We had Kilief with us, and he had never been to Yellowstone before, so one day we spent a marathon 11 hours driving around looking for animals. It paid off- we saw SEVEN bears! Certain members of our family still do not believe that we did, and while I hope this photo evidence will help convince a few skeptics, I do not have a picture of bears #3 or #5. I know, it sounds fishy...

looking for bears

 Bears #1, #2, and #3- the coolest thing ever, a mama and her two cubs! Of course, I didn't manage to get all three of them in one photo, but I swear there were three bears.








Bear #4- this grizzly was high up on a hill enjoying the afternoon rain storm.


Bear #5- There as a bear fairly close to the road, and there were two rangers out, one on either side of the bear that wouldn't let anyone stop to take a picture. They seemed a little too close themselves, but I guess they know what they are doing. This is my attempt at that taking a picture of that bear:

Bear #6- sitting by a stream, not a great picture because we were again chased away by a ranger.



Bear #7- I thought the mama and cubs were as cool as you could get- until this little guy walked right in front of our car!

 

We also had a great time on a few little hikes, and Hazel did amazingly well in the car for that long. (Kilief did too.)

 

 

 

hazel fell asleep in the backpack

 

Back at the cabin (I've been to my share of cabins, and this was much more like a resort, really), Isaac and Hazel spent a lot of time fishing. This little girl loooves fishing with her daddy, they are so cute together. She can fish for hours! We also went on the boat, jet skis, four wheelers, spent hours doing puzzles, reading, eating, shopping, etc. We had some serious fun!

view from the back deck

this kitchen was stocked with everything! and it was all brand new.

the theater room

the play room

Ah, we had fun!