A few weeks ago our family had a little reunion in Montana close to Yellowstone Park. We stayed in a beautiful cabin about 30 minutes northeast of West Yellowstone. The cabin was situated in a beautiful setting right above the Madison River. We had a wonderful view of the mountains and river out the back wall of windows. The cabin had three bedrooms, two baths, an open kitchen-family room, and a nice loft upstairs. There was also a studio apt above the garage. The best thing about this place though, was the huge deck that overlooked the river. We got to watch the guys out fishing in the river and would hoop and holler as they pulled in a fish. It was great. The boys especially loved it!! The weather was nice. It was warm during the days and then it cooled off right nicely at night. Except for the first night we carried in our food and cooked. Sarah, Kendra and I took turns cooking the dinner meals so that worked out great.
We arrived on a Thursday evening and enjoyed hanging out at the cabin. Friday after the boys fished all morning we ventured into West Yellowstone for some shopping. I bought a couple of stick horses and some t-shirts for the kids. We all enjoyed an ice cream cone! After getting back to the cabin Kendra made a taco salad dinner with some watermelon as a side.
Saturday was another day of fishing in the morning and then another drive up to WY. On the way, we stopped briefly at Quake Lake to learn about how it was created. It was a sad event that occurred in 1959 with campers getting caught in an earthquake and the landslide that blocked the river creating the lake. (Before leaving on Monday I asked Rick to take me to the visitor's center to learn more about the history) When we got to WY we went to the grizzly park at the entrance to the park. It was fun to see the bears in action. They got right into the water and started playing with each other. Pretty interesting! The wolves were all asleep so even though we got to see them.....not much excitement there. They were pretty though. At the exhibit there was also a bird exhibit. We got to see golden and bald eagles, owls, and others. I like seeing them. They are such beautiful creatures. While a few of us wanted to do a little more shopping the rest of went back to the cabin. Sarah made us a wonderful dinner of pulled pork sandwiches and sides. The boys fished (again) before their licenses were to expire that night.
Sunday we got up bright and early to catch church in WY. The church was PACKED! People were sitting to the back of the cultural hall. It felt like a Stake Conference! Apparently because WY is a tourist town, this is a common occurrence throughout the summertime. After church we drove into the park (we purchased tickets the day before) and had a picnic lunch and then drove over to the Old Faithful geyser. That's always nice to see:) Then we traveled around the lower part of the park seeing buffalo, elk and yes, even a bear (from a distance) We didn't arrive back to the cabin until 7:30 and Rick and I were in charge of dinner. We had a fun dinner of dutch oven chicken and potatoes, corn on the cob, and watermelon....with some peach cobbler for dessert. It was a little later than we are used to eating but it sure was good after a long day.
Next morning we cleaned up and headed home.
Here are some random pictures of the trip......
Alyssia, Kaitlyn, John and Haivyn shopping in WY.
Rafe admiring the guns and knives.
Henry playing with a bear.
The Skylar Phelps family taking a break from shopping.
Rafe on grandpa's shoulders watching the bears play.
The Brach Boman family.
The John Riding family.
Rick and I
Sky, Sarah, and Henry at the hot pots.
The kiddos sporting their new t-shirts from grandma.
Rafe and Scout getting a bath in the farm style kitchen sink.
Rick and Skylar our fishing on the river.
