Yellowstone: Part Deux : On to CODY!

Sooo after our time in yellowstone our next stop was Cody Wyoming. Let me jus say, we all fell in love with this little town. For a small town, it had a LOT going for it. But for us, it was the slower pace, the down home, real ness that it oozed.

Cody is also the Rodeo Capital of the US...they have NIGHTLY rodeos in June July and August. We didn't go to the rodeo our first night in town, and I regret that, we had that much fun. But we DID go our last night. Which caused Liam to BEG (and still is begging) for us to move to Cody so he could be a cowboy. He loved it, Allan loved it...Bug finally calmed down from the altitude (Cody is only about 4500 feet above sea Level...under her apparent 5000ft cap..)  And I well I've always been a cowgirl at heart..and my excursion into Wyoming made me re-think my "if we ever move it has to be near seawater" stance....I think as long as I'm near any water I may just be able to cope...Wyoming was indeed THAT beautiful.

On our way to Cody we had to go through yellowstone again...and came across this Valley of Buffalo...it's just such a clean view that I could imagine myself 150 years ago seeing this exact same thing. 

Horses that were housed next to our campsite in Cody...they ran trail rides from our campground. 

Our first Cody Sunset

Bug eating a crayon...I gave up trying to keep her from munching on them....esp when we were trying to set up the tent and get dinner going...if she'd sit happily and color, (i.e. eat crayons) Then we were good. Her other favorite past times were filling a bucket with dirt...and ingesting it as well. 

Night time Sparklers for a fun treat!

Now, in Washington, we have JUST started selling hard alcohol in non-state stores. 

So MAYBE I'm a little behind...but this seems a bit counter active on the whole 

"Drinking and Driving" front

So aside from the rodeo...our other favorite stop was the Old Trail Town . The cool thing about this is that the buildings are ORIGINAL from their time periods. They are cabins and buildings that were brought from all around the area and placed on and old "street". The coolest was that the ACTUAL "hole in the wall" cabin that was the hide out for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid...as well as the Saloon they frequented.

Next  up? The RODEO!

YELLOWSTONE: Part one

Yes, we just braved the great unknown...okay so maybe not unknown..but definitely Great.  It's been in the works a while, and finally a couple weeks ago we packed up our XTerra (poorly), plunked our 18 month old and 7 year old in the back seat at 6am and set off for the longest road trip we'd ever done.

The trip took us through Yellowstone, to Mt. Rushmore and back via the Grand Tetons. It would take us through 7 states, and over I think 5 mountain passes.

We learned a few things...

The wind and rain of the Wyoming prairie was too much for our first tent so we had to purchase one mid way.

Apparently  the largest Harley rally there is takes place in Sturgis SD the first week of August. so we saw people from as far away as Australia riding in from every direction in PACKS I've never seen so many bikers...and we camped along side them every night...nice guys/gals all.

Our Little Miss Bug does NOT (and I can NOT stress that enough...NOT) like high altitudes... Anytime we were over 5000 feet for any length of time she would FREAK OUT...and since MOST of Wyoming is 5000+ feet it seems you can only imagine our joy. Nights were the worst...If anyone from West Yellowstone KOA who were there when she was having night terrors all night I apologize for waking you up.

We also learned that Liam is quite the photographer. (He took over 800 shots...the best of which I will feature in one of the Yellowstone posts)

And that Bug, loves to get DIRTY...I couldn't keep that girl clean for more than two seconds..I swear.

Oh, and that AC is not optional on a trip like this....we had to have the windows down the ENTIRE TIME...and were STILL dying most of it. We went through 3 cases of water.

So...that's it for now..I have a WHOLE TON of photos... (between Allan and I we took over 4000!) I won't be posting all of them though... that would be excessive.

On the road through Montana....I'm sure parts of MT are LOVELY...but all we saw was pretty dull Until....

We started coming into West Yellowstone MT. 

Shopping in West Yellowstone....and wearing Daddy's favorite color. 

This was a happy accident...Allan was obviously to the right initially(as seen by his shadow there) then he went and turned on the light not knowing I was still exposing my shot...But all told I LOVE how it turned out! 

This was our first "stop I have to take a picture" moment. 

And it paid off...as we were about to get back in the car, this eagle took off and I RUSHED to get my camera...and Voila! Eagle in flight

Our first hot spring...and our first introduction to the smell that is yellowstone. 

This was the Artist Paint Pots...

Yes, it was a stinky walk that day..

We dubbed this the Vanilla Bean Frapacchino spring

Buffalo!

This final bunch were all taken in the Norris Geyser Basin.

Steamboat Geyser....not as regular as Old Faithful, but when it DOES go off it's higher....we saw a few smaller eruptions...and it was quite interesting. 

American Heroes - Helicopter Show

So this weekend we headed out to a FREE helicopter show down at Boeing's Museum of Flight. The kiddo's got to  go in some helicopters, and we got to watch one land as well...Over all it was a great day...hot, and it was only like 10am! I'm so a PNW girl, heat is simply not for me. 

Also I got to get out my wide angle lens and give it a jolly good testaroo... (is so a word)...in the end,  if you get the change to head out to one of the "American Heroes" events I recommend it. It was a fun, free, and totally family friendly activity. 

Mash bubble front helicopter...apparently the only one left in existence...

Fort Nisqually

We recently took a trip down to Point Defiance Park in Tacoma. We happen to like the Zoo down there MUCH better than the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle, which is...Nice, but huge, you really can't get it all in sometimes, and the habitats are so huge as to make it difficult to see the animals sometimes. Point Defiance also is an Aquarium, and the walruses are just cool.  Anyway, this time, we didn't go to the zoo...though I definitely recommend it to everyone with small kids.

What we DID do this time was head over to Fort Nisqually. What is that you ask? Here's your answer (from their website...because I'm too lazy to type it all out...)  "Fort Nisqually, the first European settlement on Puget Sound, was a bustling center of trade that expanded into a large-scale agricultural enterprise." (website here)

At least that's what it WAS, back in 1855. NOW it's a living history museum. With some of the original buildings still intact and others rebuilt over the years..the staff dress in 1855 era costumes and tell you about how it would have been for them in that job in 1855.  They have special guests come different times of the year, it was a sailing master telling all about ships and sailing the day we were there. (With my extra active/young ones they weren't too interested in this) apparently we went the wrong weekend, the next week was going to be a cooking weekend, all about how they cooked in 1855 with cook offs and everything...my chef of a husband was a bit peeved to say the least...I mean, SAILING isn't nearly as interesting as a GIGANTIC fire in an outdoor oven... :)

Anyway, we split off while we were there...(and I haven't gotten my hands on Allan's photo's yet.) I had Bug, and he had Liam...while they climbed to the top of the turrets at the corner..something I just can't do. I walked around with Bug..who was FASCINATED with the blacksmiths shop...

Over all, unless you go on one of their bigger weekends, (like the food one with the cook off) while extremely interesting, it doesn't take a whole lot of time to go through. It was perfect for us, NO crowds and a lot of room for the kids to just run around while we read all the information and talked to some of the staff...and of course, we took plenty of pictures...I mean, it IS us, what else would you expect?

I didn't take a LOT because bug is now ALL OVER and it's hard to take time out when it's just her and I to take a lot of shots....but I was able to get a few nice ones, and a goofy one of her and her brother "wrestling" on the grass....

Fathers day!

Ahh, so it's been a while. Sorry for that. Life has gotten a bit crazy...But I will endeavor to post more often, I have a few adventures to share but we'll start with Yesterday's excursion to Snoqualmie. Last year, for our first Mothers day w/ Bug, we went on the Snoqualmie train...it's a 65 minute ride from Snoqualmie, to north bend, then up to see Snoqualmie falls and back. And on mothers day and fathers day the corresponding parent is free. So last year we went and it was a ton of fun...the sun was shining, everyone was in a good mood.
Yesterday, it was POURING down rain, and we weren't all in the greatest of moods, we (and in we I mean *I*) locked our keys in the car...BUT...when it was all said and done it was still fun. Kayleigh did well. We were a tad worried about containing our now running 15 month year old wild child...but she loved to just look out the grate that covered the floor to ceiling door in the cattle car... which, is way more comfy than the rest of the 'train seats" since they have nice deep wicker chairs in there...She also was able to stand on said chair and it was just the right height to look over...and chew on...the railing.

So without further ado...pictures!

I had to show this one first...this is us last year...same cattle car with a new baby (she was only 2 months old!)

And now my big kids...Bug's learning to make silly faces..(more of those later) and Liam's getting handsomer each day.  

This is one of those "if only it were in focus" ones...but I couldn't help sharing it...it's one of her new faces...

And yes, those lashes are 100% natural...(I actually had someone ask me that once)

Looking over the railing...

She likes wind....so this was perfect for her! 

Ha...she is chewing on the camera strap of the camera taking this picture...When you have a teething baby...everything becomes a teether.

Now, it was after all Fathers day. And this is a capture of my husband and daughter just playing around. He loves being a dad. It's what defines him. He also happens to be very good at it. His kids love him to bits, and I'm often second fiddle (third for the bug often because her brother also comes in above me) BUT, since so many kids now days don't seem to have present fathers, I'm not about to complain that my kids love theirs. I didn't have a daddy, my kids do, and I am thankful for, and love every moment of it.

See they are so sweet together...

And of course two seconds later... with little ones the sweet, tender moments can go by quick as a blink between the goofy, fun loving, antics..

 That was our fathers day...how did you celebrate yours?