Island Park, Part 2

The second day of our trip we went into Yellowstone. I love Yellowstone! 

 Everything is so beautiful, majestic even.

 Last time we went it was October and everything was shut down. I think we all enjoyed it more in October.  This time around there was A LOT more people.  I don't love crowds, and there were crowds everywhere we went!

 It was still fun though.

 We didn't get to see as many animals this time, and we only spent one day in the park. Last time we had at least 3 days. But we had some other things planned this time around.

 We made our way down to Old Faithful. Making several stops along the way.

 I was hoping to be able to see Prismatic Spring a little better, I guess you only get the really good view from the air. In October it was colder and much more steamy, we really couldn't see anything. 

 We had a picnic when we got to Old Faithful, then we went to see it go off. 

Can you see my parents in the background?

 This is how Mike feels about Old Faithful! :)

 Overall, our trip into Yellowstone was a hit. Like I said, we love Yellowstone.

 We stopped in West Yellowstone and bought t-shirts for everyone. (Except Viv, she didn't want one.)

And had dinner, but I already forgot the name of the place we ate.

The next day we floated down the river.

 Viv didn't like it, she finally decided just to go to sleep.

 As we were putting the boats in we saw a momma moose with her baby. About half way down the river another moose ran out into the river headed right for us! It was just playing in the water, it was pretty amazing.

The kids loved this, for some reason Wesley was nervous and didn't want to go, he is glad he changed his mind. He spent most of his time hoping between boats and jumping in the water. Jaycee also loved getting in the water. It was mostly really shallow with only a few deeper spots. A lot of the time we were dragging on the bottom. We were out there for several hours, and about 3/4 of the way through, Bensen fell asleep. We really had a great time. 

 Joy made us hay stacks for dinner this night, then we decided to head home, my parents left at the same time we did.

On our way home we took a detour to Mammoth Falls. It was pretty amazing.

 First we stopped at the Upper Falls, the map made it look like a pretty good hike to get to it, but we weren't sure my mom would be able to make it, and the sun was starting to go down, so we headed down to the lower falls.

 There was a guy there talking about how neat the upper falls were, and that they were bigger, so we headed back up there.

 The path there was all paved, there were a lot of stairs, but my mom made it.  She was a champ.

And the view was spectacular!

 God truly made some amazing things! And we love to explore them.

We are lucky to live so close to such beautiful things.

After Mammoth falls we headed home. My parents truck broke down between Idaho Falls and Pocatello! But what is a Bailey family vacation without a little drama? After pulling off the side of the road in a one lane construction zone, with a trailer, in the rain, a highway patrol man trying to help us, the truck decided to start back up, and we were on our way. Slowly, but on our way.  Our max speed the rest of the way home was 40 mph! I swear we could see the Brigham City temple for over an hour!

We had a great trip, I'm glad we got to do so much this summer! It has been busy.  

Now who's ready for school to start?