Yellowstone, Day 3

Wednesday, July 4

This last full day in Yellowstone was a lot of fun, but we did start our day with a big damper--Kenna took a huge tumble when the kids were walking with Ted to see a closer view of one of the waterfalls.  Oh, was she screaming!  Her knees and hands were scraped up pretty badly, and it took a good half hour or so of nursing her wounds to get everything clean and bandaged up.  So, she was pretty much done for the day before we even hit lunchtime!

It was easy to see that the kids were starting to weary of constantly getting in and out of the Suburban, so not everyone hopped out on the majority of our stops.  Ted and I took turns getting in and out, and we were able to see some gorgeous sites.  One of the highlights of our whole Yellowstone experience was hiking down to see the Lower Falls--the rainbows were so amazing! Tobin and I hiked down together, and Charis and Ted went after we got back.  The little ones NEVER would have made it down the steep hills and over 325 stairs!

So, we did a LOT of exploring this day!  Yellowstone Lake, the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, the Upper & Lower Falls, and more.  It was so awesome to see such a variety of terrain, and we enjoyed being able to take our time and explore--when Ted and I were here 14 years ago, I think we had 2 days to "see it all," and the weather wasn't nearly as wonderful as the weather we enjoyed this time around.  (We had rain, hail, snow, and fog all in one day that time; I remember that we bought sweatshirts because we were unprepared for COLD weather, being in the middle of a move from Texas to Idaho in the middle of the summer!)

Favorite pictures from the day; here is the whole album.

Lucan and Charis...Yellowstone Lake

Charis and Tobin overlooking Sulphur Cauldron.  (See the buffalo off to the right?!  He was rolling in the dirt!)

Ted with the kids at the Upper Falls overlook; Kenna and I were in the parking lot nursing her wounds from the nasty fall she took on the way to see the view.

On the way down to see the Lower Falls.  The hike was strenuous but worth the effort!

Charis made it, too! Beautiful!