Yellowstone/Grand Teton

 8/12/2023

We were up at 3:30am for a 7:15am flight (Norahs very first one!). 2 strollers, 2 car seats, a hiking backpack, a medium rolling suitcase, 3 backpacks and a diaper bag later, we were on our way. Mike dropped Norah and I off with all the luggage and then he and Beckett went to park the car and ride the shuttle back to us. We kept one stroller out but checked everything else (minus the backpacks and diaper bag). I wore Norah and Beckett rode through the airport in the stroller (thank goodness he agreed because it was 10x faster)! The airport lounge that is associated with our Chase credit card opened at 5am so we were able to go in and get coffee/breakfast. The lounge had a tiny little family area with some cushions that Beckett played on. Our first leg from CLT to SLC was supposed to be 3.5 hours but we had to go around a storm so it ended up being almost 4.5 hours. The kids did great on the plane, Beckett was so excited! Norah slept for the majority and Beckett played, colored and watched a movie.

We got to SLC and Beckett had a little time to play on the moving sidewalks. This flight from SLC to JAC was only about an hour. Of course Bex waited until we were boarding to announce that he had to poop. He kept saying it the whole way to our seats. "Daddy, I gotta poop right now!" People were snickering and making "gotta go when ya gotta go!" comments haha. I joined a facebook Jackson Hole Moms group and a sweet lady actually lent us a pack and play and bear spray! It was great not having to bring the travel crib!! Dan and Kayla got in 2 hours before us so they picked up the rental car (Suburban) & groceries.

Everything somehow fit in the suburban. It felt like a clown car, it was hilarious to see us all pile in and out. We got more efficient at each stop! Beckett usually sat in the very back, the babies were in the middle row. I get super car sick so I mainly sat up front, but occasionally took Dramamine and took a turn in the back. Mike/Dan traded off driving. Kayla usually sat between the babies with a bottle in each hand. Sometimes, if we were just getting out for a quick stop or a potty break, if the babies were sleeping those in the backrow had to climb over the seat to avoid waking them up.

We loaded up and drove into Jackson Hole to grab some lunch. We went to Pearl St Bagels. The Town of Jackson is adorable and can't wait to explore it next week!

We drove 2 hours through the green rolling hills of idaho to get to our airbnb in Island Park. Beckett was pretty cranky that eve, tantrum after tantrum but it had been a long day.

We got to the house & unpacked While Dan and Kayla made Chicken burgers for dinner. Kayla planned all our meals so well, she opted to do the meal planning since I planned out the itinerary, it was much appreciated to have that taken care of! The babies had fun playing together on the ground while we got stuff ready for the next morning. Beckett was running around like a wild man but at one point, crouched down between the babies, and put his arms around them, squeezed them and said, "I love youguys!" it was adorable!

We broke our Yellowstone itinerary into 3 sections/days: Wonderland, The heart of Yellowstone/American Serengeti, and Geyser Gazing.

 8/13/2023-Wonderland

We made eggs and sausages for breakfast and made our way to Yellowstone.

Yellowstone was originally called Wonderland. In the early days of the park, there was only one entrance, which was in Gardner. Tourists arrived by train and took a  horse drawn carriage on a ceremonial entrance through Roosevelt Arch. They made their way around the Grand Loop Drive staying at camping or lodging establishments along the way.

We stopped at the Madison Visitor center to use the bathroom and take some teepee pictures then off to our real first stop:Gibbon Falls

Here you are standing at the Caldera - the edge of the volcano. The waterfall was beautiful

The next stop was Artist Paint pots. We unloaded, sunscreened up, loaded thebabies into the Ospreys and got our gear ready for a 1 mile hike around Artist Paint Pots (which was not as impressive as we hoped for, as the water was quite low).

We then walked a mile around Norris Geyser Basin (would def recommend over Paint pots). The Norris Basin is closest to the magma. The geyser basin was filled with blue and turquoise pools, as well as mud pots. Beckett was a bit wild and we had to keep apologizing as he ran into people. Most didn't seem to mind and laughed it off but one lady with a British accent rolled her eyes and mumbled "no worries" and it made me laugh the rest of the trip. Kayla would respond with her rendition of this.

 We walked around the porcelain basin for a bit before heading to Mammoth Terraces. On our way, we drove through the Golden Gate Canyon and bridge.

Next, we headed to Mammoth hot springs terraces. We had a picnic lunch and checked out the mammoth hot springs. Beckett was a force to be reckoned with at this point, so we couldn't do the hike, but we felt like we took enough in by walking around for a few minutes. 

We then drove up a bit more to Yellowstone Hot Springs and took turns watching the babies/soaking in the warm water for a bit. There were 3 separate pools, Beckett could go in the warm one. There was a cold one that Dan soaked in. I liked the hot one.

On our way back, we stopped in Gardiner to take pictures of the Roosevelt Arch then headed to the Mammoth general store.

We saw our first bison on the way to the buffalo bar. We ate dinner then headed back to the airbnb. There was a water advisory, so we put all the baby bottles through the dishwasher but then boiled them afterwards just to make sure they were safe. We brushed our teeth with bottled water as well.. Even though there was an entire extra room, we opted to put the kids in the same room because we only brought one monitor and seemed easier to keep our stuff together. Well Norah woke up at 2:30, so we put her in our bed so she didnt wake Beckett but then he was up at 5 wondering where she was. Mike went to lie with him but at that point no one fell back to sleep.

8/14

Ruby had Dan and Kayla up early too so it worked out to get on the road early to Lamar Valley, which was about 2.5 hours away. As we got closer we spotted a coyote, a few more bison and then an entire HERD of bison crossed the street right in front of us. That was incredible!! There were probably 50/60!

We drove a bit further and saw a grizzly bear as well! Glad we were in the car for that one! There was a tour bus a couple of cars ahead of us that stopped for 30+ minutes so we got to watch him for a while.

Once we finally started moving, we found a pit stop with some great mountain views and a couple bison in the distance, We stretched our legs a bit before piling back in and heading back towards the direction we came from.

On the way back we pulled over to see some more bison and at another point got out to see some Elk (from a distance).

The babies started losing it so we knew we needed to get out and walk with them for a bit. At this point we had become accustomed to bison just walking on by.

We got to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, and hiked to the overlook (brink of the lower falls) which was a bit further/steeper than anticipated. Kayla and I were wearing the babies in the ergos. The switch backs had big drop offs so I was very anxious with Beckett not listening and running wild. We got incredible views of the waterfall and the canyon!

We went up to Artist point for more amazing waterfall and canyon views. we hiked another mile around mud volcanos. Beckett was getting tired so we had to make it fun. We had dance parties and I gave him bubbles to blow every time he saw the mud bubbling. I also had gummy worms as bribery which he kept calling "Jelly worms" On the way back to the house, we stopped in west yellowstone for some famous huckleberry ice cream. we had brats, hotdogs, fries (we had to have potatoes in idaho!) and peas for dinner. We did laundry and went to bed!

8/15-Geyser Gazing day

We got the kids their Jr Ranger badges and passed Fire Hole Falls on the way to Grand Prismatic. We got all 3 kids in strollers (SO thankful we ended up bringing one for Beckett!) and did the boardwalk loop. Grand Prismatic was beautiful, but we decided we wanted to see the beautiful vibrant colors from above, so we did the 1.6 mile Fairy Falls hike. The girls were in the backpacks and I ended up running/piggy backing with Beckett. It was gorgeous!!

We got lucky and old faithful was about to erupt so we didnt need to waste much time. After watching it, we walked the mile to Grand Geyser but must have just missed it. it wasn't set to go off again for another 8 hours, so we walked back and caught Old faithful again from the backside. The walk around was neat anyway (kids were in strollers), lots of little geysers along the way.

We had eaten lunch on the drive there but we were all hungry again so we went in the lodge, relaxed for a while and got some subs/snacks. Beckett told me,"I had super fun, with all these hikes!"

We drove to West Thumb, which had more beautiful basins, deep blue pools, geysers and a great view of Yellowstone Lake. Beckett has been calling Kayla "Aunt Alecia" the whole trip so far. He's been watching  Toy Story over and over even though he has other movies. Beckett asked me, "Mommy, can I go smile at my sister?" I love his love for her!!

We saw a herd of Pronghorn on the way back to the house! The babies were good all day but collectively cried for an hour on the drive home. Everyone was exhausted. Dan was convinced that they stopped crying every time he played "Sober up," so we played it on repeat.

8/16

We were all packed up and ready to load the car early, it was about a 3 hour drive to Jenny Lake in Grand Teton.We loaded up the babies in the Osprey's and took the shuttle across Jenny Lake.We did the half mile hike to Hidden Falls. Beckett had to poop in the woods lol-good thing we had wipes and poop bags for the diapers.

We hiked another half mile to Inspiration Point-gorgeous views of the lake! we were about a mile into our hike when someone told us that there was a moose in another 1/4 mile. The path had leveled out at this point so we continued hiking into the canyons. we kept going another half mile and there were 2 moose on the side of the trail eating lunch!! Very cool!! I only had to carry Beckett for a few minutes on the mile and a half back, he complained a lot but he did it! A 3 mile hike!!

We got the kids their Jr Ranger books at the visitor center, picked up pizza from Calico and went to our Airbnb, which was a nice spacious condo! We all quickly ate, showered and headed back out to the rodeo!! I made the kids cute matching "this actually IS my first rodeo" shirts and Kayla and I dusted off our cowboy boots. Whoolly Sheep! Beckett loved the entire thing! We didnt know what to expect but we saw bull riding, bronco riding, mutton busting (Beckett didnt want to participate but they let everyone 10 and under go down and chase sheep), roping and barrel racing.

8/17

We got up and decided the kids were done hiking so we would see the rest of the sites at roadside stops. First up was Colter Bay Village, then Oxbow Bend.

Mike and Beckett went down to feel the water while we got some pretty wildflower pics with the girls. We traded off taking some breathtaking family photos here too.

Next up was the JP Cunningham cabin. 

We went to Snake River Brewing for a drink then did a bit of shopping and photo ops. We stopped in Million Dollar Cowboy Bar for a saddle picture then headed next door to Local (because they couldnt do them there) for our traditional car bomb drink.

We picked up dinner at Sidewinders then packed up the house to leave at 4:45am since we all had 7am flights out and we had to return the rental car and shuttle to the airport.

8/18

We got up at 4 and saw that our flight was delayed for a couple of hours but we have a 3 hour lay over in SLC so we should still make that connection. We opted to just get up and go since we would need to either all go or drop the Polizzi's off anyway so we may as well get moving. We said our goodbyes in this tiny airport and got some breakfast and coffee. We found some super oversized comfy chairs to wait out the delay in but the delay was now pushed to 1230 so we were starting to look at other options on how to make it home before we ran out of baby formula since we would miss our connection. Norah napped (beckett pretended).

They ended up moving the delay BACK to 1030 so we all boarded and then they accidentally counted Norah as having a seat instead of a lap baby so they took another 30 mins counting and recounting each passenger until they realized their mistake. They did tell us that the reason for the original delay was extra maintenance checks since our plane had gotten struck by lightning! Eek I would have been ok not knowing that, even though apparently, its super common?!

There was a good amount of us going to Charlotte, so they held the plane and everyone let us off the first flight so we could literally run through the airport, but we made it!! We hopped right on a shuttle when we walked out of baggage claim and headed to our car. The kids did great on the planes (Norah napped on each and Beckett watched movies and closed his eyes for 5 seconds) and both passed out on our drive from the airport to home.

(Kemba stayed with our neighbor Meghan and thankfully got along well with their dog!)