Family Trip to Yellowstone

Summer flew by this year.  The kids only had 7 weeks off, but we scheduled a trip to Yellowstone before the next year's calendar was published, and so my kids missed the first week of school.  It was totally worth it.  

 We hadn't been to Yellowstone since Joey was a baby, and so Chad and I thought the kids would enjoy going again.  Living in the desert definitely helps you to appreciate a cool breeze and green grass.

 We rented a beautiful home in Montana just west of the Northern entrance to Yellowstone.  Chad's parents, sister Cathy, and four of her kids all joined us.



 We hiked up to a petrified forest, (most of the way up), went river rafting, watched geysers, admired hot pots and mud pots, and just loved spending a week admiring God's handiwork.

We had to stop on our hike to let the Bison pass on by.  I was grateful that we only saw Bison on our hike and didn't run into any wolves or bears.  (We found out later that wolves and bears are often spotted in this particular area.)

 The cool thing about petrified trees is that they start out as one thing, (a tree) and end up becoming something completely different, (a rock).  I thought about how if we allow Christ, (our rock) to enter into our hearts and lives we too can become something completely different from what we once were.  Don't you love nature?

 Some of us enjoyed hiking more than others.  But overall, we had a great time.

 Admiring the geysers.

Carlee wasn't so sure that she enjoyed the river rafting portion of our trip, but she managed to make it through without to much complaint.  When we first started out she got really wet, but we moved her back a few rows and she stayed a lot drier.  When we asked her if she liked river rafting she said, "yes."  But when we asked her if she wanted to do it again she said, "NO!"

Until the next time.