Family Home Evening & Buffalo Poop

Tonight was Family Home Evening -- the kids were so excited.  (Well, Annie & Ellie -- I don't think Isaac cared much.)  Annie helped Daddy fill out the 'chart' . . . it was decided Ellie would pick the song (or as Ellie put it, "I will sing the song for you"), Annie got to say opening prayer, Daddy was doing the lesson, Mom made the dessert (and oh my goodness, can I just tell you how much we highly recommend these?!), which left Isaac in charge of the activity.  We all figured he'd want to do Patty Cake.  So, it was all decided.  We gathered our little family in a circle in the front room and asked Ellie to pick the song.  "Buffalo Poop!" she excited offered.  (In Yellowstone last year, Ellie and Uncle Cody would point out all the bison droppings and excitedly sing a song of their own making, that goes, "Buffalo poop!  Buffalo poop!  Buffalo poop, poop, poop!")  Annie helpfully offered, "Um, maybe we could sing 'Jesus Wants me for a Sunbeam'?"  "Nope!  Buffalo Poop!" an enthusiastic Ellie reiterated.  "Give said the Little Stream?" I asked.  "No, Buffalo Poop!" Ellie confirmed again.  I think I hear the words, "Buffalo Poop!" no less than 20 times a day.  She even told me her diaper was so stinky the other day 'cause she ate too much Buffalo Poop.  She's a child obsessed. 

Uncle Cody would be so proud.  :-)

This One's for You Lacy!

Up at Yellowstone, after Grandpa Robert had taught my girls a little song that went, "Buffalo poop!  Buffalo poop!  Buffalo poop, poop, poop!" Aunt Lacy taught the girls "The Scat Song".  Have I mentioned my family might not always be 100% appropriate and sometimes gets a little too much joy from seeing my small children say and sing less tasteful or appropriate things . . . just thought I'd mention that . . .  :-)  And that since teaching my children this song, Lacy calls at least a few times a week to have Annie sing the song to yet another of her friends?  Figured I'd make it easier and just put the song in one easily referenced place . . .

Then, just for fun, some crazy-faced-Ellie-dancin'!

Yellowstone: The Funky Smell

Yellowstone: The Animals

We had a LOT of pictures from this trip.  1020 from the awesome camera, 320 from the great camera, and who knows how many on the old camera that we let the two little girls take and run around and snap pictures with to their hearts content. I haven't uploaded those yet, so I have no idea how many pictures they took. 


So, it was hard to narrow down.


But I thought I'd start off first with a few pictures of animals.  We saw a LOT of animals.  Hundreds of bison, tons of elk, and bears.  BEARS!  How freaking cool is that?!

(Most of my favorite pictures are, obviously, of the people who were there -- but since I'm still working on those pictures, we'll do animals now and people later.)

Our first day there a park ranger told us about a fresh bison kill South of the Canyon area.  Apparently the wolves had been on the bison carcass all day, but the bears would be coming out soon to get their share.  We apparently got there right as a bear came down, approached the carcass, than ripped off a solid half of it and ran back up into the trees with it.  A few people in our group who got there first saw the bear make the run for the tree line.  Greg and I only saw the carcass that was left over -- that gross lump above the stream, covered by birds.

 This big guy we ran into quite a few times -- he liked to hang out in meadows, along the river, smack dab in the middle of the lane . . .

We saw a ton of bison -- from lone bisons hanging out off the side of the road, to small groups blocking our paths, to huge herds in the meadows and crossing main roads . . . 

Big enough to nearly block our view of the approaching minivan -- that's big.

I feel like this guy and I had a connection -- I mean, dang, eye contact and everything!

Just walking right alongside our vehicles.

We weren't going anywhere for a minute -- but we weren't exactly antsy too either -- it was so cool to watch this herd with their babies cross the road all around us.

Ellie was fascinated by the bison right outside her window!

On one of our hikes we couldn't go any further this direction since a small group of bison picked the pathway as their hang out spot.  We turned around and went back around the other side of the loop.

These bison were up above the path we were walking, when they suddenly decided to make a beeline for the same exact walkway we were traveling.  We had to pick up the pace to get down the mountain before they beat us to it -- they ended up right behind us.  Everyone was kinda tense for a minute until we got the kids further away from the herd.

We watched this coyote try to catch his lunch in this field.  He kept pouncing, but we never did see him get to eat.

Mama bear on one side of our cars (That's Talina in the front seat of the blue car right next to the bear)

And Baby bear on the other side of the road.  You should've seen the idiot in the Mini Cooper who got out with his camera and started snapping pictures of them while standing DIRECTLY BETWEEN Mom & Baby.  Genius.)

Yellowstone

We got back from Yellowstone late last night.  (Really late.)  I believe my children now have some form of carseat-confinement-PTSD or phobia or something.  After several days of lots of car time, then nearly a full day in the car yesterday, my girls would wake up from a deep sleep in their car seats and just start screaming bloody murder . . . not fully awake, but struggling against the restraints and screaming for SEVERAL minutes before falling back asleep.  My poor brother Cody was really wondering why he picked our car to ride home in :-)
Other than the mass amount of car seat time, it was actually a pretty ideal vacation!  Most of my family stayed in an amazing condo (three queen size beds, sofa bed, twin bunk beds, two full bathrooms and at only $150 a night, pretty much the best deal in history . . . ten of us stayed in the condo, Talina and David got a hotel room nearby), we enjoyed the park for several days, with average day time temperatures in the mid- to high-60s.  T-shirt weather in Yellowstone in mid-October!  Awesome!  We saw hundreds of bison, lots and lots of elk, a wolf, a coyote, some deer and a mom and baby black bear.  The kids loved it (except that whole carseat thing -- turns out that Ellie can scream the words "La out of La's car seat!  Let La out!" over and over again for huge stretches of time.  ("La" being what she calls herself -- and uses for the words me, my, I, or mine.) 
I now have approximately 1200 photos to sort through from the three cameras we took.
I promise I won't post 'em all :-)