Prior to our summer break even starting, Maddox decided to run into the forward swing of a friend's racket and knock out one more of his front teeth (broke the tooth to be exact). This would make tooth number #4 to be removed by a dentist and the third tooth extraction (since #1 and #2 came out at the same time). We had it taken care of on Monday during mommy's workday so that when we headed out for our first summer adventure our Madman wouldn't be in pain. Daddy helped us by providing TLC while mommy went back to work for a few hours. It cracks me up that M thought he was smiling in the picture with his new stuffed animal. The numbing solution hadn't worn off yet but you can see by the larger picture that he had his smile back by early afternoon.
We also fit it Zander's end of the season baseball party at a local indoor golf complex. The boys had fun and miraculously no one was injured! haha
On my workday on Tuesday, I had an all day online training for work so during the lunch break I scrubbed our front porch! Its a project I like to complete every summer and with the kids entertained inside, I thought I could knock it out and not take away from any of our other fun summer days!
For my workday on Wednesday, Aunt Lindsey watched all four kids while I was at a leadership retreat! She is my hero, and I think everyone had a great day.... especially Eli who enjoyed our collection of Hot Wheels cars! haha
I am very thankful for my sister!! Thanks to Google for putting together this collage of our recent adventures.... apparently a lot of our time spent together is running! haha
We loaded up Thursday morning for the boys' first ever flight! Aunt Lindsey drove us to the airport and the boys thought it was funny that they were sitting in Emerson and Eli's car seats for the short drive! Safety first! haha
On Friday, we were able to explore the Grand Tetons and Jenny Lake! It was beautiful, and I continued to remark that this area doesn't have a bad view! We took a ferry shuttle over Jenny Lake and hiked a short distance to see a beautiful waterfall. The boys were able to put their feet (and maybe even their whole bodies) into String Lake just a short drive from Jenny Lake. The temperature of the water was in the 50s but these boys persevered! You will see mommy didn't take her shoes off for this adventure!
We had a bingo game along the way where we could mark when we saw some of the wildlife in the area. We saw almost everything on our bingo cards by the end of our trip! Here is when each boy got four in a row for the first time!
Here is an example where we saw a moose as we were driving to dinner!
For dinner on Friday, we ate in the town square of Jackson Hole. Our family has watched the webcam of this town square for almost a decade now. It was so much fun to take a picture at the antler arch that we have watched many tourists walk through!
On Saturday, we made our way north to the south entrance of Yellowstone. We stopped at a few places along the way. My favorite stop was Colter Bay. The boys enjoyed putting their feet in the water one more time. We stayed at a place called "Headwaters" on Saturday night. It is set up as a rustic cabin with no technology and no AC. The boys enjoyed the cabin feel but we didn't enjoy the large swarms of mosquitos that welcomed us as we left the cabin or van! Originally, this stop was to make it easier to enter Yellowstone from the south entrance on Sunday. However, due to major flooding, Yellowstone closed its national park. This is the first time in 34 years that the park closed due to a natural disaster. We had to be flexible and change our plans for the next few days of our trip. You will see we still made it to the south entrance to take pictures. I even documented that the park was closed in one of the photos. At this point, we didn't know when they would open but we were hopeful that we would be in the park at least a day or two.
On Monday, we made our way to West Yellowstone, Montana. We planned to stay there two days until Yellowstone was opening on Wednesday based on an alternating license tag system. We watched an IMAX Yellowstone movie, walked around downtown and the boys got hot chocolate any chance they could get!
On Tuesday, we went down to the west entrance of Yellowstone to take some pictures since we knew it would be busy on Wednesday morning as we entered the park. It was also Henry's 5th birthday so we celebrated him all day. We went to a grizzly and wolf center which was a nice addition to our trip. We could check off some more animals on the bingo cards that way! ;)
On Wednesday, we made it into Yellowstone! This was the main reason for making the trip west! We are celebrating Grannie's 70th birthday a few months early with a trip to a special national park. We were so excited to finally step foot into the national park! The last three days of our trip did not disappoint. I think my favorite places to visit were the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, Grand Prismatic Springs and Old Faithful. As I said before with the Grand Tetons, there wasn't a bad view the whole drive! We got to see so many bison, antelope, elk and deer. We only saw one bear and a cub in the distance but it was probably best we didn't see those any closer! This trip was so incredibly memorable from start to finish. The boys enjoyed their first flight! I got to wake up on my 39th birthday and see Old Faithful erupting first thing in the morning! With the alternating license plate system, we didn't have two vans that could go in on the same day so we splurged and stayed at the Old Faithful Inn on Wednesday and Thursday night so that we could stay in the park using our reservations rather than our license plate numbers. I don't feel that these pictures do this trip justice but I hope you enjoy some of my favorite parts of Yellowstone!
Old Faithful
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