yellowstone part one

yellowstone, yellowstone, yellowstone....amazing!  such a wonderful trip!!  we pulled the kids out of school just two weeks in and it was absolutely worth it.  as todd likes to say, we didn't take them out of school, we took them into school.   the first day we drove to missoula and stayed with our friends aaron and caitlyn and their kids emma and wilson.  man all these kids are getting big!

  the next day was on to yellowstone with a quick stop for lunch outside of bozeman where todd's highschool buddy julie lives with her partner mike. 

then we arrived!  ......

by the end of our first day in the park we had seen bison, a bald eagle, a coyote and old faithful go off. 

the first night was predicted to be very cold (down to 19 degrees!) so we opted to stay in the old faithful inn...the rafters just went up and up and up....what a grand old lodge!!!

the next day we took a long walk through the geyser basin and saw many geyers, pools with spectacular thermal colors, and even bubbling mud. 

the second day we traveled up to the mammoth springs area. this was like thermal pools turned inside out forming these great massive structures.    

just outside of mammoth we found a sweet little natural hot springs that fed into a river and the combined temperature made the perfect hot tub. it was a delicious way to spend a fall afternoon!

i realized this post has gotten quite long so i will save the rest of our trip for part two.....