Road trip and Ambulance rides

Since we are moving to Minnesota to work full-time in a company that operates during the summer months, we realize that we won't be able to take summer vacations for the next 15 or 20 years. So we decided to route our drive through Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks and enjoy a family road trip. Of course pulling a trailer with all our possessions and having two young children have greatly redefined our idea of the notion of a road trip. Of course we started out by leaving several hours later than planned, and had an unexpected stop to pick up a prescription refill in Evanston WY for Brock. On top of that, it seemed that we couldn't get the potty breaks and meal break to line up with each other and had to make stops in Randolph UT, and Afton WY. So instead of getting to our first stop early in the afternoon with time to relax and look around Jackson Hole Wyoming, we got there late in the evening, didn't get to see much, and had used price as our main factor in finding lodging and ended up driving for forever up this steep pass(pulling our overloaded trailer) that wasn't in our direct route. But Thursday morning we awoke, ready and determined to make up for the previous days mishaps and enjoy Grand Teton National Park. This is what we found.

Snow, and lots of it in a few places. Ady as you can see, wouldn't wear her coat even though it was in the low 50s and had to play in the snow even though she was wearing a skirt.

This is Jenny Lake, we really liked this place. It was so beautiful and peaceful. The water was perfectly flat and as you can see the reflection of the Tetons on the water was idyllic.

Here is another shot of Jenny Lake, I like this photo since you can see the rocks on the lake bottom through the extremely clear water.

This is shot from the side of the road of Jackson Lake with the Tetons behind the lake and a herd of elk grazing in a pasture.

We ate breakfast at Jackson Lake Lodge and Ady found this bear in one of the lobbies. She would stand in front of it, raise her hands and growl at it. I asked her what she thought of the bear, and she said "it is like a monster". Ady loves monsters, she loves the movie Monsters Inc. and loves playing monster, meaning that she runs around growling and chasing anything or anyone who will run away.

We finally made it to Yellowstone early afternoon and at first I was really disappointed. After the picturesque mountains and lakes of Grand Teton NP, the 2 feet of snow at the Southern entrance didn't go over well. Then we went to Old Faithful and my disappointment didn't improve. I felt that Old Faithful was overrated. Some think that it is the highlight and main attraction of Yellowstone, but it didn't connect with me. And all those crowds of people waiting around to see hot water be shot up. So we left to find something else to look at. And the next place was better. We found a bunch of Bison on the road and they had calves with them. Ady liked seeing the babies and mommy animals. We thought this was a real treat, with the calves and them being right on the roadside. But after about 40 more groups of animals right on the road and many with young, we realized that animals on the roadside wasn't a rare occurrence, still special just not rare.

Our next stop was these cool pools of boiling hot water that were this pretty blue color at the center, but then became almost any color the further you got from the center. Here is Ady again, and yes, once again she wouldn't wear her coat so yes, she is shivering in this picture.

This is the edge of one of those pools, and you can see that this one has orange and black lines going around it. Really neat designs and amazing colors at this place. The pool is being hidden by the steam.

Later, after waiting for construction on one of the passes we finally made it to Mammoth Hot Springs. The hike up was along a boardwalk and I swear there were a thousand steps. Which at the end of a long day of driving, and then hiking around at high altitude is bad enough, but with Ady wanting to be carried up each flight and then wanting to hold hands, count to 3 and jump down each individual step I had to tell myself a thousand times this had better be worth it. And it was.

This is the Canary Spring and we thought it was pretty cool. Another amazing natural formation. The colors, stepped-almost terraced pools and the water flowing over it all was really something to see.

This is the lower falls on the Yellowstone River in the Yellowstone Grand Canyon. Absolutely breathtaking, the fact that it was raining really hurt visibility and of course made a lousy photo, but was neat to see none the less.

After being so disapointed with the first impression of Yellowstone, I was really glad we went. I think that this picture is more of what I was expecting, you know--herds of buffalo grazing by a stream with a mountain in the background. The snow and Old Faithful got me off on the wrong foot, but in the end, I like Yellowstone and would love to go back.

Ady was fairly non-committal about most of the animals until we saw these bears. When she saw elk she just said they were big deer, and the buffalo were just big cows. But for the bears, she went nuts. "Wook, wook, mommy bear and two baby bears." She kept talking about these baby bears all day. We actually saw 3 sets of bears, one grizzly with cubs and the rest black bears.
We had planned on spending more time at Yellowstone, but Kasey hadn't been feeling well all day and she ended up waking me up in the middle of the night and said she needed to see a doctor. So we went down to the front desk and were told that the medical clinic is closed, but there is an EMT available at all times. So the EMT came over and after talking and a short examination Kasey was put in an ambulance and sent to Livingston Montana(the nearest hospital) and our Yellowstone Vacation was over. They thought that Kasey was going to need an emergency appendectomy, but after the internal abdominal images came back they found out that she had been passing a kidney stone. So now we are stuck in a motel in Montana that is right by the hospital, hoping that Kasey will be able to pass this stone soon.