Thursday, September 25, 2008

Yellowstone 2008!!!

For the past couple of years the Mathewson Crew has been vacationing in Yellowstone. This was the first time that Don, Brixie Lee and I went along for the ride and let me tell you... a RIDE it was! I'm sure you can imagine 8 adults vs 8 kids... guess who won most of the time... the KIDS!!! We stayed at one of the most beautiful vacation homes I've ever been in. It was in West Yellowstone, just 15 minutes from the park entrance. Huge, beautiful and in the middle of no where. Just our style! Great find Cindy!

Our first day out took us to good Old Faithful Geyser. It was just like Disneyland! A huge crowd of people gathered around to see a huge explosion of water. Awesome as usual and the kids loved it! Below is The Crew from top to bottom, left to right: Henry, David, Jack, Grady, Annalise, Brixie Lee, Donovan, and Bobby. What a great group of kids!



Before lunch we went on an "adventure" down to a creek by one of the picnic areas around Craig Pass just south of Old Faithful. Everything in Yellowstone is beautiful... even the baby girl that decided to pull her hair out of her hairbands. After the short adventure we had a short lunch due to rain. Darn!

From there we took of to the Fishing Bridge Visitor Center to duck out of the rain in hopes of the weather passing so we could go on a little hike before heading in for the night. Brixie Lee loved looking at all the birds, but couldn't get away from the lake fast enough. My little land-only baby! We did get to go on our hike but Don Lee didn't have his camera with him so we're waiting for our family pic to come from whomever took the picture (hint, hint, hint).

The next day we started out at the Upper Falls and it was darn right cold! Good thing we had gone shopping to get Brixie Lee a knit hat to keep her head and ears warm. Unfortunately the jacket we had just wasn't good enough so she got stuck carrying around her blanket too. And, I got stuck picking it up out of the mud. Really, she didn't mind one little bit!



From there we had another short lunch followed by a short rainfall while we drove to see the elk at Mammoth Hot Springs. For some reason Brixie Lee had it stuck in her mind that these giant animals were monkeys. We have taken the girl to the zoo and she's seen lots of monkeys on her DVD's, so I'm not sure why she called them monkeys for half a day. What goes through my child's mind I will never know. The good news is that after some lessons from Auntie Steff, Brixie Lee finally understood the difference between an elk, a moose and a monkey. Thank you Auntie Steff!

Our last adventure took us on a longer hike... we'll... we hiked... Brixie Lee was in her carrier. I'd trade places with her any day! If you check out Don's Gallery where all his vacation pictures are, you'll see that this was his favorite place. Many of the pictures were taken there. Below is Brixie Lee all bundled up before we tossed her in the carrier and took off. What a cutie pie!

Overall the vacation was a huge success and everyone agreed that we should stay a couple more days next year. There are so many more adventures to be had in Yellowstone!

Oh yeah... Brixie Lee loved her first airplane ride and she was a rock star in her car seat. She sure misses having Grandma and Papa back there entertaining her!

Thank you so much for the wonderful vacation Grandma and Papa! We had a blast!

2 comments:

bennett baby blog said...

i'm glad you guys had a great time and YAAAAY Brixie Lee for being such a rockstar on the plane! that picture of her in the hat and scarf looks like it could be in a magazine! no kidding! what a cutie patootie!

Gaby Torres said...

she is such a beautiful little girl, i don't say that about many kids, but there is just something about that smile! you've got one happy kid on your hands. whatever you're doing, keep it up.