4th of July- Eastern Idaho style: part 4

  Tuesday our family headed to Yellowstone.  We love going to Yellowstone, and go almost every year.  Idaho Falls is close enough that we can leave early in the morning - do the park all day - and get back to Idaho Falls by late evening. 
   We left early and headed into West Yellowstone.  Derek and I packed a cooler for lunch, and had decided that we would stop at KFC in West Yellowstone - and get some chicken to put in our cooler for lunch.  Their reader board confirmed our thinking, by reading, "Take a bucket into the park".  And that's what we did.  But while we were in line to pay to get into the park, I decided that I'd get out of the car, and put the chicken in the cooler.  So I hop out, open the back of our van, and that's when all of the cars in line start moving forward.  So Derek moves forward.  With me, holding a bucket of chicken (!) just walking behind our car.  So there's a dozen cars ahead of us, then me - walking, holding a bucket of chicken, and then a dozen cars behind us.  It took several stops of the car before I could open the car, open the cooler, put the chicken in, shut the cooler, shut the van door, and get back in the car.  Derek and the kids thought it was the funniest thing they'd ever seen.  Derek wanted everyone to think that I was just walking into the park, by myself, with the only thing I'd need that day - a bucket of fried chicken!  It got lots of laughs all week.
   In Yellowstone we did our favorites, plus some new things.  We did Old Faithful of course, but watched it from Observation Point - a first for me (a .5 mile hike that has a great view looking down on Old Faithful. 

Yes, Derek hiked all around Old Faithful like this!

 We did Uncle Tom's trail - over 300 steps down until you are at the base of the big waterfall in the Grand Canyon.  It's awesome to be down there - getting cooled off by all the mist.  Walking back up 300+ steps was hard, but with some breaks, our family made it.  I was so proud of the kids - no whining, and no carrying.  People around us were telling our kids how awesome they were to have made it down and back up. 

 

 

Artist Point  - this is the waterfall that Uncle Tom's trail takes you 3/4 of the way down.

 

     We saw mud pots, geysers, and lots of bison - and bison babies - a definite crowd pleaser.  A favorite was to keep track of how many US and Canadian (in honor of my Canada-living parents) license plates we could see.  Yellowstone is certainly a great place for that game.  We got 44 states (curse you Hawaii, North Dakota, Alabama, West Virginia, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire!) and 4 Canadian provinces - Manitoba - our favorite!, Quebec, Alberta, British Columbia, plus Yukon (which apparently is a territory, not a province - who knows why, or what the difference is). 
   We had  a huge, long, really fun day - and 4 happy, exhausted kids on the way home.