Yellowstone-Old Faithful/Fairy Falls

Random picture out my window while driving. 

Sitting and waiting for Old Faithful to erupt.

I mentioned that Will was not so happy at Old Faithful. He is getting his top two teeth and it made for a few moments during the trip. I forgot to even mention the experience when we first got to Yellowstone. Adam and Aleesha were a few minutes behind us, so we stopped to get ice cream at this little spot on main street (it was delicious fresh peach) and when I went to pull Will out of his carseat I realized we had had an explosion. It was everywhere. On the carseat, on his toy, all up the straps. I actually threw his outfit away. I have never done that in my life, but this was an extreme situation. Luckily, that was not repeated throughout the trip. Also luckily, once we got some baby tylenol in him after Old Faithful erupted he was a lot happier. Poor little guy.

 Old Faithful, after a long wait, was a fantastic eruption that was really hard to see because of the gray skies behind it. It was really chilly that day and I had left my jacket back at camp, an hour away. I guess I had figured it would warm up like the day before, but it didn't. Sterling was super nice (and didn't get mad) and let me get a hoodie at the gift shop and said it was payment for planning such a great trip, thanks hon! Luckily I had brought warm clothes for the kids and Sterling took it like a champ and said it wasn't even cold.

Ruthie was being a big momma's girl right then, which was sweet but somewhat annoying since Will was also so fussy. A really odd side note, I bought my pants in 9th grade with my friend Jennica who bought a matching pair. Those are some good pants.

Trying on a hat at the gift shop. She loved it, especially when Will tried it on.

After a nice little stay at Old Faithful and the gift shop we headed over to some pools and Fairy Falls. It was confusing to figure out where the Fairy Falls trailhead was and luckily some people along the trail gave us some tips so we could make it there. The terrain was completely different than Mt. Washburn and that made it really neat. I did get four mosquito bites though, and that was sad.

Another muffin. Pretty much the best trip food idea ever. Sam's Club sells them individually wrapped which was really nice because you can't keep food out at the campsite-due to bears- so we had to repack everything into our car after every meal.

My handsome menfolk.

Happy little guy after tylenol! We tied his hood to a toy and that worked out great.

Look how deep that pool is!

I love this picture SO much!

I love this pictures so much too. So glad Aleesha was there to take great pictures.

 Ruthie was a big fan of the waterfall, the ravens that came up to us at the waterfall, and all the rocks. A little bit ago my dad said that she was going to grow up to be a geologist because she loves rocks so much. She picks them up everywhere we go and I pull a couple out of her pockets every night. They are in our house, her carseat, and always clutched in her fists. But apparently the rocks at Fairy Falls are top-notch because she was in heaven.

Oh I just LOVE this little girl of mine. It was so fun to spend some time with my little family even if I was getting after this little one every other second for almost falling off a cliff or trying to pick up gross things.

I learned that Adam is AMAZING at skipping rocks while we were here. Sterling saw him huck this massive rock at the water and it skipped over ten times! I didn't see that greatness, but I did see other great skips!

 These pictures just crack me up. Lately when I ask her to smile for a picture she hides her eyes with her hands. But for some reason right here I said smile and she grinned and grinned at me. What a crazy girl.

 After Fairy Falls we stopped at a couple roadside attractions. One was Excelsior Geyser Crater, and I thought it was SO beautiful!

Sterling was really glad I got a picture of her laying on the path. For some reason she would run about three feet and then lay down. Over and over and over again. Like I said, crazy girl.

She had so much fun running along that track! 

 Our next stop was a little pullout to look at these falls. They were beautiful but I think we were a little worn out. 

Will's face is SO hilarious. HAHA! What a face!

We look a little awkward because there is a massive drop-off right behind us.

Ruth was more than done for the day and Will seems a little concerned about her.

We came home to a big meal and banana boats. Yummy. Aleesha was definitely a great friend to have on a trip like this. I tend to opt for really easy meals when cooking outside. Something like spaghetti where I made it ahead of time and all you had to do was thaw it out and cook the noodles(which was a great meal, by the way). But she made sure we had fruit and veggies and went the extra mile to pack food that isn't the easiest to bring so we had some pretty gourmet meals while we were there. One breakfast we had pancakes, hashbrowns, sausage, hot chocolate, and fruit. It was so delicious! Thank you so much Aleesha for such great meal planning, we LOVED it!
The Fairy Falls hike was a perfect pick for the day after Mt. Washburn because it was almost completely flat the entire way and was only a couple of miles. Ruthie loved playing at the waterfall and walked quite a bit of the way back by herself...when she wasn't stopping to look at rocks or ants or anything, really. I had a great time seeing such a different area of Yellowstone and watching Ruth have so much fun.