Yellowstone

This is our trip in a somewhat reverse order.

That is how I loaded the pictures and so that is how I will blog today. It seems like forever since we were in Yellowstone! We really had a great time. We were tired sometimes and grumpy a lot of the time and sometimes I had second thoughts about coming in the first place but that just proves it was a great family vacation! I pray we will be able to take many more family adventures through the years upcoming, even if they are challenging and scary. We suffered and triumphed together and we are a better family for it. Without further ado...highlights from The Benfield's in Yellowstone 2009:

We learned early in our trip that we need a better camera! The landscape in Yellowstone is diverse and absolutely beautiful! Our camera didn't capture much in the way of clear pictures but it shows just enough for you to know how breathtaking the scenery is.

The mysterious buffalo shaped bruise showed up on my arm in Yellowstone. Very weird and also painful. I have no idea where it came from.



On our last day in the park...actually the day we were leaving to go home we got to see a bear! It was right next to us by the road.

This is a picture of the moose we saw while leaving the Tetons. It was a mama and her baby...so cute!

The Tetons are ridiculous and i love looking at the mountain range. Gorgeous!

Just awesome. We did bathe them but seriously sometimes they just got a wipe down before bed. I don't even know how he got this way but I had to take a picture of his perfect caveman baby foot!

This is a picture of Gillian after we leave one of the geyser sites. I freaked out the whole time thinking she would run into the boiling-seriously-hot water and kill herself so I guess maybe I went overboard and when got into the car she insisted that she wear her helmet for safety reasons.

Tetons.

Poser.

I need to research and figure out why at Norris our pictures turned colors...in pink hues.

Old Faithful...apparently not erupting.

This was Gillian's friend Snaileey that came to visit Yellowstone with her. On a unrelated note: Snaileey is made from a couple of wiki sticks (wax sticks) and they are the best toys in the world. It saved us in the car driving for hours!

We had someone take our picture at Norris. It turned out really cute.

But our best family pictures come thanks to Jake's long arms. I love all of these pictures especially the "outtakes". The money shot is at the top o the blog.

squench in everyone!

Getting everyone to cooperate is really hard to do.

Pelicans.

This is one of my favorite pictures of our adventure, I think maybe the coloring of the landscape or the mood does it for me. It is so therapeutic to be in the midst of nature and beauty.

Once again, one of my favorites looking out onto the sunset on Lake Yellowstone.

Driving around all day is tiring. Especially when your day is made longer by someone (totally not me) stopping every ten seconds to take more pictures. We were up at dawn and still out past dark (10pm up there!) and we got glorious shots!

So in the Cody post I referenced the the fire movie Gillian was obsessed with. Here is a picture of what the trees look like now.

I have a hundred buffalo pictures from this trip. Partly because in the beginning you get excited to see wildlife and then mostly because they were EVERYWHERE! There were so many babies with them...it was awesome. There were a few times where we were at a standstill on the road because they blocked it....for 30 minutes annoying....but funny because they kinda were getting their revenge.

An elk who was camera shy.

This is Mammoth. It is completely different now then it was a few years ago. This used to be covered in teal colored water and now it is gone through its cycle again. Who knows when it will show up again?

The Mud pits.



Where the dragon lives...

Just a little scared...haha.

A little video of Gillian calling the dragon out....