Yellowstone

We took Miss Kailee on her first vacation over the 4th of July. And from the title of this post I'm sure it's quite obvious that we went to Yellowstone. We were very worried that we would have a repeat of our most recent travels with her, so we were nervous about this vacation. But she did great and we all had a blast!

We left early Saturday morning and Kailee slept most of the way up to West Yellowstone, where we met up with Meemaw and Gramps. We checked into our cabin and headed into the park. Then we went on a little hike to see some mud pots.






We did a little more sightseeing:




And then we left the park and got ready to go to the Playmill, where we saw Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and had a great time. Miss Kailee did really well and made it through most of the play.

The next day we went back to the park and did some more sightseeing. We stopped at Old Faithful so Kailee could see it in action. Unfortunately, she was not amused. The people around her were way more interesting than some hot water shooting high into the air...







Anyway... We also stopped at a Visitors Center which Kailee loved because it had very interactive exhibits and she had to touch EVERYTHING. There was also a large 3D map of Yellowstone on the first floor and there was an opening on the second floor where you could look down over the map from above. As Kailee and I leaned over the railing to view the map, Kailee drooled a big drool right onto the head of a lucky viewer below. Fortunately for him, he was wearing a hat. But we ran anyway.





The next day was the 4th of July, and while Kody and Gramps fished, Amy took Meemaw, Kailee and I on an animal spotting adventure in the park. We saw Eagles, elk and lots of buffalo. At one point we had to stop for a herd of buffalo in the road and I let Kailee out of her carseat to see the buffalos walking by. She was so excited! She stuck her head out the window and waved and blew kisses at every single buffalo who passed by- and there were many! One even stopped and licked the bumper of Amy's car! Kailee is still talking about the "bo bo's" since we've been home.

We stopped at Mammoth to get lunch and ice cream cones. Miss Kailee entertained a table of Indian tourist children while we ate. She kept smiling and waving at them and then they would all burst into laughter and point at her. She waved and smiled at pretty much every stranger we passed by on this trip- I attribute her friendly disposition to being outside, because she's not usually so outgoing but she loves to be outside more than anything. But on more than one occasion we were stopped by Asian tourists who wanted a picture with the "cute American baby." She's probably on some Asian blog out there now...

Later we met up with Gramps and Daddy (who caught more fish than they could count) and we all watched the West Yellowstone parade. Kailee loved it!





She felt like a big girl in her little chair and loved watching the horses go by.












We had Chinese for dinner and then the fireworks kept us up all night. The next day Kody and Gramps fished again while the rest of us kept our eyes peeled for animals. We finally saw a little bear that day! We headed home that afternoon and stopped in Arimo, Idaho to visit Kailee's Great-Great Grandparents:




A fun time was had by all and we are already planning a trip back next year. Anyone want to join us?