Yellowstone is SO AMAZING

I bet you don't know that I had never visited Yellowstone before last week.  Isn't that unbelievable? I am married to a guy from WYOMING, and I had never been to Yellowstone.  (Or Jackson for that matter but that's another trip.)  I really wish I'd taken a photo of the arch that is at the North-something (west?) entrance of the park because it's just so charming but there were busloads of tourists lining up in front of it and I have two small children and one day to see the whole deal.  So we skipped it.  I'm sure you can find a better photo than Eli could have taken on google if you want to see it.

So, here, my friends, is the yellow stone.  Get it?  In moments like the one in which I realized that of course there must have been a reason for the park's name, I wonder why I don't pay attention more.

 I feel like this is a typical family picture these days.  Tommy is attending to something else entirely and Lulu is refusing to show her face.  (I promised her that I would show this faceless series to her first boyfriend but for some reason she was unmoved by the threat.  Here, however, my promise is memorialized and I shall pull up this post in twenty years when she is permitted to speak to boys other than immediate family members.)

Another in the series of faceless family photos.  I might use this one for the Christmas card.  You saw it here first.

At the 'boiling mud pops' as Lulu says...

 Do you see the Bison which is FAR closer than park rules? We were one of the first cars to pull over, so we got a couple of good photos (some parts of Yellowstone are irritating).

 Old Faithful!  It is actually as impressive as I had imagined.  Really.  But, we had to wait thirty minutes for it to erupt.  (I don't even know if erupt is the correct word, but you know what I mean. Explode.  Whatever.)

 The lodge by Old Faithful.  SO amazing.  But also seems to be a fire hazard?

This is where we stayed after Yellowstone.  It's VERY sweet and I really liked it.  This is possibly because everyone prepared me for it to really suck? I'm not sure why? But, when we arrived, I was impressed and I really enjoyed eating dinner with a pretty view of the Grand Tetons.

After dinner, Tommy was bored by his dining companions so sat at the bar.  The bartenders were very nice to him and when we told him it was time to go, everyone around called out, "bye, Tommy!" so we knew he had been charming.  (He really is quite charming.)

 At breakfast, Tommy got hot chocolate.  Look at his sunny, cheerful mood.

 And check out my daughter for whom mornings are a bit more difficult.  (She takes after her mama.)

 Again, cheerful:

 So grumpy and unwilling to eat that she doesn't even get her own breakfast -- she just takes whatever she will deign to eat off the plates of others.  Carbohydrate + fat + sugar = Lulu's ideal way to start the day.  Sigh.  (To be fair to Lulu, her Grandpa Ollie likes to get on the road so she was awakened, and didn't even have time to brush her hair before breakfast!)

 The place we stayed, isn't it quaint?