{July 22nd - 24th}
We decided to drive up to Montana this year instead of flying and wanted to stop at Yellowstone on the way to break up the trip.
We left really early Friday morning and drove 9-10 hrs to get up to the park.
We stayed at the Grant Village Lodge the first night, spent all day around the park on Saturday, and then stayed at the Holiday Inn in West Yellowstone on Saturday night.
We got up early again Sunday and drove the last 5.5 hours up to my parents house and got there pretty early in the afternoon.
We built it up pretty big to Braxton before we left so he was super pumped.
The boys did awesome in the car the whole way there.
They watched several movies and we brought some new lego sets for Braxton to build in the car too.
It went pretty well except for when he lost a tiny piece on the ground or in his car seat every 15 minutes, ha!
We made really good time though and just took quick breaks to gas up besides lunch.
For lunch, we found a park and just made sandwiches and let the boys run and around and play for about an hour, which really seemed to help with the wiggles.
We saw the beginning of a big fire just outside of Teton National Park on the way up.
Checking out the beautiful Tetons just before the south entrance to Yellowstone.
We got to Yellowstone in the early evening so we checked out some things near our lodge and Braxton got to start on his Junior Ranger packet.
We got up and started pretty early on Saturday so we had plenty of time to fit everything in.
Our first stop was Old Faithful to try and beat the crowds.
The boys thought it was cool, but were much more entertained by the little pica that were running around and under the little walk way.
Spotted our first bison right near the parking lot of Old Faithful
Midway Geyser Basin & Grand Prismatic Spring
We hiked down the Brink of the Lower Falls to check out part of the 'Grand Canyon of Yellowstone'.
We had plans to go check out Artists Point too but the boys were starting to go nuts so we skipped and just pulled over for a picnic lunch instead.
Checking out the mud volcanoes
We crossed the street and made our way down to the river for a sec
Back up to check out the bison who made their way right near the walkway/parking lot
Saw this gorgeous elk while driving to our hotel
One last photo op before exiting the park!
We finished up around 4/5pm, checked into our hotel and then walked around West Yellowstone to find a spot for dinner and ice cream.
The boys loved our 'big adventure' and Braxton was especially stoked about everything we saw... especially all the animals.
Even though the day went pretty smooth, I think its safe to say we won't be making a big trip out of Yellowstone anytime soon again.
In fact- I think we decided we'll do it again when baby #3 is 5 years old!
It was hard with small kids since we couldn't really do any of the hikes around the park (partly do with my being 31 weeks preggo) and a lot of the other pull offs are pretty short and dangerous enough to make a mama of small kids really nervous!
It was just too much time in the car (and a pain to load and unload kids into carseats every stop).
