Cousin Camp 2012: Yellowstone

If you have noticed my parents put on a cousin camp every year to try and get the cousins together.  This year we had it in Yellowstone.  We left Sunday, June 24 and drove to Park City Utah to stay at Nate's dad's house for the night.

On Monday we drove up through Idaho stopping to see my grandma in Preston and made it to where we were staying in Island Park.  My parents rented a vacation home and it was perfect.  The kids had there own bunk room and each of us had our own rooms.  Everyone was nice enough to let Nate and I have the master bedroom because it had a walk in closet perfect for Juliette's own little room.

 After dinner we made bubble wands to make giant bubbles with.  Sarah was the only one who could get them to release from the string and float away.  They really were giant.

On Tuesday we drove into the park.  Our first wildlife sightings were deer and bison in the same meadow area,

Everyone was pointing so Juliette figured she needed to also.

We stopped in Madison so the kids could get there Junior Ranger worksheets and listened to the ranger give a presentation on scat.  He actually had Tupperware full of it.

 We then drove on to Old Faithful and had lunch there.  I was surprised when we saw some friends from Lehi while we were there.

West Thumb Geyser Basin

On the drive back out of the park we stopped at the Kepler Cascades,

Midway Geyser Basin, and took the Firehole Lake drive.

That night after dinner we played Minute 2 Win It.

 Face the Cookie

Caddy Stack

On Wednesday we headed back into the park and our first stop was the Artists Paintpots.

We had lunch, saw elk hanging out, and the Upper and Lower Falls in Canyon Village.  That night after dinner we made our own coat of arms that represented us.  Tara painted nails and put coloring in the kids hair which they thought was awesome.

Our shields

On Thursday we saw a moose and a muskrat.  We also fed the fish at Big Springs and wadded at the boat dock.

For the rest of the day we did some shopping, had a camp fire, and sat in the hot tub. 

We also gave the kids a break from being in the car all day and they enjoyed playing at the cousin camp house.

On Friday we left and headed towards home.  We went through Yellowstone and down through the Grand Teton National Park to make our way to Casper Wyoming where we were going to spend the night.

We stopped at a ranger station on our way through Yellowstone so the kids could turn in their worksheets to get their Junior Ranger badge.  Katelyn as worn it every day since and Sadie lost hers the second we got home.

Grand Tetons

We saw and heard a lot of this that day.  She was so tired of being in the car (I was so tired of being in the car).  We went home this way because we wanted to stop at Martin's Cove and pull handcarts with the kids.

 We didn't stop at Martin's Cove but at the Sixth Crossing visitor center.

Sweet Water river

The kids were very excited to stay in a hotel that night.  They wanted a swimming pool and they used it.

On Saturday we headed to see the Guernsey Ruts.

They are very impressive.  It is amazing how rock can wear away with so many wagons and handcarts that crossed through here.

Right out of Loveland we came to a stand still on the freeway.  We were going really slow and I told Nate that if we were stopped because of a herd of Bison I was going to be really mad (that is usually why traffic is backed up in Yellowstone) and Nate pointed out the window at the semi next to us.

We had a good laugh and eventually did get home.  Everyone was very happy not to be in the car anymore.