Yellowstone! Elk! Bison! Geysers! Oh my!

Colton did amazing on all the flights to and from Wyoming. Especially since naptime and bedtime were totally screwed up. He enjoyed watching us take off and land and really liked fixing his seat belt. On our second flight of the day, I put him down on the seat and before I could sit down in the middle seat, Colton already had his seat belt on and was telling me to put mine on!


Our Kabin at the KOA (yes, that is how they spell it) in Jackson Hole. Right off the Snake river!



Hiking at Jenny Lake in the Tetons


Someone made hundreds of these crazy stacked rock formations on the side of the lake. It was wild to see!


What a view for lunch!


"Sa-da!" (or Ta-da!)-something he said often on this trip!




Hiking around Old Faithful area:


Seriously, how much cuter could he be?!


Right before the hike that never happened. Once we finally got to the area we wanted to hike, ate and got going...we saw the "Bear Frequenting area" sigh at the trailhead. Since it was SO windy we could hardly hear each other speak, we didn't have much chance of making enough noise to warn off bears, so kicking and screaming we headed back to the car.



View of Old Faithful Geyser outside our cabin:


Sometimes you want to hike...


...and sometimes you just want to lay down and cover your face.


You might have noticed Colton's monkey backpack with the strap/leash. This is the reason we brought it for the curious 2 year old checking out the hot springs ("no touch")...


He actually really liked his little back pack and wanted to wear it but every once and a while we had to pull on the strap and he would say, "No pull tail Poppa! No pull tail!"




Some days were colder than others and the super cool hats had to come out!


He had just learned to say "Cheese" before taking a picture right before we left for the trip and you can almost hear him saying it in some of these pictures!


Too soon and he will be able to reach! :-(


This was some sort of mole cricket that Colton found and eventually held. He thought it was so amazing, especially when it started moving and hopping.


Note the appropriate shirt and the dirty hands


Snack time! Oh, and a little Mickey Mouse on the DVD player. Without that, we might never have been able to a lot of things in our cabin or without Colton wandering off into a thermal area or something.


The views!








Cute:





The faces!




Colton likes chocolate. He really liked the signature dessert at the YNP hotels. One night he was ready to go and we told him we had ordered some chocolate, did he want to wait and eat some? He said, "I wait," and crossed his arms on the table, and waited. Then he said, "Sa-da!" when it finally arrived. Yum!


Hiking to the Hoodoos. Hoodoos are these odd rock formations in the park. You can drive through some of them but there is a hike that supposedly goes through them. We can't say as the first time we tried this hike we missed the trailhead and make our own adventure. This time we started off great....


Our car is in that parking lot...top right of the picture


Then we were "All done" and "Stay, no walk" and Colton would just sit down on the path. He was tired and over the excitement of hiking for the day. PLUS, the hike got really steep going down the other side of the hill, we probably wouldn't have chanced it with a two year old who wasn't grumpy either.

End of the hike looked more like this...


Fell in the dirt once or twice, sat in in a lot, and then rubbed a little in our tired eyes. Can still whip out a grin for the camera though!


I told Colton to "Be Nice" to the flowers he was about to rip out of the ground and this is what he did...leaned over and kissed them sweetly!


Wildlife:

One of the bulls showing off for the ladies in Mammoth:


Spike, out the car window


Bull outside our cabin window one morning:


Pronghorns in Grand Tetons


Watching the Elk show in Mammoth!

'
Some people were not as entertained by the elk...


Bison! One of the funniest things Colton said on our trip was, "Be cawful! Bison poop!" as he warned you to watch where you were walking.


Sometimes it was a long day...


The end of our trip came too soon...but there is always next year! Even a month later, when you ask Colton where we are going or where we went he says, "Yeddostone!"