Analee looking at Gibon Falls with Seth's binoculars.
Pretty girl and pretty falls.
Miriam and Cooper climbing on rocks at the Gibbon Falls overlook.
Hudson getting some comfort from his mom. If you look at the background, you'll see Seth's holstered gun on his hip and his hat. He says he carries a firearm and wears his hat in Yellowstone to get the out-of-country tourists to point and stare.
Everything was hunky-dory until we stopped at the Artist Paint Pots. We all stood on the boardwalk by the mud pots for a while:
Notice the splatters on the walkway? Yeah ... we should have paid attention to that.
The kids were all lined up watching the mud bubble when a fist-sized clump of mud shot clear up past the railing and hit Winnie squarely on the bridge of her nose. She started screaming, and Seth (who was closer), ran over to her and wiped it off as quickly as he could with his bare hands.
Rachel shot this picture of Winnie between Seth's wiping and mine.
I ran to the stroller and poured some water from a water bottle onto a Tinkerbell washcloth that just happened to be in the bottom of the stroller (Winnie had left it there during one of our neighborhood walks days before) and wiped her face more thoroughly. That's when I saw that some of the skin had come off on the right side of her nose where the mud had burned her. That mud was hot! When we got back to the van, I put some Neosporin and a Band-aid on her face. She was still a little sad about the whole thing, but gratefully all that remains of the whole incident is a little pink splotch where the skin is still healing.
We continued our Yellowstone journey with a trip to the Norris Geyser Basin and a picnic lunch (where we all nearly froze to death).
Rebekah at Norris Geyser Basin.
Winnie and her Band-aid sad about something NOT boiling-mud-on-your-face-related.
Cute cousins Kelsey and Winnie.
After lunch, Winnie went back to the cabin with Hudson, Kelsey, Rachel and Justin while we took Cooper and the rest of our girls up to Mammoth.
Rebekah, Analee, Miriam and Cooper at the Mammoth Terraces.
Miriam sharing her binoculars with Cooper.
Walking past the elk on the lawn at Mammoth.
On our way back from Mammoth out to West Yellowstone, we were rewarded with being able to see a sow grizzly and her three cubs walking along the bank of the Gibbon River.
So cute!
How close we were to them! (While still remaining safe and listening to the park rangers who were there making sure nobody was too stupid.)
Our group (and everybody else in the world) watching the grizzlies.
I shot a little video of them when Seth suggested it. Adorable!
We also saw more bison on our way out.
A bid daddy bison walking past our van.
A mama and her baby on the road.
The rest of our stay in Island Park was low-key and fun for everyone. To see more pictures, start here.
