Island Park...Days 1-3

Here we go friends...hang tight there is ALOT of pictures. We left early Tuesday morning. Got most of my packing done the night before which is quite honestly alot of work when you are the mom and packing for your whole little family. I was in somewhat of an irritable mood that day, trying to get us all ready. However, I did it...got that car jam packed.

I don't think we could have fit one more item into that car.

I love the excitement that seeps out of little kids on events like this. Their energy and happiness was contagious. They could barely contain themselves and it just added to my excitement. (Well, don't judge their expressions in this picture on that, they were still a bit sleepy)

Pretty certain I have mentioned that we go with my dad's whole extended family. 2 grandparents, my dad, my two uncles and their wives, 15 cousins (6 of us are married with spouses) and 13 great grand children (except the newest member was born while we were there, and they obviously didn't come). So there is a whole bunch of us. Our first stop is always at this small town diner that serves delicious breakfast.

My boys remember this place for their Mickey Mouse pancakes. Pretty cool if you are a seven year old.

Together the three of them gobbled up 2 pancakes, 4 strips of bacon, 3 scrambled eggs, a piece of toast and a small helping of hashbrowns....I tell ya, my boys love them some breakfast.

Next stop along the way was Bear World. A fun little park where you drive on through and the bears literally are walking along side your car. We are talking right outside your window. Most of them are pretty small and a lot of baby bears, however it is still pretty cool. My boys were a titch nervous which is why they were sitting up front with us (don't worry, we are moving like 5 mph). Anyways, it is a pretty cool thing.

After the tour, they have a fun little petting zoo area. Peacocks, goats, pigs, chickens and a whole lot more. They are all really tame and just kinda wandering around. My kids were amazed.

Eyeing that pig.

Ohhhh, they got brave. Yuck...hello antibacterial wash.

These two little three year olds were quite interested in that chicken. I could just see the wheels spinning in Lincoln's head, sure enough, after staring at it for about a minute he all the sudden attempted to charge it. Scared the crap out of that poor chicken. Oh Lincoln boy.

Then they have a little ride section. A train, a small roller coaster, and a few others. It was pretty quiet that day, so our kids pretty much had free reign. They just went on the rides over and over again.

Finally made it to the cabin. We rent the biggest one possible.

Our little spot.

Miss K and Lincoln spending a quiet minute with miss Minnie Mouse.

Drake checking out his drink selection.

These big boys, sitting quietly, playing a game. Ha, don't let this fool you. This quiet minute lasted for like a second then they were off and running.

Next day was the fourth.

Poor children, wonder how old they are going to get before I stop dressing them the same. Appearantly not this year, its still happening.

Now friends....let me ask you a question. I took this picture so you all could see my patriotic outfit for the day. What do you think?? Thiago doesn't always understand all of my fashion and what not. Sometimes I come home and show him something new I have bought and he looks at it skeptically. Such as my coral pants, however in the end I usually end up winning him over and he will tell me how cute I look. This outfit however, he just laughed and laughed at. He says it was too much and I looked like a clown. Obviously he doesn't understand color blocking. Thankfully, I don't give much heed to his thoughts on fashion, what does he know.

We headed into town this day (West Yellowstone) and hit all their little shops. First stop is always the IMAX, we confined Lincoln to the stroller but gave him popcorn in hopes of cheering him up. It worked for about 5 minutes, then he wanted out.

These dumb rocks. What is it with kids and these rocks. Or maybe all kids aren't like mine...my boys are obssessed with these things. Every store we went in that the boys were allowed to pick a small souvenier, Carson chose some type of rock or crystal. He now has quite the collection.

So many fun little shops and stores. Some are quite cheesy, but there are a few you can find some real treasures in. I came home with the cutest new piece of decor for my house. I will show you that sometime next week in another post. Super cute though. I will say though my favorite store probably has to be the candy store. Barrells and barrells of candy, homemade fudge, taffy, chocolates, caramels. Oh yum, I can still taste my cherry supreme. Delish!

Oh my sweet baby. I am sorry to always gush over this kid, but he is just true comfort to me. He seriously feeds my soul, which I know sounds crazy, but he does. He is my own little version of daily therapy. Love this babe, love all three of them but there is something so soothing about my Drakey-bug.

The little bug tuckered right out after an hour or two of shopping. All snuggled up with his mickey blanket in his stroller. Sounds like a good way to spend the afternoon to me.

We headed back to the cabin that afternoon and enjoyed some nice, quiet time. My babe was still sleeping, his big brothers were off on their adventures with their cousins, Thiago was taking a little siesta himself, so what did I do? I sat out on the deck, propped my feet up on this here cooler and did absolutely nothing.

It was splendid, just sitting back enjoying the view and talking to my dad and Jen. For one whole blissful hour. 4:00 in the afternoon, seriously never happens. I just soaked it up.

Then my small fry woke up and ventured out to check out the coolers. What is it with wee ones and coolers. Miss K and Drake could always be found by the coolers. Miss K was trying to reach the contents of the coolers (juice, gummy bears, string cheese, yogurt etc) while Drake was mainly interested in opening and closing them and occasionally stealing icecubes out of them. Very entertaining.

Me and Jen then set out on a nice stroll with our babies. Every morning there was a small group of us that woke up early for a 4 mile run. We took this same path, it was beautiful. Crisp, and cool, and clear, surrounded by nature. That is my idea of excersise. However, it was so nice to just go at a slow, leisure pace with Jen and not hauling through the trees trying to make a good time, ya know what I mean.

The both looked like this by the time we got back. Guess Drake needed a second nap.

That night we headed down to the Hungry Bear for their firework show. Which is always pretty great. For a small little store, in a small little town, they put on one heck of a show.

Next day, we piled up in the car and decided to drive through Yellowstone park. The babies were asleep before we even hit the highway, so when we stopped for gas, Carson ran out and picked himself up a few treats for the road.

Ohh, peacefullness. Both babies asleep. For once we enjoyed a nice, quiet drive.

I hung out the window, snapping a few pics.

It was a pretty cool and overcast day. Even rained a bit.

All of the families kinda split up that day and went on their own loops through the park. Some are longer than others. We decided to keep it short and just head on over to Old Faithful. My kids don't have a ton of patience for just sitting in the car, occasionally seeing an animal or two. We thought they would do better with a short car ride and then stopping for lunch and seeing Old Faithful errupt. (For those of you that don't know, Old Faithful is a geyser that goes off every hour and a half or so. Shoots up water and steam. Its pretty cool.)

We ate some lunch, got some icecream, browsed through their visitors center and little shops and then the waiting began....

All kinds of waiting. You all know what I do when I am waiting...with a camera. Lots of nonsense pics. We had a good time though. Just stood around visiting while the kids had races with the strollers. Lots of fun.

Here is the grand event. Whoops, lame picture. Some random lady standing next to us, scared the crap out of Drake and he had a meltdown right as Old Faithful errupted. Dang it. So I got a picture of the aftermath. Not impressive. Oh well. That wraps up day 3. Well done if you read that whole post, I am quite wordy if you don't already know that. I'll be back for the final 3 days a little later...happy Friday!