Field Trip

We got home yesterday from a last minute field trip to Yellowstone National Park. Our friends, Jeremy & Laura, had rented one of the trailers the base keeps there and invited us along.
Meet the Putman's:

They had mentioned that they were going to Yellowstone, and offhandedly said "You guys should come along."

They're hospitable like that because they're from the South. And technically they probably said "y'all" and not "you guys."

And it's a good thing southerners are full of hospitality because before they knew what had happened we were all sharing this little puppy as our home sweet home:



Yup, 4 adults and 4 kids ages 4 and under.

Bet it didn't take them long to regret that invitation! We did have a couple of tents as well, a campfire, and plenty of s'mores to keep everyone happy.

Traveling with kids is like dying a slow, painful death never easy, but we had a nice time and saw a lot of beautiful scenery and just plain cool stuff.

Like boiling emerald pools

This...stuff (sorry folks, the kids don't like to stop to read the signs)



And wildlife that has no respect for personal space.




I rolled up the window as soon as I took the picture. Not sure that the window would have stopped him had he decided to gore me though.

A few lessons learned from our trip:

1) Driving around bug-filled nature is not the time to run out of windshield wiper fluid.

2) When given the choice of viewing a national landmark or playing in dirt, dirt wins.

3) I take back any complaints I ever made about nursing babies with teeth.

And now I'm off to wage war with the piles and piles of laundry we managed to create with our little field trip.

Happy Labor Day!