5th Anniversary Trip to Yellowstone :)

For our 5th anniversary, Evan and I went to Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons. We had it planned since the beginning of March. It felt like it took forever to get here! Originally, we were going to stay the 13th-17th of June, but Evan was able to get an extra day off, so we went the 12th-17th. We were able to get an extra day at Mack's Inn, which was nice. :) The Saturday before we left, we got the oil changed in our car and got some things at Walmart for our trip. Afterwards, we went to lunch at Canton Wok. We ate there, it was really yummy, as always. :) We love going there, it is our favorite Chinese restaurant. After that, we went home and I put Braelynn down for a nap. Evan wasn't up to going grocery shopping for our trip, so we decided I would just go. I went to Winco and got a bunch of things for our trip. I also got some things for Braelynn to have while we were gone. She was going to stay with my family while we were gone. When I got back, I put the non-perishable items in the tote we were using for food. I also packed up the tote for kitchen supplies, like pots and pans, foil, etc. I packed for Braelynn a couple days before, so she was all ready to go, except for a few things. We were taking her over Sunday night, so we could leave early Monday morning. Evan started to get bad blisters on his mouth, so he wasn't feeling well. It caused an infection, which made him feel sick. We didn't make it to church the next day. While Braelynn and Evan were sleeping, I packed our clothes for the trip and got our sleeping bags out to bring just in case. :( Sunday afternoon, I got a message from his mom saying they were on their way to give him a blessing. It was really sweet. His dad told us he had a feeling he needed to come over. They picked Logan up on the way so he could help out. Logan gave Evan a really sweet blessing, his dad anointed. We were going over to my parent's house for dinner, but Evan wasn't up to going, so he said goodbye to Braelynn before we left. For dinner, my mom made chicken parmesan pasta with fried zucchini, it was really good! We watched a cute movie on the Hallmark channel while we ate dinner. I stayed to put Braelynn to bed, then I was going to leave. It was so hard to leave her, she was really upset and crying. :( It was also weird to go home without her, but she was in good hands. My family was really excited to watch her. :) Evan was awake when I got home. Shortly after I got home, I went to bed so we could wake up early for our trip. Evan woke up around 6:45 the next morning, so I stayed awake to get things ready and put in the car. We put the seats down so we could have more room. After everything was in the car, we went to Chick fil-a and got breakfast. After that, we got gas and we were on our way! We left at 9, which was close to when we wanted to leave anyway. :) We stopped at Smith and Edwards to get some more snacks. It was starting to chill down, the storm was coming in. We looked around at some other things, then we headed out. The next stop we made was in Idaho Falls. We stopped so we could eat lunch. It was raining really hard at this point. We decided on a local pizza place, it was really good! We got individual pizzas and some water. We were about two hours away from Island Park, where we were staying. As we drove further, it started to rain harder. It was pretty intense! We finally made it to Mack's Inn around 3. We checked it and paid the rest of the balance. We were staying in one of the riverfront rooms, it was really pretty! We unloaded all of the stuff from the car. By that time, it started to snow. We were going to go to Yellowstone, but we decided against it because the weather was getting worse. We were going to stay in for the night and go to the park the next day. We watched Gilmore Girls on Evan's iPad and I made mac and cheese for dinner. Our room was really nice, I loved the rustic, cabin feel. :) It had a full kitchen and slept 4 with a Murphy bed in the main room. It had a king size bed, it was nice. :) I went to look outside and I saw an animal across the river, but I couldn't tell what it was, so I asked Evan to come look. I asked if it was a moose, and he said it was. It was a mama moose with two babies! :) At first, we only saw one, but another came out from behind some trees. It was so cool to see! Evan got his binoculars out so we could get a closer look. The babies were playing with each other, it was really cute. :) The next day, we slept in a little bit and got ready to go for the day. We ate some muffins for breakfast on the way. We were going to see Old Faithful and Yellowstone Lake. It was snowing in Island Park when we left, but when we got to West Yellowstone, it was just overcast. We stopped at a gas station to fill up before heading to the park. Evan got gas and I got ice. We brought stuff for sandwiches just in case. I love the town of West Yellowstone, it's such a neat town. :) Before going into the park, we stopped at the visitor's center. We grabbed some brochures and left. Evan was disappointed, he thought the visitor's center was going to be cooler haha. There was a long line to get into the park, but it went by pretty fast. We were going to wait to take a picture by the Yellowstone sign because there was a lot of people. I was so excited for Evan to see Yellowstone, it's one of my favorite places to go. :) The drive was beautiful! There was fresh snow on the trees, we loved it! Along the way, a lot of people were stopped, which meant there were some animals. We pulled over to see a big herd of buffalo in the distance. There were a few babies, they were so cute! We didn't stay long because it was so cold! We went to one of the geysers along the way as well. I love seeing the different colors of the hot springs. After that, we weren't too far from Old Faithful. When we got there, we went into the lodge. It was really busy! We went into the shop for a little bit before getting in line for the cafeteria. That's something you have to do at least once when you go haha. Evan got a turkey meal and I got a noodle bowl. The lines were really long, so it took awhile to get to the checkout. We sat at a table next to a window so we could see Old Faithful if it went off. After we ate lunch, we went back into the main part of the lodge to watch Old Faithful go off. We didn't have to wait long. The lodge was really full because it was so cold outside. We were able to watch it from inside, it was cool. :) I always like watching it erupt, it's awesome! It does take anywhere from an hour to an hour and a half for it to erupt again, so you gotta have patience. One of the times we went when I was younger, my grandpa sat on one of the benches outside and waited for it to go off, it was a long time, but he didn't move. He didn't want to miss it! I would rather go to Yellowstone than Disneyland. People may think I'm crazy, but I love the outdoors, also, it's cheaper. ;) After we watched it erupt, we went into the shop to look around again. We bought two hoodies and some socks for Braelynn. :) When we got to the car, Evan put his hoodie on. I was going to wait until we got to the lake. The drive there was really pretty. We went to the general store at the lake and parked. We walked over the the lake and took some pictures. It's so beautiful and peaceful there. A guy walking by offered to take a picture of us. :) after that, we walked over to the lake hotel, it is so cool! It was built in the 1900s. It is my dad's favorite part of Yellowstone. We walked over and sat on the porch in the cool rocking chairs. They had one of the old tour buses parked out front. It had been restored, along with a few others. I took a few pictures, then we went inside the hotel. I don't remember ever going inside there, I honestly didn't know people could unless they were staying there! Someday, I would love to stay there, even if it is for one night. The inside was so cool! We went into the gift shop there and found some really neat things. While looking around, I found a really cool ornament of the Lake hotel to get for my dad. We also got him a coaster. Evan got a couple of shot glasses and we also got a blanket. After that, we left to head back to West Yellowstone. Evan was really tired, so I was going to drive back. We left later than we planned, so we decided to eat in West Yellowstone instead of making something. On the way back, we got stuck behind some really slow people. That's one thing I can't stand when we go to Yellowstone, is slow drivers! Evan looked up some restaurants in one of the guides we got and we decided on a place called the Three Bears Restaurant and Lodge. We went in and had to wait because it was really busy. We were told to go wait in the lounge. The lounge was a part of the bar, but we were able to sit in chairs. There were two slot machines in there too haha. It felt like we were in the 80s, that's how old the lounge felt haha. It felt like it was taking forever for our name to be called. I was so hungry! About 30 minutes later, a waitress came in and took us to a table. The dining room was a lot nicer, it had a cool feel to it. Our waitress was really nice. :) I think she was from West Virginia, or somewhere back east. I read the history on the back of the menu for the restaurant, it was really cool. We both got buffalo burgers and fries. They were so good! After we were done, Evan paid and we headed back to Mack's Inn. We relaxed the rest of the night and went to sleep. The next day, we planned to go to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. We got a late start because Evan slept in later, which was okay because he needed it! We ate breakfast on the way and headed into town. We got gas and ice again and headed to the park. We were going to stop and see more things on the way to the falls. Cars were pulling over at one point because there were buffalo on the road. We pulled over and a whole herd walked right by our car! They were so close! There were at least two or three calves, they were so, so cute! After that, we stopped by Artist Paint Pots. It was a cool thing to see. There was a little hike to get to the geysers and paint pots. There are mud pots and different colored hot pools. It was really cold that day, but pretty sunny for the most part, so that was nice. Once we got to Canyon Village, we went into the really cool museum and learned about some of the histories of Yellowstone. Evan loved that part. :) We got went into one the Yellowstone Forever bookstore and got some cool things. :) Evan ended up donating some money so we got a free gift, a baby buffalo we gave to Braelynn. We also got her some blocks and magnets for us. We went into the big gift shop and general store after taking what we got to the car. It was so busy! We were thinking about eating at the grill, but it was way too busy! We went back to the car and grabbed the stuff we needed to make sandwiches for lunch. Evan grabbed the cooler and we ate at a picnic table by one of the stores. I made us sandwiches and we shared a lunchable and had some chips. It was a good lunch. :) We put the stuff in the car after we ate and left to go to the falls. I think that is my favorite part about Yellowstone, it is so pretty! It wasn't too far of a drive, but the parking lots were pretty full. We had to drive all the way to the fall parking lot. It was pretty chilly outside, so we wore our jackets and hoodies. I was really excited for Evan to see the falls. We walked down the trail and looked at the waterfall from the higher vantage point. We took some pictures and decided to go down the hiking trail to look at it from the lower point. It wasn't too bad going down, but I knew going up would be hard haha. Evan stopped to take a lot of pictures on the way down. We finally made it down and we took a lot of pictures, it was so beautiful! I loved it. :) Evan told me it was his favorite part of Yellowstone, it's mine too. :) We started walking back up the trail to go back to the car after that. It was tough haha, I am so out of shape! I had to stop a few times on the way back. We took another trail and looked at the falls again and we got in the car to head back to West Yellowstone. We accidentally took the wrong way, we were going toward Tower Falls and Roosevelt. We had planned to do those things the next day, but we decided to do it that night since we were headed that way. The drive was beautiful! We got to there about a half hour later. The gift shop was closed, but there were still a lot of people looking at the falls. It was pretty cool! After that, we drove to the Roosevelt lodge, which is right across from Lamar Valley. We also wanted to go there. :) The lodge was neat, it has a lot of history. We decided to eat dinner there, but there was a long wait, so we sat on the porch in the cool rocking chairs. I went over to the gift shop and looked around and asked the workers how to get to Lamar Valley, they explained it was across the street and pretty easy to find. After a little while, we went inside because there was some annoying people outside haha. I think there was an hour wait, so it was a while before we were able to be seated. For dinner, I got yummy buffalo tamales with rice and beans. Evan got pork with fried potatoes. It was so good, but pretty expensive. After we ate, we drove over to Lamar Valley. The sun was starting to set, which was the perfect time to go if you wanted to see some animals. We didn't have to drive very far before we saw herds of buffalo. It was so, so cool! There were so many babies, they were adorable. :) We pulled over to the side of the road and watched them. There were some impatient people that drove around the buffalo on the road...it was ridiculous. Some people can be so dumb! It was so cool to watch, I loved it. :) Evan recorded the herds meeting up together. They came so close to our car! We drove a little ways and turned around to head back. We decided to drive to Mammoth Hot Springs and take that way back since we were already that far. It took a while to drive there, only to find out the road closed at 10pm to get back to Norris junction. It was a little after 10... we were so frustrated. Evan didn't want to drive all the way back around. it was going to take almost 3 hours to get back to Mack's Inn. We had no other choice because there was no openings at any of the places to stay at Mammoth. On the way back, we saw a few animals that ran into the road or were on the side of the road. We saw a fox, a mom and her baby deer crossed the road in front of us, the baby looked really nervous, but her mom looked at her as if to say it was okay. Once we got to the junction where the canyon was, Evan pulled over to I could drive the rest of the way. He was falling asleep. It was still a long drive back and I was kind of nervous because it was so dark. It was hard to know where we were. When I saw the front gate at the entrance of West Yellowstone, I was so happy. It meant we were about 20 minutes away from Mack's Inn. Once we were on highway 20, I sped to get back haha. I was eager to get into bed after that crazy adventure. We got back at 1:30 am! We took in what we needed to and got ready for bed. We planned on sleeping in the next day because we got back so late. We were going to explore West Yellowstone the next day. After we woke up, we got ready to go to town. We ate breakfast on the way. We drove over to the visitor's center parking lot to park our car, so we could walk around from there. It was another chilly day, but it was fun to walk around. West Yellowstone is a neat little town, I love it. We walked over to the grocery store so Evan could get some lactase, so he could eat ice cream. We went to a place called Bullwinkle's for lunch. The atmosphere was pretty cool, there was a train that was running through the ceiling, it was set up on some track. I took a picture and sent it to my dad. Evan and I got buffalo burgers and fries. They were good, but not cooked all the way, they were medium rare, not well down. Of the two places we ate at in town, we liked the atmosphere of Bullwinkle's better, but the food at Three Bears Diner tasted better. After lunch, we went to the Christmas store that was attached to a candy store. We got huckleberry ice cream. It was so yummy! :) We went to some cool shops . One, we were at for awhile because Evan was on the phone with his dad and telling him about some cool things. We got some things for some family members and walked around some more. I wanted to go to the museum, but Evan was really tired. We went anyway, because he wanted to see it too. We got Braelynn a train whistle and paid the admission to get in. The museum used to be a train station, it was so cool. :) There was some really cool history about Yellowstone and the town. After we walked around and looked at all the neat things, we headed back to the entrance to look at the stage coaches outside. We headed back to the visitor's center parking lot. We decided to go into the IMAX building to look at the gift shop. We got some things for our moms after looking around for awhile, we couldn't decide what to get. We went back to our cabin after that. We were really tired from walking around. I made breakfast for dinner. We were still hungry, so we went to the store down the road and got some popcorn to eat while we watched some TV on Evan's iPad. I got some of our things organized for the next day, so we didn't have much to pack the next morning. We slept in a little because check out wasn't until 11. We left after 10, checked out and headed toward town. We were going to drive through the park to the south entrance to go to the Tetons. When we got to town, we were going to get breakfast at Ernie's bakery, but they were no longer serving breakfast, so we got turkey sandwiches. They were so yummy, they reminded me of Philly cheese steak sandwiches, but with turkey. After lunch, we got some gas and ice and headed to the entrance of the park. We took pictures by the Yellowstone sign since we hadn't had a chance. We went to the Grand Prismatic Spring on the way. Parking was a joke, there were so many people there. Luckily, we found a close spot when we finally were able to get in the lot. All the people on the boardwalk were driving me crazy, I felt like I was going to be pushed off at some points. It was so pretty though, but it was hard to see some of it because of the fog. Evan wanted to go to Old Faithful again and see it erupt. We got a couple things at the gift shop and we went outside to wait for it to go off. It started to rain really hard. We were going to try and wait it out, but it got worse. We were on our way inside when it went off, so we watched for a couple minutes and ran inside. We were so cold! Evan got some hot tea to get warm and we headed out. We had a long drive ahead of us. It was so pretty! We got to the Tetons later that afternoon. It was stormy there too, but not too bad. We saw a lot of burned trees from last year's fire. We stopped at Jackson Lake Lodge and went into the gift shops. Evan wanted a new jacket, but they didn't have one he was interested in. We also stopped at Signal Mountain Lodge, but we didn't stay long. It started to rain pretty hard. We stopped at the main visitor's center, then headed towards Jackson. We were staying one night there, then going home the next day. We weren't able to see the Tetons very well since it was so cloudy, but it was still beautiful. It was raining really hard by the time we got to Jackson. We were staying at the Antler Inn. I ran in to check in and grab our key, then we went to to our room. We had a room on the second floor. We took in what we needed and settled in. It was a pretty nice room. That night was our anniversary, so we wanted to get something special for dinner. :) We looked up some restaurants around town and decided on Chinese. We got lost trying to find it haha. Chinese is one of our favorites, so it was only appropriate that we got that for our anniversary dinner :) It was pretty good, we had leftovers we ate for breakfast the next day haha. After dinner, we relaxed the rest of the night. We left Jackson around 11 after we got some gas and ice. We were actually only 4 and a half hours away from home, so it wasn't too bad. We ate lunch at a restaurant in Garden City and got raspberry shakes. We stopped in Logan to get some ginger ale for my dad at Lee's. After that, we headed home. We were so excited to see Braelynn! :) We went home first and unpacked the car. I gave Evan his anniversary gift to him after we were done unpacking the car. It was a sign that was custom made. It had our names and our wedding date. :) He loved it! I had it for a long time, so I was excited to give it to him. :) We went to Evan's parent's house to give Joey his father's day present since we were staying home for father's day. We visited for a little bit, then we went to my family's house. My family was at a party, but they got home shortly after we got there. Braelynn was so happy to see us! We missed her so much! :) We gave my dad his things, then we went home after visiting and gather up Braelynn's things. For Father's Day, I made Evan dinner and we gave him the gifts we got. :) I got him a Back to the Future shirt and Braelynn got him a shirt that said Galaxy's Best Dad. It had Darth Vader on it. :) Our trip was so much fun, I can't wait to go back! Here are some pictures from our trip. :) Also, this month, we had a family dinner for my dad's birthday. It was a lot of fun. :) we got to meet our nephew Caleb for the first time, he is so precious! :) It's always nice to get together with family. :)