July 16th paint pots

Walking around the paint pot trail with the kids. It stunk! That is the best I can say about the smell, just think rotten eggs. It will give you the idea.


This is the white paint pot. Notice the poor little pine tree in there. I do not think it has a lot of chance making it. They also had a red spouter it was called where the mud was red instead of the white.


The kids loved this gyser as they could be so close to it. They got wet from the mist but did not seem to care. They watched it for a good 15 minutes before we pulled them away to look at other things.


Here is one of the hot springs there. I love the color and the kids wanted to know why they could not get close to touch or take a bath in it. Pretty from afar but only from afar!

kids watching Old Faithful

I got shots of all the kids watching. Including Dennis! Mini I htink got more into the mist coming down but she watched it the whole time.

Matthew as you can see loved it! It was soo neat watching them watch as they got so excited!
Samantha was more into getting a nice picture then watching it. As she heard me taking the pictures of the boys first. Though she loved it too. Stephen never looked away and would have waited another 90 minutes to see it again. But we moved on after this to the paint pots.

16 July Old Faithful part 2

Here is Old Faithful just starting to spout. Where water came out. For like the hour before it went off the steam would spout out in spurts.


Here is going off at full steam. Loved it and was cool to see but stink. Did not know it would stink no one ever tells you that part! We were sitting where we got misted with the water. I am so glad we got to see this.

If you look to your right on the picture you will see another gyser going off. We were lucky and got to see both going off at the same time! Talk about neat! There were lots of the gysers here. I did not realize there were so many in Yellowstone.

July 16th Old Faithful part 1

This is the crowd that gathered to watch!

And we found they have hornets too Dad! Right in front of us where we were watching was this nest in the ground. Might I suggest not shooting into it?! If you look close the hornet is going into his little hole in the ground. Dennis needed this picture I guess. SO I wanted you all to have it too!

While we waited we went and got ice cream to make the time go faster. Matthew had to get out the last drop so he is drinking his chocolate ice cream!

July 16th Yellowstone

Of course we found a buffalo!! Can't go where they are and not go find them! What this one was doing alone I have no clue but we found him and Dennis could leave a happy man!
They had a fire years back and the charred remains still stand. It always amazes me that they do not cut these trees down and get rid of it. I mean really look at all the fire wood they would have to sell for $3.00 a bundle!!
I guess they have been having trouble with some beetle that is killing the evergreens! No wood from out of state is allowed in. Of course it was 100 here also and no fires were allowed so I don't know of anyone bringing wood.

We drove in the East entrance and saw springs coming out of the rock all over the place. Loved it! Of course with the construction going on you could not stop to play with it at all but still nice to look at on the drive.

16 July road to Yellowstone

On our way this morning we saw some of the neatest looking rocks!! Yes we get excited about rocks!


We also found a turn off for a waterfall. It was just gorgous!! We looked around for a while here as they had birds. I hunted this one down for a long time but it never let me take its picture. I wanted to know what it was in the worst way. But each time I got it in my lens it flew off and I would chase it down again. I finally had to admit defeat as we needed to get going.

We came upon a sign that read "Sheep Crossing"
Drive carefully

Ok now in Minnesota here when you see a deer crossing sign you are safe. No deer dare cross there. Not so in Wyoming. Right past the sign these sheep ran accross the road! And I guess free range sheep is better then fenced one as free range is how they all were. As were the cattle! Thankfully none jumped in front of the car.

July 15th Leaving South Dakota

We saw this as we were leaving South Dakota.

It was such a beautiful sight. Dennis said we just had to have a shot of it. And it turned out so well.

We stayed in Sheridon Wyoming this night. We left South Dakota 2 days early. Not because we were bored. Far from it but it was just too hot for the kids with no a/c. No one was sleeping which meant we were not sleeping. SO we will plan a return trip next year.

July 15th Jewel Caves

We stopped in to see Jewel caves and decided to take the tour. It is a hour and a half walk down in the caves. It was 107 outside and it was a cool 49 degrees in the caves! We loved every minute of it!

Here is Mini and Me. I carried her the whole way in her pouch. She slept most of the walk. As she was tired and was in need of a nap when we got there. So she cooled off and went to sleep right away!
Matthew on the walk. He loved it down there. Of course they said do not touch any of the rocks as they stop growing and the first thing he did was touch them. And then got tired of walking so he sat on one!! Poor Dennis almost had a heart attack! He got the joy of carrying Matthew part of the way when he got tired. And then Matthew took a nap too!


The caves stay 49 degrees year round no matter the temperatures above ground. We were 700 feet below ground for our tour. You take an elevator down. When we went in the cave was inhaling and when we left the wind had changed and it was exhaling.

It was a neat cave to see and we plan a return trip next time we go out.

July 15th Custer State Park

We went into Custer State park on our journey. Needles Highway is in here also. We asked the rangers where the buffalo were and went in search of them.

We found them down a long dusty dirt road! And let me tell you my car was white with dust when we were done.

As anyone else who thought to ask also was on this road and so dust was everywhere!!



I love this picture of this big Buffalo. They really are so ugly they are cute!! Dennis just loves Buffalo and loves to tell the kids how there were so many more before we all killed them off.



There were tons of them! Everywhere you looked! So once we knew where they were we got lots of pictures and finally tired of taking them. And we moved on.

July 15th Needles Highway

This is looking down the road. I was driving up to this point. And I had drove threw one tunnel but this one I was not going to move. I got out of the car and made Dennis drive it! I figured if I Was going to scratch the car I wanted it to be him who did it.

When going through it you could not have stopped and opened the car doors. I would hate to break down in here.

Here is one of the pretty rock formations we seen. The kids loved to watch all the different ones. And Denis and I loved it as it was cool in the car! It was another 100 degree day in South Dakota!!

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July 14th Reptile Gardens

We went to see Reptile gardens after Mr Rushmore and the kids got to go to an Alligator show. And afterwards the banded a baby ones jaws and the kids got to pet one. Any one who knos the boys know how exciting that was for them!!
We got to see the wrestle the big ones to!! It was exciting to say the least!! Not that you could have got me into that pen with all those things!


Here is Matthew hunting for a bird he saw go under the bushes and trees. It was an open area with birds all over and turtles and yes even snakes in the trees. I did not know this going in until one of the kids were oh so kind as to show me a snake hanging in a tree right above me!! YUCK!!! I got away as fast as I could let me tell you!!














Here Samantha and Matthew were checking out some cool birds in the trees. They had beautiful parrots. And they were so colorful. If you all want to see some pictures of the animals just give me a note on here as I can add a post of the different ones we took pictures of in here.


We also got to go to a bird show here and Stephen got to go up during the show and have a pigeon eat out of his hand on command! He loved it!! He is a big fan of them anyway but to get the chance to have one eat out of his hand was awsome!!

July 14th Mt Rushmore

Here we all are in front of Mt Rushmore. The kids had a blast here. It was our first day sight seeing from our cabin area.

We went early in the morning as it was going to be a hot day and it was hot by the time we left that is for sure!!

Here the kids were checking out what was inside a traditional teepee.
This is the sculpture of what they had planned to do with Mt Rushmore but found unstable rock lower so did not do the jacket on Washington or anything.


Here is a picture of the faces up close. We have tons more pictures if anyone wants to see them up close just let me know.

July 13 Wall Drug

Here are the kids at Wall Drug! The dinosaur would go off every 15 minutes! The kids loved it. He growled and looked around.

Here Dennis and the kids found a teepee to play in. Behind Wall Drug they had all these things you could go look in and touch.
Here was a Jack o lope!! He is a big one don't you think?? The kids loved it!!

From here we went on to our cabin. It was still a few hours from here.

July 13th Corn Palace

Here it is in all its' glory! The corn Palace!! It was neat to see but it did not take us long at all. We looked around and it was cool to se all the murals made from corn cobs and all.

Here is a close up of a few of the different nurals they had up in the gym.

Mini Rose 7 months

Here Mini is the night before we left on vaction. 7 months old and she is crawling on her hands and knees now. She is also pulling up on furniture and walking a few steps along it too!!

She is growing much to fast for us! And just the other day her gun cracked and today you can feel her first tooth!! It finally broke and is in a bit now!! What a big girl! Of course a few more are trying to come in now too.

Valley Fair with Maria and Kevin

Here is Mini at Valleyfair! All happy and full of smiles as always! It was a hot day but she did great and took both her baps while there!







Here is Matthew with Kevin in the foam ball factory! We had to show Kevin the joys of going in here you know!








Here Rose and I are up in the net walk way and looking down on Maria and Kevin! Maybe dropping balls on them! Not that I would do such a thing!!








Here is The Wave ride! Dennis and the kids went to stand in the fron there and guess what?! You get wet there! I stood back and watched. The kids love watching the wave come time after time!