Yellowstone Day 6: Friday, Back in the Park

We started the last day of the trip off with a trip to the Jackson Lake Lodge for some needed caffeine.

Here's little Miss Independent. She also spent way too much time watching Go Diego Go in the car, so every time she climbs up or down stairs she sings, "suban" (or something like that which is climb in Spanish).
It was such a beautiful building that we thought it would be fun to try to get some family pictures... try is the key word. This was the best we could come up with. Maybe not!


We told Jana that she could get one new "friend" (stuffed animal) on our trip. She immediately decided that she needed a river otter (???). First she decided that her name was going to be Lady (after watching Lady and the Tramp in the car), then she named her Katie. Then after watching a Diego, changed her name to Ollie. We never know what to call it now, but she loves it all the same. Here Jana is carrying Ollie/Katie around in her hoodie. She hasn't done this in a long time.
Uncle Patrick and Ari being too cute!

Dadda decided to try on some hats and Kara needed to as well.
Seriously, isn't she the cutest thing ever? (I'm not biased or anything!)
Tell me that these two aren't going to be great friends when they get older!
Here's the whole gang!

Then we headed out to go to the Lake Lodge, but had quite an adventure along the way. We were in a long line of cars driving through the park. The car directly in front of our lead car in the caravan suddenly veered left into the trees. Thankfully no one was in the oncoming lane of traffic, but the driver never hit the breaks. Probably about a dozen smaller trees slowed him down before a bigger tree caused the car to stop completely, never hitting the breaks. Amazingly enough no one was hurt, but it was pretty surreal to watch.

We safely made it to the Lake Lodge, but still had a bit of the adrenaline rush going.
Off we walked to the old Lodge.

Kara caught a ride with (Great) Uncle Brian.
Jana stopped to pick the flowers along the way.


Gorgeous old building.
It had this huge old porch with all kinds of rocking chairs on it. Grandpa Ray and David enjoyed them...
As did the girls.

and everyone else.

It was very neat on the inside too. Too cute of a picture of Patrick and Sarah!

Jana was so proud of this "bouquet" that she picked.

Then off to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone we went. Absolutely goregous!
The adorable couple!
The girls had a blast running around and playing.
Jana showed them how to dance.
Kara joining in.

Yellowstone Day 5: Thursday, Cody, WY

Here's our little caravan on our way to Cody, WY.

Some beautiful wildflowers we saw along the way.
And then of course the bison sighting - right beside the road. Close enough for you?

We stopped just outside Cody to see a cabin that used to be in Grandma's family. Pretty neat, huh?
Here's the bridge across the river to it. It's the only way over to the cabin.

The adorable newlyweds!
The next stop was a cemetery in Cody where some of Grandma's family had plots.

But of course when you're 3, you have no idea what the proper behavior is at a cemetery, but it's a pretty good guess that this isn't it.

And then Jana tried to convince us that she was big enough to sit in the back seat because she could strap herself in.

Then off to the Buffalo Bill Museum. The girls were both fascinated by the life-size horses and so excited to sit on this saddle. In fact, we kept going back to the saddle to sit on it.

Then we found the very cool animal section, which was quite a bit more kid-friendly.

After a dinner at the only sit-down establishment we could find in Cody (Pizza Hut), we loaded up in the car, in their jammies, and headed back to the house.

Kara was asleep within about 5 miles of leaving the restaurant.
Jana, who refused to sleep in the car for almost the entire trip, declared she wasn't tired.
Still not tired...
Zzzzzzzzz....