Yellowstone National Park

Yellowstone is the first National Park that we’ve visited on this trip that we’ve actually been to before. 10 years ago, we visited with Jesse’s sister Lindsey and our foreign exchange student from Denmark, Karianne Nielsen. Woody was only 1 so he doesn’t remember any of it so it was all new to him. I have to admit, the weather today was probably the worst of our whole trip. It was chilly, overcast, rainy and even a bit snowy at a point! We still got to see all the wonderful views of the park though. It is such a unique area, from the geysers to mountains to waterfalls.

As Woody was finishing his Junior Ranger booklet, we brought it to the same visitors center that we had visited 10 years ago when Andy did the Junior Ranger program. In my head, I remembered a picture of Andy and the Ranger that gave him the oath. AND I SWEAR I SAW HIM THERE! I tried my hardest to pull up the picture on my phone but internet access was super slow. As Woody was with another Ranger getting checked out, I made small talk with the older ranger and sure enough, he had been there for 17 years! As we were talking he made the funny joke that he totally remembered Andy! I asked for another picture of the group and days later, when I could finally find the picture, sure enough it was the same ranger! What a fun memory!

Of course we had to visit Old Faithful, who wasn’t so faithful. The weather had gotten much nicer throughout the afternoon, but once we got ready to watch OF, it started to rain. And rain. And the wind started to blow. And Old Faithful’s “faithful” time came and went. And went. And it rained harder. And then, it stopped raining(meanwhile, i’d say 50% of the group watching had left!) and a couple minutes later Old Faithful erupted. It was great but we were extremely wet and cold. But after a hot chocolate and big bowl of chili that we shared, we warmed up and headed home after a full day at Yellowstone. (MT)