Trip to Bozeman and Yellowstone

We spent a lot of time traveling this summer. Our second trip with the camper this year was to Bozeman and Yellowstone Park. This was by far our most expensive trip. We were in a hail storm that totaled our camper and did quite a bit of damage to the truck. It was hard to sit inside the camper while the hail pounded down getting bigger and bigger and not be able to do anything. Oh well...now we'll get a camper with the bunk beds like we've been talking about (need to find the silver-lining somewhere)

We spent 2 nights at the Bozemen KOA and the girls LOVED the pool. It was an outdoor pool that was warm and had a great spray park. The weather wasn't super cooperative because it wasn't really warm but every time the sun poked out from behind the clouds we headed to the pool.

Rylee loves the water and isn't afraid of anything. She loves to jump into the pool and the higher you throw her and the more underwater she goes the more she laughs.

Abbie really wanted to practice her swimming this trip and has become more confident about being able to swim on her own without her life jacket. Her and I spent lots of time in the pool without her life jacket as she practiced "streamlining" to me.

We spent one morning in Bozeman at the Museum of the Rockies. I thought Abbie would love the dinosaurs and be in awe of them, instead she was inquisitive. She asked tons of questions about dinosaurs and Yellowstone and what causes the geysers and mud pots. The kids room was having its grand opening the day we were there so the girls spent about an hour trying out all of the new stuff.

From Bozeman we headed to Gardiner where we only stayed one night at the RV park there. We were supposed to stay all 3 nights there but let's just say it wasn't quite like it was described on the internet. Since we didn't feel comfortable letting the girls outside because of the rattlesnakes, fast moving Yellowstone river, and the pot-smoking clientele we decided make reservations in West Yellowstone at a KOA. This park had a freezing swimming pool but had some other fun amenities like a 2-person bike rental.


Once inside the park we saw lots of beautiful scenery...

and lots of wildlife....

The woman behind me kept talking about the beautiful moose and I finally figured out she was talking about THIS beautiful moose. I didn't correct her. I thought it would be fun for her to go home and show her friends what "Montana Moose" look like.

and, according to Jeremy, lots of stinky bubbling water. For being there in July it wasn't very warm and so Jeremy lost his sense of humor after getting out and looking at the same thing 2 or 3 times while we were wishing I had brought warmer clothes.

Old Faithful

The end of Old Faithful eruption

Is that Davey Crockett?

or Daniel Boone??

Jeremy and the girls had never been to Yellowstone and I hadn't been there in about 20 years so it was a fun vacation to do as a "first"for all of us.