Our Yellowstone Vacation, pt 1

We spent a couple of nights of our 4-day Memorial weekend in Yellowstone. This trip we stayed in the north part of the park with home base being a cabin at Mammoth Hot Springs. It had a cute porch and a "backyard" as Hadley called the common grassy area surrounded by a group of cabins.

Although we were in a pretty "humanized" area, there was no shortage of wildlife. There was a colony, or several, of ground squirrels in the yard, including Buster, who lived beneath our porch. He enjoyed Hadley's lost grape and was hoping we'd give him some more food, judging by his paunchy figure. He kept his distance, but did give us a couple of warning calls, which sounded like birds chirping.

The grass was tasty enough for an elk one night,

a curious bison strolled through the next morning (the kids were outside and ran in shouting "Bison! Bison!" when he suddenly appeared next to our car),

and another (or the same?) elk returned the next morning for a little sunlight snooze next to Buster. Did you know that elk sleep like cats all curled up?

On the way to our cabin, we stopped in to stretch our legs at Norris Geyser Basin. (Yellowstone's hottest geyser area)

The kids did pretty well on the boardwalks and were somewhat interested in the steamy, smelly happenings around them.

Hadley really liked the benches that looked like skateboards!

After we checked into our cabin and had some dinner, we took a little stroll through old Fort Yellowstone and the visitor's center. We discovered that elk are everywhere in this village, and there was a hidden playground!

We also learned the difference between antlers and horns

 and what baby owls look like. (See the two, whitish faces in the middle of this tree?)

The next morning, the kids were up at their usual early rising time.  We ate breakfast quietly and left Dad to the cabin while we hiked up the hill behind the cabins. There were some beautiful views from up there!

Then we picked up Dad from the cabin and walked over to Mammoth Hot Springs, which we had seen before, so we didn't feel like we had to see every part of it again. It seemed pretty dry this year, but they said the volume and courses change frequently.

Preschool's Out!

Our little Hadley finished up her first year of preschool this week! She loved going every day and learned so much. She can now write all of her letters, knows the letter sounds, writes her name, recites her address, can count to 39, and can kind of play with other kids. Ha! Her teachers told me that she didn't really speak to them until after 10am though (class started at 9), so I guess she's not much of a morning person. It became sort of a joke when I came to pick her up, and they'd inform me "She spoke to me at 9:50 today!", so you know they were really watching the clock. We've been working on her friendliness and only had one meltdown at school. I guess that's progress! She says she's now ready to go to kindergarten with Owen, but we still have another year at pre-k first.

This is how we rock "the mall" on our first day after preschool.  I love these little bookworms! We might be here a lot over the summer. :)

Lastly, Owen just got a "new to him" bigger bike. It was a little dirty, so he lovingly washed it (and recruited his little sis to help) so it would be shiny for his next ride to school. I thought it was a nice sibling moment!

Chasing, Craters, and Cartwheels

Last Saturday was pretty nice weather, so we did a family fun run for Owen's school in the morning (one mile run, two of us walked it)...

And then headed out to Craters of the Moon after lunch. It was kind of perfect out there: hardly any people, quiet surroundings, and the sun came and went with storm clouds just off in the distance. We tried a different trail this time, though we had to cut it short for an obligation back in town that night.

It was interesting to see the green life peeking from the lava rocks, especially the delicate, little wildflowers all over.

And Hadley nearly hiked the full 1.8 miles herself! She also posed like this by herself. :)

We've also been enjoying the few warm-ish days we've had outside.  We're looking forward to a summer full of activities and sunshine, hopefully!

Lastly, Hadley wrapped up her spring gymnastics with a showcase on the floor, beam, bar, and vault. She absolutely loved it! 

Let's just say that floor is not her best apparatus, but it was the best video! She's in the back in black and pink and the "big" elements were supposed to be front roll, cartwheel, backwards roll.  :)

Oh, and we painted her toenails for the first time.  She was so excited!

School Stuff

May is always a busy month with spring happenings, finishing up school, and venturing back outside regularly. Owen is wrapping up kindergarten! He has learned so much this year.  88+ sight words down, and he is reading more and more for himself. Did you have homework in kindergarten? He did! Every day he was supposed to read, write, and do some math from a checklist and turn it in every week. He even did a report on otters for their upcoming zoo trip.  We are so proud of him!

Now that the weather is better, Owen has been riding his bike to school every day this month for a bike challenge. One day we came home and brought Hadley her scooter at school so we could all scooter home (except mom was walking) together. I love these days! Helmets, backpacks, and wheels are a great combo.

Owen's kindergarten class also put on the most adorable Mother's Day program. They sang 4 songs, each child said why they loved their mom, and then they gave every mom a rose and a drawing they did of us. So sweet! Owen is on the back row in green and white stripes. (My kid on the back row?!) I have included the full video (over 3 minutes) for your viewing enjoyment. This goes out to all the moms out there!

Busy Saturday

We finally had an open Saturday where we could indulge in the farmer's market, our favorite park, free entrance to the art museum, a zoo day with out-of-town friends, and a Cinco De Mayo festival. Whew! So relaxing...

We love the free days at the Art Museum. We usually have the place nearly to ourselves, and they have a kid's room where they can play with all sorts of art supplies, magnets, puzzles, books, and a light table. It's very hands-on and we can easily spend a couple of hours in there, not to mention doing the art scavenger hunt in the exhibits.

The zoo is always fun, but even more so when you get to go with friends in town for the weekend! This was probably our longest zoo trip in memory; we were there for a leisurely 2.5 hours or so.  

We met up with a couple other friends there, too. 4 families, 8.5 kids + 1 at home napping...  Classic tiger statue pic! (Ours are the green bookends.)

These 3 boys have known each other for 5 of their 6 years of life. It's so wonderful to see them together and feel like no time has passed!

The Cinco De Mayo celebration was going on just a few feet away from the zoo, so the kids and I decided to walk through and get some culture.  Here they are with their free sno cones watching some traditional Mexican dances before we called it a day.

Spring Flowers

Spring is a tumultuous time; beautiful blooms are opening up in the warm sunshine one day, and then they are being torn off the trees in 60 mph gusts the next. No joke.  One day we had sustained winds of 40+ mph all day with gusts up to 60. Delightful! So, sometimes we make our own fun indoors, like a classic "stacked and wrapped" tall person.

When it's nice outside, spring here also means tulips! Our downtown does a lovely job of planting flowers to cheer up the space.

And the parks department has also successfully revitalized some more areas of the greenbelt around the river. One sunny day, the kids and I took their scooters down to the new, improved path and had several breaks to enjoy the fun rock walls and plantings. There are so many different kinds of plants and flowers among the rocks; it really is pretty scenery and hard to do justice in these photos.

Although the geese are kind of mean and gross, and the city was trying to relocate them from the river, they make cute little families waddling up and down the river bank. (This picture was taken on a different day, if you can't tell by the grey sky and choppy water!)

A few of us moms were even feeling brave enough to go on a hike after school to Cress Creek. It's an easy 1.5 mile hike, and the kids all did great with energy to spare.  We may make a hiker out of Hadley yet!