Yellowstone Road Trip - Days 1 & 2

 Away we go!  Morning of Friday, July 31 we and tons of stuff got into the car and we headed northwest!  We took over 700 pictures and these are a few highlights.  Gloria said she was excited about being in Yellowstone but was nervous about the driving part. But this first day was actually pleasant, folders and games and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe on audio. I got into the back and watched Home as I was the only one who hadn't seen it yet.

 West Texas has lots of wind turbines.
We stopped in Amarillo for fancy McD hamburgers and some time for the kids to run around.

Since it wasn't far out of the way, Caleb decided to take us by Cadillac Ranch. We got a great start on our license plate game as it seemed every car parked along the road was from another state.  I also didn't realize it was a painting thing, but another family handed us their left over spray paint so we added our marks as well.  

 Back on the road, Caleb saw a box turtle on the road, so the naturalist took a quick Uturn and we saved it! Finally, we made it to our hotel, La Quinta in Dalhart. Long day and we were still in Texas. But we enjoyed swimming before bed. Caleb said I would make a good hippie, I love the connections on the road: you're from Chicago going to El Paso, we're from Austin heading to Yellowstone :)

Day 2, we made it to New Mexico. Gloria looked out the window and said, that looks like a volcano. We stopped at a rest stop and found out that in fact, it was an extinct volcano! We also saw lots of pronghorns and prairie dogs.

The girls invented some of their own fun, like messing up their hair.  

 We had a lovely visit with Paula and family at their new home in Denver. They lived in Austin and are originally from Scotland.  It was great to stretch our legs and have a yummy cook out and catch up. The kids had fun cooling off in the water.

 Next leg-Caleb got in the back to watch The Lorax while I drove through Denver traffic.

 We made it to Wyoming and had a picnic at a nice rest stop with cool breezes and a view!
We spent the night at a LaQuinta in Casper. Morning showers, good breakfast and we were on the road again.

 On the other side of Cody, we went through three tunnels,

 And stopped at the Buffalo Bill dam and reservoir.

 Looking down the largest dam in America before Hoover was built.

 Almost there and a few miles out we allowed the girls to ask 'are we there yet' without Caleb replying 'I'll turn this car around...'...and because we have the Yellowstone Treasures book we knew these rock formations are called hoodoos and some are named.  We kept driving until we finally reach Yellowstone!