Yellowstone - We made it!

Sunday afternoon we arrived at the park and took the obligatory sign picture. The family there before us had a cute white fluffy dog, at the sign at Grand Teton a different family had a different white fluffy dog!

First stop, a picnic table for lunch and what an amazing place it was. We came in the East Entrance and this is a small lake called Elenor.

It was so great to be there and out of the car and the cool!  We took some silly pictures before heading to our campsite.

Bridge Bay campground, 450 sites all jammed into an area, but we had a nice upper loops with shade and only a short walk to lake view.  Gloria needed the facilities but several were closed for rechalking. We took a nice little walk and got to chat to several people on the way while Lydia and Caleb got our tent all set up~I didn't even plan missing out on the work.

I loved these huge dandelion puffs.  We got to tell the term dandelion to a German family. As we couldn't pick anything the girls would blow on them for the seeds to blow off and then play with them. They looked just like what Tinkerbell flew in on.

Once our site was set, we drove to the Fishing Bridge Visitor Center (VC), we enjoyed the stuffed birds, got our Jr Ranger books and discovered a nice area by the lake behind it.  It was warm and sunny so we put our feet in the black lava sand bottom lake.

some birding and sketching. I put both girls hair into a ponytail veil to keep it out of their face and not tangly for the week. Lydia's had one band pop that I had to replace but other than that lasted beautifully.  Gloria on the other hand, used a hood and is a wiggly sleeper. Nana asked if we brushed her hair at all during the trip and I answered No, that's what the 'do is supposed to prevent :)

There were issues getting sand off our feet (Oh Gloria) before going to the actual Fishing Bridge.

We worked on the Jr Ranger books before seeing a beaver or muskrat swimming in the water.

Ranger talk on the Yellowstone River and trout.

We walked across the bridge and saw some trout in the water.

I love the Lupins!

We drove to Lake area and to the Lodge, there was a fire in the lobby.  We stood in line at the cafeteria to get our food. I got Thanksgiving dinner.

We got the best seat in the house, the middle of the big bay window with an amazing view of the lake and meadow.

We sent Caleb out to take our picture and if you zoom you can see us :)

Back at the campsite, we needed sweaters.

The shared, open bear box was in our site. Most people just keep stuff in their cars, we stored random stuff like dirty clothes and fire wood and occasionally little children in it.
We turned in early for our early morning excitement to come.