Day 4 - Lets Meet the Animals

Hey everyone! I am glad to see everyone is enjoying our daily updates on our trip here. Its been lots of fun and today was another full day of exploring. We started the day with breakfast in our room with cereal. Ken's mom booked us on a boat cruise later in the day, and we wanted to have a picnic for lunch, so the rest was made up as we went along.

First thing we stopped at today was this huge waterfall. Wow!

Since Ariel was really cranky about getting in the car this morning, we let her hold Jonathan's little dvd player to watch some Muppet show. About 2 episodes in she turns to me and gives me the player. Seemed strange... but then when we stopped to check out a place... *BARF*

Yes, Ariel experienced her first car sick moment EVER, and it was like she knew it was coming. I must say I am glad she didn't get sick on the dvd player, as Jonathan would have had a fit. She wasn't upset at all, more grossed out that her shirt was now dirty. Thankfully I had packed an extra one and we were good to go. I find it interesting that she could watch the dvd player that straps to the back of the seat and not get sick, oh well. Note to self for next time.

After all the excitement we got driving again and soon realized that today was going to be animal day! We kept running in to lots of different animals. On our map they have a list of things you can see in the park, and this is what we saw in total just today...

- coyote
- white pelican
- elk
- fox
- deer
- bison
- pronghorn

I managed to get pictures of most of them, but some were too quick or we were driving at the time.


We also drove through Hayden Valley were we saw soooooooo many bison. It was amazing! I was in awe of these animals, they just filled the hills. We also saw baby ones, and Ariel kept referring to them as lions. Haha.


I always got a kick out of them walking by the cars like it was no big deal.


We then stopped for our picnic in Otter Creek. Ariel enjoyed getting to run around in the grass and stretch her legs. Dan tried going in the water, apparently it was REALLY cold!


We were running a bit behind, so we were lucky that we still managed to make our boat cruise. It was very interesting, and the ranger was very nice and funny. Ariel liked it when the boat was at full speed, but for the rest of the time she kinda bopped back and forth between us and Grammy. Ariel usually doesn't get her binkie (paci) when not napping, but it was technically her nap time and she totally knew she got it then. What a nut! Good thing I packed it.


One of the things the ranger pointed out was the sleeping giant in the hills... can you see him? Here is a hint, he is laying down with his face profile on the right and his feet poking up on the left.


After the boat ride we hit the gift shop and picked up a few things for the family and made our way to see the Mud Volcano and all the cool things that surrounded it. I must say that a good amount of the things we saw totally STUNK! Hehe, no not in a lame way, but literally, they totally smelled terrible. If you have never smelt sulfur before, its pretty nasty. The one bubbling pool called the Churning Caldron had the thickest steam rising from it, so much so that it was hard to see me in the picture. Ariel finally fell asleep at this point, she isn't a fan of the stinky things.


I love this picture, pretty flower!


Here is some video of the cool things we saw that afternoon.

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

We came back to clean up for dinner and walked to this really bazaar place just down the road from our hotel. It was just a simple walk up window and some picnic tables, but my goodness the burgers were HUGE! Apparently, this is home to the 'hateful hamburger', hehe. We all survived eating a buffalo burger, but I totally needed to work it off with a long walk afterwards into town. Ugh.


While we waited for our food, Ariel was being a total cutie and so I had to post some pictures of her. Like I need a reason right? Haha.


We went for a walk and Ariel walked pretty much the whole way, always good to wear off the extra energy before bedtime. Ariel did some shopping and got her little friends back home and got a little treat for each of them.


Ken finally got to meet Smokey the bear in person. Haha, he is such a dork sometimes, but that's why I love him. Hee.


Then for the past few hours Ken and Dan played some Rock Band while Ariel danced to the music. Mommy's little mosh pit baby.


Well, everyone is heading to bed, so I should too. Tune in tomorrow for the daily dish on our last day in the park.