{Yellowstone}

This year we have been on many vacations together. However, I must say that I really loved going to Yellowstone with my family and friends. I have only been to Yellowstone once before and that is when Januaree was a little toddler. When we went then I only saw 1 buffalo and
1 moose, it was kind of a let down so when Jay invited us to go on the trip with him and his family I didn't know what to expect really, other than Oh man, a long ride to see nothing.
But to my dismay, we had such a great time. Jay had done alot of research and mapped out our trip for us. We joked around and called him "Clark" you know "Clark Griswald" because he planned this vacation and wanted it to go just right. LOL. Me and Midge decided we would call Jake "Uncle Ed" just cause we were there for the ride. But I do have to give a big thanks to Jay for all of his hard work. Without him our trip wouldn't have been as fun and we wouldn't have seen all that we did.
Ok, Ok as you all know this Gillen bunch doesn't have much luck when it comes to traveling. First off we get into Idaho barley and we hear this grind popping noise, then a thud thud thud. Oh crap, so we pull over and Jake climbs under the Jeep. Sure enough he yells Mandee get me some water we are on fire under here. Yeah, our dang front drive line popped off. Yup that was definitely a problem. So Jay and Midge came to the rescue and went into Millard hoping to find so tools to take it off. In the meantime Jake makes some calls, and we sit for 2 hours, waiting. Luck number two: All of the tool stores are closed in Millard, so Jay and Midge are out of luck. So I am holding on to my nerves by a thread, so I call my dad. Who amazingly enough gets ahold of his boss who has a brother who lives in Millard to meet us with some tools. Yes, now we are on the rode again. (By this time it is close to 3 hours on the side of the road.) Needless to say we roll into West Yellowstone around 2:30 am. Our journey is suppose to start at 7:00 am. So we check into our hotel to sleep and then we are off bright and early. We went through the west side of Yellowstone and around into Cody Wyoming. That is where we stayed for night number two!! Luck #3 On our way to Cody a big rock flipped up and hit our windshield and SMACK!!! big spiderweb crack in our front window. We see some awesome animals and stop a few times. We make it to Cody, check into our hotel and leave so we can eat!!! Then our next stop is Buffalo Bill's Museum. I strongly recommend this museum if you can go it is great. Jake loved the gun part of it, Autymm loved to learn about the Sioux Indians (she made me read her everything) Janee loved the animal part and me, well I loved it all. Then we went for Ice Cream and next came bed!!! Another early morning Luck #4 We slept in!!!!! Dalton knocked on our door at 5:15 and we were suppose to leave at 5:00 am. CRAP!!!!! We rushed around and loaded up for another long but fun day!!!! To Old Faithful we go!!! Did you know the
Old Faithful inn was built in 1904???? I didn't crazy hu? We learned alot, we took a tour of the Inn and of course we ate. Then we were off again back to Island Park where we would stay for the remainder of the week. The kids swam and we relaxed. One more fun day in Yellowstone, we took the kids to Firehole where the kids could swim in the river, then we went scouting for some more animals, and Buffalo's were crossing the road it was cool, and a Coyote ran right to the side of us as we were driving. We saw a Grizzly bear and a black bear with her 2 cubs, Buffalo, Elk ,Deer, and a Coyote. It was great. We also went to Nevada City and Virginia City and learned about the pioneers. So cool! On our way home we stopped at Bear World and Autymm Loved it!!!! Janee had been there before like I said it was a great Family Vacation!!!!!
I will do a slide show soon of most the photos!!