Yellowstoned

Two weeks ago we returned from our first big vacation as a family that didn’t involve visiting relatives.

Really, this was one of our chief reasons for moving back to Utah — so we could go somewhere else for a change.  This year we decided to visit Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons, staying at a campground between the two parks (in a rented trailer!  With heat!).

I’ve decided to be bold and experiment with technology.  Here’s my first stab at creating a slide show via YouTube.  With subtitles!  (No music, however.)

Here are the vital stats:

Number of Junior Ranger patches earned: 2 (Jeffrey wore a jacket proudly displaying all of his ranger patches.  He has four of them now.)

Number of Tourists Jeffrey Personally Warned about the Dangers of Geothermal Features: 4

Bears Sighted: 1 (a grizzly, he’s in the slide show)

Moose Sighted: 5

Wolves Sighted: 0, alas

Coyote Sighted Whom Many Tourists Thought Were Wolves: 3

Eagles Sighted: 2 (one of them was an immature bald eagle, and lifted out of a meadow just as we walked by)

Elk Sighted: oh, who cares?

Bison Sighted: dozens and dozens and dozens

Books Read Out Loud While Driving: 3 (A Countess Below Stairs by Eva Ibbotson, The Perilous Gard by Elizabeth Marie Pope and When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead)

U.S. State lisence plates sighted: 48 (we couldn’t get Delaware or West Virginia, although we did see Hawaii, Maine, and Rhode Island).

Marshmallows Toasted by Wimmy: 6

Marshmallows Wimmy managed to take off his toasting fork and eat: 0

Miles hiked: Um . . . perhaps something like twenty, over the course of the week

Times Eleanor complained that her legs hurt: too many to mention

Ice Cream Cones Consumed by Family: 20? 25? I lost track after the third day.

Minutes Eleanor lasted in boring ranger-led lecture about Native American Art: 10

Minutes Jeffrey lasted: 45

Minutes William lasted: 0

Number of four-year-old girls we met on the trail who are also named Eleanor: 1  She and my Eleanor became friends, and held hands for much of our hike, how cute!

Toy moose that William stripped of antlers and fuzzy fur, rendering them into creepy shriveled lumps of pink plastic: 2

Parents who had a great time and are a little sad to be home, although happy to have a comfortable bed once more: 2