Yellowstone

If you ask my kids what they remember the most about going to Yellowstone they will probably tell you about me screaming "DIDN'T YOU READ THE BROCHURE"... to Eric as he rolled down his window in the front and Lucy's in the back and they were both sticking their heads out talking to the buffalo and waiving their arms.  The day before I had read out loud to the entire car a brochure they gave us about how dangerous the buffalo are and to not get close to them.

I was sure he was going to eat one of them. In hind sight I may have over reacted a little, but it seriously gave me a heart attack!

We stopped because the girls wanted to see the lilly pads and look for frogs. They found baby eels and were catching them in a cup. After a while Eric looked at them closer and said "These are not eels, they are leeches"

The girls were so proud of their leech discovery they had to bring all their cousins back to this spot to catch more.  Yes, this totally grossed me out... but I knew they were having fun.

About the cousins... Eric's brother Al and his four kids went up to Yellowstone the same time as we did and we all stayed in the same hotel. It was a blast having them there. They all got along great. Unfortunately Al's wife Julie had to work and missed the trip. Hopefully we can get together with them all for another trip.

We all got to eat at the Old Faithful lodge for dinner. This was an eventful dinner... I won't go into details but at one point Eric swiped Al's phone and quickly left the restaurant with his brother chasing him. The kids were cracking up at their dads acting like "brothers" instead of responsible dads.

I have had a lot of requests for pregnancy photos. I really did not want to pose for many photos but here are a couple.

After yellowstone we drove up to Great Falls Montana to go to the Lewis and Clark center.  Eric has always wanted to go here and Ruby just learned all about them last year in school. It was really interesting and worth the drive.

Our last stop on our big road trip was to Ikea in Portland.
We made sure there was still room for the kids in the car...