Yellowstone

We officially went on our first family vacation ever this week!!

Our campsite. We did have more chairs around the fire, but they were folded up whenever it started to rain....which was pretty often :)

We woke up the first morning to a herd of buffalo walking through our camp

Here Keely is in front of a mama and her baby.

The camera isn't even zoomed...they were this close - it was such an amazing way to start the day!

The next 2 days were filled with sightseeing yellowstone park - we were lucky that it didn't rain during the day...just a little around dinner time and at night. It got so cold at night though that Keely climbed into my sleeping bag with me and we piled all her sleeping stuff on top of us to keep warm :)

Since this was me and justin's first attempt at actually planning and executing a vacation, we knew that this would be mostly a "hindsight" trip....we learned a lot and had some hard times, but were sad to leave because it really was tons of fun just to have some family time and get away.

The rainbows at the bottom of all the falls were so beautiful...they were Keely's favorite :)

When we got to the park Keely was given a checklist of all the animals and birds we could see around the park - we did really well, able to check off buffalo, wolf, bald eagle, elk, mule deer, moose, ground squirrel, chipmunk, and more....but the one that keely was really looking out for were fairies...or fairy houses at least - she saw this hollow tree and suspected that is was really a home for fairies :)

Asher loved being toted around in this back carrier we bought last year...I highly recommend it for any family going on vacation or wanting to hike - it is the best invention ever :)

Yellowstone is filled with gorgeous hot springs, mud pots, and geysers
It is also filled with tons of snow - some places were still packed so high it went over the roof of our car! (yes, this would be one of our hindsight lessons - check the weather before you travel someplace!) anyway, keely and justin made the most of it by having a little snowball fight :)

This has to be the most beautiful overlook in all of yellowstone - the picture doesn't really do it justice - when you are there it's so gorgeous that it doesn't even seem real.

This was my favorite hot spring - it's an amazing tourquize blue with the clearest water (that will melt the skin right off your bones if you get too close :)

We left the third night as it started to rain again and was supposed to continue into our last day there. The kids were too tired, too cold, and a little camped out....we took them to a hotel for the last night...I have to say that my favorite part of camping is still the shower after you are done...nothing in the world feels closer to heaven than that moment :)

Keely probably summed up our vacation the best: "Camping is soo fun, even if it is EXHAUSTING!.....it's worth it."