Lydia, VACATION!

Hi girls!
I am back home sweet home and miss you all terribly! But none the less I had a great time on our vacation to Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming. I thought I would post this to tell you all about it. Hope I don't bore you all! ;)

June 5th- Departure to Cheyenne, Wyoming. We drove through Missouri, Nebraska, Iowa, and Wyoming. An 11 hour trip. We sang, prayed, and had a worship time during our travel since it was Sunday. It was a long trip, but we made it to Holiday Inn. We spent the night there.

June 6th- Departure to Cody, Wyoming. A 6 hour trip. We made it fun by listening to "A Bride Goes West". An audio book that a good friend lent us. We really liked it. We had a 1 and a half hour delay in a small town because of an accident, but then we were off again. We made it to our town house in Cody which was lovely. It was two stories. On the first story was the living room, kitchen, and bathroom. On the second story was two bedrooms and another bathroom. It was really nice and we stayed there till Friday, June 10th. We got there around 4:30ish and ordered pizza to be delivered to us! A big treat (we always pick it up ourselves). After a delicious dinner we put on our cowboy boots and went to the Cody Nite Rodeo. It was really fun, but towards the end a HUGE wind came. It was the worst windstorm I have I ever felt. It was SO strong! It kept grinding dust in our faces and eyes. We left a tad early because of it and could hardly get back to the car. I will never forget that wind, It was like we were in a sandstorm! Any way we picked up some groceries from Wal-mart and then went to our house.

June 7th- We left for Yellowstone which was about an hour away from where we were staying. On our way to Yellowstone the scenery was breathtaking! It was a "postcard picture" everywhere you looked. Sometimes you would see snow capped mountains in the distance or sage covered plains or high, craggy, dry mountains. Anyway when we got to Yellowstone we got our pass and went through the gate. We saw bison really close to our car. We saw a coyote wandering around a heard of buffalo. The trick for seeing animals mostly was watching to see people pulled over. When you saw people on the side of the road you knew there was probably an animal they were looking at. That is how we saw a lovely mother moose with her baby! It was so cute to see the mother help her baby across a river. We saw Pronghorn Antelope too. Near the end we also saw bears three different times although very far away. We also saw Old Faithful erupt and lots of thermal pools and hot springs-though none of these were particularly interesting to me-I was there to see wildlife. One thing that cheered me up while on the trail of geysures was a friendly little chipmunk! He would come right up and pose for a picture. I really liked him a lot. We got back to Cody for a late dinner at a place called Irma's Hotel. Of course I got a plain Hamburger and french fries. We headed back to our home and went to sleep.

June 8th- When we woke up and were getting ready Faith looked out our bedroom window to see a... DEER standing in our fenced in back yard!!! She was calmly eating some leaves off a tree. She was very pretty and graceful and stayed for awhile. Then when we left for another day in Yellowstone we stopped for some more deer crossing the road. They were really cool! We saw quite a few in fields. Did I tell you about the weather in Yellowstone? It was like we changed seasons! We drove through snow twice! It was a nice break from the heat of Missouri. The weather was very cool the whole trip. We saw another bear this time much closer. It was really fun to see it up close. We also saw a buffalo calmly walking along the rode! He walked right passed our window! We saw some pretty mountain bluebirds and snow covered pines. On our way back to Cody we saw some Elk far away in a field. I got a wolf box that is really pretty. I was pretty disappointed we did not see any wolves in Yellowstone. That is what I most wanted to see.

June 9th- This day was a lovely relaxing day-at least for some of us. We went on a one hour trail ride! I rode a little mustang (I was really excited about that) named Dudley. He was brown/black. My dad rode a big horse called Harry-they were a perfect team. Faith rode a tan horse (we don't know his name). My mom, well she rode a horse called Arizona and they had some trouble. First the trail was not easy and my parents were beginners. It might help if I told you the trail was up a rocky mountain! Yes we had to climb up a s-t-e-e-p and very rocky mountain. It was also rather muddy. So our horses had to stumble up a rocky mountain. Well my mom's horse had a problem...he always wanted to eat! So my mom had trouble pulling his head up so he would not eat. So lets just say she did not have a good time at all. But I had a really fun time! My horse was a good little boy :). I liked him a lot. We did have a beautiful view! We watched The Cosby Show that night and had fun watching it the rest of the trip too.

June 10th- It was a quiet day with packing and stuff. We got ready to go to Keystone, South Dakota. We saw Devil's Tower and walked all the way around it. We got to our very small, but cozy cabin.

June 11th- We saw Mount Rushmore! Which was really fun! We also went and played mini golf. I did horribly and Faith kept getting holes in one! But to make the day happier we got ice cream! And I bet you can guess what I got! A mint chocolate chip cone. Yum was it good! We went back to our cabin and started packing back up for our trip home.

June 12th- We woke up bright and early-6:20 am. Ate breakfast, got dressed, and got in the car and headed for home! It was a 13 hour trip the longest stretch yet! We listened to some more audio books though and got through it alright. We got home at 10:00pm ish and we were all really tired. I took a shower and got my p.j.'s on and sunk into my own lovely bed and declared home was the best place in the world! I also had a long hugging reunion with Trip. I missed him a whole lot! And so I am writing on June 13th while Faith is working and I am really hungry so Good bye!


Hope you enjoyed this recounting of my vacation!

Lydia

P.S. I miss you all so much and I really want to see you!