An 'EPIC' Adventure

On July 3rd, Brian, Galina and I said our goodbyes to Aunt Mimi and Julius in the Honolulu Airport. We all flew out on the same night. Molly had a few hours to wait after our plane had already taken off, but everything went okay. I was texting her phone #s for people that live in HI, should anything happen after our flight had taken off. I'm glad nothing did. We all arrived safely!

We had a layover in the Salt Lake City airport. I saw the SL Temple - tiny compared to the buildings around it. It was funny because the hillsides were dotted with more Temples.

Running on only 1 1/2 hours of sleep (we literally lost a night of sleep on that flight) Galina was still interested in watching the airplanes. In fact, over the course of the next week we never stopped hearing her talk about airplanes and helicopters.

We were headed to Bozeman, Montana where Brian's brother, Chris, and Chris's wife, Robyn, and their two kids, Sophie and Gunner, live. Driving from Texas to Montana was Brian's Mom and Dad, Richard and Thearsa, and his brother, Aaron, and Aaron's family, Jennifer, Czarina, Bella and Olivia.

We all arrived on, roughly, Sunday the 4th.

A gigantic dandelion, of some sort.

More her size.

Olivia.

Richard and Thearsa. Of course, one of the first things we did when we got to Brian's brother's house, was take a walk to a park to let all six kids get some energy out!

Gunner, whom we had never met until now. Hopefully we'll get to see more of each other once Brian and I are back on the mainland. Gunner is one solid little boy!

They call this place 'Big Sky' and I can see justification for that.

Robyn and Gunner.

Turns out Gunner was actually sick the first few days we were there, but thankfully he was back to himself by the time we hit Yellowstone!

Happy 4th of July!

Jennifer, Aaron, Czarina, Bella, Olivia, and Brian shooting off fireworks across the street from Chris and Robyn's. Galina and I were down there, but she was tired and didn't really appreciate the POP noises.

On Day 2, we visited the Museum of the Rockies. They had a traveling Leonardo DaVinci expo, which I didn't take any pictures of. They also had A LOT of dinosaur skeletons. I had no idea.

During this entire trip I was afraid to take too many pictures of things because I knew I would end up with thousands of pictures that I'd never look at twice. I think I did okay - in the end I only had about 700 pictures...

Inside the museum had a kid's center. Czarina, Sophie and Bella went 'fishing' - it was cute.

Galina blessed any food that would ever sit on the table in the kid's center. She always prays at a dinner table. I love it!

Massive.

Even more massive.

I'm so glad dinosaurs are extinct.

Sorry.

The Museum had also preserved a homestead right on it's grounds. It was pretty neat. For the most part it was a working homestead too, although they didn't have fields and livestock, other than chickens.

They did have a working kitchen with period costumed workers, volunteers actually. Everyday these women prepared and served a meal in this primitive kitchen to serve to all of the volunteers for lunch.

This lad ways upstairs on a loom, but when we came up she asked if we'd like to see how a spinning wheel worked. Pretty neat. I'm still not sure if I understand it though...

Gaga and Olivia.

Brian's favorite part of the property.

Back in the lobby of the Hotel. She was laughing because she wasn't supposed to touch the fake flowers, but she was reaching out to them and waiting for us to make some sort of 'Ah ah ah' sound. Then she'd laugh. Hard. Sneak.

Wednesday we finally packed up and drove to Yellowstone. Stopped at the sign for a photo-op.

Gaga and Papa

Mom and Dad with sons.

Aaron, Brian and Chris.

Loved it. This was a motel right inside West Yellowstone. I don't know what I expected, but certainly not a little city - it was there though.

There was a Grizzly and Wolf center in West Yellowstone too. This guy was hunting for food that kids had hidden around the enclosure. Seriously! They take the bears out, let a group of kids in to hide food, then eventually let the bears back in to eat. Pretty cool.

These two were playful. Sad though because the wolves in the center will never be reintroduced into the wild. Not sure why though.

Live long and prosper wolves.

Poor Olivia. Of course the day we head to the park she comes down with, most likely, what Gunner had. She's so dainty, Olivia. Cute. Loves her Papa. It didn't seem to last too long, but it was a bummer for her and Jennifer.

We stopped to check out what might have been an Eagle's nest, across the marsh at the base of the mountain. Gunner figured he'd get a better look.

Five of the six. Olivia was napping.

Gunner, Bella, Czarina, Sophie and Galina.

We stopped at Old Faithful on our way into the park. Timed it perfectly too, because we only had to wait like 2o minutes for it to go off. Amazing.

Brian and Galina waiting for Old Faithful to end.

Everyone but me for a group photo, of sorts.

Beautiful.

Monster.

Sad face, because I asked for a happy face and this is always what I get.

The view at our campsite.

Brian, the lumber jack.

Eating a s'more. Finally.

Sunset from our campsite.

Sunrise at our campsite.

Feeling how cold the water was in Yellowstone river, just downstream from the rapids.

The rapids behind us.

It was chilly!

Gunner, Robyn, Sophie and Chris.

This guy was just hanging out beside the road. By day 3, Bison weren't so interesting. Sorry. He looks so docile doesn't he? There were signs EVERYWHERE that said "Buffalo are Wild and Dangerous! Do not approach!" Then it had a picture of a stick figure man being gored by one.

Can you find the animal?

Bison rear. Funny that they want people to stay away because the ground is unstable, but a 600 lb. Bison will be fine...

I also have to add that everytime we saw a hot spot or geyser, Galina called them "Stinky pots." Love it.

Dragon's Mouth. This boiling pot would spit and make loud grumble sounds. Creepy.

Just a regular day at Yellowstone. Nothing odd about traffic stopping for 30 minutes because some animal decides to lumber along in both lanes.

A herd. Saw lot's of these.

Yellowstone Falls.

This was the lower falls.

Upper falls.

Checking out the view.

Jennifer and Aaron.

Forest fires. Everywhere.

A mountain stream. Brian loves these.

Strange rock formations that my Mom could explain.

Lunch at a stream, wading, fingerprint on my lens.

Yum! Icecream at Mammoth Hot Springs.

An old geyser. I think.

This was pretty neat to see. Boiling water skimming down the suface - smell of sulphur in the air. Apparently the colors are because of different types of bacteria that cover this formation. Some are sun loving and some are shade loving, so the different plateau's and pools make it perfect for the variety of bacteria.

Hot, hot, hot water.

Always time for a jog.

The Virginia Cascades.

I'm going to pretend that I can't see you.

Traffic crawled for 20 minutes. People jumping out of their cars to run up and see what the fuss was, hoping to see a bear, but nope. Just a herd of Elk. This guy was the last. Too stressful, had to take a break as he reached the other side.

Elk in the water.

Chris has a really high-power scope. So we'd stop and check things out every once in awhile.

This was our campsites resident chipmunk. They'd walk right in between your feet Brave little buggers.

Morning at our campsite. Elk. Always elk. But I'll take them over bears.

Five of the six, Gunner wasn't too happy with us for hiking the Elephant Back trail.

My girl.

The trees at Yellowstone made me think of scruffy old dogs. They were tall, skinny and scraggly looking - for the most part.

Brian and Aaron checking out the view from Elephant Back trail.

Daddy and daughter.

Brian thinks this was a bear marking it's territory.

Everyone but us had turned back on the Elephant Back trail, so we were left to take pictures of ourselves. This one wasn't the best, but I thought it was funny :) And Brian's smiling...

There was a tree in the middle of our campsite that had a family of squirrels living in it. These were the three babies. So cute! And noisy, and bossy. The little one in the hole was NOT allowed out. If he put his paws out, the other two scrambled after him and chased him inside. I think they were being brave right now because the Mom had just left.

Another bear mark, but this one was in our campsite.

Olivia. She's so cute.

Bella and Sophie.

Galina and Gunner were napping - so I got Czarina, Bella, Sophie and Olivia at our campsite.

Galina and me in front of Lake Yellowstone.

Gaga and Sophie in front of Lake Yellowstone.

Sophie-lou, as Robyn calls her.

Yellowstone River.

Another sunrise at our camp. That's our tent.

Group shot. Everyone!

This trip was so much fun. I don't know that we'll ever attempt it again, but I'm game if we do. Loved seeing everyone, meeting a few, and will miss everyone.

We were lucky to get to see one of Brian's sisters, Nicole, and two of his nieces, Christian and Madelyn. Tara, Brian's other sister, and her kids, Jackson and Georgia - weren't able to make it.

Brian, Galina and I had to fly out Sunday the 11th, so when we broke camp Saturday morning (everyone else was headed to the Grand Tetons for a few more days of camping) we did the group photo and said our goodbyes.

We stopped at the Fountain Paint Pot on our way out of the park.

This is the Celestine Pool.

A Bacteria mat.

Can't remember what this one was called, but aren't those blues amazing?

This was the actual paint pot. Not much color. Not sure what that's all about.

Can you find the Mountain Bluebird?

Our last photo of the trip.

We had a ton of fun.