Hello all!

Sunday July 5th. I'm catching up on the blog, and hope that I didn't upload too many duplicate pictures. I had to catch up, but think I doubled some of the Old Faithful stuff, oh well.

Saturday night was the most friggid cold night of sleeping yet! Shea came over and slept in me and Joy's double sleeping bag because she was so cold. It was definately in the 30's I just don't know how low it got. We made a decision to leave Yellowstone a day early and start heading East. So Sunday, we packed up the whole thing...tent, stuff, stuff and stuff.....while kids had breakfast, and enjoyed the campsite. We were very excited about getting out on time, and drove out of the camp and Brianna said she could not find her glasses. Well, Joy thinks they were in the tent in a side pocket, which is broken down and loaded in the car. We had to drive to McDonalds, unpack the car, completely remove the tent and unwrap it, then walk inside the tent, and found her glasses! They were not even damaged! What a way to start the day, but it worked out well.

I forgot to mention the bike rental from July 4th. We rented a 6 man bike, me, and the kids, and rode around the campground. It was a crazy little 4 peson bike with a trailer that held 2 more. Brianna got to steer, and provided lots of pedal power. Shea was on again off again with the pedaling, but Gavin got a free ride. The kids bugged us to death every minute of the day to do the rental bikes at the camp, so we got that in. Sorry to be out of order, just happened to think of it.

Sunday morning, we all ate camp prepared breakfast, which is really good. This is the grill at the camp, where they have pancakes, bacon and milk for about $5. Its worth it, and you meet all the fun people from camp. I met one guy in Billings who took a motorcycle from Western Kentucky to Alaska!! He had been tent camping fo 36 days, and told me a story about blowing a tire and bending a rim in Juneau. He had to wait for 3 days to get a new rim and tire, so he fabricated a spare tire holder on the back of his bike. I saw his bike when he left the camp, it was quite a site. Anyway, you meet cool people like that.

Now, we're packed up and heading EAST! That is a switch. The next stop is going to be Mt. Rushmore, but we won't make it today. The good news is that we get go a different way through Yellowstone, and we'll get to see the falls basin. It was only about a 90 minute drive, and we did stop and do the walk. This area is considered the "Grand Canyon of Yellowstone" or the "Little Grand Canyon" and you can see why when you start getting close. It was majestic and overwhelming, but enjoyable. The best part of this stop was our walk down to the falls. It was a 600 foot drop, over a 3/8 mile path that zig zagged down rocky slippery roads with absolutely no guard rail. We held onto the kids for dear life, and poor little Shea kept slipping but we were gripping so tight she didn't go anywhere. Gavin hung in there, and was dragged, carried and also walked a good way. The falls were unbelievable, you are given a spot to watch just as they go over. The park service says the volume of water going over the falls can vary from 5,000 gal/sec in the late fall to 63,500 gal/sec at peak runoff. Then the walk back up to the car was pretty brutal, and we got Gatorade and water to celebrate making it to the top. Many stops on benches along the way helped us out. We also hit the visitors center, got ice cream and headed out!

Next stop, Cody Wyoming. The drive to get to Cody was fabulous! Wyoming is just breath taking, with the deep red mountains and huge cliffs and rivers. We went through 2 state parks with huge lakes and rivers, fishing and land as far as you can see. Once we hit Cody we found a Holiday Inn, and thought we'd have just a little boring hotel for the night. Turns out they had little cabins that Buffalo Bill himself built, so we rented that! It is awesome, and great to have a bed and shower of our own. We walked through town, shopped and went to the Irma Hotel for dinner. This was the hotel that Buffalo Bill built for his daughter, and it horribly famous and full of tradition. We ate like kings and queens and headed back to our cabin. Love it here, but we have to leave tomorrow to hit Mount Rushmore. Don't know where we're staying, if we're camping, or what. Should be another adventure, but LOTS of driving tomorrow. Have to prepare for it.

Bye!