Big Springs

Big Springs in Island Park is one of the prettiest stretches of water I've seen, with it's clear water and serene surroundings.  We always enjoy admiring the springs at the Johnny Sack cabin, but this year we decided to do more than that - we decided to go rafting!  We got in the water just south of Big Springs and then floated some five miles down to Henry's Fork, where the river meets the highway.  It was quite the adventure!  Somehow we were able to squeeze into two rafts, with some tubes being pulled behind, but the rafts weren't quite as accommodating as we'd hoped, and it took quite a bit longer than we'd anticipated.  But it was beautiful, and we survived it all just fine (some maybe a little better than others...).

Here's Dad getting us started.  It was Mom, Dad, David and I, with Ari, Owen, and Cami in one boat, with Matt and Bryan in the tubes behind us.  And then Heather, Jake, Nate and Allison and their kids in the other, with Bree and Cass behind them.

We started all the tubes tied together behind one boat, until we realized how heavy they were, and then we split them up...

We were all smiles at the start!

We discovered that it worked best in our raft if Mom and I rowed, so Dad and David got to have a nice relaxing ride... They took their turns in the tubes behind us.

I think Allison had the hardest time with little Ellie and Katelyn, but they found that they liked the tube better than the raft, and fortunately had this umbrella to shade them from the sun. 

And the umbrella came in even more handy when it started raining on us!  We lucked out, at least, that we were nearly at the end when it did start to rain, but it sure made for a cold, wet ending!  Woo-hoo!

Sunday, we went back to Big Springs after church, like we always do, to take pictures and visit the Johnny Sack cabin.  It was a gorgeous day!

Everyone but Nathan and Allison, who'd had to leave that morning...

I love this picture!

Cute brother pics.

 They could hardly stand staying out of the water.

Feeding the birds.

Walking to the Johnny Sack cabin.

Could they be any cuter together?!

 And of course we had to take a rocking chair pic!

 Here's the one from last year... It's crazy how much older they look already!

Until next year... :)

Yellowstone

Yellowstone is always one of the big highlights of our Island Park trip.  We decided to do an abbreviated trip this time, though, and just go down to Old Faithful without doing the loop over to the canyon and big falls.  We mostly wanted to see a few of our favorite spots and as many animals as we could and still make it back to the cabin before it was too late.  It actually worked out pretty well!  Here we are entering the park...

And just a few minutes later we passed this big guy!  (He was still there on our way out as well.)

Then we saw these pretty mule deer, or "dee-dees," as Ari still calls them.

We stopped at Firehole Falls on our way down to Old Faithful.

Love them.

Happy to be out of the car for a bit!

We also stopped at the one of the hot pot basins.  Mom found this cool tree for a grandkid pic.

 Stinky!

 Nice. :/  Boys!

David looks much more handsome in these next pics. ;)

Cute Katelyn insisted on "reading" all the signs.

We made it to Old Faithful and of course our first stop was the ice cream parlor in the inn!

We still had some time to kill before the geyser went off so next we went to the children's area of the visitor center.

Curious little minds.

We had great seats for the big show now just minutes away... 

There she blows!  And she put on a good show - lasted longer than any of the previous years we'd been there.

We made one more stop at a hot pot basin on our way out of the park.

Daring each other to touch the ground...

So pretty!

One last glimpse of some deer on our way out.  No bears this year, but it was still a good visit.

Since we hadn't spent too much time in the park, we had plenty of time to stop for dinner in West Yellowstone on our way home.  And wouldn't you know, we discovered the cutest Spanish tapas restaurant!  I would have NEVER expected to find a Spanish restaurant in West Yellowstone, of all places, but we were checking on yelp.com for good places to eat and it showed up with lots of great reviews.  So we tried it and we were so pleased!  It was good, authentic, home-cooked Spanish food - tortilla, albondigas, jamon serrano, patatas bravas...  David was in heaven. :)

A wonderful ending to a great day!