*Recently I have been informed by my toddler that she and her sister are no longer named Eleanor and Marian. They now go by Hiney-nor and Ivy-nor. Although Stinky-nor, Poopy-nor, Stinky-roo, and Silly Goose are also acceptable names. Ah, the two year old sense of humor.
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| Argh |
While we haven't quite been sailing the seven seas, we have been on a whirlwind of traveling over the past few weeks. Thus the radio silence (although is it still called radio silence for a blog?).
I did have awesome intentions of doing a series of blog posts detailing our travels. However, the combination of travel PTSD, a crazy two year old, a baby who still refuses to sleep through the night, a massively overgrown garden, and you know, life, have sapped all my energy.
Here is a much-abbreviated version of what I was originally intending to write.
We drove from Oklahoma up to Chicago. Saw lots of friends, ate tons of yummy food, and visited some of our old stomping grounds. Went to a wedding, drank some awesome homebrew.
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| Relaxing in the Shakespeare garden at Northwestern |
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| Running around near a freaky statue |
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| Ella thought The Rock was the coolest thing |
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| Chilling in the dinosaur footprint at the Field Museum |
Next up: Flew to Big Sky, Montana for a conference. Went to the Museum of the Rockies to see dinosaurs, per Ella's request. Played around at the resort. Took the kids hiking one morning. Had some kid-free time while we ventured to the top of Lone Mountain (or the Lonely Mountain, as Ella called it- think there are dwarves?) which involved a ski lift, tram, then a gondola. Oh, and Jim did lots of science-y stuff.
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| Mini golf at the resort |
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| Riding the bull. We had to stop and play with this thing multiple times a day. |
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| Mommy/Marian selfie at the Museum of the Rockies |
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| Hiking along the Moose Tracks path. Did see moose tracks. Sadly did not find any Moose Tracks ice cream. |
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| Jim and the kiddos, plus a walking stick |
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| At the top of Lone Peak |
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| View from the top |
From there, we had a whirlwind three days in Yellowstone. Despite having such a short trip we packed a lot in- hot springs, geysers, canyons, waterfalls, bison (or hippos, if you are talking to the toddler), elk, antelope, moose, a grizzly bear, a black bear, and wolves.
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| Playing by the water |
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| Hot springs |
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| Clearly not impressed with Old Faithful |
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| Afternoon nap in the Ergo amid the hot spring |
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| Middle Geyser Basin |
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| Hot springs |
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| View from Grand Prismatic Spring |
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| Grand Prismatic Spring |
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| Early morning waterfall view |
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| Yes, Ella is still in her pajamas. We got the kids up at the crack of dawn |
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| Looking at bison through the binoculars |
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| Family picture during one of our picnic lunches |
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| Mommy and baby moose. Supposedly there are only 6 in Yellowstone so we were super lucky to see two |
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| Hiking around the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone |
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| At the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone |
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| Upper Falls of the Yellowstone River |
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| Tuckered out after a long day |
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| Mom, Dad, and two tired kiddos |
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| Grizzly bear. In case you were wondering, this is very zoomed in on my camera- no desire to get close to a grizzly |
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| Our intrepid navigator |
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| Our lunch companions |
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| Super grumpy bison. It was mating season and all the males were feisty |
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| Playing around in the lake |
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| Hot springs by Lake Yellowstone |
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| Doesn't do justice to the amazing colors of the hot springs |
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| More hot springs |
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| Herd of elk running through the water |
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| Antelope |
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| Traffic jam |
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| Another traffic jam- everyone stopped for the baby bison that needed to nurse in the middle of the road |
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| Mammoth Hot Springs on our last morning |
Yellowstone was absolutely amazing and I wish we had had more time to spend there. We're already talking about doing another trip out there. Along with the Grand Tetons, Glacier, Rocky Mountain National Park...
Then to top it all off, we had to fly back to Chicago and drive back down to Oklahoma. Phew! No wonder I am tired!
I'm putting a moratorium on family travel for, oh, at least two weeks.
