Richey Family Vacation 2008

Well, we're back from our week long adventure into Yellowstone National Park. We tent camped for 4 nights and 5 days (this turned out to be a little too long for us--3 nights and 4 days would have been perfect) and while we were only too ready to be headed for our own beds and a shower, we still had a wonderful time. Here are some pictures (okay, a lot of pictures) for the friends and family who wondered, "What in the heck happened to Katie?" Enjoy!

This was the first bear we saw. I took this picture from my car and it was literally only 10 feet away. Really awesome. Later, we saw another bear in a tree and a mama and a baby bear.

Marcus loved the waterfalls. This is at Artist Point. It was beautiful.

I think this geyser was called something like "Dragon's Cave" and it bellowed smoke and hissed. Marcus really thought there was a dragon in there. Did you guys know Yellowstone has dragons?

For some reason this was one of Marcus's favorite geysers. He stood there absolutely entranced for about 5 minutes before I had to haul him away so that the other tourists could take a picture of the sign that he had planted himself in front of.

The day before we left, Tim just couldn't take it anymore and had to swim to rinse off the sweat and other lovely things that accumulate on the human body when one hasn't bathed in a few days. Unfortunately, the two warm swimming holes in the park were closed because of high water. Luckily, we had this little river that flowed near our camp, so he and Marcus were able to take advantage of the frigid water. I sat on the beach and watched because I'm supportive like that.

Because everyone who visits Yellowstone has to take this picture.

Buffalo? Bison? Whatever you want to call it, we saw a ton of them. The highlight of Marcus's trip was when he got to see one pooping. He thought it was hysterical and wouldn't stop talking about it. That night, while he was saying our family prayer he even said, "Thank you for the buffalo pooping."

Several of you have been requesting pregnancy pictures. Here is a lovely profile of me at 17 weeks. The shorts I'm wearing are currently my absolute favorite things in the world.

One of our tour books said that we just had to go to this little hamburger place in Gardiner, Montana (just outside of the park). We love a good hamburger so we headed there for lunch one day. They hamburgers were huge, but we thought they lacked a little flavor. We were able to get the classic "Tim with some lovely food item in front of his face and tongue sticking out" picture. We have one from every vacation we've taken together. It's tradition.

And to conclude, a lovely picture of a waterfall. Let it be known that there was much pain behind getting this picture. Pain that involved lots of stairs, a crying 3-year-old and a complaining pregnant woman.

All in all, a wonderful family vacation!!