Yellowstone and Montana visit

After our reunion in Idaho, Jed & I drove up to Montana with Michel so that we could spend a few days with her and Ryan before heading back home.
We took the scenic route back, and drove straight through Yellowstone National Park. It was so neat! I've been there before, but it was really fun to see it again. The geothermal activity is incredible. Just driving on the road, we would see steam coming up from several spots on the countryside just off the road, that were not marked and not attractions. There are so many in the park, they just pick the best ones to mark on the map and build boardwalks around! We found out that the park has 60% of the world's geysers. Wow.

Here is a picture of Jed in front of some hot springs. The trickling water is scalding in some areas. The calcium carbonate form interesting deposits, and bacteria living in the water make beautiful color patterns.
Here we are witnessing Old Faithful erupt! We got there just 10 minutes prior to when it was estimated to erupt, so it was perfect timing!

Little Samuel, peeking out from his blanky. It was a blustery day, so I was trying to keep him warm. He was busy sucking his thumb, but when he saw me looking at him he immediately gave me a cute smile.

We stopped to look at some geysers, fumaroles, and mudpots. Inside this mudpot there was white boiling, squelching mud. It was amazing. It was loud and gurgly, and between clouds of steam you could catch glimpses of the spouting hot liquid.

This was a beautiful blue crystal lake from a hotspring.
Anyway, it was a very neat 'scenic route' on our way to Montana!

Once in Billings we relaxed and spent a lot of time with Ryan & Michel, which was very fun!
We played outside one day with these ball-type of toys that you swing up into the air and then catch when they come back down. The boys immediately got one stuck in the big pine tree and so the rest of the time they were all gathered around the pine tree throwing up balls and other things trying to get the ball dislodged. As soon as they succeeded, and we all clapped, another one landed in the pine tree and the dislodging party started all over again! :)

Michel and Sam watching as the guys throw things into the pine tree...

Benjamin and Eliza absolutely loved getting to play with their sweet cousins, Jenna, Shane and Kiersten. There were a few times when Ben and Kiersten (who is one year older) played make believe all afternoon and had a great time together.

Ryan, Michel, Jed and I spent a few nights playing games together, which was so fun! This particular night we played Cranium, which turned out to be a blast! There was once when Jed drew a picture of a baby, trying to get Ryan to guess what it was. Everyone was stumped until the time ran out and Jed told us what it was supposed to be. The drawing did not even slightly resemble a baby, and we had a very good laugh at that one!! Haha! I'm laughing right now just remembering it! It was so funny! I even tried to keep the picture, but Jed stole it back. haha! I took this picture right after we were teasing him about it. Oh, good times!