Foto Story Friday #116-- Family Gathering/ Trip to Yellowstone first half of day 3

So day 3 dawned bright and clear and promised to be warm.  We split up this day.  Some stayed in camp and others went back into the park.  Ryanne and her kiddos stayed behind to find a stream to play in.  My kids really wanted to stay and play in the water as well, so Troy said it would be fine if I wanted to return to the park.  My parents had also had enough walking in the heat and kicked it in camp.  Troy's parents came up to camp and hung out with the kids and enjoyed the day.

Here's Ryanne preparing to capture the day while her husband, Aaron, our sister and her family and I head back to capture the wonders of Yellowstone.  The first place we went was Norris Geyser Basin.

There is SO much to see and it is so hard not to overwhelm you with all the photos I took. The park is like an ever changing, always creating other world.

Nearly everywhere you look there is something spectacular to draw your eye and camera to.

So many textures and colors.

The contrast of the brightly colored waters and the grey surroundings, begs to be captured.

The sky was also wonderful with it's bright blues and big white fluffy clouds.  After I took this one, I checked it and realized that I had a pretty good reflection in the water.

I really liked the cool bubbling waters in the foreground and the majestic mountains in the back.  I'm pretty sure I was laying on the walkway for this shot.

The bright blue of this water was SO amazing!  I really wish I knew what causes it.

I just loved these twin geysers.  They were continually shooting up the tiny streams of water.

Don't you just want to reach out and feel these textures?

Looks like a hot tub..... little too warm for a dip though!

Think we should head back for lunch?  That is just what we did.  Colleen chose to walk back with her husband and the rest of us headed back to the van.  We had a little snack of cookie dough while we waited for them to catch up.  That's where I'll leave you for this week. Be sure to come back next week for the rest of my views of Yellowstone.








Hosted by Cecily and Lolli

Foto Story Friday #115--- Family Gathering/Trip to Yellowstone, 2nd half of day 2

Day 2 continued..... Our next stop was Lower Geyser Basin.

As you head over to the basin you must cross over this river. It has two big runoff areas and they are amazing beautiful.  The sun was high and harsh, things were getting blown out until My sister and I conferred on how to fix the problem and I learned a little more, changed some settings and played until I was pleased with the outcome.

Across the bridge you get a little closer to the run-off and you can really see the bright colors.

Loved this green.

Ryanne did some teaching and Savanna got the chance to play with her camera and the Lensbaby.

These guys stopped for a photo op.  It's Uncle Cary, and cousins: Maja, Scott and Javin.

I just Loved the bright orange with the blue of the water.

Little Photographers, we start them off young round here!  Javin was kind enough to share his camera with his cousins.

Such a cool rippled effect nature has created.  I so wanted to run my fingers along the ridges, but I resisted and left things as should be.

The wind has made victims of several hats. This one looked like a recent acquisition.

This cool formation is located in the middle of this huge pond like area (I was way too busy taking pictures to remember what it is called) that is so deep and very wide.  The last time the geysers got working and shot out of it must have been spectacular.  Wish my brother-in-law were here to give me the details, he read the signs and watch me lay down on the walkways and contort myself in order to get the "perfect" photo.  The steam was so thick that getting a good shot of the many bubbling spouts was difficult.
This area was not a favorite of Scott's he told me it was WAY too hot and kinda stinky too, poor kid.  All the younger kids were tired and some of the adults also had had it, so those who were done went back to camp and the others kept on seeing the sights.

Back at camp Grandpa got some Orissa time.  She likes her Grandpas and they are pretty fond of her as well.

A bunch of us went in search of huckleberries..... and we found some too! :)

These three were thick as thieves and enjoying every moment of their time together.  Javin is sporting Em's hat that I made her.

Huckleberry yumminess!

ummmmmmmmm dinner!  It was fabulous!  We had two kinds of chicken:  Panda Express orange sauce chicken and Sweet Baby Ray's bbq chicken.  They were both super nummy!

THe twins really enjoyed spending time with Grumpa and Grammie.

There's nothing like a campfire!
Stay tuned for next weeks installment-- day 3.1!








Hosted by Cecily and Lolli

Foto Story Friday #114--- Family Gathering/Trip to Yellowstone, half of day 2

So the week almost got away from me (we have been busy all week re-doing our shower) and me not do a foto story.... I've not missed a week since the meme was started so I may be a day late and a dollar short and no one may come to read it but here it is:
We ate breakfast and split up into vehicles and headed into Yellowstone National Park for some sight seeing family fun.  Many of the group had not been there ever and for some it had been a very long time.

Random out the window shot of a river.  By the end of the day we were all wishing for some cool water to jump into.

First off we went to Old Faithful, I think it is required to hit this spot when visiting the park at least the first visit.  We got there is good time and didn't have to wait long for the water show.  This shot is not at its peak, but I liked the way it came out considering I had a perfect place until the rude guy stood in front of me.... grrrrrrr!

Afterwards Grammie had two young guys to escort her to the gift shop.

Our next stop was Midway Geyser Basin, here some of my crew wait for the rest to catch up.

My parents were so cute holding hands that I couldn't resist a quick shot!

The colors at Yellowstone are quite breath taking.  A photographers dream!

The hot waters run down into this river or creek, not sure which.  The call of the water was too great for some to resist, and Javin HAD to go touch it.  All the kids wanted to jump in for a swim and there were many people doing just that.

Once again the colors begged to be captured.

The depth and beauty of nearly every sight drew me in and I walked slowly crouching and sometimes lying down to get just the right shot..... or trying at least!

My dad made the loop and came back to await the blast of a geyser.  We stood there and chatted and shared pictures and enjoyed the short wait together it was nice.

We were not disappointed.  It would shoot up and then you would think it was over and it would launch up again, while we clicked away.

A little farther down the walk was this cool bubbling spring.  I liked how the water bubbled right out of the rock.

Slowly but surely my sister and I  made our way around and headed back to find the rest of the crew.  They were setting up lunch at the recently vacated picnic table.  I took this from across the water and as we made our way across the bridge we were met with a sight that should not be seen......

BUTT, he appeared to be perfectly comfortable in his Speedo and orange crocks!
more of day 2 next week

;Hosted by Cecily and Lolli

Foto Story Friday #113--- Family Gathering/Trip to Yellowstone, day 1

We had a family gathering this week near Yellowstone National Park. Unfortunately, not all the family could make it.  None of my 4 brothers and families nor my youngest sister and her family were able to attend.  In addition to all of them, we also had to leave behind our oldest, Cody.  He had to attend a defensive driving course as a result of his hitting a parked car and failing to report the accident by quickest means...... as in he pretended it didn't happen until the damage to his car was seen by Grandpa!  Hopefully lesson learned and we won't have to repeat this!

Here he is in all his 6ft1in glory, ready to head to work as we head to the family gathering.

Of course with kids you have to stop often for potty breaks.  While everyone was taking their break, I was taking photos.  This one is looking west, the direction we were headed...... looks like rain,

Looking east we see the sky looks less threatening.  The views of the Yellowstone river are often breath taking and I found this view rather pleasing to the eye.  I was trying to get the sun rays, they are faint, but there.

We saw some very cool cloud formations.

As you may know, I like to snap pictures out the window as we travel .  These billowing clouds over the hills screamed out to be photographed.

We passed many the rafting party on our way to Yellowstone.

We also saw some kids cooling off in a daring manner.  Right after I snapped this one as we passed, he jumped into the Gallatin River, not something I'm brave enough.... or is it stupid... to try.

The much awaited Park.

and this is what happened, Em fell asleep!  She spent the whole time asking: 'are we at Yellowstone yet?'

Her partner in crime and fun also fell asleep.

Then we weren't quite sure which way it was to the campground and finally decided to head towards the national forest service visitors center and hoped we would run into a sign pointing us in the right direction.  My mom called to see where we were and then lost service so we headed into this storm and found a campground to ask for directions and turns out we were close.  We continued on and found the campground, but my parents were not there yet.  We set up camp and eventually we see my parents RV pull up without the vehicle they were towing.  My mom was worried about us and they decided to go looking for us.  She called Troy's parents and they got worried about us and put the highway patrol on the lookout for us!  The cell service is spotty at best in that area.  Next morning when we had service again we both had many messages from them and Troy's co-workers worried about us!  :)  we got a good laugh about it! :D

After the tents were set up and Dad got the RV leveled out some of us went for a walk and found huckleberries!

The last to arrive also had an adventure.  They were not quite sure of the location either, we were all thinking it was closer to the park.  The campground was nice and it was very pretty there, but it did happen to be about 1/2 hour from Yellowstone.  Anyway they drove all the way to West Yellowstone and then came back.   We had a nice dinner of hot dogs and sausages with Bushes grillin' beans, then topped it off with S'mores.

Indian Paintbrush is in abundance and very pretty.

don't eat the red ones!  I don't know what these berries are but they are photogenic.

Lots of pine trees that also asked to be captured.

pretty purple flowers too.
Stay tuned for day 2 next week when we actually go into the park for sight seeing! :)





Hosted by Cecily and Lolli