One final day...

Yes, our adventure is finally coming to an end! (I know most people don't blog this much about a whole year of their lives, much less a week, but this all goes into my blog book and we love to look back and remember. So even if you don't read it all...or any of it...bear with me! Besides, you have your own personal online copy of "Lindsay's Yellowstone Travel Guide for Parents of lots of Young Children" now!)

Ryan and the kids on the hike to Lewis Falls.

Me and some of the kids next to Lewis Falls.
On our last day we headed down through the south of Yellowstone and got to see some beautiful waterfalls on our way out. Lewis Falls was first and it was nice, but we really loved Moose Falls. The sun was at a perfect spot to create a misty haze through the spray that the falls created. There were very few other people there and for the most part we had this little piece of paradise to ourselves. Lincoln threw rocks into the water, the girls played in the mist and Isaac was a little explorer--jumping from boulder to boulder and trying to find volcanic glass (which has a scientific name that is escaping me right now. Isaac is at school, other wise I would ask him because I'm sure he knows.) I just laid on one of the boulders for a while and soaked up all the beauty and the warm sun. It was a perfect way to end our Yellowstone experience!

The kids at the top of Moose Falls.
Isaac and I at the bottom of Moose Falls.

We hesitantly trusted Isaac with our fifth baby--the camera--so he could get a shot of us together. (We don't have many of those!)
After the beautiful falls and a picnic lunch, we headed out of Yellowstone and into Grand Teton National Park. It was incredible. It wasn't damaged by the fires in 1988, so it had a lot more color to it. It was a great time to visit (the leaves were all changing.) Unfortunately, we had a lot of driving to do and the kids were really tired, so we didn't get to experience much of it. It is on our list of MUST-DO's in the near-ish future. Here are some of the colors...

As I said, the kids had had about enough. Well, maybe not Isaac. He loved every minute of it. He kept saying all week long, "I can't believe we are actually in Yellowstone." When I expressed some jealousy that some friends of ours were going to Disneyland (my favorite place), he said, "They should be jealous of us, because we are in Yellowstone."
So, in spite of the incredible amount of hard work and some of the unexpected nuisances (road closures, mainly) I think the vacation was a great success and I'm glad we went. If nothing else, I know we created a lot of great family memories and that is the most important thing!!