Yellowstone 2018 part 2

Day 4: Saturday June 30

The day Madi made new friends :)

We started out hitting up Grand Prismatic since it was the only time we went past the parking lot that didn't have a line for days.

  

 Then we went on the lower loop tour.

Madi was so excited to see a marmot. Like she couldn't control her giggling she was that excited. They watched this guy and took pictures and videos for a good 45 minutes.

 Lunch Time.

Madi was proud of her crazy hair...

 Down at west thumb basin.

Madi practicing her private eye skills. 

After showers we went back to camp to get ready for family photos. 

That's when my curling iron exploded. None of those wires were exposed when I plugged it in. I didn't even make it through half my hair when it popped and a flame sparked up. 

After family photos Madi hit it off with Alicia's kids. She was having the best time of her life. 

She was of course all over helping Derek's dad start the fire. 

Day 5: Sunday July 1
We met up with some of Derek's cousins and such for a breakfast. Then we took off before the rest of the family to get more touring in, Madi was so heartbroken that we left her friends. She was such a gloomy Gus until we found animals and she got to take photos.

Like this guy who went swimming but Derek wasn't fast enough to video that, just after. 

 And this guy.. so GORGEOUS!!!! He's actually a cinnamon bear not a blonde. We were spotting some grizzlies down by soda butte and a lady made sure we knew that. He had little cinnamon boots but the rest of his fur hadn't "blown out" yet.

 He's my favorite.

 They even spotted a grizzly bear first and started their own "bear jam".

The Master and his Apprentice. 

Can you spot the bear?

  Driving back to canyon for church.

After church (which funny thing, someone I went to high school with was there with his own family reunion), Madi went in the van with Alicia's girls and Madi couldn't have been happier.
But they missed out on bears and foxes haha suckers.

Derek and I stopped in Canyon for dinner, first time "eating out" in the park. We got buffalo burgers and they were pretty tasty. 

On the way home there was a huge backup on the roads in both directions. Not sure why, but apparently the rest of the family got caught in it too and only beat us back to the campsite by half an hour. My finger is pointing to the headlights coming from the Old Faithful direction, also stuck in traffic. 

Waiting.. forever...

We left Monday July 2.
Madi was so sad to leave her new friends but happy to get back home to her mom.
Overall we saw 17 black bears including cubs, and 4 grizzlies including cubs. Madi was excited to cross off many animals on the kids brochure the ranger gave her but wasn't interested in doing any of the jr ranger things.
It was a successful trip.
Now to wait forever for Derek to make the video :)