Yellowstone!

Since we got a national parks pass on our road trip, we thought it would be fun to make it up to Yellowstone. Turns out my brother and his wife had also been planning to get up there, so we made it a quick road trip together!

 I think it's crazy how quickly the scenery changed from the lush picture above to the look of desolation below.

 Look at our shadows as we watch the gurgling hot spring

What a good lookin' couple! Glad we could come up together. 

I didn't take a picture, but we actually got to Yellowstone around 1am and set up our tent and air mattresses as quietly as possible (the campground was FULL) and then went to sleep (as the temperature slowly plunged to about 35 degrees F). Of course I found a campsite with flushing toilets for my pregnant body to use in the middle of the night- so it wasn't too bad. We slept in  until about 9am and then set off for a day of exploration.

 The color of some of these pools is really cool- though don't be fooled, the pool itself is anything but cool! :)

You can't really tell, but that's a raven running away from the river with a fish in it's mouth.

For everyone wondering about my belly this was a little over a month ago, so about 7 months along. Though remember this was after a 4 hour car ride, pitching a tent at 1am, sleeping in the almost freezing (compared to Miami extra freezing) weather (on an air mattress), and then getting up for the day... Don't get me wrong, it was fun, but not my most photogenic moment.

And this bird is the reason I was looking away. As Marc was taking my picture this osprey caught a fish and was flying above me. Though the picture was taken before it caught the fish.

 Enjoying my yogurt, apparently too slowly because everyone kept giving our chairs away before I could finish. It was a VERY busy day at Yellowstone!

Waiting around for Old Faithful

It's smokin'

 All together waiting around,

and there it blows!

I already mentioned not my most photogenic day right? Just thought I'd prove the point :)

 Some more boiling hot water,

that also wants to erupt.

 and then this beautiful waterfall, with nice cool water. We even waded in a little bit upstream at a swimming hole.

 Yeah, the one cool water spot we stop at is named Firehole Falls- I think they just got used to naming hot stuff.

What a good time! Thanks Jason and Kaylee for the trip! Marc's parents actually also happened to plan a trip to Yellowstone the same weekend. Unfortunately, the phone service wasn't great and we never found each other. 

Also, we did see more animals than birds, but I guess we were too busy watching to take pictures...