Our No-Camping Weekend

We finally had a three day weekend all together. We were hoping to go camping, however we knew all too well how miserably it could go. So Thursday night we put the tent up in the backyard to do a practice run. Emmett got really grumpy after getting home from daycare and ended up having a fever. After some tylenol and dinner he seemed much better so we did his regular bedtime routine and we all settled into the tent together. We got a new tent that fits a queen size air mattress and the pack-n-play with plenty of room to spare. This is a definite upsize from our backpacking tent, which was especially tight when I was pregnant.

Anyways, Emmett seemed really excited about the whole situation and had a little trouble settling down, but eventually fell asleep. He woke up at 11, I'm pretty sure from being chilly since he wouldn't keep the blankets on. From 11pm-1am I brought him into my sleeping bag and we slept on and off. At 1am we decided to call it a night and we all headed inside. Emmett, unfortunately, didn't sleep any better in his crib. So none of us slept very well. In the morning he was quite warm and cranky and didn't want to eat. After some more tylenol and a 4 hour nap all seemed better with the world. So we used Friday as a recovery day and took a day trip on Saturday to Yellowstone. How lucky we are to be able to day trip to America's first National Park!

After arriving at the park and doing a little scenic driving, we stopped at a picnic area for lunch. We had the place to ourselves which was quite surprising. Soon the elk arrived, and with them came the hoards of people. 5 cows and a baby walked right past our picnic table. Of course the people were probably even more entertaining, but Emmett enjoyed his first close encounter with elk.

We stopped at a geyser area next. It was a really crowded weekend at the park, but that didn't slow us down too much. Emmett learned lots of new words and it was cute to teach him some nerdy sounding stuff like "thermal area".

We don't usually go see Old Faithful unless we have "tourists" with us, but we decided to make this our main stop of the day. We walked around some of the boardwalks waiting until the projected time for Old Faithful to "erupt." We had a good vantage point when it blew, and Emmett seemed to think it was pretty cool. Then we headed in to the lodge to get some ice cream.

waiting for Old Faithful to erupt

Pretty impressive, no matter how many times you see it!

Then we decided to hike to Observation Point, something we've never done before. It was amazing how quickly the crowds faded off the beaten trail. After a strenuous 1/2 mile and 250 foot elevation gain we had a great view of the entire Old Faithful area.

Emmett did a fair amount of hiking and was great about staying on the trail. He was a little slow playing with his walking stick, playing in the dirt, finding rocks and roots to jump off, etc. Overall I was impressed with how far he hiked.

The trail led us to a geyser we had never seen before, Solitary Geyser. It put off a lot off steam and erupted about 4 feet every 5-7 minutes.

Can you see us through the steam??

Solitary Geyser Erupting!

After a bit more hiking and a stop at a waterfall we stopped at another picnic spot to cook our dinner. Emmett did a pretty cute thing at dinner that made us laugh so hard. We were finishing up and he had crumbs all over his hands. I was trying to get him to brush his hands off by swiping them together. I had an apple slice in my hand so I put it in my mouth to hold it and demonstrated to Emmett what I wanted him to do with his hands. He watched intently but didn't immediately copy me, which surprised me. After a second he found an apple slice on his plate, picked it up and put it in his mouth and then brushed his hands off. I guess he thought the apple in the mouth was part of the routine!

After dinner we loaded up and headed home. It was a great day trip, but I truly hope that someday we will have success camping as a family. Next summer isn't looking to promising as we will have a very little one, but who knows, maybe this next one will sleep like a champ!