The weekend

This past weekend my little family trekked it south for a wedding in Yellowstone. I've been maybe two times and I live two hours from one entrance and three from another. I mean, get it together girlfriend.

One of Evan's besties was getting married and Evan was in the wedding so we rented a little condo in Gardiner with some friends and spent some time in the park hunting all the animals (not with guns, just with our eagle eyes) and Evan spent some time up close and personal with a mama grizzly and her baby. YEP.

It was a total blast and I cannot wait for Maddox to be a little bit older so he can enjoy it even more. Although, on our way out of the park we stopped to watch some buffalo grazing on the side of the road (fairly close to us and Evan + our friends Erin and Logan got OUT OF THE CARS and were all, "These things look so nice but they're so mean! They can run 40mph and jump 8ft! We're going to stand out here!" And I sat in the car because I am chicken and also I did not want to die by being mauled by a buffalo tribe (you guys, I HATE buffalo). Anyway, where I was going with this story is that we were pulled over and I rolled down the back window so that Maddox could look out and he pointed right to the buffalo and said, "OOOOH!" So, I know he enjoyed it just a teensy bit, but it will be SO. MUCH. FUN. when he's a little bit older.

We woke up at 4:30 on Friday morning to get into the park before anyone else. I lovelovelove early mornings on vacation. I will get up super early to get a jump on my day. And I don't care what anyone else wants to do. You either come with or you don't. BUT I'M GOING.

Our goal was to get to the Canyon by sunrise. We wanted to hike down to it and watch the sun come up through the Canyon and over the falls. But that plan was foiled by this adorable bear cub and its mama. We came around a corner and saw a handful of people staring at a hill and so we stopped, hoping for something good (because Lord knows everyone stops for chipmunks and antelope and I have those things in my backyard on the daily, I don't need to stop for them in the YNP). No one would tell us what they were looking at, which was annoying but my gosh people are rude in that place.

We finally figured out that there were bears on the hill and so, Evan, being the crazy that he is, walked all the way up the road to just below the bears. I mean, he had half a hill at a pretty great slope between them, but I was like a million miles back. The bears casually moved down the hill into picture taking range and then eventually on the road, like a couple hundred feet from where Evan was hanging out. There was a park ranger with them who was keeping everyone in check but I was just like, "Ya'll are dumb." And I headed back to the car because I wasn't about to get mauled by a grizzly in the YNP. Also, the baby was losing its mind--crying and grunting and growling because it was so uncomfortable. The mama was just eating bugs and wandering around, oblivious to the fact that her baby was not loving life. But dang, that baby is so adorable.

We finally got to the falls much later than we had anticipated (hashtag worth it) and Maddox LOVED it. He just wanted to run around on the little platform (terrifying!) and kept pointing at the water and yelling "hey! hey!" He's adorable. It's true. The hike is 3/4 of a mile like straight up and down and Evan carried him down AND up because he's the best and I had a mild heart attack on the way back up because apparently I am very much out of shape and my lungs hate me. We hung out on the waterfall for a good little while because we couldn't get over how breathtakingly beautiful it was. That whole area is so magnificent and I was in awe the entire time.

Maddox was obviously the cutest attendant to the wedding on Saturday. That little bow tie! His button up striped shirt! His face! Presh. The only thing even coming close to Maddox would be my bestie Erin and I. We matched on accident. Maybe on purpose. I told her I was wearing a coral colored dress and then changed my mind last minute so that when she showed up we were like, "Oh! Whoops!" No one was surprised.

On our final morning, we drove back home through the park because our goal was to see some moose. Moosen? Mooses? Meese? (ha. ha. ha.) We didn't see any. We saw another bear and about a bajillion buffalo and we climbed down to the river/waterfall and Evan and Logan hiked up the river (Logan is that tiny lime green dot in that first picture of the collage) and over a million boulders to get to the waterfall and the rest of us stayed at the river and threw rocks and laughed at foreigners because we are mean. But we are the smart ones because Evan smashed up his knee and Logan lost a flip flop and then those two had to hike all the way back up all battered and shoeless while the rest of us chuckled because like I said, we're mean.

But all in all, it was a wonderful vacation. I'm so blessed that this place is basically my backyard (give or take a few hundo miles). It's so beautiful and I'm so glad I was able to experience it with my friends. I mean, family vacas are always a good time but adding our friends to the mix was just the best thing ever.