Over a year ago we found out that Bryson's family would be having a family reunion in Cheyenne, Wyoming. When I heard this I immediately started thinking that we should figure out a way to go to Yellowstone while we were in that area. While doing research on Yellowstone I found out that you can begin reserving rooms at the Yellowstone lodging on May 1st for the following year. So I made a reservation for 5 nights at the Old Faithful Inn on dates that were supposed to be after the reunion. The reunion dates ended up changing and so that messed up our dates just a bit but we made it work.
Originally Bryson was supposed to be going with us but when I added a Disney World trip in January and he added a trip to Argentina in August to dove hunt he just didn't have enough vacation days to make Yellowstone. But thankfully my mom is always a trooper and loves to travel as much as I do so she joined us!
We left OKC on a Thursday afternoon around noon. We flew Southwest to Denver and then had a 3 hour layover that turned into a 4 hour layover. We enjoyed a nice lunch and then the kids camped out with nonstop Liv and Maddie episodes!
United just doesn't have their stuff together quiet like Southwest and mom and I couldn't quit laughing at this pilot who ended up being one of the pilots of our flight. He couldn't figure out what he was supposed to do and when he could board the plane. And the fact that he looked 16 made us just a bit nervous!
The flight ended up being one of the smoothest ones ever and the few were amazing. Meg looked outside and thought we were in Antartica!
They had never rode on a plane where you get off outside or on one that small! They loved it!
We arrived in Cody, Wyoming around 6:00 and all of our luggage made it too! It took approximately 45 minutes to get our rental car that was prepaid for an reserved through Priceline. We learned quickly that is how things seem to work in Wyoming a lot of times. I was disappointed with how often the employees at hotels, restaurants, airport, etc. weren't really sure how to do their job, weren't all that friendly, and were sooo slow! But what they lack in friendliness and efficiency they make up in how beautiful it is there!
We had a 50 minute drive to the Yellowstone entrance. Meg entertained herself by taking selfies!
I think this is the one when she learned that we still had almost 2 hours left after we got into the park!
While I got checked into the hotel room these two immediately went out to see Old Faithful erupt!
We got checked in and went to our room. Within a few minutes we realized we had a serious problem. The bathtub was full of poop and if you flushed the toilet it all went straight up through the tub! So gross! We took all of our stuff and went back to the front desk. The manager told us that they didn't have any other rooms with two beds but that for the night they would put us in two separate rooms. The other catch was that had to share a community bathroom. Within 5 minutes the room next to us had the same problem and so they had to move that family into one of the rooms we were supposed to be in. So they were putting us in a room with one bed and giving us bedding for the kids to sleep on the floor with. At this point it was 10:00 p.m. and I was just ready for bed.
This was our room. It was one of the original rooms in the Old Faithful Inn and was totally charming and I would've loved staying in there if I didn't have kids with me and had prepared to be sharing a bathroom with 3 other rooms. See that one candle. That is the only light in the entire room. I had to use the flashlight on my phone just to see in my luggage!
That night was one of the worst nights of sleep I have ever had. Mom, Meg, and I shared the double bed. There is no air conditioning and so you leave the windows open and there was some loud machine outside the window that went off and on all night. We were all up and at em at 5:30 a.m. the next day to get our first day started!
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