Yellowstone, 4th of July, Mom and Dad

I got to travel with Mom and Dad up to West Yellowstone for the 4th of July this year. It was fun to be with my parents and I enjoyed the time with them. Yellowstone is one of my favorite places to visit. We drove up and stayed in a little cabin. We had fun visiting different sites and just enjoying the small town atmosphere.

On the way up we stopped in Rexburg to see the temple that is under construction. It is beautifully set up on the hill and the outside looks mostly finished. It is scheduled to be dedicated in February 2008. It was very nostalgic for me to drive around Rexburg and remember my times at Ricks College very fondly.

From Rexburg we headed up towards Yellowstone. As we drove through Island Park I convinced Mom and Dad to stop at Big Springs and visit. This is a place I remember visiting while at Ricks. Its a big spring (aptly named) that comes out of the ground and is where Henry's Fork of the Snake River begins. We walked around the spring and enjoyed checking out the old cabin that was there. Dad LOVED that and I could tell he wanted to convince Mom to move there!

The spring is a preserve so there are HUGE fish in there. You can feed them from the bridge or just checking them out. As we were looking at the fish, another little friend came out to visit. I was pretty sure it was a muskrat and after returning home I confirmed that as fact on the internet. He just swam around busily doing whatever muskrats do, diving down and then coming back up. It was fun to see an animal we rarely see.

Upon our arrival we checked into our cute little cabin and got ready for our time there. We did a lot of different activities during the day, tried different little restaurants there and just had a good relaxing time.

I LOVE this picture. Mom didn't bring a hairdryer so this is how she dried her hair in the morning while reading the Ensign! Made me laugh!

We visited a bear and wolf preserve and enjoyed watching the bears and wolves play. You can check that out in the video below.

Of course we went in to Yellowstone National Park one day and saw Old Faithful. This was Mom's request as she loves Old Faithful. Of course we were joined by hundreds of people as we watched this famous geyser. We had lunch in the cafeteria there which was the same idea everyone else had. It was very crowded.

While at the chamber of commerce we heard that the city was not going to do the annual fireworks show due to local fires. I was VERY disappointed but determined to see some fireworks. We found out that the ski resort town of Big Sky Montana was still doing their fireworks display so we decided to go up and visit there! It was a short, beautiful drive up to Big Sky. We saw a rodeo and then went to watch the fireworks show. We didn't love the band that was playing before the fireworks show. I filmed a small part of the show and put it to music I knew my mom would love since I knew she was craving this during the fireworks display! It was a great trip!