The Lanier Family

Friday, August 12, 2011

Leah's 7th Birthday (pt 1)

Leah's birthday celebrations started with a small lunch and party with our good friends (The Kruegers), my sister-in-law (Katie), nephew (Braydon), and Aunt Denise

We ate little sandwiches, watermelon and ate the cupcakes I made to go along with her Rubber Duckie birthday cake

After lunch we played some rubber duck games
(matching games with stars on the bottom of the ducks)

Leah was spoiled with awesome gifts!

From Aunt Denise

From the Kruegers

Saturday, July 9, 2011

Yellowstone National Park

Our Family Vacation to
Yellowstone National Park

We got to Yellowstone July 5th and stayed until July 9th. We had such a good time!
We stayed in a room at Grant's Village, right next to Yellowstone Lake.

Leah at Yellowstone Lake

Caleb and Alex at Yellowstone Lake

Old Faithful

The Firehole River
This river is fed by geysers and in the late summer it gets too hot for the fish and they have to migrate to cooler water.

We saw many patches of snow left from the long winter.
This is near our hotel in Grant's Village.

Fishing Bridge

They used to have a lot of fisherman fish from this bridge, but it's no longer allowed.
This bridge covers an area of the river that is spawning ground for the fish.
Too much fishing led to fewer and fewer fish...so they outlawed fishing here!
Leah at Fishing Bridge

Mud Caldron

Dragon Mouth Spring
This one made an awesome sound (like a dragon) from the boiling water and steam.

Heart Spring

Jon and Angela at Mammoth Hot Springs

Leah holding up the Liberty Cap

Caleb is so strong he only needs one hand!

Alex at Liberty Cap

Petrified Tree

More of Mammoth Hot Springs

We saw a LOT of Bison!
We even had to wait for 20-30 minutes while a herd crossed the road!

We saw a few elk, but this one had the most impressive rack!

Our family at the Continental Divide.
The lake here (Isa Lake) drains two different directions into two different oceans.

The Visitor's Center at Old Faithful was doing "Junior Ranger Wildlife Olympics" one day.
Our kids competed against the wildlife of Yellowstone.
Leah seeing if she can run as fast as a Yellowstone animal:

Alex seeing if he can smell as far away as a Yellowstone animal:

Leah seeing if she can jump as far as a Yellowstone animal:

Alex and Caleb are blindfolded and are going to see how long they can stand on one foot to compete against a Yellowstone animal that sleeps on one leg for hours at a time! The animals won by FAR...none of our kids were able to beat the animals! It was fun. All three kids earned the Junior Ranger Patch while we were at Yellowstone.