Old Faithful!

The quintessential Old Faithful Geyser sign picture

The kids got a big lecture on enjoying the moment, "you only get one chance to see Old Faithful for the first time," and not just worrying about capturing it on their tablets. . . We made sure we got there with plenty of time to get settled and get ready.

Jude's excitement to see this famous geyser was perfect.

His reaction to the actual geyser was PRICELESS.

(I've seen it before, so I was way more interested in their reactions)

Lydia was cold and ornery and laying under her coat before the geyser shot off. I asked her if she was going to let her bad attitude get in the way of enjoying the geyser and she still wouldn't sit up but she did tell me, "I'm watching." I was really happy that she sat up and enjoyed the moment, sort of. She was pretty unimpressed.

Julia unfortunately watched most of the event through her video of it. . . but she remembered to look up when I reminded her she could watch the video of it later!

T was cold. And tired and hungry and I loved cuddling with her as she tried to figure out just what this geyser thingy was all about.

Kayla was freezing and trying to run off so Daddy tucked her in and held her tight and she was loving it. I think he got to watch the geyser a little bit too.

Jr. Rangers!! They got a badge and a patch- very fancy.

That booklet is no joke though, we only had a few hours and I wouldn't recommend rushing through it like we did.

If you look way in the background you can see a bison crossing in front of some traffic. We drove right past it standing on the side of the road and Lydia loved it, then we stopped to watch a herd in the meadow and the bison decided to cross the road and stop traffic and Lydia was laughing, she thought it was so funny that they got stuck and we didn't.

This is the herd of bison we stopped to watch on our way out of the park through Western Yellowstone. That's the Madison River in the background and this picture is not zoomed in. They were too close for us to get out of the van, but Lydia leaned out of the window and watched them with her binoculars (Julia was terrified to have the window down) and took video and selfies and just loved it. Then a coyote came and circled the herd and we all loved that. Lydia definitely appreciated the wildlife more than the geology of Yellowstone.