The Osprey... Obviously: Yellowstone 2017

I should probably preface this by saying that my family absolutely loves to camp. We camp at least one week out of every year and really enjoy doing that as a family. My mom grew up tent camping with her family and those were pretty much all the vacations her family took. With a firefighter for a father and a teacher for a mother, that was mostly what their family could afford. My dad's family went in an RV to the Tetons and that was their fairly standard vacation. I'm so glad my parents instilled in us a love of the great outdoors. We go tent camping every single year though my dad tries to convince us every time to buy a trailer. He hates sleeping on the ground, but the rest of us love it.

Day 1

We made a late start as we headed to Yellowstone. We left on July 5 and every year we host a massive family reunion at our house on July 4. The party starts at 9am and doesn't end until around 11pm. We have a massive breakfast with homemade sweet rolls, quiche, ham, potatoes, sausage strata, and so many other things. Lunch is potluck. Dinner is a huge barbecue. Because of this, it takes a while to clean up so we all had our chores in the morning. We finally left around 2.

We stayed overnight at a KOA just outside Yellowstone. Because Yellowstone doesn't take reservations at the campgrounds we like, we wanted to get up early in the morning and go get a campsite. We got to the KOA around 7:30 and just got our quick overnight bags out of the car. My mom is really good about reminding everyone to pack a single overnight bag when we travel so we don't have to unload the whole car.

Funny story: we were staying in a cabin. My sisters and I all had our own bunk in the second room. My brother slept on the floor in my parents' room. When we were all ensconced in our own rooms, my parents finally went to bed. My sisters and I heard a massive crack and plot twist: my dad accidentally broke the bed frame. Everyone was laughing so hard while my dad raged. It was really funny because he was so mad about it. We fixed it before leaving the next day.

Trout Lake

Day 2

We headed into Yellowstone early in the morning. Our favorite campground, Norris, was shut down for water problems, so we had to change our plans and head to Mammoth. Over the course of the week, we figured out that my sister Ashlyn is severely allergic to sagebrush, which completely surrounded our campsite. Oh well! She was a trooper and ended up just taking a lot of allergy pills along with my brother and dad.

After setting up camp, we headed to the northeast corner of Yellowstone. My family has been to Yellowstone probably at least 5 different times that I can remember off the top of my head. Because of this, we don't feel obligated to go to all the massive tourist attractions that everyone goes to. Those are awesome, but there are so many people that come to Yellowstone now that we don't even bother a lot of the time. This time, we went to a lot more obscure places and found a lot of the places my parents went while on their honeymoon here 26 years ago.

Me in my natural pose and habitat

After setting up camp, we went on a scenic drive and made our way to the northeast corner of Yellowstone. We ate a picnic lunch near a river there and then went on a quick 3 mile hike to Trout Lake. There you can see trout spawning. The hike has some of the best wildflowers and scenery. Our whole family likes to hike, except for my dad. Usually he drops us off and either works on his phone or drives around somewhere else because he loves to drive. It was a super beautiful hike and we got to see so many colors of wildflowers. We saw some trout, frogs, and even a few bears. Overall, it was a successful and relaxing day of camping.

Yellowstone Lake

Day 3

We started the day off at one of the places Mom and Dad spent a lot of time near during their honeymoon: Yellowstone Lake. I went swimming with my sister Bri and my brother Dave. It was absolutely freezing cold. My sister Abi was feeling sick, so that was sad. We had a picnic lunch on the rocky beach there. Right before it was time to leave, my dad had to go to the bathroom (typical). Because there were no bathrooms around, he went on the car tire. Some of it splashed on my mom's legs while she was loading the food back into the cooler in the back of the car. So my dad peed on my mom, which is gross.

Upper Falls of the Yellowstone River

We spent the rest of the day driving around all the scenic drives in Yellowstone. We jumped out and did all of the short ones. One of my favorite classic ones is the Upper Falls lookout of the Yellowstone River. It's this massive waterfall that flows through Yellowstone Canyon. I have pictures of me in front of it at pretty much all ages. One of my favorites is from when I was probably 4. My sister Ashlyn is about 1.5. We actually recreated the picture this trip so I'll attach it. We also got some huckleberry ice cream, which is an absolute MUST any time it is available.

When we were done driving around and doing short little hikes, we headed back to the campsite. On the way there, we spotted a few more bears, which brought our count up to 7 between the two days. Back at camp, we had a delicious dinner of hobo dinners with ribs. Hobo dinners are dinners prepared in tinfoil. You have potatoes, some sort of meat, carrots, and mushrooms. Then you add some butter, salt, and pepper. When you've made your dinner, you double wrap it in tinfoil and cook it over coals. We have the best camping food and I am so grateful my mom loves to cook and is good at it.

Picture re-creation from 15 years ago

Day 4

We woke up early to go horseback riding. The views were stunning and the wildflowers were out in full force. I gained my love for horses when I was little and riding in Yellowstone. It began when I watched the horse in front of mine poop and told my mom, "Look, Mom! It's pooping!" I also purred like a horse almost the whole ride. So essentially, horseback riding is a bit of a nostalgic activity for me, especially in a place like Yellowstone. My favorite part of the day, however, came when my brother Dave asked our guide the difference between a girl and a boy horse. He's 13.

Family minus Dad

After horseback riding, we ate lunch in town and looked at an art shop there. My sister Abi loves art. I ended up buying a few photographs to put up on my walls back at school.

We finished the day with a whitewater rafting trip down 8 miles of the Yellowstone River. Rafting is one of our favorite family pastimes, as we all love the water. I've honestly considered becoming a river guide multiple times just because I think it is so dang fun. One nice thing about coming from a family of seven is that we pretty much always get our own raft.

Quick buffalo selfie

Day 5

We had another lazy day. We went on some more scenic drives, which is where the stunning picture at left comes from. We also went to church and the Canyon Campground Amphitheater. It started raining after 40 minutes, so we had the shortest sacrament meeting known to man.

On our way back from church, my mom spotted an osprey in one of the trees far off. We ended up whipping out my dad's binoculars to take a closer look, and I got one of my favorite videos my sister Abi ever. I ask what she's looking at and she tells me, "the osprey... obviously" completely dead pan. I think it's hilarious. Probably it's not as funny as I think it is, but hopefully you enjoy it even a small portion as much as I do.

Abi, Dave, and my mom also went on a hike while my dad, Ashlyn, Bri, and I waited in the car. This later became a point of contention with my mom. She felt like we weren't living in the moment as much as we should be. Looking back, I completely agree with her, but at the time it was a big issue. As I've gotten older, I've come to appreciate being disconnected from my phone and social media a lot more than I was then.

Overly filtered car selfie with Abi

Day 6

We packed up and headed home. We always cut it close to checkout time when we are camping. I'm honestly not sure why because at this point, we are all old enough to help out and are adept at packing up. Oh well!

When we got home, the house was over 90 degrees because my parents always turn off the air conditioner while we are gone to save on our gas bill. Any time we go out of town, we always come back and swim to cool off while we wait for the house to cool down. We ended up swimming for a while. When we went to bed that night, it was still 83 degrees, but luckily we all have fans in our rooms.

Life Lessons

Get off your phone and get outside. You will feel about 1291378x better about life if you do.

Watch out for men peeing or else you might get peed on.

Don't sit on the edge of the bed if it isn't really sturdy because you could potentially break it.

Avoid super touristy locations to get the best experience with the least amount of people.

ALWAYS eat huckleberry ice cream!! (I cannot stress this one enough)