Life as a Yowler

We attended High Point Pre Market in North Carolina. We were there for three days. The kids and I stayed back at the campground while Brandon went to Market. I tried my best to do a combination of working out each day(myself), doing school with the kids, and playing outside the rest of the day to get the kids energy out.  After pre Market, we had three days to drive over thirty hours. We had to get to Bozeman, Montana for a furniture meeting. We were driving through different time zones and with gas stops, we were averaging about 12 hours of driving each day. We picked up Aunt Bethany when we drove through Columbus, Ohio. She is with us for a couple weeks to help. Her help is very appreciated! She did great entertaining the kids while we drove. I get so carsick after a long day of driving in the motor home. So I was able to sit and stare out the window while she did crafts and school with the kids.

We finally arrived in Montana. I’ve got to be honest, I wasn’t expecting much. When I think of Montana I think of the middle of nowhere. It is the middle of nowhere, but the scenery is amazing. Our campground is one of the nicest we’ve ever stayed at. The owners ate so nice and friendly. We are totally surrounded by mountains.

The campground playground is surrounded by workout equipment for the parents. My kids joined me in working out. Notice Brielle’s red face. I can’t get over how cold it is here. We went to Yellowstone National Park, and it was only 46 degrees.

We have been to Yellowstone once before. This time was better, because our kids are older. They were able to do some hiking and they were able to enjoy the scenery around them.

If you look closely you can see my oldest son choking my youngest. Boys!

On our drive into Yellowstone, we drove through a town with elk out walking the streets. We stopped and took some pictures.

We went swimming in a hot spring. When we got to the hot spring, Brandon surprised me by sending me to the spa. He told me happy late anniversary. We never got to celebrate our 10th because we were traveling and there were business meetings, plus we had all our kids with us. So it was a very nice surprise. I got the Yellowstone massage with heat rocks. It was so relaxing. Plus it was so quiet. I might have even fallen asleep during it.

The owner of our campground told us about a place the locals go to to spot wildlife. It’s up in the mountains right next to an onion field. We went and spotted one moose and several bears. We saw a mama bear and some cubs. Brielle and Joah spotted the bears thanks to some locals offering their night sight spotter. I’m not positive Caed ever spotted the bears, but he thinks he did and that’s all that matters. I was shocked how still the bears were. You know how sometimes you have a vision or expectation of how you think something will be? Well I was expecting more of a clawing, roaring bear staring straight at me through binoculars trying to eat me from a distance. lol I was surprised to see they basically look like rocks. It made me wonder how many bears I’ve actually seen in the wild, but just never noticed.

Joah was very sweet in helping his sister spot bears with our binoculars. They were having a great time. Joah and I have really been wanting to see bears in the wild. We both scratched something off our bucket list.

Today we are headed back into Yellowstone for the day. We are looking forward to hopefully seeing more wildlife.