Spring Break in West Yellowstone

You might be thinking - Yellowstone, for Spring Break? Well...Yes, we are having a great time at a condo, and my favorite part the view from our balcony (see picture above)and no crowds! :) We left early Monday morning. The girls were so excited that their V-Smile players had new batteries and a bag full of games, that they were already in the car ready to go, thirty minutes before we left. They did not quite understand that there was at least 6 hours of that ahead of them. I was impressed with how well they did, not as much whinning and complaining as I had prepared myself for. We made a pit stop in Idaho Falls and then straight on in to West Yellowstone. After unpacking and letting the girls explore, they were so excited to have their own bathroom and bedroom, we set out on the first adventure... finding a place to eat dinner in a partially hibernating tourist town. We found a treat at the Oregon Short Line. Inside was the restored train car that the girls enjoyed walking through, several times. Bill and I agreed that the Montana Nachos with buffalo chili we ordered for an appetizer were the BEST we've ever had (sorry Taco Amigo). We ended our first evening, with the girls favorite part of this trip so far - Swimming! It was great having the pool, kiddie pool and hot tub all to ourselves (again the beauty of Yellowstone prior to the park opening).




The girls enjoyed sleeping in the same bed, and even went to sleep quickly, all that swimming wore them out! It was nice to sleep in Tuesday morning and enjoy a relaxing breakfast in our rooms. We headed out to a fun lunch at the Canyon Street Grill, with yummy old fashioned burgers and a fun train that went around the ceiling. We then headed over to the Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center. > This is an amazing interactive exhibit that has Grizzly Bears and Gray Wolves, living in a beautifully natural habitat, that do not hibernate. This picture was taken through glass, but you can clearly see all three wolves.

This is a video Bill took of the two grizzly bears wrestling. It was amazing to be so close to them.



After taking several great pictues and enjoying the museum, we signed the kids up for "Keeper Kids". Both of the girls had the chance to hide bear food for the bears to discover. It was fun watching the huge grizzly bears digging up the food they hid.
WE also discovered a fun little bookstore and the girls each picked out two stuffed animals. I never thought a buffalo could be cute, but Ce'Nedra found one and fell in love with it. We also found some fun coloring books too.
After dinner of leftovers and another relaxing swim at the pool, the girls enjoyed coloring in their new books next to the fireplace.

Today we had a nice work out in the gym and then headed out to the huge IMAX theatre to see the movie "Yellowstone".
Since the park is not open we opted to enjoy it from the movie seats. However, the screen was so huge and so realistic that both girls were scared of the roaring Grizzly and I ended up taking Acacia out. We enjoyed the private pool again, until..gasp, one other family joined us!


We're headed out to Wyoming tomorrow to start the house hunting! :)

Hopefully we won't find our car looking like this again...