DAY THREE: Yellowstone Part 2 / Dave's Bday

Fishing the Madison River, a 2nd fishing stop that morning.

We saw another bison today, as well as elk, another bear and an antelope too!

The kids fed the ground squirrels who were so cute and friendly!

The boiling river - this water was HOT!

The "Grand Canyon" of Yellowstone

Elk

Trail ride near Livingston

Mr. Miley reading us his cowboy poetry

My Mountain Man!

Mr. Miley made our cowboy supper over the fire

They even had a birthday cake for Dave

Happy 40th Birthday, Dave!

Dave's birthday started in West Yellowstone, Montana and then back into Wyoming where we first stopped for Dave to do some fishing on the Madison River (still no catch!) while the kids fell in love with and fed the ground squirrels who were very tame and friendly, squeeking all around our car looking for food. Then we toured part of the upper loop, visiting some falls and the "Grand Canyon" of Yellowstone.

We also went to the "Boiling River" which was recommended to us by our friend (Kim Ragenovich who is from Bozeman and traveled with us on the Mississippi and Mozambique mission trips) as a hot spot that's not listed on the park map. It is where the Gardiner River meets one of the hot springs (Mammoth?) and you can literally stand with one foot in hot water and one foot in the cold river! It was a mile hike with the kids and we only got to spend about 10 minutes there as we had a reservation for the trail ride we had to meet. We can now see why they say it takes a week to see Yellowstone, since we barely skimmed the surface in 2 days.

We exited the park's north gate near Gardiner, MT and headed north towards Livingston where we took our trail ride through Montana's beautiful meadows and mountains. As we arrived, the sky opened up and it started pouring down rain, but it only lasted a few minutes and we were cleared for take-off. As they prepared our horses, the kids played with the barn kittens and the dog (Lacey) who attached himself to Nate who is not really a dog-lover but won him over. It was Nate's first time on a horse, and Sabrina's first time without being lead by another horse as Nate was this time, by Kaitlyn (from Kalamazoo, oddly) who is out working on the ranch for the summer for her Uncle, Mr. Miley. Montana has such beautiful scenery, we just looked around as we traveled from scenic spot to spot.

When we returned back to the barn, Mr. Miley had ourcowboy supper ready consisting of strip steak, beans, potatoes, apple cobbler (all cooked over the fire) and lemonade. While we ate, he read us his own original cowboy poetry and then brought out the birthday cake they had prepared for Dave. For Dave's 40th, I wanted to do something really special, and somehow having dinner at a restaurant just didn't seem like enough. Dave said it was his best birthday and birthday meal ever, so I think he was happy with the choice.

From Livingston we drove south to Pray where we checked into the Chico Hot Springs Resort which was also recommended to us by our friend Kim. Apparently it's a "hot spot" (no pun intended) for locals and celebrities for their hot springs pool which looks like a normal swimming pool but is water pumped in from the hot springs and ranges in temps from 98-103 degrees. Though it was late, we took the kids to the pool since it is their most favorite thing in the world these days. All in all, a wonderful day and a happy bday for our Daddy Dave. Thanks for all the bday calls and e-mails, sorry we missed some of you as our phone service has been very spotty in the mountains. Until next time...