Another Vacation Post--With a Bad Punchline Warning

So, I've been neglecting my blog lately.
But, I figure it's okay, because I've also been neglecting mopping my kitchen floor, cleaning my toilets, excavating the kid junk in my car, and organizing the garage.
Call me lazy, slacker, slug, or just plain busy. It happens.

Anyway, I haven't had a whole lot to blog about lately. I feel like I've been stuck in a wake up-eat-commute-work-commute-dinner-kid stuff-bedtime rut since we got from our vacation. Not the stuff a inspiration.

I realized I hadn't finished sharing some of our vacation photos--because I just know you've been dying to see them. (So pay me back, and show me yours...)

Anyway, with apologies for the bad punchline at the end (which The Husband did actually say), here's a look at Day 5 and beyond in our Great American Family Road Trip. (insert the wavy screen and the music here, a la Wayne's World) You'll last recall we'd made it to Wyoming, and were Yellowstone-bound...

We reached Yellowstone National Park (YNP) after five days on the road.

We actually stayed in a campground just outside the park in the town of West Yellowstone, MT.

We stayed on the shores of Hebgen Lake, nestled at the base of more mountains.

It was quite nice there. Apparently, the wildlife thought so, too.

We saw evidence of the native species visiting the lake over night. (This is a bear print next to my foot.)

(And I don't have small feet!)

We opted to stay outside of YNP because we preferred a campsite with full hook ups. (In other words, we had electric, water and sewage connections provided.) Not all of the federal campgrounds have full connections. 

Call us camping wimps, if you want, but I got nothin' to prove!

Actually, that turned out for the best, since the snow pack for YNP was running at 225 percent of normal.

Yeah, that's a LOT of snow!

Turns out, many of the YNP campgrounds--and two of the roads--were still closed (yes, first week of June!)

when we got there. So, we may not have had a camp site if I'd booked in the park.

BabyD and LittleD got a kick out of having a snowball fight (in shorts!) on their summer vacation.

The weather felt quite warm in the lower elevations, but was a little nippy up on the mountain tops.

We enjoyed so much of the beauty of the park.

Like thermal features...

 And buffalo jams...

And fly fishing...

Only all the snow melt (and a couple days of rain) left the rivers running fast and muddy, making for lousy fly fishing conditions. But, ever the outdoors woman, I did manage to land some salad for our dinner!

Here's the family over looking the canyon... 

So, I have to tell you a funny story about our neighbors in the campgrounds.


Our second night there, I was making dinner. While I was putting pork chops on the grill, The Husband and LittleD decided to walk down to the lake shore to take some pictures of an osprey that was catching fish. This included hauling all the camera gear along with them.(Yes, I'm talking about all the contents of That Bag, which I've blogged about.)
So, this older woman came by and stopped to talk to the three guys smoking cigars in front of the camper across from ours. The woman was noticeably upset, and I could hear every word.


Lady:  "Did you see the kids down there with the big guns?"
Guys:  "What?"
Lady:  "What are they going to shoot? Somebody should do something. I think they have bazookas or something."
Guys:  "You mean the guy with the camera?"
Lady:  "That's too big for a camera. I think they have big guns."
Guys:  laughing
Lady:  continuing to fret and carry on about someone's going to get hurt
By now, I'm chuckling, and I had to interject
Me:  "Um...That's a camera lens." 
Lady:  "That's too big for a camera, and he has something else under his arm. It's got to be a gun."
Me:  "That's a tripod. The lens is so big, he needs it to steady it."
Rebuffed Now-Disgusted Lady retreats to her camper.

When I went to wave The Husband and LittleD in for dinner, I walked by the camping guys. One of them says to me, "You didn't run into any terrorists did you?"



When The Husband returns, I couldn't wait to tell him what that old gal thought of him.
So what does The Husband say?

wait for it.... 

"Did you tell her it's a Nikon, not a cannon?"

Sorry, but I warned you...

Gettin' Back in the Groove... And the Eastern Time Zone!

I've been away for a while. Since Memorial Day, actually.

I just haven't said anything, because, well, you know... all those "online safety rules"... like not posting to the entire world that you are out-of-town on vacation for three weeks.
Because some desperate soul body might break into my house and steal all our fabulous stuff, like my 18-year-old used-to-be white couch.Or the hand-me-down stereo speakers my brother-in-law passed on to us that go so well with the 20-year-old stereo.
But I digress.

Where, pray-tell, have I been?

Big Sky Country and Yellowstone National Park.

And everywhere in between.

We packed up "Sulley", our big blue Suburban (named after the Monsters, Inc. character)

 and our camping trailer...

and set out to spend three weeks seeing a major chunk of America.

Yes, I said three weeks.
Can you believe it?!? The Husband actually agreed to taking that much time off work!
I've had the time saved up, because, heck, the last time I got three weeks off of work, I had to GIVE BIRTH!
So, the day he agreed, I posted my work vacation request form on our fridge, and booked us a reservation at a campground in West Yellowstone, Montana.

I'm going to bore you with some vacation stories and photos during the next couple weeks. I've actually been blogging all along--on a private blog for close friends and family, so they could see what we were doing each day.

This was really a great trip, that The Husband and I have been talking about since we bought our first camper 9 years ago. And, we finally did it. The girls, who are now 13 and 11, are old enough to remember it and really appreciate so much of what we saw and did. I'm glad we finally made the time (and the 4878 miles!).

I also thought I'd share a little about the RV (as in Recreational Vehicle) lifestyle. For those who might be curious.
Anyone out there an RVer, too?
Some people get a little hung-up on calling it "camping," because there's no tent involved. (Why would I want to sleep on the ground for three weeks in 30-degree nights? If that works for you, great. But, I got nothin' to prove.)

Meanwhile, we got home about 48 hours ago.

I've already conquered the mountain of laundry we drug home...

Now, honestly, our biggest problem is readjusting to life in the Eastern Time Zone. We'd kind of turned into slackers anyway, but the extra two hours on the Mountain Time clock really messed up everyone's sleep patterns. The girls have been WIDE AWAKE at midnight. And my efforts to get everyone up and dressed by 8 am this morning were in vain.

Monday is going to be ugly.