It was a couple of hours long and we had the session to ourselves, which was strange since the morning session was packed. The kids loved learning about smoke jumpers, especially the part where they were able to suit up in the smoke jumper gear and practice jumping out of a mock airplane.
In the high mountain passes there was snow more than ten feet deep in places! We finally found a safe place to pull over and played in the snow for a bit, such an adventure for Texans.
On our travels we stumbled across a mother black bear and her three cubs... What an amazing experience that was! We were less than ten yards from the bear family, and were happy to enjoy watching them from the safety of our car.
At Mammoth Hot Springs we really enjoyed hiking around the gorgeous terrace formations.
The wind blew away my favorite hat, but luckily the boys and I were able to create a human bridge to safely retrieve it without stepping on the delicate mineral formations. It took a bit of creative footwork and careful climbing to get over the fence. They were so clever in coming up with a solution to the problem and I was so grateful to have my special hat back. I think Matt will always remember being suspended horizontally above the mineral flats being held by his wrist while he s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-d and used a little stick to catch the brim of my hat and flip it to safety.
We attended several more Junior Ranger programs, and made thank you cards for our favorite rangers. I just LOVE our outdoor classroom!
Sarah and Daniel worked together for over an hour on their workbooks today. I love it when they help each other.
Before heading back to our campsite, we visited the Old Faithful Inn. It's one of the largest wood structures in the world, so I just couldn't skip this stop. It's too big on the inside to catch a picture that adequately reflects it's grandeur....this shot is just one beensy corner showing the 'Crow's Nest', where the orchestra would climb up to play their serenades for Inn guests dancing below. It reminded us of Hogwarts.
Sarah helped Joseph make a dozen pet rocks by drawing faces on the rocks and coloring them. Then she made an origami house and bed for the rocks. He named each one and lovingly tucked them into bed with a clean sock and they sang lullabies while rocking the rocks to sleep. Later she fashioned a carrying pouch out of another sock so Joseph could take his rocks for a walk. He brought his rocks all over the forest when we explored today. He is very happy with his new pets.
It was a very fun day and we learned so very much.
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