Settling in the Kabin

Despite the fact that we had packed on Sunday, somehow we still managed to cut it close on Tuesday at the airport. I'm gonna use two pre-schoolers as my excuse...

The flights to Salt Lake City were thankfully rather uneventful (layover at JFK) and I was glad to not be reminded why I had sworn never to fly with Caleb again until he was at least 10. He was squirmy, but nothing like the flight from Beijing back to Newark last November. by the time we had our luggage, the car seats in the rental, and got to the hotel it was well after midnight local time which of course meant it was after 2am according to our bodies. We fell into bed exhausted and after sleeping as late as the kids allowed, we hit the road.

We passed many signs along the way,

Really?

One state closer to West Yellowstone from Salt Lake. I regret that we didn't take time to stop at the National Potato Museum. No, I didn't make that up, we passed it!

Somewhere along the way we had a distant view of the Grand Tetons.

I somewhat regret that we were all the way out there and this was as close as we got.

Finally we got to Montana and of course had to stop to do the cheesy tourist thing. But we weren't the only ones to stop (we traded taking family pictures) and even though I posted it earlier, it is fun enough to add again.
And finally, one lunch stop, two potty breaks, and some seven hours (yes Traci, I know it should only be a five hour drive ~ this is a preview of traveling with two little ones...) later we finally pulled into the West Yellowstone KOA.

I think that if we simply stayed in the campground for the next four days our kids would have been thrilled...

Checking out the "kabin." And yes, it really is tiny, but it was PERFECT!

After unloading the car,It may look like a LOT of stuff ~ and I guess it was ~ but the green bag was full of linens and the white stuff is a cooler and breakfast/lunch groceries.

we decided to take a walk around the grounds. We checked out the indoor pool (that we never ended up using), scouted out the closest bathhouse, admired the local wildlife,

Caleb wanted to know, "Hey Momma, dose bwuf-a-wo?"

and of course played on the playground.

This slide was super fast and Kylie shot down it like a rocket time and time again!
The blur of Caleb's feet best show the perpetual motion that makes me fall into bed every night.

And then of course we did what makes any camping trip official ~ lit a campfire and made s'mores!

Waiting for the fire to be "just right" for marshmallow toasting.
Mommy getting a little help from the self proclaimed experts.
Caleb was pretty impressed with the fruits of our labor ~ to my knowledge his first s'more experience!
Twenty years from now she'll kill me for this one, but seriously, how did she get marshmallow on her eyebrows?

And then four people headed off for showers (luckily we had practice at the public pools here before we went) and then fell into bed, exhausted, but in anticipation of our first day in Yellowstone National Park!