Maynard Family Vacation

Every year we go on a big family vacation with Dan's family to Island Park, Id and Yellowstone. We stay in a cabin, which isn't always fun when you have little kids, and you are sharing a room,but somehow it always works out, we haven't killed each other Yet!! Tha dads always try to fish, but the kids are older now and want to go too, so it isn't always that great for Dan(maybe we can skip that adventure next year). We go to Fish Bridge in Island Park, it is a natural spring pond, that has huge fish in it. My sister-in-laws and I can't believe what children are husbands become when we are there. You know, trying to hit the fish with the food,a nd then each other. Do they ever grow up when they get around thier siblings? The cousins all get on the big log across from the cabin for a photo, it is really fun to see each year how much everyone has grown, and how many more of us there are. Then we roast hot dogs and make smores. It is usually close to 100 degrees and not my favorite thing to be doing right then, but we went early in the spring because I am due to have Olivia when we usually go. The weather was divine, a wonderful 75-83 degrees, so I didn't mind it that much. We were also lucky to have a great fire pit at our cabin which made clean up much easier. We always go into West Yellowstone to see a play at the playmill theater, plays are one of my most favorite things to do especially with my kids, we see them all the time, and so they know how to sit still and watch(thanks kids for being great). This year we saw OKLAHOMA! I love Rodgers and Hamerstein musicals it was great. The lead actors weren't are favs, but he others made up for it. The next day they were doing Hello Dolly, after R&H musicals, it is my favorite, but would not have been entertaining enough for my nieces and nephews. We should have just taken are kids the next day. If anyone has gone toit there this year, let me know how it was. Then everyone goes in to the park to see old F. and get ice cream and then they usually come home to fish. I refuse to pay $25 to see Old F. so we haven't gone into the park in 3 or 4 years. This year I said yes, as long as we spend the whole day. So we had our own little family day trip(which I was needing badly). We stopped at all the places we wanted and took as long or as little as we liked. We went on the southern loop down around Old F. and then up thru Hayden's Valley. I had never been to the Lake or Haydens Valley. The lake was huge and very beautiful, and Haden's valley had some great animals(it was one of the only areas of the park not touched by the fires of 88'. We saw 3 bears, elk, bison, geese, swans, etc. The bear was only 100 yds from the road and the Elk were right off the side lounging in some shade. Both places had rangers there making sure dumb people(Foreign tourists) didn't get to close and to help with traffic. We got caught in a 2 hr. traffic jam as we waited for a heard of bison to walk throught the canyon( I can't remember the name), it was the end of the day and we were very tired,but when we got thru and started heading for the gates, we saw 2 bison crossing a river, it mad ethe wait worth it. I think my kids really enjoyed it because we don't do it every year, and it wasn't so familiar to them. Next time we will skip Old F. all together and head up toward Mamoth Hot springs and do that loop. It was also the 20th ann. of the big fires, and it was amazing to read about and see the pictures, and to see how long it takes to recover from something like that. Anyway, we had a great trip, and want to thank Dans parents for the cabin, food, and tickets, you make the trip more affordable, thank you, thank you, thank you.