Mammoth

As the week went on, things started looking better. It was still crazy, but at least we were all happy. Hannah still has been crying as she gets off the bus, but once inside she does fine. So, we have decided to continue her in school there. We had the "young adults" (or college kids) over for dinner on Thursday. Then on Friday, we headed for Yellowstone National Park.

Every year, the 3rd weekend in September, us, the Stahly's and a few others tend to head for Mammoth. We go to see the elk and listen to them bugle during mating season. This year it was just us and the Stahly's. We didn't leave until Friday afternoon, so the Mammoth campground was already full. So, we stayed in a campground by Gardiner. The girls enjoyed playing in the super fine black dirt. We were glad to leave that dirt behind!


Then Saturday morning, we drove down to Mammoth and secured a camping spot. We went back to Gardiner, got our campers and then headed back down. We didn't want to pull the campers the first time because if we didn't find a spot, . . . . Anyway, once we got back to Mammoth it was lunch time. The weather was real windy and rainy, so we decided to go on a drive. We stopped at Mammoth hot springs and walked the loop.

After that hike, we just drove a loop around the park and ended back back at Mammoth. That is where the elk hang out. So we did a little elk watching. This elk, who we have named Ramy because he likes to ram cars, is the one we watched the most. He was a bit fisty and we got to watch him chase the cows and do some mating. That is the first time the girls have seen or heard about that. So, Dan (who brought that up) got to try and explain mating. Briley was really the only one who had some idea about it. Dan was surprised that she had not heard about the birds and the bees before!

It was nice to get away for the weekend. We only got to go camping one other time this summer. We went to Bible camp 3 times in our camper, but that's not really camping! We got up early this morning and headed back to Belgrade just in time for worship. When we got home, we got the camper all cleaned up for the winter. Ed still has to winterize it, but today the weather is rainy. He'll have to do it soon though!