It's a small world afterall... in Yellowstone.

We quickly learned the difference between "Vacation" and "Family Trip." 2 days after returning from our cruise, we took the kids to Yellowstone for a quick trip. We had a great time, but it was a little exhausting. The kids, Tol especially, don't love long rides in the car. That combined with the portable DVD player issues made for a long ride.

We broke up the drive by stopping at BEAR WORLD. The kids loved that. We saw lots and lots of bears, and buffalo, moose, elk, goats and deer.

Tol and Ad also loved the petting zoo and rides. It was pouring rain by the time we got on the rides, which was a bit of a bummer, so we got soaking wet!

Okay, I thought this was crazy so I had to throw it in. See that guy with Addi? So last summer, Kristen and I went to the James Taylor concert. It was a great, yet pretty chill concert. It was at USANA and everyone was just chillin on their blankets enjoying the tunes EXCEPT this group of people that were up dancing. This one kid caught our eye. He was adorable. Kristen and I developed a crush (and I can say that because he was around 17 or 18). So that was that. THEN, the following week, Dave and I were up in Park City and as we were in line for the Alpine Slide, I spotted this kid. I knew it was him, too, because he was wearing a J.T. t-shirt. Of course I said something to him and that was that. Okay, so THEN I was at a wedding earlier this spring and YES, he was there. I could've spotted those dance moves a mile away. JK. Okay, so he's obviously in this picture with Addi which means I ran into him at Bear World as well! Right when we pulled into the parking lot I saw him getting his picture taken with the bear out front. WHAT THE HECK?!! So I introduced myself and talk about SMALL WORLD. Not only did I run into this kid everywhere, but we had like 10 other connections. One of his relatives is married to one of my relatives, his dad grew up playing basketball with my dad, his grandparents are great friends with my grandparents and then we both scored high on the whole "do you know so and so" game. I guess I should say his name is Max and he was darling. He is now on a mission and I hope my new friend is doing well out there.

Alrighty, moving on.

Yellowstone itself was great. My dad took me and my 2 sisters there every year growing up and I loved it. It was a super fun tradition. This trip brought back lots of great memories of those days.

My kids were blown away by Old Faithful. They thought it was super cool. And I didn't realize that Dave had never seen Old Faithful, either, so he was pretty amazed as well. We also saw all the hot pots and TONS and TONS of buffalo. In fact, we saw so many buffalo that Tol had had it with buffalo and told us we could no longer stop to look at them, point them out or talk about them anymore. NO MORE BUFFALO!!

So here's another crazy coincidence: Back before Dave and I had kids, we babysat 2 little boys, Jamey and Patrick. I met their mom because she was client at the first salon I ever worked at. Anyway, we became super close to these 2 boys. We were so sad when they suddenly picked up and moved to Texas. At the time, Jamey was 2 and Patrick was 9 months. We stayed in touch for a while, but the last time we saw (and talked to) them was 4 1/2 years ago when they came to visit. Since then I haven't been able to track them down.

So I'm sitting in the lobby of our hotel in Yellowstone with Addi and walks in James, the dad of Jamey and Patrick. Again, WHAT THE HECK?!! It turned out they were on a crazy road trip and stopped there for the night. It was so great to see them! Jamey and Patrick were HUGE and of course, had no idea who I was. sad. We were leaving Yellowstone the next day and their next stop was SLC so we met up with them for dinner at the Red Iguana (our FAVORITE mexican!!).

Oh, and how can I forget to add that this adorable family is responsible for Tolman's NASTY bear. They are the ones who gave it to him as a baby gift. I had to show them what they've created. Thanks guys!!