Days 16 & 17

Day 16 of our trip found us still in Cody, Wyoming visiting the Buffalo Bill Historical Center.  I highly recommend it for children!  It was very hands on and interesting for the whole family.  We especially loved all of the nature displays about Yellowstone National Park.  There was fascinating information about Buffalo Bill, his wife, and his daughters.

We drove about four hours and arrived in the beautiful state of Montana!  We rented a cabin for two nights.  The owners were extremely nice, bringing us homeade chocolate chip cookies the first night and homeade almond cake the second night!  Yummy!  We also received fresh eggs from their chickens that we enjoyed for breakfast :).  The cabin is close to a very high river (the waters are high due to all of the snow they had all winter and spring), and the back porch overlooks part of Yellowstone!  When we pulled into the driveway,  two mule deer were feasting on the grass and just stood staring at us!  This house is not as big as the first house we rented, but it is still much bigger than a hotel room :).  We have enjoyed its coziness and have made good use of the kitchen!

Fresh eggs for breakfast :)

Lovely mountain view from our porch!

After getting settled, we called my cousin Joel (actually he is my cousin's son, so I guess he is my second cousin?).  Joel, his wife Victoria, & their son Elijah (who is 9) invited us to dinner and were so hospitable.  While we were there, my Aunt Ruth (Joel's Granny) called from NC to welcome us to Montana!  I wish we could have brought her along on our trip as well.  Next time, we really should rent a bus :).  We so enjoyed getting to know Joel's wife, catching up with Joel, meeting their son and all of their animals!  They had an awesome dog named Krypto, that the kids loved.  Victoria made us a wonderful meal and Joel grilled elk and antelope for us.  I cannot say enough how great it was to have homecooking after eating in restaurants so much!  Rebekah enjoyed talking to Victoria about crafts and Victoria even gave her some beautiful yarn!  It was neat to hear what brought a NC boy and a Chicago girl together to start a new life in Montana.  Thanks, Joel, Victoria, & Elijah for your kindness and hospitality!

As I mentioned, we had breakfast here (on Sunday), had "family church," Harvey packed a picnic for us, & I made spaghetti to cook in the crockpot all day to eat when we returned Sunday night.  We spent several hours at Yellowstone, this time going to see the geyser, Old Faithful.  It was cold and rainy most of the time.  I did not feel very well, unfortunately.  Besides seeing the geysers, the highlight had to be seeing a herd of big horn sheep go up a hill, cross the street to go up the opposite hill, and then turn around and cross back over again!  It was pretty funny how all of these animals backed up traffic.  Trey was able to get out and take some amazing photos of them while we were turning the car around.

This entrance to Yellowstone is beautiful!

One of the bighorn sheep crossing!

When we returned to the cabin tonight, the owners of the cabin came and asked us to see their new baby ducks.  Their youngest daughter, who is Rebekah's age, was very kind.  The younger children enjoyed playing with her.  If you are ever in Montana, I recommend staying here. You can find them at  http://www.headwatersyellowstone.com/ .  By the way, in case you are worried about the wildlife, you will feel safe with them, her husband is the Chief Park Ranger of Yellowstone :).

We were impressed by those we met and spent time with.  In this area, they basically have three months of good weather to make a living!  Tourism is obviously important here and they work hard to provide for tourists. Of those we we were around and talked to locally, not many have only one job.  It is beautiful country, to be sure, and these are hard-working people!

What did not work:  our clothing!  We definitely needed warmer clothing for this part of our trip.

What worked: Cooking in the house!!
This verse found in Psalm 104:24: "O LORD, how manifold are your works!  In wisdom have you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures." :)

Carried by His grace,