Holiday camping- Yellowstone Park

To celebrate the 4th of July we packed up the kiddos and headed to the mountains for a little R&R.  We met some our favorite friends and proceeded to have a chaotic ball.  It was great, seven kids under 8, good food, good friends, and fantastic scenery.  It really was the perfect weekend.  I still smell like campfire, sunscreen and bug spray, I think its my new pheromone.  At least that's what I am telling myself since it seems to be embedded in every single pore on my body. 

Anyway we spent most of our time in Island Park, ID with a very hot day spent in Yellowstone National Park.  It was wonderful.  We all walked away with sunburns, bug bites, and enough s'mores in our stomachs to float us home.  I love vacation time!

::The air was FILLED to the brim with pollen, really the sky had a yellow haze, that coated my camera lens making a lot of these pics pretty grainy looking.  Just a heads up!::

 {The colors found in Yellowstone are unlike anything else. Breathtaking!}

 {Bacteria mixing with the high thermal heat make some pretty shocking color displays.}

 {Old Faithful in full splendor}

 {Pulled Pork sandwiches that were perfect.  Cast iron is great and BBQ sauce is my love.}

 {Ahhh aren't we just a cute pair of love birds..}

 {Lou and her fishing pole.  The girls world was completed when she received that.}

 {The passel of children that accompanied us, listening to the park ranger talk to us about natures mosquito repellent....pollen.  It coats their wings and they can't fly, it also coats the water so the mosquitoes can't hatch.  Brilliant!  Can you tell Ian had a little visit in the pit from said little bug?}

{Beauty is everywhere!}

{Remember when Smokey the Bear was so awesome?  The kids got to meet him and they thought it was the coolest thing on the planet.  The learned the real story of Smokey, earned a few prizes, and got to say cheese with the bear.}

The 4th of July is one of my favorite holidays.  The smells, laughter, friends and of course food.  I am so thankful for the freedoms we have here in this country.