We're home!

Yellowstone Lake with smoke and fog

We left Western Yellowstone on Tuesday morning around 7:30 after packing up our tent.  We thought we would end up and camp one more night in Rapid City, but after consideration, we decided to go for it and try to get home.  At 1:30 am, we drove into Bell Ct.  Ryan had fallen asleep about an hour before we got home and Tyler was still awake since he had been watching a movie, Short Circuit.  When we got them back into their beds, they fell fast asleep and stayed asleep until 9:45 this morning, a record for both.  Since we hadn't told anyone we were going to drive all the way back so as not to worry family, I tricked my mom into coming down and "checking on something" for me.  She called me a little shit and then we spent the next hour chatting about the trip.  She needed to head to Omaha to pick up my sister, so we figured we'd have plenty of time to catch up and view the 500+ pictures we took!
I am so thankful for the great weather we had and the good fortune of a safe, loving driver, a well built Ford Explorer, and an all-round great family week.  I think my favorite part was the experience of camping in different places and experiencing these beautiful places as an adult.
Andy's favorite part was the beauty of the mountains and views of lakes, mountains, valleys, and different terrain.
Tyler loved the cave and Ryan loved being with family.  That was an "awwww" moment.  Really, I am very blessed to be able to do these things and I'm honestly grateful that we didn't have enough money to stay in a hotel.  Well, we have enough money but that's not what we can spend it on anyway.  We would have never thought to camp, especially in Yellowstone.  And the fact that we went to Vegas in June prompted me to think of taking the boys all the way to the Rockies.  Strange how one event leads to another!
Today has been filled with laundry, organizing, uploading pictures to make an album, and the boys playing with their friends FINALLY!
Tomorrow will be back to work, back to getting up early to jog, humidity (there's relatively no humidity where we were), and housework.  The best thing about living in a tent is that it's very easy to clean!
That's all for now.  I'll have more this weekend!