From Jackson, we headed into the Grand Teton National Park. Matt was really hoping to see some bison - or something at least, but our National Park adventures were pretty animal-less, unless you count some birds and chipmunks. We decided the Grand Tetons were more "car friendly" than Yellowstone. You could see most of it from the car, that is. To see anything cool at Yellowstone, one has to walk. :) We first stopped at the visitor center, perused the gift shop, and watched another movie. :) Then we headed toward the gate to pay them our $25 entrance fee to both parks.
Matt had never been to Yellowstone before. I have only been one other time, so I at least had some idea of the cool things it had to offer. The sun was quickly setting, and we did want to get to Dave and Natalie, but I also didn't want Matt thinking Yellowstone was lame (remember, he wanted to see bison). He didn't get to see Old Faithful erupt. All he could see from the car was steam rising from the ground all over. When we got to the Firehole pool drive, I made him turn off and take it. He got to see some of the cool colors the area creates before it got too dark. We got to see some little geysers too:
Matt at Yellowstone.
Us at Yellowstone - you can see it was getting rather late :) There was construction in Yellowstone too, but fortunately, we were headed for the west gate, and the construction was between the west and north gates. We finally made it out to West Yellowstone, where I finally had service to call Natalie :) Dave gave us directions to his grandmother's cabins in Island Park. (Natalie had called earlier and asked if it was okay we stayed there, since the hotel they live at was really busy and needed the room we were going to stay in for dirt cheap. Of course I said okay. The cabin was free! ;) ) We made it in what felt like the middle of the night, but was probably only 10:30pm-11pm. We visited with Dave and Natalie for a bit, then they showed us to the upstairs cabin where we were staying. It was so nice! Barbie stove and all :) After changing and getting a bit settled, we walked back over to Dave and Natalie's. They put Nora to bed and we watched Walk the Line. It was like 1:30am before we went to bed. Needless to say, we didn't head back into the park the next morning :)
Instead, after finally waking up, I wandered out onto the balcony, and there was a little squirrel right outside Dave and Natalie's door. It knew I was watching it because it didn't move. I decided to walk to the side of the balcony to get a better picture, and it took off! I got Matt out of bed, and we walked over to have breakfast with Dave and Natalie. (Thanks for the breakfast burritos, Dave! They were so good!) We ate and chatted for a bit, then we headed back upstairs to get ready for the day and to pack some. Then we went back to chat some more. It was so fun to just hang out without any care for the time or schedules. In fact, the whole trip was kind of like that. It was beautiful! Natalie and I perused the Ikea catalog her parents had brought up, and we just lounged around. Finally, we headed back to the upstairs cabin to finish putting everything away so we could get on the road.
My favorite picture of Nora. We were going to stop in Idaho Falls for lunch, but we opted to head on to Pocatello instead, where we lunched at our usual Burger King. (I told you, I've been to Jackson too many times - I have traditional stops!) After lunch, we headed down to Malad, where my Grandpa Wilson grew up. I'd been feeling left out since over the last year or two, some of my extended family has been going up to Malad with Grandpa. If they'd just let me know, I'd totally come! So we stopped anyway. I've always driven past and thought, "That's where Grandpa is from," but since I've always been with the band, I've never stopped. We parked and wandered around, coming to the veterans' memorial, where I knew Grandpa's name was because my cousins have a picture of him pointing to it. Well, I didn't have Grandpa, but I took a picture of his name anyway :) Then we wandered around some more while I took pictures of the things I found fascinating. When we got back to the car, we drove around a little bit, then headed back to I-15.
The plaque with my Grandpa Wilson's name on it. 
Matt sitting outside the American Legion building in Malad.
We headed out to Promontory, Utah. I first recall learning about Promontory Point and the golden spike in fourth grade, when we did a program with that historic fact having its own song (I was a narrator in said program), but I didn't have a clue where that was. Of course, I googled it, discovered where it was, then found the necessary information to take a trip there. I had been feeling a little bad that I lived in Utah, knew this part of history, and had never bothered visiting. (Don't feel bad if you're in the same boat, it's in the middle of nowhere.) The visitor center closed at 5pm, so we were speeding along back country farm roads. My Matt is amazing :) He got us there with 20 minutes to spare. The ranger lady was nice, too. Since it was so close to closing, the replica trains had already gone, and she didn't bother charging us. Again, since we were in such a hurry to see the actual center, we didn't stop at the sign until on our way out.
Part of a display at Golden Spike National Historic Site.
Golden Spike National Historic Site
Us with the choo-choo
This poor guy has a little cast on his leg.
Baby Golden Lion Tamarins!
Fossa!
Matt at Elephant Encounter.
These naughty squirrels were stealing all the sunflower seeds for the wild birds. They would even climb in the zoo's bird cages to forage for more. Greedy buggers. :)
Wouldn't be complete without a bird picture.
Baby Meerkats!
Just chillin'
Baby Giraffe!
Red Panda
Penguins
Zebras
It was too hot for the bears, too.
Gorrilla
Nope, I'm not an Orangutan. Both the Gorilla and Orangutan size comparisons had the additions for the various stages of life and sexes.
