Yellowtail - 2012

Last Thursday marked Day 1 of our 2012 Vacation/Camping Adventure - we were headed to Yellowtail Reservoir,outside of Lovell, WY. The night before I had asked Dan what the plan was for the morning and he had said, "We'll just get up and leave when we're ready." Which to me translated into, "Don't worry about setting an alarm, we'll get the kids ready, finish packing and then we'll leave." So the next morning we get up, have breakfast and as I'm feeding Aylah one last time before loading her up I feel something warm on the leg of my WHITE shorts - YEP, you guessed it ... Diaper blow-out!! Oh the joys of being a mother and getting pooped on many, many times. While this is happening Dan and Kailer are out getting the truck and camper loaded and in walks Dan, "Are you ready to leave yet?" He asks this as I'm walking around without any shorts on ... "Ummm, does it look like I'm ready?" FINALLY we're on the road by around 10 a.m. and as we hit the Interstate Dan lets me know that we're an hour later than he had planned. Really? Because I recall him saying, "We'll leave when we're ready." Needless to say the sun is already creating a scorching day and we hit the road with the AC running full-blast! After a stop in Laurel, MT for lunch we continue our trek for Wyoming. The kids traveled well and Kailer even managed to entertain himself with his bike helmet, which he found next to him on the seat. We were cruising along when he says, "My head's on backwards....."

Kailer with his "head on backwards."  Needless to say, he couldn't get his helmet off after he got it on like this .... it made for a good laugh for awhile.

We made it to the Yellowtail by mid-afternoon with the temperatures peaking at 102!  As you'll see the campground has very little shade and as we pulled in I said to Dan, "Get the AC hooked up in the camper ASAP!"

Our campsite at Horseshoe Bend

Miss Aylah chillin'

Ready for an evening ride.

The first evening we were the only ones there out of our party so we took the time to go for a walk/bike ride with the kids (all 3 of them).  We have been so used to being in a mountainous part of Montana that we had completely let our guard down for rattlesnakes, until we were trolling along and suddenly we witnessed Mesa jump about 3 feet in the air and sideways as a snake quickly moved near her!  Mesa might have used all 9 Lives (if dogs have 9 lives?) on that one snake.  That one incident definitely made us more aware of our surroundings.  Thankfully another snake was not seen the entire time.

The scenery