DAY 5- Gardner and Yellowstone Park

Today the family decided to pack up the van and drive about 30 miles from our quaint ranch in Emigrant, Mt to Gardener/Yellowstone National Park for shopping and of course beautiful nature sight seeing. It was a late start to the day when my Dad, Greg, who usually is early to rise by the latest 7:30 got up at 10 am! My mom was so surprised to find him still in bed so late she checked to see if he was still breathing! Haha. We were all up and getting ready by 11 and my Dad devised a plan for us to all go shopping in Gardner. As we got into the car Greg proposed his idea about going to Yellowstone National Park. "If were going to be in Gardener we may as well go!" He announced in his matter of fact tone. None of us girls were crazy about his idea. My mom didn't want to go because, like Austin, they had been there before and had seen it all already. I wasn't sure how to feel about going because I had heard it wasn't too exciting but then again I had never been so I wanted to see for myself. Although we had both opposing and agreeing opinions we had decided to go. We pulled into the little town of Gardener and before doing anything we got lunch. The restaurant was cute and was a place you could only find in Montana, a statue of a cowboy on a bucking bull outside.  After lunch we drove to the little shops before the entrance to the Park and shopped around. 

Austin was engulfed into a store that fit her well. It was an old Native American shop that smelt of incense and wood. The containers filled with nick-knacks, beaded bracelets and dream catchers. There were also knives engraved and painted with horses and beautiful swirls of colors and masks depicting Native American faces, some with red tears streaking down their faces and others with war paint. The store was a unique shop to say the least. 

After about an hour or walking around buying things and window shopping once again we piled into the van, this time to go to YellowStone National Park. We drove in and saw some beautiful post card like scenes. After a couple of miles we spotted our first wild life encounter of the day; we saw 6 or 7 Elk lounging in the grass and drinking water from the stream. After our tourist like pulling over to take pictures we got back on the way on our journey. 

We headed down the road and passed some beautiful nature that I forgot exisited amounst all the developments, McDondals and shopping malls of todays modern world. It was incredible! 

We were starting to get to some great spots to see the Park so my Dad had an idea about my Mom and sister opening their doors in the van so they could see better. Literaly 2 minutes after opening their doors a park ranger speedily walks up to my window. "Hello!" He chirped. "Hi!" we all said. "You can not do that!" Huh? I thought, that's weird its just opening doors. "Please pull over there." he said pointing to the side of the road near other parked cars. My Dad didn't quite understand that he meant pull over to talk to him, he understood that he was saying to pull over if we wanted to open the doors in the back seats. After my Dad continued to drive down the road I said, "Dad, he said to pull over." My Dad was confused but pulled over anyway and got out of the Van. Speed walking once again Mr. Ranger John came over. "Sir I asked you to pull over way back there!" He said in a stern voice. Long story short he slapped my Dad on the wrist and put his name on the "short list" for having the doors open. My mom spoke up during the silence and dropped my Aunt Jackie's name and how she was related to us (who is in charge of the Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming) into the conversation, and of course he knew who she was. We got back into the van laughing at the situation and my Dad swearing the only reason he bothered to pull us over was to check Austin and I out. Haha, I don't think that's true but who really knows. 

Ranger John, or Ranger Rick as my Dad called him.

We rode and got out to sight see for another hour and a half and had some funny laughs along the way. As much as my family argues we do know how to make each other laugh, that's what keeps us sane in my opinion. That was pretty much the end to our adventure today; tomorrow hopefully holds some more! -ACJ