Snow in Yellowstone (June 21)

One of the things on everyone's bucket list for our visit to Utah was to find snow.

Utah had an amazing snow year—192% higher than normal by some calculations—and the snowpack is still clearly visible up on the mountains. We thought for sure we would make it out for a hike while we were there, but...we didn't!

It turns out that 10 days isn't very much time when you have so many people to see. We ran out of time to do any sort of hike (the Y was on our list, as was Timpanogos Caves, and...what can I say? We're ambitious). 

But then when we were driving through Yellowstone, Andrew remembered that the last time we drove through Yellowstone (in June 2011) there were walls of snow on either side of us along the highway. That was not the case this year, but when I saw snow on the side of the road I cautioned Andrew to be prepared to stop. 

Were we already well behind our schedule for the day? Sure.

Did we have a sick child in the car? Well, yes, we did!

But there's snow in them hills...and I was going to find it.

I had him braking at every little picnic area until—eureka!—we found one equipped with some leftover snowpack. We pulled over and everyone piled out of the car.

Somehow Phoebe identified it with a squeal of "SNOW!"

I was shocked but Andrew reminded me that I'd just said "snow" about a hundred times. She was bound to pick up on it. But still! She seemed to know that this cold, white stuff was snow. How?! We didn't get a single snowflake this past winter? 

I mean, sure, we had a pretty big snowstorm last year (in January 2022), but we haven't seen any since then. Surely she can't remember that far back.

Whatever the case, I put her down by the snow and she squealed with wonder-filled awe, "SNOW!"

Then she promptly slipped and fell flat on her bottom.

Here she is saying, "Brrrr...brrrr...brrrr!"

Speaking of "brrrr," on Wednesday (June 14) my Uncle Bruce took us to lunch at the Cannon Center and it rained a great rain. We got a little wet on our way back to the car and Miriam wrapped up in a towel when we got into the car (we had gone to the splash pad the day before and I'd left the towels spread over our seats in the nice, hot van to dry). We started driving and Phoebe started screaming.

"Buh! Buh! Buh!" she yelled. 

We had no idea what she wanted.

"Is Ben doing something?" I asked. "Do you want a book? Do you see a bug?"

I was wrong every time and she just kept yelling, "Buh! Buh! Buh!"

Finally I was like, "Okay, she has got to stop screaming. Something is clearly bothering her. Explain to me exactly what happened when everyone got into the car..."

So Miriam explained how they all got in and buckled up and then she grabbed a towel and wrapped it around herself because she was cold and then Phoebe started screaming, "Buh! Buh! Buh!"

"BUH! BUH! BUH!" Phoebe said insistently. 

"Oh!" I said (finally cluing in). "She's saying brrrrr! She's cold! She wants a towel, too!"

"BUUUUUUUUH!" Phoebe said, pleased that we'd finally gotten it. 

So Miriam wrapped a towel around Phoebe and she immediately stopped screaming and...it's very clear this baby has a lot of thoughts clinking around in her head that she can't quite spit out yet!

And one more side story is that when we went swimming in Rexburg (June 20), I let her dip her feet in the hot tub and the temperature of that was "Brrrr! OUCH!" So...hot.

Now back to Yellowstone! We found the snow, which was exciting and brrr...

Here are the oldest four posing for me:

And here's Alexander, who was hopped up on Tylenol:

He wasn't feeling too good, but he was a pretty good sport about things.

Here he is telling me that he'd rather just wait in the car...which, I mean, fair enough...

He did eventually move away from all the action, but not before he got stuck in the middle of a snowball fight. Poor sick boy was dodging flying balls of ice all the way back to the vehicles.

Here's Andrew getting pegged in the leg (with Alexander getting sprayed with shrapnel):

So we had a snowball fight in Yellowstone in June, which honestly is probably one of the best times to have a snowball fight in Yellowstone.

This is the hill we had to run up and down to get to the vehicles (only a few people fell down it, Benjamin included):

Benjamin was a menace! He was flinging snowballs like a machine and he rarely seemed to miss his target!

Here's Rachel saying, "I'm not even really playing, dude!" (even though she'd flung a snowball or two, herself):

Benjamin thought he was pretty hot stuff...

...until Grandpa caught him.

Grandpa held him while we put some snow down his back:

Now Benjamin was mad. Still in good spirits, but definitely out for revenge, which as we all know is a dish best served cold. And that's the only kind of revenge Benjamin wanted—icy cool.

Here's Rachel hitting him squarely in the back. He just shook it off. He had larger fish to fry.

Here's Grandpa taking a ball of ice with his name written on it:

After that Benjamin felt much better.

Miriam seemed to be staying out of the snow fight pretty well, but I don't think she managed to escape entirely unscathed, either.

It's funny to me to think that in x-number of years, someone might look at this picture of us in Yellowstone and note how vintage our cars were.

For example, here are my grandparents (my dad's parents) in Yellowstone...I think on their honeymoon trip...or something (circa 1951). Aren't they cute?

And look at that vintage car!

Here's my grandma looking glamorous and amorous:

And here she next to a bear (which is definitely frowned upon behaviour these days):

And one day people will look at this picture and think what cool classics our Honda Odyssey is (because surely that is what they will think). Anyway, here's Grandpa holding Benjamin down while his sisters get some sweet, sweet revenge on him:

Things calmed down a bit after that maneuver. Here's Phoebe with a handful of snow:

She thought the snow was pretty neat!

Look at my snow, Mom!

I did look at her snow. It was a very nice bit of snow. 

What I did not notice, however, was Benjamin sneaking up in the background.

So here's Andrew taking a snowball right to the ear:

He protected Phoebe well (not that it mattered in a few minutes), but from that little trick of Benjamin's, perhaps you'll understand why Grandpa kept catching him and holding him while people got their revenge. Benjamin was playing dirty!

Here's Rachel putting a chunk of snow down Phoebe's back. Rachel quickly realized that she'd maybe put a little too big of a handful down her shirt.

But Phoebe didn't seem to mind too much (especially after Rachel took it out):

And here I am, standing barefoot on the snow to ring in my birthday eve: