We started “school” last Monday the 9th but I think it’s pretty obvious our education has been quite robust all year and even through the summer! I can’t believe this is our 6th year of homeschooling. This has truly been one of the greatest gifts of my life and I’m so grateful. DREAM Academy has had its nightmarish moments over the years but I can truly say that the far majority of the time we all love it!

After our first day of school we went to Yellowstone to take our annual back-to-school pics. Normally these would be taken at an annual park picnic with our friends but we will never forget these ones with the elk behind the kiddos!

Can you believe how much they’ve grown!? Sniff sniff.

We enjoyed watching the elk and bison.

And this juvenile red-tailed hawk came right above us as we watched!!!

I think it’s hilarious that after a few days in Yellowstone when we pass an animal jam or people taking pictures on the side of the road… when we see it’s bison, we all say “ohh it’s just a bison”. We’ve become Yellowstone snobs haha.

As we left that night we saw such a gorgeous sunset. It was such a great 1st day of school.

Now here’s just a random recap of the rest of last week:

As soon as MM & Pa left the temperatures dropped and we also had our annual first day of feeties pics! This is definitely the earliest in the year we’ve had feeties night.

Next thought…. I’ve said it before but I love the NP rangers! And I love how many rangers are present in Yellowstone. Whoever hires rangers does a great job! They are always the friendliest most patient people and great communicators! We also love when the parks have “show and tell stands” (as we call them) set up like this so we can touch and learn:

Our junior rangers are learning and growing like crazy!

Because RR is the fastest reader in the world, he reads every single word in each and every exhibit hall and visitor center we go to. AB looks for anything she can touch and play with. E is between those 2, as usual. 🙂

After the ‘rents left we did go back to the east side of the park to the one section of the grand loop we hadn’t driven yet. We stopped at the general store near the east entrance and finally had the famous Yellowstone ice cream and it was soooo good! So creamy and tasty! We drove through Hayden Valley and saw lots of bison. (“Oh it’s just a bison”)

And one feature I didn’t mention when I posted about the geothermals was dragons mouth. Geez this thing was loud and scary! I think it’s a spring that looks and sounds like a fumarole as the gases and waters echo as they hit the cave walls.

It also got cold enough we had to put antifreeze in Woody because he’s really made for summer spring and fall rather than for winter. So that means we’re doing dishes at the park’s sink which is quite hilarious to me.

After a few days of this we bought all paper products so we only have to wash the pots. Ahhh! 🙂

(Note: I’m the ones who washes the most dishes but I don’t have anybody documenting my life with pics haha)

Really we’ve had such amazing weather this whole trip! And it even worked out well to be cold and rainy last week and this week so we could hunker down and knock out lots of book work!

We haven’t seen a moose here yet ! But I’m satisfied with our 2 we saw in Glacier.

I have had a lot of moose drool to make up for not seeing one here:

We were supposed to be in the Tetons for a few days starting today but the forecast was way too snowy and cold for these Rookies. We are disappointed to miss the Tetons and more possible moose sightings but oh well! We have peace about these changes just like when we had to reroute around Bryce’s snow. We’re moving East toward South Dakota! Thanks for following. Love to all.