The first day we were there was the 4th of July. Because of the fire hazards, we couldn't set off our own fireworks. The local Island Park firework show made up for that though. Most the of the family decided to watch the show from the lodge we were at, but my brothers, Aaron's friend (who drove up from BYU-I to see him), Trevor, and I decided to venture out to find the excitement. Long story short, it was worth it.
Oh, on a related note, if you ever want to have a white-trash fireworks show, here are a few helpful tips I learned:
-Have the lone pyrotechnical setting off the fireworks interact with the crowd. Whenever he sets off a big run of fireworks, have him stop and wave his lighter up in the air while cheering at the crowd, who then cheer back.
-Make sure you have an excessive amount of fireworks. And by excessive, I mean make the show so long that people actually get bored watching them and go home. Turns out fireworks aren't as exciting after 1.5 hours.
-Have no rhyme or reason to the actual order in which the fireworks are set off. Have at least 3 false finales, in which people are cheering and clapping and beginning to leave thinking that must have been it, only to prove to them there are more. And more. And more.
-There should be one single firefighter there, one that looks like he is of the volunteer variety. This is definitely a good idea.
-Get a few older drunk women to shout "ooohhh" and "yeeeaah baby" with every firework.
-Don't put any sort of barriers or restrictions on how close people can get to the fireworks being lit. Let families and children sit within feet of the explosives going off in front of them. This will also make it more exciting as embers fall from the sky.
-Serve lots of beer. Call it freedom juice.
-Confuse the 4th with New Years and think you have to keep your firework show going up until midnight.
If you do all these things, you will have pretty amazing white-trash firework show. Trust me.
We spent the next few days frog-catching, horseback-riding, and keeping up with Thompson while he ran around outside ALL day.
My parents were generous enough to watch Thompson while we went horseback riding, the first time we had as a couple. Trevor's horse liked to eat, so they gave him a whip to keep it in line. He was pretty excited about his special whip, but he mostly used it to scare my horse away, who had a thing for keeping as close to Trevor's horse as possible.
We also went to Yellowstone, which, crazy enough, is pretty busy over 4th of July weekend. It wouldn't have been so bad if these guys didn't slow traffic for the first 1.5 hours of our drive into the park.
Trevor kept telling me "I bet there is a bison on the side of the road, and everyone is driving so slow to see it". I didn't believe it would slow things down that much, but sure enough, once we passed them, traffic was fine the rest of the way to Old Faithful. Silly tourists. We were lucky though. My parents got stuck coming out of the park when a family of bison were walking down the middle of the road, blocking all traffic. Silly wildlife.
We got to Old Faithful just after it erupted, which actually was a good thing because Thompson was pretty much done with being in the car. He was ready to eat and to play, especially with his adorable little second cousin. And by play I of course actually mean throw rocks at her.
After Old Faithful we decided to see wildlife the lazy way, at the Grizzly and Wolf Reserve.
I know it is kind of cheating to see wildlife that way at Yellowstone. But we were sick of being in the car. And I wanted to see a bear without being eaten by a bear. And Arrowleaf Ice Cream Parlor was right by. And the graphicness of this flyer kind of disturbed me. So the Grizzy and Wolf Reserve it was.
Up next, the Oregon coast with Trevor's family. And Oregon isn't even our last trip. Seriously, this summer is crazy.
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