Yellowstone Part 3: Mosquito Bites, Nature Walks, and Theatre

On Friday morning an officer came by our camp to inform us that they had a helicopter herding buffalo back into Yellowstone and that the animals might come through our campground. We'd been hearing the helicopter and wondering what was going one. So we decided to go on a walk by the river that ran next to our camp and see if we could see any of the buffalo. We put Jayne in her "ride", donned our hats and sunscreen and headed out. Jonah made sure we also brought a fishing pole so that he could practice some more. On our walk, we visited the tadpoles again. There were even more of them than the day before. We didn't see any buffalo, but we were lucky enough to see a beautiful bald eagle soaring overhead.

Lilly carried the fishing pole back to camp.

After we made our way back to camp, we had lunch and our afternoon naps. Nate's mom wanted to treat us all to a showing of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers at the Playmill Theater while we were there, but we underestimated its huge popularity and they were all sold out. So she offered to watch the kids while Nate and I went to see The Foreigner, also at the Playmill. It was a good thing we got our tickets the day before, because it sold out too.
So after sharing some of Dad and Amanda's super yummy dutch oven dinner Nate and I headed into town. We stopped at the place with the showers so I could get cleaned up. It was the best $3.25 I've ever spent! The water was nice and hot and the sign said the shower would only run for six minutes, but I got all cleaned up, soaked a bit, got dressed, combed my hair and put on my makeup and the thing was still going! It felt so good to be clean and not smell like camping and sweat and sunscreen and bug spray!
We really enjoyed the play. If you haven't seen The Foreigner, I highly recommend it. It made us laugh so hard! The actors were very talented. Before the play they had a little preshow where members of the cast who are in the other musicals going on came out and sang and did some little skits. We really enjoyed the men's rendition of "My Little Buttercup." This was our first time at The Playmill Theatre and we were definitely impressed. It was a great night out.
After we got back to camp, we were introduced to the newest member of our camping family....a toad. Jonah had caught a toad down in the river. Much to my relief we were able to talk him into putting it back in the river so it could be with its family. The kids excitedly told us all about their evening playing in the river and exploring the islands in it with the girls.
After we tucked the kids in we played games with Amanda and Emily in the trailer and shared some treats.
I was really looking forward to getting some sleep that night since the noisy neighbors had been kicked out, but that just wasn't in the cards. Friday night was the coldest of all the nights we were there. Jayne and Lilly kept waking up because they'd roll out of their sleeping bags and blankets. Sometime in the wee hours of the morning they both ended up in the sleeping bag with Nate and me. It's a good thing we have one of those big two person sleeping bags.
The next morning we sent the kids into the heated trailer with Grandma and Grandpa and the girls and Nate and I packed up. Well, mostly Nate packed up. He's a whiz at packing and I didn't want to disturb his genius by interfering.
When we were getting Jonah dressed we noticed that the mosquitoes had eaten him for dinner the night before! The poor kid had a bite in his ear, two or three on his neck, and one on his cheek. It must have been all that playing in the river.

The kids had a fun wrestling and tickling and playing with Amanda and Emily while we got ready to go.

The drive home was uneventful, thank goodness. We had a wonderful trip! Thanks to Grandpa and Grandma and Amanda and Emily for letting us join them and for making it so special for all of us! Lilly just kept telling me every day we were there that "this is the greatest day ever!" None of the kids wanted to come home and they're all looking forward to going back again next summer.