A Story About Yellowstone and WELCOME BACK!

Dude. I mean Dear Amy,

I don't even know how to follow your post. Those pictures. Amazing. I'm so jealous. So jealous that my moves consist of nothing but dirty restrooms at dirty rest stops and gas stations that probably don't have the internet and lots and lots of tumble weeds.

I'm seriously impressed at everything you saw. I never did much vacationing as a kid, neither did Jon. So we always talk about how we want to take our kids on so many vacations. To special places like London and Disney World, but especially to the natural beauty we hold in our own backyard. (Yes, I just called the entire United States my backyard. I live on the Gulf of Mexico, and my house faces south (sure) so the entire US is my backyard.) I want to see it all. The Grand Canyon. The California coast. Alaska. And every single spot you stopped on your trip.

How sad is it that I've only ever been to Yellowstone? Well, I've been to Mammoth Caves and Rocky Mountain National Park and lots of beautiful state and county parks too. But of all the majestic countryside you visited in a WEEK, I've been to one. ONE. American FAIL.

A few from our trip to Yellowstone back in 2007 (!!!)

Here is a quick recap on our time in Yellowstone. We drove out to Colorado and without looking at a map decided to add Yellowstone to our trip too. They were both "out west" so they had to be near each other, right? Ha. Don't laugh too hard people. We were young. BUT we got to Yellowstone just before sunset and climbed a hill and sat at the top. It was amazing. And then we realized we didn't have a camp site, so we found one just outside of the park for the night. When the sun came up, we hiked our little booties into Yellowstone, passing bison, mule deer, crazy weird birds, and bear poop (AH) along the way. Set up camp at the top of a hill, ate at the bottom of the hill, and Jon held a stick while I held the other end and peed. We had only been dating for five or six weeks at this point, so that was a big deal to me.

I twisted my ankle making the fire that night, we ate some awesome camp food and filtered our water through socks. We went to sleep and woke up a few hours later to the loudest thunder I have ever heard in my entire life. I'm not kidding. And we were freezing. We hiked out the next day (a day earlier than planned due to weather) in the cold, me with a twisted ankle, with everything strapped to our backs.

I loved every second of it. Yellowstone is just so magical, right? It's gorgeous. Unfortunately, we went before I knew what a "good picture" was so a lot of what I remember of Yellowstone's beauty is in my head, not on my crashed hard drive.

How is the job hunt going? That is the worst. I hate job hunting. I'm sorry you have to go through that again. And how is the home coming along? I'm loving the pictures. I can't wait to visit (because YES, I think I need to). How's Arkansas?

Your friend (who is much better at doing the wilderness thing now),
Mallory