I imagine that sometime down the road we will all be sitting around, nice happy family style, and we will assert that since we’ve all been to Yellowstone . . . and then Lucy will say, ”
We’ve never been to Yellowstone!”
Then we will all laugh and be astounded and she will be incredulous and then mope as we prove that we have indeed all been in Yellowstone together.
We will say things like: “Yes, we did! We went with Mama Syd and Papa Chris and pulled into Idaho late at night.”
“Yeah, and when we unpacked, Mom and Dad realized there were no sleeping bags for them!”
Cue uproarious laughter!
“Oh, man! It was soooo coooold! Remember? It was snowing in Yellowstone. In June!”
“I remember that we had the walky-talkies but ours ran out of batteries right at the entrance. Mama Syd and Papa had Philip in the truck with them and they told us as they drove away that they were going to stop at the first potty. We got separated and mom was getting more and more stressed out and after Max and Tess changed the walky-talky battery, dad kept saying, “Seven zero one niner, this is Yankee Bravo. Do you read me? Over.”
“And they never heard us!”
“Didn’t you guys catch up to us at the Dragons Mouth or Mud Valcano or whatever it’s called? We had already walked all around he trail and it stunk soo bad. I had to walk it all over again. Thanks for that.”
“That was the year Gemma fell in love with the buffalo. ‘Beeyoufalo boofalo!’ So cute!”
“Mom still didn’t see a bear.”
“But the drive out was beautiful. We saw that avalanche canon and so many water falls.”
“We got to Cody and unloaded in the rain. The bathroom was so far away and we kept having to trek there in the wet!
“Papa Chris made hot dogs on the porch of the cabin.”
“Dad had to work that night ordering prayer cards for Fr. Dillon.”
“Fr. Dillon! How’s he doing?”
Insert tangent here.
And then by a miraculous use of technology we will pull up this post and show Lucy the pictures.
Hopefully we’ll go back when it’s not snowing or raining and I’ll see a bear and everyone will remember it. But in case it doesn’t happen, We love you, Lu!