Around Yellowstone

I know that when you go on vacation, it's usually a good thing and people only have good things to say about it.

But Yellowstone is different.

My Dad started going to Yellowstone when he was a kid. He likes tradition, and likes things to be the same. So he took us to Yellowstone. My siblings all actually like it, and so he plans a Yellowstone trip every year.

Yellowstone though itsn't my favorite place. As you'll read in previous posts, it took a car breaking down for me to figure out how to make that trip fun for me and my family.

So we do Dad's "thing", but it isn't my "thing". Poor Peter and the kids get dragged along for the ride, but it's not really their "thing" either. They would rather be in Jackson or the Tetons, or California, New York or the beach.

Fortunately, the past few years we had very good legitimate reasons for not going: girls camp was the same week, I was graduating from college after 16 years and so on. This year though we couldn't get out of it other than financially, and Dad took that excuse away.

So we were obligated to go. We managed to get a day of Jackson and a day of Tetons snuck in. Then I had to explain that the next part is Grandpa's trip, not ours.

One of the big problems is that my family has always been off of everyone else. I was married when they were single. I had kids long before they were married. So I was hauling around babies, changing diapers, unpacking strollers, and trying to buckle car seats when they could just jump in a car and drive. I've always been the odd one out, and no one likes having us there.

Now that they're (mostly) married and have kids (most of them), they're doing the little kid thing. But now I have big kids. You get the picture. My kids are also loud, fast, exuberant, creative, curious, and like to learn and explore. (As a friend of Lizzy's said who was with us: "They're kids!") They're not docile, don't hold still, and get into everything.

It actually got so bad that by the last night they were telling everyone to not invite us to the campfire that they moved to the I loop, and even Grandpa didn't want to hear or see them. So it's not a good fit for anyone, them or us. They do things there way and we do them ours and the two just don't fit.

This year was a little better in that we didn't have to caravan everywhere through the park, but we still had to be at certain locations at certain times. I'm not familiar enough with the park to figure out how to time everything exactly, plus things arise when you're dealing with little kids, and so I never was anywhere on time. With my own family it's just kind of go with the flow and do what's good for the moment. We don't plan out our days or try to be at a certain place by a certain time. Vacation is what happens. Not so with the Erickson clan.

So the first few days were fun. When we broke off from the group with Lizzy, John and Annie on Friday and drove out toward the East entrance was fun. And driving home was fun. I just wish we could skip the Yellowstone/Erickson Vacation part!

Next year we're talking about a few of us doing Tetons at a completely different time. We'll figure out something. But I don't see a point in continuing to try to fit my family into the mold of the Erickson's. It's just no fun for anyone involved.