Yellowstone Bike Ride

We were all ready for the Yellowstone ride this year and had anticipated leaving right after work on Thursday.  I had to give the introduction at a conference at work and so we had to stick around for Thursday.  Although Wednesday night we noticed that there was something wrong with Lily, she had puss and blood coming out of her and so we decided we should probably take her to the vet the next day.  After I presented at work we got to go to the vet together.  She always gets nervous when she has to go somewhere without Dinky, so I let her sit on my lap - bad idea cause she ruined my skirt. 

 Vet check her over and found that her anal glands were infected and needed to be drained. So they did that and then updated her vaccines.

Away we went.  By this time it was time for Oley to be getting off of work and I had an incredibly bad headache.  So as he finished getting the rest of our stuff packed I went upstairs to try to sleep the headache off before getting in the car.  My head was still pounding but Oley had everything packed including the bikes on the back of the car.  So we rounded up Ad and Dinky and I went to go find Lily - no one had seen her for a while.  When I found her she was having an allergic reaction very similar to the one she had in Spokane.  Her whole snout was swelling and she wasn't doing well.  I told Oley to take her back to the vet as quickly as he could and all Ad and I could do was worry at home.  Last time this had happened we lived very close to our vet and it was a good thing because by the time I had gotten her their her heart rate had tanked and she was not doing well.  They had told me the last time if this happens again it will go a lot faster. 
Long story short Oley was able to get her there in time and the vet that saw her earlier that day was able to get her some meds.  They had to stay at the vet for an hour to make sure that it was going to work and then we were told we needed to watch her closely for the rest of the night.  

 Once she got home and was comfortable she went right to sleep. 

So we had to postpone leaving for Yellowstone until the next morning.   Our drive was definitely long - the first half of the drive this was the company I got as I drove.  Funny how Oley always wants it to be my turn to drive when the baby is finally ready for a nap ;). 

 It was a Long Drive!  We had to stop to rearrange the bikes on the side of the road and Ad was glad to take a break. 

By the time we were 15 miles from our end point Dinky got sick needed to throw up.  Lily was whining.  And Ad was crying.  Oley  doesn't do well when things are a little out of control and so the whole car was in a disarray.  When we finally got to Island Park we were all very glad to be out of the car. 
The next day was the bike ride and it was FREEZING.  It had frosted the night before and it was still really really cold.

 Doug, Robyn, and I opted to ride from the beginning of the route and Oley and Mom had Matt drop them off at the top of the big hill.  The first 10 miles of the ride were miserable.  It was so cold I felt like my fingers and toes were going to break off. 

Once the fog finally burned off it was the perfect weather for riding a bike.

There was tons of wildlife this year.  Not that there isn't every year but it seemed like there was a lot more this year.  As Doug and I were waiting for Robyn at the top of the big hill I turned around to look at Doug and there was a huge buffalo walking towards us. 

We were able to catch up to mom and finish the first half of the ride with her.

The majority of the group decided that they were not going to ride back out but Oley and I opted to so I rode with Marilee's in-laws.  Oley left a little bit earlier than us but we caught him at the half way point on the way back.

I love when we are able to work out together!  We ended up finishing off the rest of the ride together from there. 

Doug and Shelbie met us back in West so that we could take Ad back in to see some of the animals and Old Faithful.

 We got there right as the geyser was going off so we weren't able to make it very close.  Next year we will take her when it will mean a little bit more to her. 

The next day we headed back home.  We were all ready for a break when we hit about Coeur D'Alene and so we stopped at the park that we used to ride our bikes through.  When we lived in Spokane we didn't have kids so we didn't realize how awesome this park was.  Ad had a great time stretching her legs out a bit. 

 By the time we made it home we were ready to be done.