We hiked with the group later in the morning up to the Woody Creek waterfall. Kind of a crazy path. It was quite clear to begin with, but after a short time was strewn with all kinds of branches. Obviously the forest service was trying to keep someone off this path. Mark kept saying it was to deter people on four-wheelers from causing damage to the trail. "Hmmmm," I thought, "Those forest people went to great lengths to cover the path." (This picture shows a rather tame portion of the limb-strewn path. We climbed over and under fallen trees a number times.)
It became quite apparent as we came to a fork in the road that the ground cover was meant to keep traffic of the two-legged variety off the path as well. The other path we came to was completely clear.
We continued up the path to the waterfall without much further impediments.
Chris and I planned to take the girls in to Yellowstone National Park, while the guys were going to continue hiking up the mountain. Rochelle and Melinda brought the rest of the kids down. Our descent was much faster.
We headed off to the park and enjoyed the beautiful scenery, the bison, Mammoth Falls, ice cream and lunch. Okay, maybe not lunch. It was an extreme disappointment to Kristen who was expecting lunch in the restaurant at Roosevelt Lodge. The wait was at least 45 minutes and it was already well past lunch time. We opted for sandwiches and lunchables from the little country store next to the lodge. Kristen was not happy at all! and took forever to eat. Chris and the older two wandered off exploring while I sat and waited for Little Miss Muffet to finish.
Amy slept a lot while we drove. We figured she was plenty tired from lack of sleep. Being in the loft, the girls heard the adults late at night and the early risers in the morning. It wasn't until we were back at the cabin that Amy admitted that she was feeling sick. She had quite a fever (like the other sickies at the cabin), and she ached all over. She was most upset that she would be sick for our family reunion in Utah the next day and worried about sharing her germs with my family.
I had her lay down on my bed, but her stomach was already beginning to churn and hurt. Chris and Mark gave Amy a blessing and promised that she would make a full recovery in time for her family reunion on Saturday. She latched on to that idea and hoped to feel better soon. That didn't mean she wasn't going to experience the full throes of the stomach flu. She threw up a couple of times just before bed. She felt a little better but was still as hot as could be. I tucked her in to her bed with a bowl next to her face and she luckily slept until 5:15 Friday morning. As I checked on her, she woke and needed to rush to the bathroom. No more throwing up for her, but she lay on the carpet outside the bathroom and next to our bedroom groaning with body aches. I hated to see her feeling so poorly, yet hoped that no one else would be sick either.
Melinda also became sick Thursday evening and found out later that she had strep. Crap!
Since we were the last visitors to the cabin for the season, we had to clean everything before leaving. Not fun, though I was impressed that my children (minus Amy who languished in bed all morning) were quite helpful. After more pictures (again minus Amy), we were on our way around 10:15 am.