YELLOWSTONE.

It all began on Taco Tuesday, as all good stories must. 

Alyssa, Kelly, and I went to Don Joaquin's last Tuesday and ate tacos on the lawn in front of the HFAC. Somewhere in the conversation I mentioned off-handedly that the National Parks were free that week. The conversation went a little something like this: Kelly said, "I have family that lives an hour outside of Yellowstone." Lys continued, "Oh, we should go." All of us:"No, really we should go!" We made plans to head on the road right after Jalynn's wedding in Salt Lake.

We lucked out BIG TIME! The park was relatively empty and we had perfect almost fall-like weather. The clouds hung low and there was slight rain, but it was beautiful. Nothing like a little gloomy skies + some Bon Iver & First-Aid Kit to make you feel at one with nature. 

Megan's one big wish in Yellowstone was to find bison. We pulled over at the first sight of bison only to realize later that there was bison in the park for days! 

^^reppin' my city!

^^I couldn't get over this DANGER sign! That cartoon boy with the fannypack—flashback to the '90s.

The crew. Kelly's cousin Derek was kind enough to drive us around Yellowstone. He was a true gem! Kelly also made us take pictures with all of us facing one side. Apparently, this is how Kelly's fam takes pictures on every family vacation. Just trying to be like the Robins!

^^Kel definitely fell while trying to dance on the boardwalk of a gyser while we were trying to film a segment of our trip music video [comin' at you soon!]. She saw this sign AFTER falling.

Old Faithful!!! We definitely tried to get everyone around us to clap after Old Faithful shot up his famous streams of water. I think we had about ten people join in our chorus of applause.

YAAAAAAAS!

Kelly's Yellowstone dream was to see a grizzly bear. She asked all of us to say prayers that we would see one. Literally as we were about to leave the park, we saw a handful of cars pulled to the side. We thought it had to be bison, but then I spotted it..."BEAR!" Needless to say, Kel was plenty excited (see below).

On Sunday, we went on a nature walk in the forest behind Kelly's fam's house. Guys, I never knew Idaho could be such an enchanting place! While I still wouldn't say I'd love to live there, I'll definitely consider visiting there frequently. So, if one of my family members decides to move to Idaho, I won't be mad!

^^Meg definitely got tree sap all over her leggings from sitting on the tree stump two pictures above. Classic. 

^^Just getting comfy on the air mattress. I loved having these girls with me in the mountains. It was fun to just escape the bubble that is Provo for even just a little weekend. 

QUESTIVAL

I'm in the midst of finals right now, and the end is in sight! Last weekend our California Crew was reunited for a weekend long adventure—Questival. Questival is an 24 hr adventure scavenger hunt of sorts. We weren't really in it to win, mostly, we just wanted to explore Utah!

We got a flat tire! First adventure of the trip. Haha. & yes, Scott's wearing a tunic. He'll tell you it's because he's dressed up as Kronk (our team name was 'Beware the Groove,' from Emporer's New Groove), but we wonder about him sometimes.

We slept under the stars on the Salt Flats! It was surprisingly not that cold, although in the morning it was pretty windy. We may or may not have arrived at the Salt Flats at 3 in the morning. oops. I'm not going to lie, I didn't really sleep all that much, mostly because I kept hearing cars driving on the Salt Flats and kept getting worried that one of them would run us over. Kind of an irrational fear because the cars were parked by us, but still! Nunca se sabe!

After the Salt Flats, we crossed into Nevada to complete challenges in Wendover. 

^^One of our challenges was to find and take a picture with a Utah State Quarter. Did anyone else have one of those books growing up where you would collect the state quarters?!?!?! Also, did you know they've since expanded the quarters to include other scenes like National Parks? whaaaa?

^^Another challenge: Eating at a diner and ordering the 13th item on the menu

We ended our questival adventure at Antelope Island. I had never been and it was beautiful! We happened to be there on a day where it wasn't crowded at all. It felt like we had the whole island to ourselves, okay, kind of. 

^^buffalo!!!!

^^Ignore the bugs on the windshield, isn't that sky just dreamy?