Yellowstone, Day 5

Wedding day!!!  We were all so excited to celebrate with Adam and Megan that it seemed hard to wait until the afternoon to do so!  Since we had the morning to kill, though, Sarah and I took advantage of the time to visit the Mammoth Hot Springs terrace area.  I had hoped to climb the steps to see all of the terraces, but Sarah was less than interested in looking at water and rocks.  We ended up just seeing Palette Spring and the Minerva Terrace, but it was still pretty amazing!

After our tour, we stopped at the visitor center to turn in her Yellowstone Junior Ranger workbook.  After talking about (and explaining about!) forest fires, wildlife, and geothermal features, we had filled out as much of the workbook as we could.  Sarah handed it to a park ranger who looked over it and then shook her hand and presented her with official Junior Ranger patch!  Sarah was pretty proud of herself...

Then it was FINALLY time to get ready for the wedding!  I snapped a few photos of Kate before she spit up on her dress, and then we piled in the car to drive out to Swan Lake Flat to see Adam and Megan get married.  MARRIED!!!  Yippee!

I said it before and I'll say it again - I really don't think Adam and Megan could have picked a more beautiful spot to get married.  A late afternoon thunderstorm had developed over the mountains in front of us and we saw a few forks of lightning hit Electric Peak during the ceremony, but no rain fell on us during the wedding.  It was a little cool and windy, though, so we told Sarah to run around while we were waiting for the wedding to start!

She decided to take off her badge, but as a Junior Ranger, Sarah felt that it was her job to make sure the local flora was okay.

Since the flowers appeared healthy, Sarah decided to run around for a bit (no doubt trampling some of the very flowers she was so concerned about taking care of minutes earlier)!

We took a family photo...

Grammie and PaPa posed for a few photos as parents of the groom...

...Sarah practiced being flower girl...

...and then it was time for the wedding!  I could try to find the words to explain how happy I was for my little brother or how much I love both Adam and Megan.  I could talk about the tears that I shed in seeing their own joy.  I could attempt to explain how beautifully simple and perfect their ceremony was.  But I think the photos show how wonderfully "them" their wedding was... 

  

Perfect, right?  Right.

We love you, Adam and Megan! Congratulations!