Worth the wait.

I woke up this morning to two little people excitedly telling me, “Today is the day we become Junior Rangers!”

I agreed that today was the day but first we were going to the Jackson Art Festival.

Not exactly the response they were hoping for.

They hung in there though as we looked at jewelry and paintings. They were actually happy to be at the Art Festival when we happened upon the children’s tee pees that came with an invitation to go inside and play. And I think they had finally resigned themselves to their delayed ranger status when we were finally headed back to the car to go to Grand Teton National Park.

We arrived at the Park Visitors Center and Kenna and Michal, both proudly clutching their completed Junior Ranger paperwork, marched inside and waited in line at the Ranger’s Desk.

When it was finally their turn, they each handed their papers to the ranger with an enormous grin on their face. She spent several minutes with each of them reviewing their work, asking them questions and admiring their drawings.

She then asked them each to write their name, their age and our hometown in a logbook on her desk.

It was then time for the Junior Ranger oath.

She told them to raise their right hand and they both shot their hands in the air as if they were answering a teacher's question in class. They then solemnly promised to preserve and protect Teton National Park and all plants and animals in the world.

All three of them could not have been more serious as they took the oath.

The ranger then presented them with a gold Teton National Park Junior Ranger badge.

With our newly-minted rangers in tow, we then headed back to the car and drove the rest of the way through Teton National Park to Yellowstone National Park.

Our first stop inside Yellowstone was for mountain berry ice cream and two bear bells before we headed on to Old Faithful. We walked around the Old Faithful Inn and climbed up a couple levels so we could admire the log structure from above.

We looked at bubbling pots of water with steam coming off of them and then we sat on a bench beside Old Faithful and watched and waited. After 20 minutes or so Michal and Kenna decided Old Faithful needed a little help so they tried doing magic to make it erupt. They bibbidied and bobbidied and kept at it long enough that steam finally did start billowing and water did start spraying out of Old Faithful.

They are now convinced that they are in some part responsible for that particular show of Old Faithful's might because, as they told me, "Mom, I think I really am magic plus I am a Junior Ranger after all."

I guess that oath they took this morning was to preserve, protect and do a little magic when everyone's waiting for Old Faithful to erupt.