Yellowstone or not?

Months of preparation and a ton of money and we were off to Yellowstone!  Yay, a first for all of us!  Weird feelings and amid warnings be darned!  One hour into the drive and our wonderful Jeep (which I might add Jeremiah has put tons of time and more money than I care to admit into) decides to get death wobble!  If you haven't experienced this in a vehicle, I wouldn't wish it on anyone as it is highly unpredictable and VERY nerve racking, especially with kids in the car!  120 miles in and we're definitely going to have to stop!  Downey, Idaho!  What? Do we turn around, get another car?  Can we cancel our reservations?  Should we all go back or should some of us stay?  PRAY!!!! While deliberating we start talking to the locals and discover we are only 20 miles from Lava Hot Springs and only 3 miles from Downata Hot Springs!!  Ironic?  I think so.. Lava Hot Springs was full so while we had never heard of Downata, there we were!  In what would appear to be a large park with fire pits and a swimming pool.  I have to say I was a little disappointed to find out that Hot Springs aren't generally located in forestry area inside a big rock.  Rather the famous ones were made into very warm swimming pools.  On another note, we camp quite frequently and I can say that camping in a park 10 feet from other campers is not ideal.  Never the less it turned out to be a lot of fun!  The accommodations were great for the kids and included showers, bathrooms, a park, and of course the hot springs swimming pool with three slides!  Really while it didn't turn out as planned we still made Lemonade with our Lemons and ended up having a great time!  Plus, the hot springs water seemed to work wonders on our skin and hair!  We did cut the trip a day short and it's a good thing we did!

On the way home we made it to North Ogden before the entire steering box went out on our wonderfully reliable Jeep!!! We spent 3 hours there trying to fix the Jeep to get home.  Finally my dad starts heading out to at least pick up the kids and take them home... Low and behold he gets a flat on the freeway in our other car... All the three of us could do was laugh!!!! Well alls well that ends well 9 hours after leaving Downata we arrived home safely and no worse for the wear!  We also got to do a lot of sight seeing since we drove back roads home from Ogden to Salt Lake!  There are some pretty areas between here and there that we would have missed otherwise!  EVERYTHING happens for a reason and you just have to trust God and roll with the punches!  Perhaps Yellowstone next year!