SIX States Vacation: Wyoming

The drive from Yellowstone to Jackson Hole was longer than I anticipated. But it was so pretty I didn't mind. I spent two summers working in Jackson Hole and spent a fair amount of time hiking and exploring Grand Teton National Park. I was hoping we might slip over to Jenny Lake but we were running out of time. We didn't get to stop so I made Logan take pictures while we were driving.

 

I absolutely love the Tetons. Ahh...

I took this one while I was driving. I couldn't help myself. I could probably spend a day taking pictures of the Tetons. They even look good through a dirty windshield. What more can I say? The Tetons are the best mountain range ever. 

 

Years ago, one of the only family vacations we ever took was to Yellowstone.  I don't remember too much about it except for being a little annoyed that my mom kept showing us stuff from when she worked in West Yellowstone. We actually pulled over on the side of the road so she could show us the mountain she climbed. At the time, she was so lame! Now I totally get it and it was my turn. That's right boys, you are standing in front of what used to be the Ranch Shops where I sold jewelery, souvenirs, cowboy boots and hats. Now it's Coldwater Creek. Really? Lame. There used to be a giant stuffed polar bear in the back. How times of changed.

A few things haven't changed since I lived there. There is still the Yippee-i-o candy store. There is always a market for over priced candy. And the square is pretty much the same. Antlers on the arches-how cool is that?

Can you see the bunny on Snow King mountain? Hint: it's in the trees.

Get ready boys because next time we have a chance, I am going to show you all of Jackson from back in the day: Hanson street, Mountain High Pizza Pie, Pearl Street bagels, the tree the bird attacked me from....

SIX states vacation: Montana

Since I am in National Park mode, we took a long day trip up to Yellowstone and over to Jackson Hole.  The kids: 

The adults: 

Yellowstone is always bigger than I remember. It really isn't a place you can see everything in a day, especially if you want to drive over to Jackson. Someday I will learn my lesson. It wasn't this day. We did get to see some waterfalls. First, Gibbons Falls: 

Then we went to the Grand Canyon (of Yellowstone), which I kind of like more than the actual Grand Canyon. 

 

Maybe it's because you can see the river. It's so picturesque. That must be why I took a lot of pictures.

 
My parents and 7 of their 12 grand kids.

Most of the kids took off on a little path. I followed and we ended up on a fun little hike.

We ended up here,

with a better view of the falls.

There was a path below that led to an even better lookout of the falls. Noah really wanted to go but we had a few littles that I wasn't sure Logan and I could handle on steep edges so we had to skip it.

Our last stop in Yellowstone was Old Faithful. Last time we just missed it. This time we were prepared to wait. Our timing was very good considering it was us. We ate lunch, picked out some souvenirs (meet Zack's new fox) and...

We are going to have to go back to Yellowstone to spend more time. It is really beautiful.  We didn't see a lot of wildlife and we didn't see the grizzly bear that was hanging out near the road.  We are going to go back until my kids appreciate the beauty enough to stop begging me to let them watch a movie while we were driving. You would think it was child abuse! It's not that I am unreasonable, they can watch a movie once they can name every animal, tree, flower, plant, type of rock, cloud, and habitat in Yellowstone. 

Now for a few random photos. My littlest nephew Crew. So cute and so good! I wasn't in the same "outfit" he rode in but I heard he was amazing. He never asked to watch a movie once.

Ben wanted me to take this picture. I don't think he realized that his gun was pink.

When I was in high school a fun date was to go up to West Yellowstone to see a play at the Playmill. It's a tiny little live theater that sells super good fudge. This year one of the plays they performed was Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. I LOVE that play. I think I saw it at least three times when they performed it the summer before my senior year. Great memories!  I wanted my boys to see it so that maybe we could all break out into dance and sing the "go go go Jospeh" song together.  So far that hasn't happened. But it was worth another drive up to Montana to see it.

SIX states Vacation: Idaho

Idaho has never been prettier. For real. I just couldn't get enough of it. I guess you have to move to the desert to fully appreciate the beauty. This is the butte (aka the "R" mountain) near my parents' house. 

This is taken from the west side of my dad's property.

Some of the dry farms on our way to go camping (more on that later).

 

 I know Idaho isn't considered a very happenin' place, but we sure had a fun time. Maybe because we were with some happenin' people. First off we had a little fireworks show in honor of the 24th of July.  Growing up we never got fireworks unless they were sparklers and maybe sometimes those little worm things. Valley of Fire changed all that. Except for having way too many bottle rockets, we put on an impressive show. 

There are multiple places to bowl in Rexburg. We opted for Fat Cats. I wouldn't blog this little excursion except that FINALLY Zack beat his brothers. It was a big day for him. I may have mentioned before that he is a little competitive. We had 5 bowlers and the screen only shows 4 at a time and Zack's name was on top. I wanted to get a photo of his victory but the worker couldn't make the screen go back and their printer was broken so she couldn't print the official records. We ended up with this. Which proves nothing,

 until you do this.

Rexburg is also home to a new water park. But we decided to kick it old school and went to Rigby Lake instead. It is fancier than when I was a kid. 

 

 

 

 Zack & Haylee worked hard on their little Sword in the Stone inspired castles and  I was required to take the following pictures. 

 We even managed to find time to camp for a night. This is the spot where Dad will take his trailer up so he can fence and be closer to the cows during the summertime when they are on the range. Who wouldn't want to be closer to cows?  It is dusty getting into.

And the cows might be a little too close. None in the site while we were there but there were little reminders that they had been there which ended up on several people's shoes. Cow pies aside, it was very pretty and secluded. That's why all these hot ladies hang out there.

 

The obligatory grand kids on the step shot. 

Before we left we had to pick up some supplies at Wal-Mart. While Zack was with us in the camping aisle he discovered the world of tents. He got a little obsessed and wanted us to buy multiple tents so we could connect them and create a tent mansion. I talked up our tent and then crossed my fingers that it would satisfy his expectations. Fortunately the other kids are used to their fancy camping in trailers and the sight of a tent was a novelty. They just wanted to play in our tent (no way we were letting them do that), but that made it cool enough to pass the Zack test. Whew! 

 4-wheeler rides are always popular. But that may have changed...

 

Just before dinner Kelli (brave soul that she is) agreed to take almost all of the kids (Zack was helping Haylee with an injury) out on the Ranger. Noah took a few with him on a 4-wheeler. It seemed like an excellent way for the rest of us to eat a hot and peaceful meal. So we ate, talked and enjoyed ourselves. 30 minutes passed and I started to wonder if we should worry that the kids were still gone. But every so often you could hear them so I figured Kelli was just being awesome. (She proved that the day before by swimming in the freezing Rigby Lake with the kids for way longer than I would have).  Then as more time passed we realized that maybe they didn't know how to get back. Logan went to try to find them and returned 20 minutes later alone. Now it was starting to get dark and a little scary so Matt & Scott formed a search party. They really were lost. The situation was becoming so desperate that Ben said he was hungry enough to eat fruit.  Other than being a little tear stained and dusty they were all safe and sound and hungry. 

 

Lucky for Ben there was more than fruit to eat. 

 

You are not really camping if you don't bust out a chain saw. I am pretty sure that is a camping rule. 

We added some gun shooting this year. This was definitely not a mom approved idea, but the boys liked it. 

 I couldn't resist taking a few more pictures of beautiful Idaho as we drove back into Rexburg.