Grand Tetons 2016

The biggest differences between Yellowstone and the Tetons? The temperature and the crowds. There were significantly fewer people (and tour buses) at the Tetons. Also, a rainstorm blew in the day we arrived, and brought a much-needed cool down. We were excited for the second part of our vacation!

Our first glimpse of the Teton mountain range from the Idaho side

Jackson Hole is a small town with a LOT of tourists. It was so crowded, but several people told us this was nothing compared to how crowded it gets in July. Yikes! Thankfully, the crowds didn't follow us to the national park. We stayed in cute little inn that also had a room with three queen beds. The third bed was up in a loft, making this room really fun!

Elk Country Inn

My view from above

The loft

The view from the main floor

We spent the afternoon at the visitor's center, learning what trails might be good for us to hike, where to explore, etc. This is before the rain blew in...

The Tetons have no foothills. The mountains literally pop up out of the ground!

We started our first hike and found someone to take a picture of all 5 of us!

Just up the trail from the bridge, we saw a bull moose!

We had to wait for Mr. Moose to move along, since it's a good idea to give large animals plenty of space. :) He took his time grazing along the trail, and we didn't feel comfortable cutting in front of him. Well, at this point Derek realized there was a storm blowing in. We decided to cut this hike short and book it back to the car. When we were close to the trailhead we had to RUN! The wind was fiercely blowing the pollen cloud our way in front of the rain, and we didn't want to inhale all that dust. Good thing Mr. Moose slowed us down, or we would've been stuck in the middle of the trail when the storm blew in.

We found a Dairy Queen between the park and Jackson Hole, and that tasted so good after all the heavy restaurant food we had been eating. We decided to drive along a route the park ranger told us about and see what kind of wildlife we could see in the rain. I think Derek enjoyed it, but to me it got kind of long and boring. I was very happy to get back to our inn and settle in for the night. We had one more full day of vacation and I wanted to make the most of it. We also needed to visit the local grocery store and buy some breakfast and lunch food. Derek and I walked to a small store and decided we needed to find an Albertsons, or else spend our life savings buying bread and muffins. Thankfully there was one about a mile from our inn, so we stocked up.

June 8th was our last full day here in the Tetons. After fixing breakfast in our room (instant oatmeal, muffins, and fruit) we packed up for a day filled with hiking and a picnic lunch. By now, everyone was tired of eating lunchmeat sandwiches at picnics--except Derek and Braylen. They are easy to please. The rest of us are a bit more high maintenance, but we choked down our picnic lunch like the good little troopers we are. ;) Haha! We saw the most beautiful sights on this day, and I think some of today's pictures are my favorites from this vacation. But to keep it real, we were hot. (The heat returned after the rain ended.) We were tired. Aaron tripped and fell about 1/4 mile into our hike and we all walked back to the trailhead to get the first aid kit from the Yukon. We were cranky with each other. After all, this is a FAMILY vacation, and families don't always get along. I type all of this in here to remind myself years from now that these trips were a huge blessing to our family, yes, but they're never as perfect as the pictures portray them to be. That's life, right??!!

Before Braylen went to NY, I told him some people carry their bags on the front
so they're not robbed. He made fun of my suggestion then, and continued to
make fun of me on this trip by posing for this picture. :)

Checking out the bear claw marks on this tree!

The last happy moment of the morning. Right after this, Aaron tripped and fell...

Somehow I got them all to pose for a picture after the bandages were taped to Aaron's knee.

Braylen and Kaleb

My favorite family picture--so pretty!

Derek & Braylen

Aaron's throwing rocks in the lake, wearing his class of 2023 shirt and his new Yellowstone hat he bought.

The hike back to the trailhead was much more fun--Aaron felt better.
This is a picture of Kaleb and Aaron on top of their own mountain.

We hiked this trail, and the boys left their walking sticks here for someone else to use.

It was lunchtime, so we found a spot to have our picnic. I didn't take a picture of it, since it wasn't exactly a fun picnic. Enough said on that topic. :)

We packed up our picnic and walked to a nearby lake. It was gorgeous! Everyone was still kinda crabby though, so I didn't take any pictures with people in them.

When kids (and mom) are crabby, put them in water. Or put them in the car. It still works with teenagers, so we got in the car and drove to the top of Signal Mountain. The a/c felt good, and everyone felt better at the top.

This picture makes me laugh, because Braylen is holding "Butt Rock." by Aaron's head.
Yes, they found a rock that looked like a butt crack.

On our way out of the park, we finally got a picture by the sign.

For our last evening on vacation, we had a special treat in store. Derek's cousin and his wife, N&S, live in Wyoming. They decided to take a few days of vacation, and drove to Jackson Hole to have dinner with us. We love N&S very much, and promised the boys they will really like them, too. I don't think they believed us--but then they met them. :) Let's just say they were very impressed! We had a yummy BBQ dinner together, and then walked to a park in Jackson Hole. We literally spent hours catching up on life, while Kaleb and Aaron ran all over the park. They found a small plastic pig and entertained themselves by hiding it everywhere and finding it again. (And throwing it at each other.) This toy pig made its way home with us and they still hide it in each other's drawers, tape it to a lamp, etc. I wasn't able to take any pictures with N&S, but it's enough for us to have the images from this night in our hearts. :)

We woke up on June 9th and packed up for our drive home. What a week it's been, filled with lots of memories. :) We're all ready to go home though, and we're excited to see our Ginger girl. Some good friends picked her up from the kennel, so she was waiting for us at home. Kaleb and I gave her a good brushing the next day, and this is what our yard looked like when we were done!

I'm very thankful for our trips to Yellowstone and The Tetons. The years are going by so quickly, and these family vacations are so special to me. I'm sure glad Derek wanted to take this vacation!