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!

Yellowstone 2016

Derek's wanted to take our family to Yellowstone for years. Well, this was the year for it! Hooray! When you go to Yellowstone, you're supposed to make your reservations a year in advance. That's really hard for me--I'm a last minute kind of girl--so in February I started looking for a June reservation. Ha! Thanks to this really awesome thing called Trip Advisor, and a few phone calls, I was able to find a room for us in West Yellowstone, Montana, about one mile outside of the park. It even had a full service restaurant with breakfast included in our room reservation. Whew! What a relief for this last minute mom. :)

We left on June 2nd, one day after Braylen came home from NY. His luggage wasn't home yet, so he had to get creative with his packing. Good thing he's a boy. :) We drove to Rock Springs, WY and stayed there for the night. All 3 boys love to tease each other, and when you're in the car together for hours at a time, you do a lot of teasing. They gave each other nicknames for the trip. Braylen was Muscular Mike, Kaleb was Billy Joel, and Aaron was Murray. I've always loved their little boy sillyness. How happy I am that it's continuing into their teenage years. Of course it never gets out of hand...HA! They played in the hotel pool that night, and Derek and I loved the fact that they still like to do that.

Taking slo-mo videos while jumping on the bed

The next morning we had about a 5 hour drive to West Yellowstone. Braylen helped out with a lot of the driving, and added more states to his driving record: Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana! He even stopped at every new state sign for me to take a picture at. His dad is training him well. ;)

When we finally arrived at our lodge it felt so good to be there. Our room had 3 queen beds, which was awesome, because nobody had to be on an air mattress or a lumpy pull out sofa. We walked around the cute little town and found a diner to have supper at. All 3 boys order from the real menu now--no more kids menus--so our food budget went WAY up. Sometimes I wasn't all that hungry, and some of the portions were too much for Aaron, so he and I split several meals. Every little bit helps! West Yellowstone, MT reminds me of Grand Lake, CO, only without the lake. ;)

Our lodge is behind me--it's called Three Bear Lodge!

The morning of June 4th, we drove into the park. We were so excited to finally be here! The BEST thing I did for this trip was download an app for $4.99. It used our GPS location to tell us what we were seeing along our way through the park. It told us what was up ahead, where to pull off, what to look for, etc. Without it, we wouldn't know what we were seeing. Brochures and park maps are nothing compared to this awesome app. The kids named it Joel, so all week we listened to everything Joel had to say.

We explored every inch of the park that we could in 3 days. It really is beautiful, and that's the understatement of the year. Our first day was probably my favorite. We did a LOT of hiking, which gave me blisters on my toes. But when I think of that day, I think of all the laughter we shared along the way. Side by side, talking, being silly, and laughing--what more could I ever want? The pictures tell the rest of the story...

The first of MANY buffalo sightings

Everywhere we looked was picture perfect.

I loved all the boardwalks. It made it really easy to see everything up close.

This area had a lot of hot springs and boiling mud pots.
It smells like fireworks!

Getting a better view of a waterfall

We had a picnic lunch every day, and they made fun of my table cloth every time. :)

Our hike to nowhere, and we didn't even have bear spray. Yikes!

While hiking the rim of the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, Kaleb's binocular cap fell
down the side of the canyon. A tree root stopped it, and Derek snatched it up.
I was too scared to try! Derek is so much braver than I am.

One of my favorite pictures from the trip, because this is real life right now.
They're all legs and arms--must be growing teens!

Braylen has always taken great pictures.

I finally asked someone to take my picture! The view behind me is a very popular
Yellowstone picture of the canyon and falls.

I love them!

Porcelin Basin

The sun is starting to set. We had this place to ourselves!

This was June 4th. Whew!

June 5th was Old Faithful day. We did less walking, but that was probably a good thing. My feet needed to recover, and it was very warm in the park. Again, we listened to Joel tell us about everything we were seeing.

The fumeroles, hot springs, and geyers are up ahead.

They were always taking pictures. Sometimes I had to tell them to just look with their eyes!

I'm trying not to get a sunburn!

See the boiling water run into the cold river?

Our boys looking at Grand Prismatic Spring

Another very popular site at Yellowstone

Old Faithful erupting!

Let's be real.
It was hot, and Aaron didn't want his picture taken. But here they are at Old Faithful.

Me and my honey

I think this is Saphire Pool.

Aaron's favorite--Jewel Geyser--erupts every 7 minutes.

Here it is!

Derek and his GoPro, aka selfie stick ;)

We found cooler weather at Yellowstone Lake.

Standing on the Fishing Bridge. Ironically, they don't allow you to fish from it anymore.

Back in our room, we had energy to order pizza, and that's it! Another full day!

On June 6th, we had one more corner of the park to explore: North and Northwest. This day was filled with a lot of driving, but we stopped a lot along the route to keep everyone active. Another gorgeous day in the park!

These are called Sheepeater rocks, after the Sheepeater Indians I think.

I see my colorful kids!

The flatlands at Mammoth Springs

A well known stone formation near Mammoth Springs.
I can't remember what it's called.

Braylen and Derek at Mammoth Springs.
That's not ice in the background--it's some type of white rock.

I asked for another waterfall picture of me.
Good thing I asked for proof I was with them! :)

My favorite picnic spot by far

They skipped rocks--big surprise. :)

Aaron wanted to go to Lamar Valley all week, and we finally made it.
He wanted to see wolves. We were there in the heat of the day, so no wolves for us.

Lamar Valley

Snapbacks :)

Derek liked the row of rocks along the top of the hill, because they looked like a fence.

Tower Fall

Walking out there to see the wildflowers

They had a snowball fight! And Derek put snow down the back of my shirt.
After another hot day, it felt good!

Our last night at 3 Bear Lodge, and Aaron went swimming.
Kaleb joined him, and Braylen surprised them both by jumping in at the last minute!

On June 7th, we packed up and headed to our next place--Jackson Hole, WY, to visit Grand Teton National Park.