Final Day 4

We met up with Grandma Donna and Grandma Ruth in Jackson and went to the Bar J Wranglers show. I love that show; the music, the food, the humor, it's really great!

Drew really laughed at some of their jokes. It's fun to have a child old enough that they can actually understand the jokes. The kids did pretty well. It was rather tight quarters and I did have to apologize to the man in front who shot a few glances my way during the show. He got kicked in the lower back a few times by the wiggliest of our bunch. And the fiddler was A-mazing!!

I love just driving, and I love the Tetons! We don't get to view this side of them as much. The drive really was beautiful. And the kids really were wonderful during the drive too. Lily was incredible and never even fussed--the whole trip!

There are buffalo down in the mid-left side of this photo--not bushes. This was when we were in Thermopolis. Remember that my pictures are in backwards order in each post... It is amazing how much the landscape changes not that far from home. The mountains were all red rock which you can't really see in this picture.

We let loose and ran around at a park before hitting the road again.

My kiddos.

Getting a little competitive exercise in. I love Hannah in the back, running her little heart out.

And Daddy took the girls on the slide.

Hannah in her special bed at the hotel. She was wired and crazy because of her schedule being so off. Not very much sleep, no naps.... But all is well now!

Day 3

On the third day, we hit the road again and drove to the metropolis of Thermopolis Wyoming. Not a booming city, but there were some things we enjoyed there. We swam in the largest mineral pool in Wyoming, it was the perfect temperature so even Lily could get in!

We went to a Dinosaur Museum and took a tour to this actual dig site on the mountain. It was pretty cool. The bumps in the ground are actually dinosaur footprints, and then there are bones you can see stuck in there too.

Here I am holding a dinosaur tooth.

Jed and Lily on the way up to the dig site.

Just outside the museum there was a deer that let us get pretty close to it. By the time I got my camera out, the deer got farther away, but if you squint you can see it in the background on the dirt road.

Madelyn finally decided to let Jed sacrifice her to the T-Rex. A little more drama in this photo would have been a lot more effective! Maybe like a crazed look in Jed's eyes and a petrified Madelyn....

Hannah driving the dinosaur truck.

Cute kids if I do say so myself.

Madelyn was starting to get a little spooked out at this place. I could relate, I remember going to the dinosaur museum in Vernal Utah with my family and they have mechanical moving dinosaurs....really creepy.

The coolest thing about the drive to Thermopolis were these awesome tunnels. You don't get to drive through a mountain every day. The rock mountains we drove through were incredible. They were HUGE!! I had to bend my head down in my seat just so I could see the top of them.

We found this big horn sheep on the side of the road. They can climb vertical rocks with such ease!

We got pretty close to this guy with our car.

About an hour or so into our drive, Madelyn felt a little sick. Luckily we took care of this in time to spare the car.

Vacation 2010: Days 1&2

So the last week before school started, our family decided to up and go on a road trip. We did a little planning and packed up and headed up to Swan Valley. Blogger is being really frustrating and won't let me put the pictures in order, sooo.....this will be a backwards journey through days 1 and 2!! On the second day Grandma Donna and Grandpa Jody came up to share a beautiful day on the lake. We fished on Palisades from the boat and didn't catch a single fish. But, that was ok, because then the highlight was swimming in the lake! Everyone except Lily and I...

The girls and Grandma chillin on the front of the boat with snacks.

Even though they didn't have much luck on the lake, they had great luck at the creek right by the cabin.

Drew displaying his catch.

Jed's family's cabin is right around the corner from the Palisades hike. So everyone was a good sport to indulge me in a hike. Although, you really can't get far on the rocky trail with a small wheeled stroller. Hannah was not enjoying the ride too much, it was a little too extreme for her.

Jed was amazing and stuck it out with the stroller FAR longer than I would have. But, eventually they decided to turn around and go back to the car. Drew and I pushed forward and kept on hiking. We stopped at the creek and tried to catch minnows. They are too fast for us. We got spooked when we heard something rustling in the bushes beside the trail....and turned around too!

The kids all pumped to go on VACATION!!

Summer Highlights

Summer went way too fast. We were able to have some fun times, here is a taste of what we did:

We went with some friends and had a BBQ at Rigby Lake. The kids loved playing. They have made some nice improvements there. Hannah had fun throwing mud and running into the water.

Drew and Jed swam out and did the water slide. That is Drew on the slide and Jed right there in the water waiting for him.

Drew and I were working on this sand castle--which was futile. Hannah enjoyed personifying Godzilla and made sure we did not make much progress on the castle....

We drove out in the desert and with some time spent on the bumpiest road ever, we found a lush little campground infested with mosquitos!! We pioneered some herbal mosquito repellant--we will not make that mistake again! But we did have a really fun time. Jed is starting a fire without matches which he did successfully! Very impressive! ;)

Two cute little girls enjoying the campfire.

Just a cute picture of Jed with some of his girlies.

We had a good share of exhausted kids this summer. Lily is having a shnooze while the rest of us played in our pool. I just love her suit!

Hannah exhausted in the car.

For family home evening one night, the kids and I went to the zoo with some of Jed's family. We did this while the men were out of town drilling wells.

Madelyn feeding the goats.

We ventured out with our family to hike Cress Creek and Grandma Donna and Grandpa Jody met us up there. It was a hot day, but we had a lot of fun. The kids were very preoccupied with the treats they packed on the way up...

until we found this...

everyone got their turn holding the lizard.

A lot of fun.

Ready for some hiking!

Jed's been cruising this little puppy around our house with the kids, which of course they all enjoy. If you look hard enough you can see that it put Lily to sleep!

What a maniac! Caught like 3 feet of air that time... :)

Madelyn doing her swimming lesson assessment. She did really well this year.

Drew did really well also. He has gotten so much more brave in the water. They both really liked it and we had a lot more fun in our swimming pool this year too.

Well, that about wraps up the highlights....the computer didn't upload all the pictures I told it too. Oh well, I'm sure it was enough! We had a good summer and made some good memories! Now we've put away the pool, put away the popsicles and traded them in for books!! I love fall too!!!