everybody was bright eyed and ready to go at the crack of dawn!!
and navigating an airport is a piece of cake when you have all these little elves to carry the bags!
we barely made it. i'm not kidding. we had the worst flight from denver to jackson hole. i thought we were going to just bump right out of the air. it was clear by the end of the flight that wes and i do not have the stomachs to handle serious turbulence. he had a barf bag out, and i was pretty much in the floor. reed and william weren't fairing too well, either, but somehow we landed. there may or may not have been some applause to accompany that landing!
we recovered and went straight to the visitor's center to get our national park passports stamped/canceled. and, they wanted a picture with this elk since they wouldn't get this close to one in real life!
i have never used a grocery delivery service, but i tried it out for the first time on this trip. i can't believe that i have never had this in my life. it is fantastic!! groceries delivered and waiting on the counter when you arrive! fridge stocked. ice cream in the freezer. i could get used to this!!
one of the best parts of the trip was that we got into both national parks for free....thanks to wes! the entire national park system has an initiative where all 4th graders (and their families) get in free. so, wes just showed his pass at every checkpoint, and we just scooted on through! way to go, 4th grader!
we had some cousins that overlapped with us for a few days of our trip, so we did some short hiking with them around teton village at the top of the gondola on the night that we arrived. it wasn't serious hiking....just some switchbacks for some cool views!
this picture doesn't do justice to just how vertical this trail actually was!! we weren't sure aunt holly was going to make it up!
we had to hit up our favorite restaurant the first night we were there (along with a few other nights)...teton thai. reed was an instant fan!
i have a picture from every single trip to the tetons of somebody with these bears at snake river lodge! so, we had to keep the tradition going.
we got up early the next morning and had a fantastic hike that started at the rockefeller preserve and went all the way around phelps lake. it had it all....creeks, woods, lakes, meadows, canyons.
one of the favorites is always the scenic float. it's about 9 miles of a slow float down the snake river with incredible views, wildlife sightings, and a history lesson from the guide. (and, i always request Reynolds because he's the best!)
ready to float!
we saw a moose, some beavers, an osprey, and 10 bald eagles. not to mention all the "ordinary and common" animals.
we celebrated reed's birthday while we were there. we like to have cake for breakfast on birthdays, and we didn't want to break tradition. so, i tried my hand at high altitude baking. i was concerned, but it got some thumbs up!!
reed got to choose the morning activity on his birthday, and he chose the ropes course. it was a good choice. all the little people enjoyed being little monkeys that day!
we hiked around string lake, and it was so pretty!! we went on around to leigh lake for some great views of mount moran, helped a family portage their canoe, and wes found an eel. or something. it looked like an eel!! :)
the moulton barn is the most photographed barn in america. it's not hard to see why!!
we rode through antelope flats looking for antelope. we saw a few, but i think the incoming storm had them hunkered down somewhere. no matter. we found some water. i really think that if you give these people some water and some rocks, they could skip and throw rocks all day long!
teton village is just a great place to hang out! and, without the humidity of mississippi...we did just that!
we had to give that other park some love while we were so close!
waiting on old faithful!
there she goes!
we walked around the rest of the lower geyser basin to see all the other pools and geysers! reed really wanted to wait on the castle geyser to blow. it was expected to erupt at any point in the next 24 hours. we'll have to catch it next time!
the river geyser was pretty impressive. we timed that one just right!
we made our way along the walkway/boardwalk to look at the smaller geysers, and we got to see old faithful erupt again....this time from a distance!
we made a stop at the midway geyser basin to check out the excelsior geyser and grand prismatic.
they just had to touch the firehole river. it was a little warmer than all of the other water we were around!!
gibbon falls
we didn't see a bear, but we did get up close and personal with this guy. from the car...we aren't dummies!
looking at the upper and lower falls in the grand canyon of yellowstone.
the "other" grand canyon
we made a stop by canyon village to try some huckleberry ice cream (nobody was a fan!) and get some snacks to refuel for the drive back to teton village! but before we got too far down the road, we stopped to see sulfur springs, mud volcano, and dragon's mouth!! dragon's mouth had some really neat sound effects!
this buffalo was perfectly content while warming himself by a geyser!
we spent a beautiful morning at jenny lake! i won't name any names, but some of us are better paddlers than others!
we headed over to jackson lake lodge for lunch one day. talk about lunch with a view!!
we had to take the obligatory picture under the antlers in downtown jackson!
we had a great balcony. while the others were finishing up their ice cream one night, reed polished off his mug of cool whip while we listened to the Hof band over at Alpenhof! i can't explain him!
we introduced everybody to white water rafting while we were there, as well. it was certainly a hit! i thought that i needed a wet suit, but i definitely did not!! it came off shortly after we got out on the water. reed had to have some river booties, though. however, they did not help when he decided to jump in the river during a calm part of the trip! he quickly hollered for somebody to pull him back in the boat!! 55 degree water is not the most fun thing to swim in!
lots of bus riding to and fro!
on the water (with a crazy, middle child leading the way)!
all you can see is wes' hand in this one!
we were sad to say goodbye to our favorite place, but we will definitely be back! hopefully, sooner rather than later! peace out, GTNP!!
