Yellowstone 2015

We just got back from a fabulous trip to Yellowstone and Jackson Hole.  The last time we were there was before Tess was born, so it was overdue for sure!  The best words to describe the pictures are beautiful scenery and wildlife, and lots of goofy picture faces!  The kids were into making silly faces a lot during this trip and I love it.  We were there with 2 of Bryan's sisters' families, the Rasmussens and the Williamses.  The kids really enjoyed being with their cousins and I think a bit (most!) of the silliness was cousins feeding off each others' silliness. :)  

There are lots and lots of bison at Yellowstone.  It's normal to have bison-jams where all the traffic just stops while the bison herds cross the road, or just stand in the road lookin' at ya.  They don't care about all the cars around them; they're used to them I guess.  It was the drivers that really needed to be trained!  We were frustrated when tourists in rental cars would just sit there, in Park, forever!  All you had to do was slowly slowly keep driving and the bison would walk out of your way.  They're not dumb enough to get hit by a car--they will move!  Oh well, they are cool to see.

The first day we spent hiking all around the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.  It was beautiful!  During the hike there was a little lake where we stopped and skipped rocks and then we watched some little hotpots.

(So begins some of our goofy pictures.  It was mainly Miles.  Bree also pretended to be shy once in a while...)

 This was at Mammoth.  The geothermal features that are all over Yellowstone create such interesting landscapes.  The shapes and colors are unlike anything you see around here.

 After we hiked around Mammoth, we went to something new, that neither Bryan nor I had ever done, and it was awesome!  You can swim in the "Boiling River" which is a hot springs that enters the Gardiner River.  You can walk up the center of the river in super cold water, and then walk just a few feet toward the bank and feel super hot water, like a hot tub!  People have created little dams out of rocks all along the river bank where you can just sit and visit.  If you get too hot, scooch your buns over about 12 inches and it's cooler!  We stayed in there for a really long time; it is something that will definitely be on my "must-do" Yellowstone list from now on.

On our way home we saw this guy eating on the side of the road.  I think that was Bryan's favorite wildlife sighting.  We never did see a bear (although the Williamses did) and we didn't see any wolves.  But we saw lots of other good stuff.

 The next day we went to Norris for more hiking and sight-seeing.  There are a bunch of mudpots that are quite fun to watch.  I don't know what it is about them, but it's truly kind of fun to just watch them gurgle up and shoot out mud.  Sometimes the mud goes very high and splats very far away.

Our nephew Nathan is at an age (16) where he is a goofball, but in a fun way!  He has practiced the art of photobombing and he is really good at it.  I can't tell you how many pictures we took where he is lurking in the background making a derpy face on purpose.  It cracks me up!  (Miles was trying to be like him.)

I think this next one was at Lower (or maybe Middle?) Geyser Basin.  The blue blue water was beautiful.  The kids had Junior Ranger packets and there was a page in their books that told the temperature of the water based on the color it was.  Uncle Tom had a thermometer to aim at the hot springs and so it was fun for the kids to look at their books and guess the temperature based on color and then have Tom tell the actual temp.  They were pretty dang close!

We saw this beautiful bald eagle sitting at the top of a tree right as we were getting back in the truck.  We just watched it for a long time and then it took off and flew above us, circling around and around, like it knew all the tourists below were watching him and taking pictures!

Our last day in Yellowstone was spent at Old Faithful.

 Old Faithful is so neat and the kids enjoyed it, but we were lucky enough to see Grand Geyser erupt too!  In my opinion it is much better.  Here's the info from National Park Service: Grand Geyser, the tallest predictable geyser in the world, erupts with powerful bursts, reaching between 150-200 feet (45-61 m) high. Its interval ranges from 6 to 15 hours, although recently, it has averaged 7-8 hours. Eruptions last between 9-12 minutes.

It's taller and lasts longer than Old Faithful, plus you can see it from closer range, so it was definitely my favorite.  

And, lastly we went in to Old Faithful Inn.  The kids were impressed!  (And Miles is being goofy again...these are the pictures that he'll look back on and just laugh, right?)

Any trip to Yellowstone involves lots and lots of driving...things are not that close to each other, there are so many cars and RVs on the road, there are bison jams, etc.  So we spent a lot of time in the truck.  Sometimes we get a little silly...here's Tess wearing her headband backwards (up in the back, down in the front).

 When I was a kid going on a road trip my parents would tell us to see how many license plates we could see and it was always a challenge to get all 50 states.  So I told the kids to do that on this trip and it was lots of fun!  Even the cousins got involved and when we'd meet up at a place the cousins would report which ones they had seen.  We got soooo close to getting all 50, but we weren't quite there.  We saw all but 4, however we did see Washington D.C. and 5 Canadian provinces, so that's pretty good!  The four we missed were: Hawaii, Rhode Island, Mississippi, and Delaware.  The funny thing about those four is this:  When we were in Jackson Hole (Grand Teton Nat'l Park actually) I saw a man with a Mississippi hat in the visitors center.  I went right up to him and said, "did you drive here?" and when he replied that he DID drive here, I explained our game and said, "where's your car?  I need to go see your license plate!"  Then he said that he had driven with his buddy and he was from Pennsylvania, so they had PA plates.  Dang!  But we decided to count it.   Then, we went to Bar J Wranglers for their dinner and show and lo and behold, as part of their eclectic cowboy decor they happened to have a license plate hung on the wall as decoration and it was Rhode Island!  So...we decided to count that as well.  (Hawaii and Delaware eluded us though.  Back home in Hooper we happened to see a Hawaii one just a few days after our trip.  I'm sure it was an Air Force guy stationed at Hill or something.  That was cool.  If anyone sees Delaware we would be complete!)

Rasmussens remained in Yellowstone for a few more days, and the rest of us headed down to Grand Teton/Jackson Hole for a few days.  The Tetons are so craggy and with the stormy, rainy weather it reminded me of Middle Earth...creepy and foreboding!

 We explored Grand Teton and hiked around a bit, then went into town for the obligatory antler arch photos.

Outside of Jackson Hole we were lucky enough to see a big bull moose, just hunkered down in the shade.

We went to Bar J Chuckwagon dinner that night.  I have heard a lot about the Bar J Wranglers (they come to Logan all the time and even to Roy High, so I've seen their ads for years) but I've never seen them.  We decided to go and it was a super fun time!  They have stuff to look at beforehand and a little horse-drawn wagon ride and then you pile in for dinner.  There are about 700 people there for dinner every night and it was amazing that they got us all through the line in about 20 minutes total.  They have quite the system in place and it works well.  The food was really yummy and it was "eat until it's gone or 'til you're full, whatever comes first!"

 After the dinner is over the guys come out to perform cowboy songs and they are super talented.  They all play instruments and write funny songs and it was just a good ol' time!  (Bree actually was kind of bored and ready to go after about one song...but the rest of us really enjoyed it.)

On our last day we enjoyed a beautiful hike around Leigh Lake.  The water was cold but it was fun to wade around a bit, hopping from rock to rock.

Then we had the long drive home after lunch.  It was such a fun vacation.  I loved it!  Miles already asked if we can go back next summer so it was definitely a success. :)

Weber County Fair

On Saturday we went to the Weber County Fair.  We have not been for years (since Tess was in a stroller and we didn't even have the other 2!)  We started out by going to the petting zoo and it was really fun to see and feed the animals.  Here's Miles with a darling little goat kid.

I loved the baby piggies.  If they would stay little like that I wouldn't mind having one for a pet.  They are dang cute!

 I can't remember where this type of cow comes from....I'm thinking maybe Brazil?  Anyway, its horns were awesome.

The kids wanted to do the donut-eating contest.  It was hard!  They struggled and tried and could not get a good teeth grip for a long time.  I think we eventually just held the string for Bree.  But they had fun trying.

The girls also wanted to do the hula hoop contest...

Our favorite part was the reptile show.  I think the same reptile man comes every year (at least he was there when we last went 8 or 9 years ago!)  He has lots of snakes and alligators and a really big, old snapping turtle.  At the end of the show the kids could go up and pose with a snake.

 I thought Bree might be too nervous, but she did great.

It was a fun day.  We also watched an antique tractor pull (which was a bit less exciting than I hoped for) and saw the horse show.  I always love looking at the exhibits.  I know it's a little old-fashioned but I still love to see the embroidery, quilts, artwork, etc.  I have decided that next summer the kids and I are going to make some stuff to enter.  I couldn't believe how many baked goods they had.  I can make a mean cinnamon roll and my sweet family says my sugar cookies are better than Swig's, so that might earn me a buck or two in prizes!  The kids can do all sorts of little artwork or crafty stuff that could win!  So next summer come craft with us :)