JACKSON

Out of all of the places I've been, I have to say Jackson ranks right up at the top of my list. To me, it is one of the most beautiful places on earth, although I had never been there until I got married. Ryan's family has been going there every year for decades. So, of course, we kept the tradition going after I joined the family. I absolutely love it there. We go in September when the summer rush is over and there are very few people around, the weather is very fall-like which is a welcome change after the brutal Utah summers, and the scenery is spectacular. We didn't go last September because we strayed from the formula and took the whole family to Vail instead. Great trip, but I'm glad we are back on the Jackson track.

We loaded up Thursday evening and headed up. We stay in Teton Village which is just outside of Jackson and just South of Grand Teton National Park. Friday morning, we headed off to the parks. We only had one day to spend in the parks, but I think we did a pretty good job of packing a lot in. While driving through GTNP, I took these great pictures of the mountains. I think the Tetons are the prettiest mountains I've seen. I love how the mountain is reflected in the lake.

The trees were just starting to change their colors. I love the contrast of the fall colors.



We stole my niece, Kerah for the day. The girls love her to pieces. They had a great time watching out for critters in "Critter Watch '09". They did pretty well, especially in the Bison and squirrel categories.

After lunch, we walked down to Yellowstone Lake. We had never been to this area. It was neat and the kids had a blast playing in the "salt and pepper" sand and skipping rocks.

This is my first attempt at downloading a video, so we will see how it works. I caught a cute moment on video where Ry was teaching Ethan how to skip rocks.






Next, we headed to the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. We love this part of Yellowstone, but don't always make it here every year. Now that the kids are getting older, we can go on more hikes, which we love to do. We first went to the upper falls. They were beautiful.



Then we took a short walk to see the lower falls. Apparently, we needed our binoculars for this excursion.

Lauren found a tree stump, so she HAD to pose...

And, of course, then Ethan had to do the same thing...


We came upon this sign...



And, of course, we had to try it. This is what the trail looks like from the other side of the canyon:

All of those tiny little lines are stairs!! There were a whole lot of them. Going down was pretty easy (though a little rough on the knees), but I kept thinking that what goes down must come up! About half way down, we spotted a rainbow in the mist...if you look really hard you can see it in this picture.


So this is the view from the bottom of the trail. It was so cool!!

And looking down the canyon the other way was just as neat...

But then, we had to go back up! Katie got a good head start...

My thighs and butt hurt just looking at that!!

We all did amazingly well. It didn't take us very long at all to climb back up, and the kids were great!! I didn't get winded, but my legs sure felt like Jell-O when I was back at the top! But I'm very glad we went on that fun hike!

So now, here's a recap of "Critter Watch '09". We saw lots of Bison. Most of them were in the fields, but one was walking in the road about 2 feet from our car! It brought back not-so-great memories of the year we got stuck on the road from Norris to Old Faithful behind a herd of slow moving buffalo for 2 1/2 hours!!! Fortunately, most of the bison stayed off the roads!


We also saw quite a few elk. The males spend this time of year trying to impress the females so they bugle a lot. It was neat to listen to and watch.

And the best part of "Critter Watch '09" was the beautiful moose and her calf we saw each night as we were coming home to our condo in Teton Village. I tried every night to get a good picture of her, but this is the best one. The calf is on the right side of the road and the mom is out in front blending into the darkness. Use your imagination, OK? I'm not making this up...

On Saturday, we celebrated a wedding!!! Ryan's brother, Jason married his girlfriend, Tanya. The wedding was on a balcony in Teton Village. It was nice and I'm happy for them.


The whole family together after the blissful event...

Tenille took this picture of me with the girls at the restaurant. She thought it was so funny that the background is of the bar...I fail to see the humor in this, but she wanted me to put it in my blog, so here it is...and no, I didn't have anything but apple juice to drink.



Lauren and Cora celebrating after the wedding. I think she's going for your glasses, Lauren!!!



After the wedding, we were all excited to float the Snake river. We haven't done this in a few years because the kids were small, but we were determined to rekindle the tradition. Unfortunately, our boat had other plans. Grandpa and Jason had spent several hours getting it spruced up and ready to go, but when they were pulling it out of the truck, something else broke on it which grounded us for another year. Bummer!! There's always next year! I'm coming for you, Lunch Counter!!


So we did the next best thing, we went shopping in Jackson! We had a ball. We shopped so hard, that Grandma had to refuel all of us with ice cream. Thanks, Grandma!

Uncle Jason enjoying his cone

The kids thought this one of me was so funny and that I just had to post it. What can I say, I love my ice cream!!

We tried to get a picture of all of us at the antler arch, but it was really sunny and so everyone had their eyes closed, so we got this one of just the girls. Good enough!

Saturday night, we decided to head back into Teton and fit in another hike (yep, even after Uncle Tom's trail! Hey, what can I say? We are highly trained professionals!!) It was a beautiful evening and a very lovely hike. I have to say, we were very lucky in the weather department this year. It was gorgeous the entire weekend!!

We walked to this lovely bridge and stream where we snapped a few photos.



But then Braiden fell off a rock and got hurt...a little...but being the tender-heart he is, he was pretty sad.


But then Dad made it all better!

All in all, what a great weekend!!! We were sad to go home, three days is never long enough to spend in my favorite place. On the drive home, unfortunately, we were cursed with puke issues. This is becoming more frequent when we travel. It seems it is our destiny to have at least one "I need to throw up!!" incident every time we get in the car for long road trips. The curse was passed on to poor Katie this time around. But Grandma and Grandpa were nice enough to let her lay down in their back seat for most of the trip. I wonder who's turn it will be when we head to Wisconsin next week...hmmm.

But the rest of us had a great time heading home. We stopped for lunch in Idaho Falls right by the temple. We had a picnic and fed the ducks. It was a lovely day.

This weekend really recharged my batteries. It was so nice to get away from school, homework, dishes, carpool, etc. and go someplace peaceful and beautiful, if even just for a little while. I'm looking forward to going back next year all ready! Until then, I will have these wonderful memories to look back on.