Extra, Extra, Read all about it...

I posted some draft posts that I didn't have time to complete. Look through my blog you might see some fun pictures of Tetons, Yellowstone, and Thermopolis.

Back to Salt Lake then Price Utah

Daddy and his "Dupers" in an aspen grove near where we decide to turn around because the boys weren't hiking well. Isn't it so green, I love it.

We would really like to move to Salt Lake when Jared is done with school. So we decided to go and see what the houses were going for. After looking at the price of the houses, I'm not sure we will be moving to Salt Lake. We do like how you can be in a large city and 15 minutes later you can be in the mountains. We went on a hike with the boys up Big Cottonwood Canyon, near Brighton Ski resort.

Johnny holding his own leash and walking himself on the Silver Lake boardwalk near Brighton, UT. He refused to be walked. I could just hear in my head him saying "me do it, me do it!" Oh the terrible two's, the independence, the no's, the double trouble terrible two's in two's.

Some ducks in Silver Lake.

Jonathan found a log to sit on to rest his weary legs.

Benjamin sitting on a log playing stick swords.

The reason why we want to move to Salt Lake City. Ahhh the mountains, the greenery, I mean the scenery. All I can say is after living in the desert for 5 years, this is just so green.

After Salt Lake we went to Price Utah to see my Dad. We went to the wave pool and the boys loved the waves. I had my hands full with towels and boys, I forgot to grab the camera, and there were a lot of Kodak moments at the wave pool. oops.

Thermopolis Wyoming ahh the Hot Water Springs

The first day we arrived in Thermopolis, I was able to spend time with my brother Jeremiah and his family. It was great to see all of them. It also was great to have extra hands to help with the twins. Their cousins were so great with Jonathan and Benjamin. Of course that night we had to go swimming. Ahhh, what great things the mineral water does for one's joints! Now that Jared has been so spoiled, he states that he will never swim in cold water again. What trip to Wyoming would be complete with out going to the Pizza Hut in beautiful Cody. Actually Cody has the one of the largest gun museums in the country. We were also able to take a scenic ride through the Big Horn Mountains over Powder River Pass (elevation 9,666 ft).

Jeremiah, Liam, and I in Mom's house in Thermopolis.

Back row: Elise, Ashlynne, Liam, and Brinton.

Front row: JonaThan (JT), Benjamin, and Julianna.

Some of the local wildlife at the aformentioned museum in Cody, WY. Wow look at the horns on that thing!




This is an Alaskan Brown Bear, it's a good thing that this one is stuffed!! He looks like he could play racketball with my head.

Home, home on the range, where the deer and the antelope play. Two deer in town, both posed to have their picture taken. It seems it was easier to take pictures of wild deer than it was to take pictures of my wild twins...

The deer just thought it would pull up some shade in front of this house.

Wow we saw so many of these in Yellowstone, but these ones we saw in Thermopolis. Just up the hill behind the Star Plunge pool were we went swimming.

My Indian Outlaws

I tried to capture the boys dancing, but they have a little camera fright. They do something cute until the camera comes out.

Benji in diaper, JT in shorts.

I was prompted to film the boys dancing due to our Outback experience. We walked outside of Outback and the music hit Benjamin and right in front of the door he started dancing. He was bopping his head, popping his knees, and of course the Benji tongue was out. People had to walk around him to get inside. I made the comment I guess he feels like dancing. Daddy really got to watch the show. Daddy reported to me that even though people were watching Benjamin just kept dancing. People in the restaurant heard about it and had to come to the door to look out. Jonathan decided he was going to walk to the truck and mom had to follow him.

Yellowstone

Most people go to Yellowstone National Park, see Old Faithful go off, and get back in their cars and leave the park. Jared and I have been to Yellowstone 2 summers in a row, camped on the ground 5 nights each time, and still haven't seen much of Yellowstone. This park is so big you could spend a lifetime photographing it. Oh and just a warning plan on getting wet, if it isn't rain then it's the geysers. A couple days into our camping adventure at Bridge Bay campground it started to rain cats and dogs. Last year we left yellowstone because all our gear was wet due to a leaky quick tent. Well a river was running right under our tent and we had to do some quick manouvering in the rain. We pulled up the stakes and moved the tent out of the river. I can say our REI tent didn't leak, this tent saved our trip this year. The tent did happen to leak water onto my sleeping bag because the back fly was open for part of the rain storm, oops(that was my fault.) Now that our tent doesn't leak we can camp in the rain.

White Dome Geyser.

Yellowstone Lake at sunset.

A fawn that came through the campsite with her mom.

Daddy and the boys throwing rocks into Yellowstone Lake. We hiked from our campground down to the lake for a night time activity. I lost my truck keys on this hike.

The boys looking into Morning Glory Pool.

Jonathan watching Riverside Geyser go off, Benjamin mad because he can't have Daddy's soda.

I took this picture while waiting for daddy to take some pictures. There are some bison on the other side of the river.

Grand Geyser. If you see this geyser go off you won't wait to see Old Faithful go off. This trip we didn't see Old Faithful Geyser go off.

Chain Lakes, in Upper Geyser Basin.

Bison, bison, and more bison.

Emerald Pool.





Gibbons Falls

That is the sound of water in the background. Jared is telling me that doing a video "eats the memory card huh?"

To Jackson Hole and The Tetons

From Salt Lake City we drove to Jackson, Wyoming. Upon arrival we checked into our motel, got groceries,gas, and went to Jackson's town square. We ate at Teton Steak House were we met some nice people that were trying to convince the nurse and the future x-ray technologist to move to Jackson, Jared still likes the idea. We woke up early the next morning and repacked the truck and left for Grand Teton National Park. Lucky for us we got the last camp spot at Jenny Lake, not the greatest spot (our tent was in the sun all day, no naps for the boys in the tent), but were grateful to have any spot in this popular campground. That afternoon we went for a swim in String Lake. The next day we took a boat trip across Jenny Lake to cut off 4 miles of hiking (round trip) to the mouth of Cascade Canyon. We hiked up cascade canyon with the boys in our packs. We saw a deer about 10 feet from the trail in some tall bushes. I said "deer" and pointed to the deer, and then Benji said "deer." I was impressed to know that he realized that it wasn't a "dogga," because every 4 legged critter up to this point was labeled "dogga." There must have been some good eating there because a couple hours later on our way down the deer was in the same place.


Benjamin (shivering,) Daddy, and Jonathan.
After we got the boys out of String Lake and started them drying they wanted back in, even though Benjamin was shivering. We went back in got a picture and got out. That rock in the background is the rock Daddy swam to, he didn't have any aqua socks on so he wasn't able to climb it. I stayed back and watched the boys.

As we hiked back further into Cascade Canyon the better the scenery became. Above is a picture of Grand Teton, and Mount Owens to Grand's right (with all of the snowfields).

Oh it is nap time. I was so tired of carrying my pack, that I put Benjamin down so I could rest. I told Daddy I would stay there and watch the boys nap, and he could go on with out us, but he didn't take the bait.

Jonathan taking his nap, I can't imagine sleeping in that position. Daddy resting his back and legs.

Daddy stopped to take a picture, and Mommy had a picture idea to while waiting for daddy. That is Grand Teton and Teewinot to it's right in the background.

Inspiration Point, what a hike to get to this look out point 400 ft. above Jenny Lake. It was just a one mile stroll, but it seamed like more than that due to the quick elevation increase and the heavy pack (thanks Benji!) on my back.

Click on the picture to see the muscle definition of this bull moose. It was really neat to see a moose this close.

Jonathan and Daddy standing in front of Hidden Falls.

We decided to let the boys down to hike back, the trail was smooth, but there were too many distractions for them to keep on the path. Their hiking lasted just a short distance.

Next Stop Salt Lake City, Utah

We initially drove to Spanish Fork, UT to see Grandpa Spotten. The boys were happy to be out of the car and were excited to see that grandpa's TV didn't have a gate around it (much easier access to the on/off button). The boys also loved the banana chair that grandpa has, but it was hard for one to watch the other one having so much fun. After the boys drove their great grandpa crazy we drove to Salt Lake City and got a hotel room and cleaned up. We then had diner at Eat-a-Burger, MM MM those spicy fries! It was great to have hot water to shower in and a mattress to sleep on for 2 nights. While in Salt Lake we got to see my brother Jared, his daughter Kristina, and Aunt Connie and Uncle Roger. We went swimming at the pool at our hotel. Aunt Connie had so much fun sitting at the side of the pool playing with the boys. Also while in Salt Lake we had to stock up with supplies for our next 9 day scheduled camping adventure. Jared had fun in the REI store (we have an REI in Las Vegas, but it isn't that great). Sorry no pictures, Uncle Roger did take some, but I was just relaxing.