Yellowstone Trip - The House

Our house was really fun. I rented it a year in advance through Airbnb. For a large group, this was the way to go, both for togetherness and financially. It was farther from the park than I would have preferred, but that's probably why it was so reasonably priced. There were 4 rooms and an upstairs open area with a pull out couch for Adam. Laura and Kim were roomies and had fun stories for us every morning about one or the other talking in their sleep and Laura stealing the covers and falling out of bed. The downstairs was huge and open with a living space, dining room table, long bar island and big kitchen. I was impressed with how much they provided: laundry soap, dish soap, every utensil possible in the kitchen, all linens, books, games, movies, etc.

A few blocks away was a gentle river, perfect for wading.See the Caspers on the other side fishing? Laura and I decided to walk to them. 

So far so good! Laura only had to float for a small bit.

Made it!

Three generations

We spent one full day at the house instead of driving into Yellowstone. I think this is the day the kids will remember as the most fun. Lots of family time and playing instead of driving.

Jim and his Dad went looking for fishing gear and licenses. Later, they and Linda took the kids fishing a few times in a few different places with no luck, sadly. But Laura was proud of catching mayflies and using them for bait. 

We played games like Sushi Go and Exploding Kittens. Mom, Kim and I went to see an old cabin that was preserved as a museum and some huge trout that hang out under a small bridge. 

We went to church about one mile away at a little cabin church that Linda found. It was perfect! Small, beautiful, great timing, and our family was about 10% of the congregation. 

And we grilled out for lunch in the huge firepit in our yard.

My phone decided to go Sepia on me for some reason.

Laura invented an improved S'more: Marshmallow, chocolate kiss, and strawberry. Seriously sooooo good!

You can't take the silly out of this one. Wouldn't want to.

My happy place

Grandma Ann showed those boys who's the real gamer around here while Kim caught up on emails.

Food was super simple since everyone is so nice and flexible. We had a crockpot roast one day that cooked while we went into Yellowstone. Breakfast was cereals and blueberry pancakes from a mix. One night was leftovers, one night was at a Mexican place near the house. And lunches on the go were PB&J from the cooler.  Loved having the house and will definitely keep it in mind next time we travel. 

One step closer to black belt

Laura passed her test for double black stripe this week! It has taken a couple tries over the last few months (its normal to not pass at this level, which builds character!). Her next step will be black belt! It will probably be at least a year before that happens, lots of learning and polishing left to do. However, the guys she's doing the form with in the video below are all trying for their black belt soon and I humbly think she blows them all away in intensity and crispness. At least 2 of those boys are quitting after they get their belt, so I think they're just trying to get through it. The black belt test is pretty intense with 3 two hour screenings before the actual test, spaced out over a few months. Also, sparring is included in the test, which has not been the case for all her other belts. She still loves karate and plans to continue after earning her black belt, maybe teaching at some point. 

Beethoven's 5th is a good, slow song to find out if you like musical form. The obvious beats make it easier to hit the right marks. And it's kind of funny :)

Yellowstone Trip Day 5 & 7 - part 2

Oops! I left out all these pictures!

My Daddy

Girls in the back of the 'burb

Yellowstone Trip Day 5 & 7

Yay! We made it to Yellowstone! Actually that night, we just made it Island Park, Idaho to a house that we had rented, but it is darn close to Yellowstone. When we finally got there that night, we had a great welcome from my parents, Jim's parents and my sister Kim. Did I mention this was a big family thing? I think the extended family really made the trip extra special. We should do that more often! The house was great too, but more about that in a future post. 

We went to Yellowstone Park on Day 5 and Day 7. I just smooshed together all the park pictures I have from everyone and both days into one post, so credit to all of them for some of these pictures.

On both days, Laura and I moved to my Dad's suburban and Jim's parents moved into our van. The kids had walkie-talkies to keep us in contact and to make silly noises back and forth to each other. The two cars pretty much stayed together. There was one hike that they hiked one direction and we hiked the other so that we could drive the van back to the suburban and have lunch. It was fun to pass in the middle! 

Hike? Is that what I said? That's right! Those Grandmas and Grandpas hiked with us, up some hills, out in bear country. At one point, my Mom elbowed her way past Kim and I because we were strolling too slowly. I spent a lot of time worrying about them, but they showed me how ridiculous that was. I guess you have to let them grow up sometime...

Throughout the park, we saw geysers, mud pots, vents, pools, waterfalls, rapids with huge trout swimming upstream and the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. In our car, our favorites were the vents that made deep, dragon noises like whoomp...whoomp...whoomp. A close second were the bubbling mud pots spurting up mud with a plop, plop sound. 

Of course we saw Old Faithful. It did not disappoint! 

Morning Glory Pool

ahhh...

PB&Js in the parking lot

Silly hats

Silly kids

Two of kind: imagining the dragon that must live in this cave.

And just for kicks...here's a picture of Jim and me 12 years ago on our first visit to Yellowstone. 

Such baby-faces! 

Yellowstone trip Day 4

Getting closer to Yellowstone!

We chose the southern route so that Jim could go to his favorite spot in the world - Jackson, WY. When we get rich, we will buy a place near here and fly in on our private jet. I'm thinking winters on Coronado Island and summers in the Grand Tetons. 

Going south also meant:

We got to visit Jenny Lake again.

We got to eat at Bubba's BBQ in Jackson again.

(Did both those things on our trip from CA to MN 11 years ago and 

they were so good we had to do it all over again!)

We had to skip Devil's Tower. Sad, but we will just have to go back someday.

Hello Beautiful

On our first trip to Jenny Lake in Grand Teton National Park, we hiked around the lake and up to Inspiration Point (woo woo). Little did I know, Jim felt very strongly that we had to recreate this experience. I had no idea he was planning on actually spending a lot of time here, so I was unprepared for hours away from the car and a real hike. Not to mention how this disrupted my schedule for the day! I say this all to explain why I spent the entire hike out whining and pissy. Clearly, I'm unused to not being in control. Maybe I could use some practice? 

Anyway, instead of hiking around the lake, we took a boat across to the Inspiration Point trailhead. The water was super choppy and Jim ended up sopping wet by the time we got across.

(Serves him right)

What I mean to say is "Thank you, dear, for shielding us all from the drenching spray!"

A ranger pointed out a bear on a big slab rock right where we were planning to hike. 

Cool that we saw a bear / unfortunate that we were heading into his area.

The kids solved that problem by calling out to him as we walked and clicking rocks together. Who needs bear spray? We have walking noisemakers. 

Inspiration point was worth it.

Jenny at Jenny Lake.

I got myself and my attitude together while enjoying the view and beautiful day.

One of our better family selfies.

I sure have a pretty lake!

The kids started jogging down the trail while we yelled at them to stay in view. That got old, so Jim and I gave in and joined the fun. Everyone verbally agreed to the waiver stating that we had no bandaids for scraped knees, then we trotted down the mountain at our fastest possible speeds. I was surprised at how fun it was! And how it didn't really hurt my ankles or knees! Guess I'm not as decrepit as I thought.

We piled back into the van and headed into Jackson for some BBQ at Bubba's. 

Mmmm...ribs and brisket!

Back in the car and over the only really true mountain pass of the journey. Thankfully, I was driving and Laura seems to have grown out of her serious carsickness. 

We were running hours late and knew the rest of our crew was already at the house. So we stopped at a grocery store on the way to pick up essentials and made it to the house around 9ish, tired, but happy.