GTNP--day 2 (Gratuitous nature photos!)

We woke up nice and early on a cold Tuesday morning and made tin foil breakfasts on the hot coals. Everything you do when camping takes so much longer so finally we got breakfast eaten and cleaned up and everyone bathed (with baby wipes) and ready to go.
We started off the day with a visit to the "town" of Moose and we went to a fun nature museum that taught us more about the park and inspired me to take up mountain climbing.

We went on a nature trail near the museum that gave us some great photo ops. A rainbow of children.

We then went on a short hike to a lake and let the kids wade in the cold water...
Check out this view!
And this one!
The trail took us on to a beautiful river that I climbed into to get a picture of the family.
And then Ryan took one of us.
That night after dinner we loaded up and took a drive hoping to spot wildlife and saw a few things in the road...
We saw a beautiful view of a mountain that I don't remember the name of...
And hurried and snapped a quick picture of the kids in front of it while we got eaten alive by mosquitoes.

Part 2--Grand Teton National Park (Day 1)

(The view from our campsite)

We packed up our stuff and hit the road on Monday after lunch. My Aunt Karolyn and her family were kind enough to keep Kirby at their house in Paradise while we went camping. We met my old mission companion and dear friend, Priscilla and her family at a campground we reserved months and months ago in anticipation of this trip.

The first night we just set up camp and let the kids play while we made hamburgers and had s'mores for dessert. We took a little walk which revealed that our neighbors were moose! That night we adults stayed up late talking around the campfire until we got too cold!! Luckily we had incredible weather for the rest of the trip.

Isaac and Noah.

Audrey, Chloe and Sophie
Campfire dinner
Sticky s'mores!

Friendly neighbors
Snuggled in for the night. It got cold but we didn't!

Summer Vacay part 1--Star Valley

Greetings from Park City! I love having the laptop so I can try to keep the blog somewhat updated as we travel, instead of saving it all until we get home. (Which is good, since we have already taken over 500 pictures and we still have a week of vacation left!)

We started off our nine hour car trip headed to Star Valley, Wyoming with a car-sick dog...once again. Luckily, as soon as he got it all out of his system (so to speak), he did great. So much for the $75 anti-car sickness prescription dog medicine we got him!

Unfortunately, Audrey came down with the stomach flu and picked up where he left off. She spent the entire second half of the car trip throwing up into a bowl. Poor little thing. :( When we finally got to my Aunt and Uncle's house in Wyoming, she just crashed.
Thank goodness she woke up the next morning feeling 100% and no one else in the family caught it! We got to spend a fun weekend with our family and their pet, Sticky Toes.
That thing sort of freaked me out the first time I saw it, but Lincoln was tickled pink to sleep next to "the pet."

Star Valley, Wyoming has got to be the most beautiful place I have ever seen. Maybe it was just the time of the year or something, but I really just fell in love with it. The kids and the dog were in HEAVEN.

I was really thinking I could move there forever until they mentioned the -40 degree weather in the winter. Not so much.

We celebrated Father's Day with them and Ryan got the father of all cinnamon rolls.
On Sunday evening we left the kids with my cousins and took a beautiful walk around--letting Kirby just run free. Beautiful.

Ever since our time there, I have this overwhelming desire to own land. I've even been looking at realtor.com!! Maybe I'm a farm girl at heart. I just loved watching the kids and the dog roam free in the country without a care in the world. It was a wonderful weekend and we are excited to visit them again soon (just not in the winter, thank you very much.)

Thrifty and Nifty

My love of thrifting has really taken off recently. It's become an addiction, I'm not going to lie. I just keep finding these incredible deals. Here, for instance, we have Chloe modeling an American Girl doll nightgown, which retailed I'm sure for at least $45. We already had the matching doll outfit. I got the nightgown for a whopping $4. Oh, how I love those thrift stores! That adorable shelf/cabinet pictured behind her that matches the girls' room perfectly? Yes, also from a thrift store.

Also found recently? Lucky jeans ($2), Columbia hiking pants ($3), Keen sandals ($5), Gymboree puffy vest ($2.50). The list could go on and on. Loving it!!!!!

Day Camp

A few months ago I was trying to find a fun day camp to sign my kids up for during the summer. Everything I found was full, too expensive or too far away. I jokingly mentioned to some friends that I was just going to do my own and they took me seriously and encouraged me to give it a try. I got some ideas together and ran with it.

Our first session was last week for kids ages 2 to 6. This week we started the session for ages 7 to 11. It has been so much fun!!!! Every day we have a different theme with age-appropriate activities. The first day was "What a Wonderful World" where we learn cultures from around the world. We did Chinese calligraphy, ate Finnish pancakes, made Scottish scones, made puppets from India and Alaska and played traditional games from Greece and Chile--and that's not even all we did!

The younger kids made paper leis.

The Greek statue game



The second day is "It's not easy being green" where we learn all about taking care of the earth--making bird feeders, painting pots and planting seeds, eating "dirt dessert" , picking up trash around the neighborhood, making Capri Sun wallets and building an entire city out of trash in my living room.

Picking up trash

The carved watermelon
Painting pots


Trash city



The third day is "Olden Day". We take old-fashioned pictures and make frames, make bread and butter and play pioneer games.

Everyone with their own little loaf of freshly baked bread.

Old fashioned Briar


The last day is "Silly Science" where we do volcanoes, explosions and rockets of multiple varieties, cook our lunch in a solar oven and eat glow-in-the-dark jello.

Bubbles!!

So it's been so fun I'm doing two more sessions in July and maybe even two more in August. Now I get to start planning those!!!

Our Favorite Place...without the camera

Last Friday we got up really early and drove to Rocky Mountain National Park for the day. We had prepared everything the night before and were so excited to spend the day hiking in our favorite place. We got out of the car to start hiking and the morning light was filtering through the Aspen trees--it was perfect. I called the kids over, lined them up to get the perfect shot and the camera wouldn't turn on!! We had left the battery in the charger at home. Oops. I had to settle for incredible pictures of a beautiful place...with my camera phone.

We took the kids on a six mile hike. It took us five and a half hours (including many rest breaks and lunch on top of the mountain.) It was a beautiful day--the weather was perfect.

Lincoln was a trooper--he did most of the hike on his own, until naptime. Then we took turns helping him.
After our hike we went to a lake and had a BBQ dinner. The kids who had been so tired by the end of the hike suddenly got a second wind and were having a blast playing in the snow! As we were eating a large elk just sauntered past us in the next picnic area. I did get a picture of that, but my phone doesn't have a zoom lens, so it's not even worth sharing. But here is the pretty lake.
It was a perfect day!!