Cody?

Well hello there! We have been thoroughly enjoying Jackson these past 5 days. We were able to get last minute reservations for Thurs & Fri nights. Then we would have to go somewhere else Sat & Sun but could come back Mon & Tues. Beggers can't be choosers! We were crossing our fingers someone would cancel and we could just stay, but no luck. So we packed everything up, hooked up the truck and then Tim asked me if I wanted to hear the bad news now or later. What now?! It so happens that the other night when Tim was reliving the emergency release brake story with his new friend Scott he felt that the only way to really tell the story properly involved a demonstration. Tim pulled the brake pin from the electrical box attached to the RV and did not put it back correctly (I'm sure it had nothing to do with the Caymus). What he did not know but found out Saturday morning is that this was once a device made for James Bond. If the pin is not replaced properly within a 5 minute window it will self destruct. Meaning it heats up and melts. Which also means the RV brakes no longer work properly. Now the beauty of this mistake is that we couldn't leave the campground. Problem solved :) They were very good sports about it and it all worked out well.

Tim and the kids went to the Jackson Fair Saturday night. It was extra fun because there is a lot of town participation. They got to see lots of show animals, a petting zoo, a lemur exhibit and carnival rides. Ryan was especially interested in the prize winning chickens.

Kylie got another opportunity to try and break her somersault record at the great restaurant down the street. There happened to be a rainstorm that gave us a great double rainbow when we were there.

We went back to "our spot" and the kids got to play on their beach again with the great majority of it being undisturbed from when they left it a week before.

Kylie and I visited the Wildlife Museum while Tim and Ryan went to the fish hatchery down the road.

I've had a blast on the bike trails. Miles and miles of paved paths with beautiful views and sights everywhere you look!

We also rented some kayaks and went from the Jackson dam down the Snake River about 5 miles. It took a little over 2 hours. Talk about amazing!!!! Tim was in heaven. Trout and white fish everywhere. It was like being in an aquarium. Pat, we have to get you on a kayak here with us - you would LOVE it!!!

We had such a great time we decided we needed to do the kayak run again and the best day to do that is Thursday since Tim has work stuff this week. Sorry Cody, WY but once again Jackson prevails. As of now the plan is to leave here on Friday to start our way back home with a stop in Boulder for 2 days with a much anticipated return for Tim to his special, secret fishing spot.

The only question is if we actually leave here at all.....I hear Sept is actually the best month here! Ok, no the real question is if we leave Fri or Sat since I had us getting home a day early. I'll keep you posted mom and dad!

Guess Where We Are!!!!

Before I tell you our new destination (we were supposed to be in the Yellowstone area 10 days, but more on that later) I need to fill you in on the last 2 days.

I left off at our early morning kayaking trip on Tuesday - Tim and I got up at 4:45, we rallied the troops at 5:00 and we were out the door by 5:15. It was our fastest drive thru the park - no bison jams, no other cars, it was really beautiful. We were almost to the marina when we turned the corner and this amazing bull elk was just sauntering along the shoulder of the road - no one else was in sight to see this huge guy. We think he was 16 or 17 points (not sure how you score an elk tho).

We arrive at the marina and I've got it all planned out. We have tandem kayaks. Tim gets Kylie and I get Ryan, my ace in the hole....he was my partner up at Jackson Lake and was a big help. There is just one other couple going with us and our 2 guides. It is rather chilly and lightly raining off and on.....it was in the low 50's, Kraig....Now the one big mistake I made was forgetting to feed my child cokes, coffee, major sugar, anything to give him energy and keep him awake. So I ended up in a tandem kayak with dead weight having to keep up with everyone else. Not exactly what I had in mind!!!!

We had a good time, Kylie fell asleep in Tim's kayak, which was very cute. We saw some really neat underwater geyser features and Rusty the bear (which turned out to be an old barrel), a huge flock of Barrows Goldeneye ducks that took flight and made the most incredible sound.

We made it back into "town" for lunch and found this great Mexican restaurant that was a bus - how can you not eat there?!

Yesterday we had a white water rafting trip planned. It left out of the north entrance area at 1:00. We needed to be there by 12:20. No problem! It's an hour+ drive....so we wisely left by 9:45 to have extra time. Uh, yeah, right! After a 40 minute, yes that's right, a 40 minute!!!! delay from a bison walking down the road with a ranger driving slowly behind him to make sure he had the right of way....we thought it was a good thing we left early. And this was 3 miles into the park. Then we had another long delay from construction, which we also had on the way home. Now when I say delay I mean sit in park, turn off your engine and wait 30 minutes delay.

Once we finally made it there we had a great time rafting. It was our first real trip with class 2 & 3 rapids which isn't anything crazy but it was exciting enough. Not to mention the major headwinds and workout we had! Oh, and in the photos, that would be our guide jumping out of the raft right after the class 3 rapid....she was 19 and had only been a guide for a few months - and kept telling us how out of shape she is - something tells me that this kind of behavior would be considered unprofessional?!?!!!

So after driving over 5 1/2 hours yesterday and seeing quite a bit of Yellowstone we had already decided the day before that we were going somewhere else....again.....Jackson!!!!

Yellowstone

I suppose I won't torture everyone by telling you the details of our weather (I save that for Kraig) all I'll say is that it couldn't really be any better!

We are staying at an enormous KOA campground just outside the village of West Yellowstone. This campground has tons of kids and ours hit it off with the family next door right after we got here. Ethan is 9 and Ella is 6.

We had a late start for our first day in the park yesterday - we headed out close to 11. We were merrily on our way! We arrived at the park entrance to very, very (Disney World like) long lines but have no fear we bought a National Parks Pass when we were at Carlsbad (thank you nice cavern lady that recommended this!)!!!! We breezed thru and laughed at those we left in the dust. Until....oh about 1mile in cars were no longer going 35-40 mph but under 5. And we had 30 miles to get to our goal of Old Faithful.

Tim had the great idea to get a virtual tour guide. This would be Carmen's father as he is also a GPS. Ryan named him Old Man Jones. Mr Jones told us all kinds of information as we crawled our way thru the park. He asked us to try not to go over 35 mph as we may miss a place to stop. Ah, not a problem. The traffic was a beating so we decided to pull over and have our picnic lunch by the Madison River.

Papa J told us we should check out our first area of geysers and mud pots. He mentioned an unmarked area that had the largest collection of mud pots but to be careful not to step in one and to understand that they could go off at any time. Heck yeah, we had to go see that!!!! We looked like the rebel family going off on our own but it was really cool and we had permission. Even better - he TOLD us we should!

Granted, as busy as the park is, there were very few people at this stop (as they did not have the advice of our Great Poobah) but we were totally off on our own seeing the mud pots. Kylie was asking about bears and we told her not to worry but we did see some good tracks (see photo below). One of the pots did end up being a mini geyser and went off, giving me a heart attack and sent me running to the hills with my children in tow! Ok, maybe not the hills but a good 100' away. Ryan accidentally stepped in more of a mud hole, which started off as an enormous sense of irritation (around us) turning into bragging rights later.

Once we were back on the road we came to find out that the traffic jam/s were not due to the large crowds as much as due to the large bison that liked to show us they owned the joint and could take over the road. They are a spectacular sight in those surroundings. I don't know why they seem so much bigger than the ones in Jackson but they are enormous. We also saw a few elk on our way too.

Turning into Old Faithful, singing our happy song since we had finally arrived came to an abrupt halt when the miles of parking spots were all full along with cars impatiently waiting in every aisle for someone to leave. My wonderful, gallant man offered to drop us off as he had boldly driven up to the close spots (for the record I graciously declined), when those lovely, white reverse lights shined upon us. We had to wait about 15 minutes for Old Faithful to do his thing and it was well worth it. A little ice cream after a walk thru the Old Faithful Inn (along with a random bison just walking around the backside of the hotel) and we were ready to head out.

The bison were, again, having a good ol' time wrecking havoc on traffic but it is really cool to see one just walking along the shoulder as you pass by. As we were finally back in cellphone range (at 4:55pm) I had managed to talk my family into the sunrise kayak trip for this morning and booked it before they realized what time they would be getting up.

It started at 6:30 from Grant's Village but we didn't have to be there any earlier than that. How bad could that be?! This blog is getting a bit long winded so I'll save the rest for tomorrow!

Off To Yellowstone!

We are currently on our way cruising at super sonic speed (27 mph) up the Teton pass. At this rate we should get there by tomorrow.

I have to say it was very hard to leave Jackson. If Tim had put it to a vote he would have been out numbered to stay. I know we will have lots of fun in Yellowstone too - we have 10 days planned there moving to 3 different spots.

Part of the reason we didn't want to leave was our fun day yesterday. We went into town for a visit to the Ripley's Believe It Or Not Museum. This is on every must see list for Jackson ;) After lunch we headed to the place where Tim baptized Kylie the other day. It really is the perfect spot. Lots of good, dark sand that Kylie could make castles with, rocks, Ryan could play in the stream, Tim could fish and I could layout and watch the kids play.....and we were alone except for the random kayak, canoe or raft that would come floating by. So peaceful!

We ended the night with a great dinner at a nearby restaurant that has a huge grassy area for the kids (and their parents) to play and run around in. Kylie now has a new record of 16 somersaults in a row. We all threw the football around until we could no longer see it, which is probably why I left my new sunglasses there. Ouch!

He's The Man!

I've obviously had a lot of fun bashing my poor husband with the new experience of RV'ing.  Today I will do the opposite.  As most of you know, anything that Tim tries to do he always ends up being really good at.  He has officially reached that point with parking the RV.  We had been fortunate enough to be able to keep Phillip the Inferno plugged in at the RV camp while staying at the hotel.   But, we had to move him to our good spot yesterday, which we knew would be quite the challenge.    This place is amazing in that there are so many RV's here, gobs of tiny roads going all over the place along with trees and big boulders strategically placed to torment you.  It is surprisingly pretty but completely insane.  I think this is possibly the only space we would actually be able to get into and out of - I'm not kidding!  Tim had to make his way all the way to the back of the property - I walked along to help clear the way - and then had to back into our spot at a tough angle.  He did it on the first try (it required a couple of pull forward/back up's to straighten but that was not due to error).  It was extremely impressive.  So there you have it and I may have just jinxed him but I'm very proud of him :)

The rest of our fun the last 2 days has been involving mountain biking down the slopes, taking the gondola up for a fun ride and then coming back to the room for the much awaited hot chocolate with "whooped cream" (Kylie's pronunciation) and as many marshmallows as there are room left for. Taking the tram up to the top of the mountain for dessert at 10am, oh I mean breakfast - the only food choice is waffles with your choice of melted brown sugar butter, nutella or strawberry preserves.  And more hot chocolate......Some rag doll jumping, oh I mean bungee jumping!  Picking up a very excited Mousse that was happy to be coming back to his "home" and a trip into downtown Jackson.

This morning we dropped Kylie off at the Kids Ranch for a day of fun.  Tim dropped me and my bike off at the corral for a 2 hour horseback ride for me followed by a bike ride back home - my buns are a bit sore!  Tim and Ryan went off to spend the day taking on the trout in the  Hoback river.  I'm sure they will come home with some good fish tales!

Back On The Grid

Well hello there world! I'll bet you thought we drove our RV off into oblivion. Nope, we were at Colter's Bay Village in the heart of the Tetons. The cellphone coverage was microscopic, no wifi, no tv and no data/Internet on phones or iPads unless you lucked into a few bars and had a couple of hours to let email load.

To summarize our last few days would be best described as "Wow!!!". The mountains with Lake Jackson at the base are truly spectacular. We had some fun bike rides, went kayaking, Tim took the kids to a river and while saving a trout managed to dunk Kylie up to her neck. They heard wolves howl, saw bison, elk and deer. Tim caught several trout. Needless to say they came back having one of the best days ever :)

We drove down into Teton Village yesterday to celebrate our 20th anniversary. We are staying at a hotel and my hair is really clean!!!! We had a super dinner and Tim surprised me with a really special video he made of our family photos. The kids and I OD'd on wedding cake and hot chocolate. It was a really great night!

I found photos of the infamous Pillow on Tim's phone, for your viewing pleasure.