Day Four

Whew!  Today was a full day- be ready for a photo heavy post (and these are pared down).  We left Jackson Hole this morning and headed towards Yellowstone.  Our first stop- Grand Teton National Park. (This is our thing we do at every national park- the boys beside the entrance sign.  I think it'll be a neat thing to do throughout the years).

Sweet picture, eh?

This is a little more like what our day has been like... :)

We saw some pretty spectacular sights in Grand Teton.  It is a beautiful place!

After driving through the Tetons, we headed to Yellowstone.  On a side note, let me tell you just how disappointed we are that they are having near record highs up here! We wear jackets in the morning, but it gets up to 85 mid day (I know that's no 100 Texas people, but when you're expecting low 70's, it's kinda a kick in the pants.  I only brought 1 pair of shorts for the whole trip- I was baking today!

The boys most frequently said sentence today was "I'll race you!"

Some of our pictures for the day:

Lewis Falls

West Thumb Geyser Basin

Yellowstone Lake

This is the Lake Hotel.  Notice the smoke in the sky?  We were looking around and wondering what the deal was...

The boys on the famous Fishing Bridge..

What the sky looked like leaving the Fishing Bridge...

Then this only a few seconds later...

We started driving towards our next destination and there were Rangers win a sign that said "Fire Information".  They said that we needed to go ahead and go through because they were shutting down the road soon because the fire was going to cross it in a little while.  So we headed on and I got this shot from behind us.

We headed on to Hayden Valley.  Absolutely gorgeous!

Leaving Hayden Valley... A bison just chillin' beside the road.

Then another walking down our lane of traffic about 4 cars up...

Then another just out beside the road.  It was crazy how many the boys got to see close up!

After Hayden Valley, we drove to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone and saw the Lower Falls.

By this time it was about 4:30, so we decided to head to our hotel in West Yellowstone.  What this place lacks in view (another hotel) it redeems itself in amenities. It's just what we needed at this point in the trip.  It's like a condo, so the boys are excited to have their own room with their very own beds and my most favorite thing....

The best part is that it's in our room- literally could not be happier! Remember that 1 pair of shorts I brought?  I'm washing them and wearing them tomorrow.  Then I think I'll wash them again and wear them the next day... Just because I can. :). 

Day Three

As I mentioned last night, we checked in after dark so I couldn't tell what our view was from our balcony.  Let me tell you... When I woke up this morning, I was BLOWN AWAY.  It was absolutely amazing!

We went to bed around 11:00 last night.  There is no air conditioning (it was about 60 degrees at 11 last night), so we put the fan in the door to the balcony and fell asleep.  I woke up around 1:30 because of the voices on the balcony below us.  There was one particularly loud fellow.... He sounded like a cartoon character.  Very loud, very California surfer sounding and said 'like' a whole lot.  After listening to him prattle on for 1/2 an hour, I finally called the front desk and they had somebody come over and ask them to can it.  After that, I slept like a baby. :)

The boys and I headed over to eat some breakfast at the restaurant on site.  It was about 57 degrees so we dressed comfortably in pants and long sleeved shirts!

We had a yummy breakfast and then after we went back to the room to kill some time.  The boys wanted to play their DS's, so this was our compromise-

We headed off to our next excursion... a trail ride!  Brian and I in the beautiful scenery.

Hudson mounted his horse first... And it was SO cute!

Then Reed...

Then Brian...

We had an hour trail ride which was PLENTY.  About 30 minutes in, I was wondering when it would be over.  The pros:  the scenery was AWESOME!  We were up super high and had a great view of the Tetons, Flat Creek, the Elk Refuge and the city of Jackson...

The cons: I haven't been on a horse in years and saddle sore was an understatement. The stirrups had my left knee wrenched in a weird position and it was killing me by the time we were done.  Besides that, it was awesome!  :)

After our ride, we went back to the room to change (it had gotten considerably warmer by this point) and then headed to the National Museum of Wildlife Art. 

It had great reviews on Trip Advisor, however, we did not enjoy it. We just got some pics in front of the giant animal sculptures. :) However, we did enjoy the cafe inside the museum though.  The food was great and the view couldn't be beat.

Next we headed over to the Alpine Slide.  It's a ride that you take a gondola up the side of the mountain (Hudson and I with Jackson in the background)...

another shot of Jackson...

And then you sit on a little sled thing and go down this concrete track (sorta like a bobsled).  It was SO much fun!  The handle in the middle was the break - pull it towards you to brake, push it away to go fast... And man, you could go fast!  We had a blast!

The boys had been begging to go swimming, so we headed back to the hotel to spend a couple of hours in the pool before going to dinner.  We're off to bed to rest up for Yellowstone tomorrow!

Road Trip Day 2

This morning we got up and headed out to do some browsing in...

One of the reasons we wanted to stop here was because Brian went to school here for 15 months right before we got married.  We wanted to show the boys where he went to school...

And where he lived...

The house looked just like I remembered from 11 years ago. :). We left Laramie and headed towards our hotel in Jackson.  We stopped on the way at the Wyoming Frontier Penituary.  It is a jail that was built in 1901 and was used until 1981.  We took a tour and it was actually very interesting and fairly creepy.  We even got to see the gas chamber they installed in the '30's and that multiple men died in.  The tour guide even asked if we wanted to sit in the chair!  Um, no thanks!!  Anyway, here's a shot of the front of the building.  

My little inmates...

The cutest prisoners I've ever seen...

After leaving the prison, we set out on the rest of our journey.  We hit some construction traffic and were at a dead stop for a bit...

In the middle of nowhere...

But after getting a couple of hours past that, the scenery started to change.

We pulled over at a scenic pull out and Brian told the boys to run and get some energy out.  Beautiful view, isn't it?  We also met a sweet couple from Spring, TX here.  Small world!

Another pretty shot with some purple wildflowers...

We stopped at the Wind River to take a couple of pics and the boys wanted to feel the water to see how cold it was...

A few shots of the Tetons...

These goofy kids were FULL of energy after being in the car for so long (about 7 hours today meaning that in the last 36 hours, we have been in the car for 24 of those hours. Wow). They were showing me some sweet poses.

We stopped in Jackson Hole to eat so we got to our hotel after dark and couldn't see the view from our room.  We're on the edge of the bluff though, so I imagine it's gorgeous!!!  Our room is super cute and has the 'Wyoming' feel to it...

Looking forward to a good nights' sleep and a new day tomorrow!