Let me introduce you to one of MY spots.
*Teton Village* in Wyoming
“My” because it is one of my favorite places to relax and breathe. There is something magical and transforming about the Grand Tetons. If you haven’t been there, I believe it is one to add to the bucket list. The air is fresh and crisp, the temperature perfect, and the sights…absolutely breathtaking. My pictures don’t do it justice, but I tried. It was during the middle of the day and shadows were harsh.
Pull up a chair
stop
and enjoy the view!
OK OK, this isn’t the view I was speaking of, but Mac and I did love the painting in the bathroom so I had to slide that in here somewhere! Potty stop is always first with Pink Moss!
We decided to take the tram to the top of the Tetons because well…you will see for yourself! It is a tradition along with running the Snake River and taking pictures in front of the Elk Arches in Jackson Hole…it’s just something you do. It is the same place I brought my friends when we came on our girls trip this spring.
Big Red, otherwise known as the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort Aerial Tram, is back and better then ever. You’ll gain 4,139 in 9 minutes for an experience of a lifetime.
Big Red made it back to Jackson Hole in the winter of 2008. In 9 minutes you and your family will be atop Rendezvous Peak for breathtaking scenery, amazing hiking trails and unbeatable skiing. With the tram running in both winter and summer, you won’t miss your chance to stand on top of Jackson Hole.
As you can see, my sweet Bug was so nervous she kept grabbing onto the mans pants next to her, and no the man isn’t her Grandpa. Luckily he was nice and kept chuckling because she was grabbing HARD! I think he thought I would come and console her, but it was just too good..I kept taking pictures *call it the reporter in me* I was laughing so hard and loving both of their reactions!
When you get to the top, you feel like you are the King of the World, and I yelled it just because I felt like it! The storm clouds were rolling in, but it only sprinkled a tiny bit and made for a noon day refresher.
I tried to get Dan and Tiff to be romantic for just one minute but as you can see she has Little Jon’s habit of licking to get out of the kiss!
It
didn’t
get much better
until I just got tiff to turn away and kiss him on the cheek.
How does Dan handle it? The rejection must hurt his self esteem every day. Sorry Dan, I’ll will have a talk with her about P.D.A. and why you should let it out for one picture a year…especially with that back drop! Maybe it’s because your head is always in the clouds
*Love ya man*
After we looked around for a while we headed off down the path to see what we could find. Tiff and I had an idea to hike about 3 miles with the kids because, well, we love it! I don’t know if the rest of our company felt the same way…but we didn’t really care. It is our theory that they will learn to love it!
Right when I made it to the top of the mountain I realized that I didn’t have a way to carry Bug. At this point I could have decided to forget the hike, but that isn’t me. I figured the only option was to carry her the whole way {I know, CRAZY}
Right over the first hill we found a ton of snow to play in. I know it looks weird to be in shorts in the snow but believe me, it was plenty warm and actually quite refreshing! The kids had snowball fights and took turns sliding down the snow on their shoes. It was pretty slippery because it was still melting with the spring runoff.
I glanced over and saw Forest. Forest Gump that is! Avery and Dan were sitting the exact same way and I thought it was so cute like on the end of the movie how they both sit with their head cocked to the side.
Like father like son!
Yes
I had to have a turn myself!
Notice Bug’s crocks. Not 2 yellow, not 2 blue. Believe it or not, this was on purpose. She has three different pair that she loves to mix and match depending on her outfit and mood. This is the pair she wore the entire trip (not exactly hiking shoes). I am positive I have mentioned before that I believe in letting the kids have a say in what they wear.
There have been times when
Monkey has worn pink cowgirl boots with a beautiful flowing dress to church.
Mac wears 3D glasses around town for fun.
Sprite wears soccer socks with a skirt.
Noo Noo wears the same style tank top every day.
and Bug wears a polka dot sweat shirt that is size 24 months because she can’t give it up.
In my opinion it just isn’t worth the battle and shows their individuality.
When we made it to the top of the hill after the snow, we started to try and figure out what trail we were on. We walked down to the bottom and decided on a path that looked to be about three miles long. Dan and Heather decided to hold back and meet us up top when we were done because they could tell we didn’t know exactly how long it was.
They were the smart ones.
See this road?
This is only a small part of what we hiked with the kids. The trail turned out to be plenty easy for them but there was a problem. When we were almost all the way done
(and had 45 minutes until the last tram went down the mountain)
we came to a HUGE snow glacier covering the trail.
There was no way over it
no way under it
now way around it
no way through it
we had to go BACK!
The poor kids were tired at this point and wanted our *little* journey to be over. They had seen wildlife, interesting plants and gotten all of their bouncy sugar induced energy out. At this point I was about to die. Bug is only about 30 pounds but after you carry 30 pounds on your hips for three miles it wears on you *or me anyway*. I started to re-think my generosity and put her little butt down on the trail.
Surprising to me, she hiked out of this world! She didn’t hike in fact, she RAN up the whole stinkin’ mountain! What had I been thinking? I was dripping with sweat and wondered why I hadn’t done this before. The only thing stressing me out is that I knew if we didn’t make it back to the tram in time we would have to hike 8 more miles *after the three back* down to the second gondola.
Ahem…NO.
We double timed it back. There were a few times we had to stop so a few of them could breathe alright. Asthma isn’t fun at that elevation.
We made it back in plenty of time. We even had time to take a free ride on the gondola for fun when we got back down the mountain. We figured that when all was said and done, we hiked six miles with the kids. This wasn’t the plan, but they sure did a killer job!
Way to go team!
