Oh, What Do You Do In The Summertime?

This post has evolved over the day. So if you managed to catch it in its first or second stage read it again and watch the video because it took forever. I don't understand how I can share things on my blog from Picasa. I don't understand why Picasa video messed up the music. I'm tired of trying to fix it. Maybe uploading it to YouTube and embedding it will work ... nope. This will have to do for now. Mute it if it gets skippy because the pictures are fun, though they are saved at low quality. I'll have to fix that. Anyway....

We enjoyed a week traveling to Wyoming and seeing the sights of Jackson Hole, Grand Teton National Park, and Yellowstone National Park. We mostly camped, except for July 4 when we stayed in The Hostel in Teton Village, (and on the ends when we stayed with my grandma in Meridian, ID and one of Kim's friends in Rigby, ID.) which wasn't fancy at all, but the cost felt like it should have been at least on par with a Comfort Inn. I guess it comes down to location, location, location - and they have it! Anyway, I liked the social feeling of the place even if we weren't real social. Oh well, as dingy and campy as it was, it was nice to have our own bathroom and shower ... and because hardly anyone else was down in the basement, a pool table, ping-pong table, shuffle board, foosball, library, den, video game room, board game room, freezer, refrigerator, retired phone booth, and ski wax station ... to ourselves for one night.

One afternoon the boys and I went white water rafting and the boys jumped in to go swimming during one of the calm parts. I was impressed. Two boys from Holland the same ages as Ethan and Myles jumped in with their dad. I didn't do it, but I already know what swimming in a cold river is like. They did it all on their own. They didn't need me in the river with them. I was proud of them. Ethan will gladly tell you the temperature of the water. I don't know how long the pictures will be there, but you can go to http://snakeriver.elevationimaging.com/cgi-bin/category.cgi?category=799644 to see 8 pictures of us skillfully raging through a major rapid.

The fireworks in Teton Village were fun. We took our blankets and sleeping bags from the car and laid them on the grass right in front of The Hostel. It was great that we were already in the thick of if it so we didn't have to drive in and out of the thick of it. It was a great show, but the enjoyment from the kids was the best part. Myles said, "I'm gonna remember this forever!" That night and throughout the next couple days they would swing things around as fast as they could to create the impression of flashing fireworks and talk about inventing their own fireworks.

On our way up to Yellowstone we drove through Grand Teton and took a beautiful and easy hike to a place called Taggart Lake. Those mountains are something else. The Grand Teton area is where we saw our first big game. Take a drive along Moose Creek Road, and sure enough you'll see a moose.

Yellowstone is simply amazing. And we only had time to do a portion of the things around the lower half. Before arriving I was pretty sure we would see bison and elk and some neat geological features. We saw hundreds of bison, herds of elk, a black bear, various birds, and more amazing geological features than I could have imagined. There are so many details. You just have to go and experience it for yourself. I do hope all my kids remember this forever.