Our one trip this year was to Jackson Hole. My parents wanted to have a big family vacation to St. George but that didn't happen with all of the kids and our busy schedules so they went on individual family trips. Dave and I love going to places we can be outdoors and in the mountains (that's why we spent our honeymoon in Yellowstone). So when my dad mentioned Jackson Hole in the fall, we jumped at the opportunity. It was planned over our anniversary which was ok with us because we knew we would have babysitters so we could do whatever we wanted. So we headed off to Jackson Hole with my parents all piled in to our highlander. Marcus did great to sleep but towards the end got tired of being in his car seat, who would blame him. We were lucky to be able to stay at a condo from my parents timeshare. We got the condo for a week and it had two bedrooms and a kitchen. So we cooked most of our food and were able to relax at our condo while we were in Jackson. So here are some pictures from our trip and what we did each day:
Day 1 - September 22nd - My parents opened their mission call the morning that we left! We were so excited it came the day we left so that they didn't have to wait one more week to open their call. We left our house mid afternoon, stopped in Brigham City at the Arby's for lunch and then drove straight to Jackson. We got there about 7 pm, ordered some pizza and then went to bed.
Day 2 - September 23rd - we slept in, went grocery shopping in downtown Jackson Hole at the Smith's and then headed off to the Grand Teton's! The weather was perfect ALL week long. I brought warm clothes and almost ran out of short sleeve clothes to wear. The Grand Teton's were beautiful but I think Marcus liked the statue of the Moose better.
This is at the visitor center of the Grand Tetons. You could take pictures with these antlers of all different kinds of animals
This is one of my favorite family pictures of the whole trip!
The Grand Tetons!
We then stopped at Jenny Lake, which I had never heard of. It was beautiful and Marcus enjoyed being pushed around in his stroller.
Next stop was Colter Bay. I had also never heard of this place but it was gorgeous! I had many people recommend we stay here for a while so we walked around and threw rocks in the water.
Day 3 - September 24th
We started the day out by going on a Scenic Tour of the river. About six months ago we found some great deals on citydeals for a scenic tour down the snake river so dave and I and my mom bought them for our trip. My dad was so nice to stay at the condo with Marcus because he has been down the river at the 5 or 6 times. It was a beautiful morning and we were able to see a lot of bald eagles and have fun floating the river.
Me and my mom (my sun glasses look ridiculous, I know)
The pictures don't do the scenery justice, it was so beautiful and peaceful
Can you find the bald eagle?
Day 4 - September 25th
We went to the visiting ward sacrament meeting and then headed off to see more of the sites are Jackson Hole. We hiked around Jenny Lake again, this time with Marcus in the backpack. There are some beautiful hikes all over the area. Then we went back to the condo and relaxed for the rest of the day. We played games and watched a few movies.
Day 5 - September 26th
My dad, Dave and I headed off for Yellowstone. We decided to leave Marcus with my mom, after we realized he wouldn't do too well riding all day in his car seat. My mom was gracious enough to stay at the condo with him and took him to a park and walked around the square in Jackson Hole. We spent all day going through Yellowstone. My dad was the best tour guide you could ever have. He knows EVERYTHING about Yellowstone and has been there over a dozen times. He told us about places we passed and then told us when we should stop and look around. Dave was on a mission to find a bear. The whole first half of the day we didn't even see so much as a squirrel. We stopped to see the hot pots and small geysers first.
My dad in front of the hot pots
We stopped for lunch at this beautiful place just off the road. I had to take a few pics because this is my happy place. When people say "go to your happy place" this is what I will imagine. It was breathtaking at how beautiful it was.
We then traveled more around the loop in Yellowstone, still seeing no wildlife but seeing more geysers.
Then we finally saw some buffalo and thought we wouldn't see any the rest of the trip so we took a lot of pictures!
We then saw the upper falls and took a few pictures and then actually drove down and hiked down by the waterfall. We didn't realize how long the hike down was and how many stairs there would be, but we did it and probably won't do it ever again. It was worth the hike, but only the one time.
My dad in front of the falls, he was in better shape than Dave and I!
We moved on to try and make it to see Old Faithful, we drove up got out of our car and saw all the crowds walking towards the parking lot, we had just missed it. Since we had all seen it before we didn't want to wait another hour so we headed home and as luck would have it we drove by a crowd of people and had to stop to see what they were looking at. Dave was hoping it was a bear but it was some elk. We watched them for about an hour and even got to see one of the elk bugling, it was really cool. Dave got a great video of it but I'll just bore you with the pictures instead :)
Here he is bugling, he was herding females and starting bugling so we tried to find the other male but couldn't find him
Day 6 - September 27th - Dave and I's 4th Anniversary!!!!
Dave and I decided to head out to Jenny Lake and rent a canoe for our anniversary. We saw the canoe's a few days before and thought it looked like a lot of fun. It will be one of the best memories from any of our anniversary's! We went out early and were the only ones on the lake. The leaves were starting to change and the lake was beautiful. It was so peaceful, I commented to Dave that I felt like we were the only two people on earth. We laughed and talked about how the last 4 years have been amazing, rough, and wonderful all at the same time.
After we got off the lake we met my parents on the other side of the lake. They had hiked with Marcus and had gotten over to the other side where the ferry can pick you up. We were all exhausted so we took the ferry back to the other side of the lake. Marcus loved the ferry!
Dave and I ended our anniversary by going out to eat and walking around the square of Jackson Hole. We got ice cream and then headed back to the condo. Our condo also had a hot tub in the back so Dave and I soaked in the hot tub and then came inside to watch a movie. It was a perfect day and I couldn't think of any other way I would have spent our 4 year anniversary!
Day 28 - September 28th
This was our last day in Jackson Hole so we decided to go up the tram to Teton Village. The ride up the tram was beautiful and we even saw a moose! It was freezing up at the top of the mountain and as you can see from the pictures, I didn't keep track of my hair. It is literally OUT OF CONTROL! I laughed so hard when I saw the pictures.
The view from the top - AMAZING!
My hair is OUT OF CONTROL!
Hello Mr. Moose!
We ended our last day in downtown Jackson Hole. We did some shopping and took a few pictures by the famous antlers! Thanks mom and dad for a wonderful trip, we had so much fun, the colors were beautiful and it was the most relaxing vacation we have ever been on.
