Sunday, July 14, 2013

July 10 – Grand Teton National Park



If our beautiful camp ground at Dubuois, WY wasn’t in the boonies & was near other touristy stuff then we’d probably stay another night because it was just so nice, but we have stuff to see & places to be so we headed out.
Dalton woke me up early by talking in his sleep. Sounded like he said something about “where’s the bag” then he sat up & said “French fries French fries” or at least that’s what it sounded like. I managed to get him to go back to sleep for another hour or so. He does his usually “hehe house” (Mickey Mouse) first thing in the morning. Those are his fruit snacks & sometimes I get them for him right away so he doesn’t wake everyone up & sometimes I just encourage him to fall back to sleep. I pray for more sleep.

As hubby got the trailer ready to go I played ball with the kids. We have those round frisbee looking things with velcro on them that you can hold in your hand & the ball has velcro on it as well so it sticks to the round frisbee part. We played catch for a while then they got out the small football, which made its way under the suv.  Dalton as usual was playing with rocks & he went to throw one down right as Annika was turning around & the rock fell on her ankle. Ouch! Ok play time was over.

Since we’ve been traveling we’ve seen new stuff & with that comes new words from Dalton. When he sees stuff out the window he calls out “cows, riber (river), horsey” I love to hear him talk. Before we left Illinois we got our free national park pass & it has come in handy. We got in free to the Badlands & Grand Teton so that saved us quite a few bucks. I gotta say these mountains at Grand Teton are gorgeous! I love seeing the snow at the top of them in July. The view was phenomenal. Hubby showed me how to use the panorama shot feature on my cell phone & I was able to get some great photos of the mountains. I managed to get us the very last rv spot at Grand Teton & I was so grateful because it was so nice being among the pine trees. I love the smell of fresh pine trees, but only the real thing not in a candle or room spray or anything. Our slot was pretty crooked & hubby had a little bit of a hard time backing in, but he’s awesome & got the trailer in. We had to use several blocks under the right side of the tires to get level, but it was all good. I was hoping they would have cancellations so we could stay 2 more nights, but I called the only full hook up campground inside Yellowstone & we got in for one night. Swa-weet!  I turned around & canceled our spot in Jackson, which was south & out of the way. We were planning on spending more time in Yellowstone anyway so one night in Grand Teton was enough.

After set up we did our nature walk with the kids. We were looking for the swimming beach, but wound up near the marina, which was picture perfect & I used my nifty panorama shot. There was an information building there, but it was closed. I was nearly attacked by these small birds protecting their nest above the building. They came swooping down right above my head & I had to duck down. Freaked me out. Hubby put his feet in the freezing water & the kids threw rocks. What is it with kids & rocks anyway? Dalton likes to put them in my back pockets for me to hold for him then he stuffs his pockets as well. I’ll remember this love of rocks when we want to build some kind of rock feature in our new home. During our walk there was this huge teepee, but just the base of it. The kids ran in & got our photo of them. There was also 2 deer next to the path & they had no fear of us. They just stood there & continued to eat their clovers. So beautiful & the kids loved it. There was a refilling water station & a water fountain. Dalton of course loves to push buttons so he was all over that fountain. Annika tried to pick him up to help him get a drink from the fountain, but he’s too heavy for her. I managed to get a quick photo. So cute.

We kept on walking & got on a nature trail to look for the swimming beach & took the path. We wound up walking thru woods & it was probably close to a mile hike. It was nice, but I was nervous about bears & made sure we were making plenty of noise just in case. I told Annika to be herself & talk loud like she usually does. Dalton only cared about picking up rocks. He carried a big one for quite a while then finally dropped it. Guess it got too heavy for him. The scenery was beautiful but it was getting darker & temps were dropping. Thankfully we finally found the beach & turned out it was across the street from the camp ground where we started from. Well that figures, but that’s ok because it was a nice walk & well worth it. There were millions of rocks on this beachy area so the kids were in heaven. Hubby showed them how to skip rocks again, but they just threw them in. Hey whatever makes them happy. The sun was gone so we walked back to camp & it was so much easier, but being in this high elevation makes even the easiest walk hard on your lungs. I feel more out of shape then I am.

By the time we got dinner & got the kids to bed it was after 11pm. Yikes! It stays light outside for so long that it doesn’t seem late when in fact it really is. Dalton was so tired that he didn’t really eat dinner & wound up crawling into my bed & holding Emry’s hand then falling asleep. I had to change his diaper & put his pj pants on (it was going to be in the low 40s over night). He didn’t like that all, but he went back to sleep. Annika started to fall asleep, but finally agreed to take a quick shower. She was asleep in no time. Me on the other hand, well a moms work is never done & my usual midnight time came & went before I got to bed.


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