Hide-a-ho

That's what the kids liked to call it. It made me laugh every time. We left Wyoming and drove up to Tetonia, Idaho through Yellowstone and the Grand Teton National Park. I went to Yellowstone once when I was younger and saw Old Faithful, but I was at that age where I just liked to ask if we were there yet. Nothing could have prepared me for how beautiful the park was. Here we are just in a random spot in front of a lake. Not sure which one it was.

 So, we're driving along and traffic starts to slow. Britt started looking for wildlife, and we see this friendly fellow meandering up the mountain all by himself. Of course we were screaming to the kids to look. Eliza says "All I see is fluff."

Despite it being July, there was still snow on the peaks. It made for lots of pretty waterfalls.

 

We stopped for lunch at the "Fishing Post." The girls were excited to have their camping lunches.

 

 

 Next we headed into the Grand Tetons. They are INSANE! Beautiful. I had never seen them before. I'd been to Jackson Hole but never paid attention.

 

Have you ever seen those road signs that only have a few words on them, but when you read them as you drive they form a sentence? When we entered the National Park, there were some that said:

I saw wildlife...

From afar....

Til I hit them....

With my car.

We laughed the rest of the way to Jackson.

 

We drove through Jackson Hole and up the pass into Idaho, where it was only a short distance to my Dad and Lynn's house. One of the first days that we were there, my Dad spotted a moose not too far down the road, so we hopped into the car to go take a look.

 

Here is my Dad's house from where we were taking pictures of the moose.

  

I don't know why, but I just love moose. (Moosen? Meesen? That's a Brian Regan reference).

 

There was lots to do in Idaho. Did you hear we met the prophet?  He was going fishing.

 

After meeting President Monson, we got some huckleberry ice cream. 

 And we visited the Rexburg temple.

 We also drove up into the Tetons to have a picnic one night, and ate the best fried chicken I've had in a long time. Here's the director of the picnic: G-Pa!

 And my littlest brother, Mr. Will.

 The light coming in through the trees were beautiful and it looked like a sacred grove moment. Esther was the only child who would let me take her picture, somewhat unwillingly. Eliza refused to go anywhere near the woods because she thought that the wolves would eat her.

 Our picnic spot. This picture doesn't do any justice to the magnitude of the mountains around us.

 We had to go to Bear World when we were in Idaho. Basically, you drive your car through a bear habitat (that has some other animals as well.) It was a lot of fun. The girls loved looking at all the bears.

 This clever guy must have had an itch.

There were little bear cubs too. "Tell everybody I'm on my way..."

 But the best part of Bear World? The rides, of course. Our kids LOVE rides.

Bear World also had a pretty cool petting zoo. Considering that we are usually afraid of everything, I was unsure of how this was going to go. I was pleasantly surprised! Everyone touched at least one animal. Success.

I'm not sure this pig was alive, really.

Here's my biggest fraidy cat. She eventually touched a goat, but preferred to hang with G-Pa.

 There was also a little pond with fish and swans. Eden really liked to look at the Swans.

 

Here are a couple more pictures Lynn took of us while we were there. Idaho was so fun. I can't wait to take the kids back next year, and bring Erik along with us so that he can experience it too.