the rare and elusive summer vacation

We were so lucky to be able to take a relatively unscheduled and impromptu family trip to Montana this summer.  Normally, Cody goes on his birthday fishing trip to the Uintahs every year at this time.  This year he decided we should do a family trip to Montana instead.  I really don’t think we could have had more fun if we tried.  And for being a last-minute trip, we sure managed to jam pack it with tons of fun things!  Cody had to help me with the list of what we did because I couldn’t even remember half the stuff, that’s how much we did.

So, because it is for some reason impossible for me to edit myself when I am recounting vacation activities, you can read it all, or just peruse the pictures.

Thursday, July 28 (Cody’s birthday)

We managed to get all our stuff packed and get out of the house by 1030.  We drove the 4 hours to Jackson Hole, Wyoming.  We had reserved a hotel online with hardly any info or knowledge, so luckily it turned out decently.  Not the fanciest place, but for one night it was fine.  We stayed at the Inn @ Jackson Hole.  Which, ironically is not in Jackson hole, but in Teton Village, about 15 minutes away.  Jackson Hole is a pretty cool little town, right at the base of the Tetons, lots of ski resorts, LOTS of tourist shops.  Teton Village is really the place to stay though.  (note to self, next time see how much it costs to stay at the Hotel Terra – that looks like the nice, swanky place to stay). 

After dinner in Jackson Hole and a quick peek around downtown, we headed back to the hotel and the kids swam for a bit.

Friday

We checked out of the hotel and went to go up the tram to the top of the mountain (which was right behind our hotel).  While we were waiting for the next tram, the kids had fun on the bungee trampolines!

Then we took the tram ride (climbing 4139 vertical feet in 15 minutes). 

doesn’t it look like that would be the top?  It isn’t even half-way up.

Once you’re at the top, you get out and look around.  The coolest part is that there is a little ski chalet at the top that makes Belgian waffles.  Delicious!  It’s also fun to say “this morning I ate my breakfast on top of a mountain.”

 

Ok, so I wrote that first bit right after we got home.  It has been a month now so let’s see how much else I can remember…

After we left Jackson Hole, we drove through Yellowstone Park.  I had never seen Old Faithful so we decided to go do that.  The parking lot is huge and very busy.  There were a lot of people coming out.  I thought, watch, we just missed it.  And indeed we had.  By about 5 minutes.  Boo.  Also, since it was a rather spectacular eruption (lasting longer than normal I guess) it was predicted the next one wouldn’t go off for another hour and a half.  We had a decision to make.  I got pissy about it.  In the end, we stayed to watch it.  I was looking at all the people there, hearing their accents and languages, and thought… People come from all over the world to see this.  Like, this is their destination.  But we aren’t going to stay because we’re “local” and we want to make good time to Bozeman?  In the end it was an internal debate as Cody was fine to do whatever.  There I go assuming things again.  But I am glad we stayed.  It was really cool to see and now I can say I have.

Here’s me being pissy.

Here are the kids wondering what’s so special about this little mound?

One downfall of waiting the hour 1/2 – hot.  and sun.

Thar she blows

Afterwards, we made it to Bozeman, and met Aunt Laci & Uncle Ryan for dinner and went back to their house.

Saturday, we took a trip to Abbi & Laci’s salon.  Finn & Indi got their hair cut and got fun feathers put in.

Jim, Paula & Grandma Peggy were also in town for a minute so we got to have dinner with everyone.

Sunday, we floated the Madison.  What an awesome, fun, relaxing lazy day on the river.

Uncle Ryan being silly.  Holy crap those kids love him!

This last picture makes me a little sad.  I’ll tell you why.  It was a beautiful day to float the river.  Slightly overcast, not terribly sunny.  There was also a nice breeze.  For some reason, Burgundy has decided that she is scared of the wind.  I’m not sure if something blew away once or what.  Anyway, she was a little uneasy about the breeze.  Also she was pretty tired.  I kept trying to get her to take a nap sitting with me, but it wasn’t happening.  So we had the big raft, an air mattress and a tube and I decided I would like to ride in the tube for a bit.  Indi was not thrilled with this.  We had stopped in a shallow spot to switch.  The spot was rocky and it was hard to get good footing.  So I was trying to get onto the tube.  We had a strap attached to the tube.  Burgundy was getting worried about me doing it, I offhandedly tossed the strap to her and said here it’s ok hold on to this.  So I plopped into the tube and of course off I floated.  She tried to hold on to the strap, bless her little heart, but couldn’t hold it.  So there I go floating off a few yards everyone is laughing, including me, poor Burgundy gets hysterical.  In her little mind, she was supposed to hold on to me, and she couldn’t, so it is her fault I am floating down the river and she’s never going to see me again.  Pretty heavy for a 3-year old.  It finally dawns on me to just stand up so I can stop and wait for the rest (although that was difficult because it was super rocky and I had no shoes on, ouch, so I’m trying to stand up out of the tube and fall and whack my shin on a rock.  again – ouch).  We finally all get back together, everyone is trying to convince Burgundy it is ok and I am fine, but she was pretty much inconsolable.  So, this picture is her holding on to my foot.  She didn’t let go of it for the rest of the ride.  Poor baby, mommy didn’t mean to traumatize you :(

The next day we got up early and packed up to go to Abbi’s house.  For Cody’s birthday, we each had a massage with this amazing lady in Livingston.  She was seriously like a psychic being able to read your muscles and tell you your problems just from how they felt.  Seriously amazing.  She said you might have a little after-effect from this, so don’t fret too much if you get a little emotional.  The only effect I had was afterwards I went to the little gift shop below her studio to wait for Paula and I could not make any decisions.  Like, to save my life.  Found a little book for Indi, trying to find something for Finn.  I have never had that hard of a time in a store with so much cute stuff.  It was pretty much impossible for me to figure it out.  After 40 minutes of deliberating, I ended up getting him a pair of socks with dogs on them.  Lame, I know.  But he actually loves them and wears them to school all the time.  Then I came back to Abbi’s and promptly fell fast asleep for a few hours.  Cody had a stronger reaction, but I’ll get to that later.

(are you still reading all this?  I don’t like to edit things out since this blog is really for me to remember, or for people to feel like they were there, too.)

After Cody’s massage, we all went to Chico Hot Springs.  This place was cool.  A bit grungy, but old & cool.  It reminded me of an old place where people used to go to “balance their humors”  it just had that old-timey bloomers for swimsuits feel to it.  It is a regular public swimming pool but it is warm (hot sometimes) because it is fed by a natural hot spring.  Then they also pump cold water into it so it doesn’t burn you.  The water is fast-moving enough that they don’t have to use any chemicals.

Afterward, we went to Rib & Chop house and ate outside.  Food was sooo good.  Here is Uncle Ryan & Finn watching trains go by.

On Tuesday, we were pretty lazy most of the morning, then decided to go on a hike.  I’m not the hugest hiking fan.  I guess I usually like it ok once I’m doing it, but the thought of it is sometimes like “ugh” to me.  It’s hot, you don’t go very fast (I prefer a bike ride), what have you.  But this hike turned out to be everyone’s favorite part of the trip.

It was supposed to be a pretty easy hike up to a waterfall.  Well, after an hour and a half, crossing the river 3 times (me falling in once – stupid slippery rock), running out of trail (literally there was not really a trail at the end – it was more like this is the animal path), singing show tunes and princess songs (loudly) to alert any bears to our presence, we made it to the waterfall.  The kids did amazingly.  Burgundy did great, a few scrapes and bumps along the way but Cody would pick her up for a minute and she’d be good to go, and Finn just kept on trucking. And it was drizzling on us the whole time, just like a nice light summer rain. It was awesome.   Here are some shots of that.

After we were back at Abbi’s and the kids were in bed, we were just hanging out.  Cody started to get really sick.  He was throwing up.  A lot.  To quote Abbi, he was “Crazy Sick.”  Figured out it was his after-effects of his massage.  She got so much stuff moving and trying to get out of him that his body was literally exploding the bad mojo out.  Poor guy.

So we were supposed to go home the next day but I convinced Cody to take one more day to recover.  So we had lunch at Old Chicago Pizzeria (NOT Chicago pizza, big surprise) and Cody took a nap while I did a little shopping.  We had dinner at Pine Creek Lodge which was again, super delicious and a fun little restaurant.

The next day we came home.

So, if you’re still reading, thanks for staying with me.  It really was a fantastic trip.  So full of so many fun things.  The kids loved hanging with their cool aunts & uncle and playing with cousin Lily.  And we got something we rarely, if ever, get: a summer vacation.