Our Annual Fall Vacation to Jackson

Oh how we love our annual fall trip to Jackson, WY.  It is one of the most favorite things we do every year.  It isn't crowded, we see lots and lots of animals, and sometimes we even get to spend time with some of our family.

 

We love spending a little time just wandering around town.  There are lots of fun shops to peruse.  And this super giant wooden bear is always there to greet us.

We're keeping up with one of our newest traditions - - cracking open geodes at the By Nature Gallery just off town square.  Mine was all smokey quartz this year, and Sam's geode had regular quartz with chunks of smokey quartz inside.  Very cool!

Did you know that you can find almost anything on YouTube?  Daddy found Spiderman cartoons and we watched some episodes with him.

 We took a day and drove up to Yellowstone NP and we always spend the majority of our time in Grand Teton NP. 

 

This is a picture at Moose Falls at the south end of Yellowstone.  Isn't that old stone bridge pretty?

 I have been learning about Wyoming in school and I did a stellar drawing of Old Faithful - so we decided to go see it in person.  It was amazing! 

 

 And we hiked through a couple of different geyser basins just north of Old Faithful.  We were lucky enough to get to see the Jewel geyser erupt a couple of times. 

 The next day we spent with Aunt Jen Jen and Uncle Michael in the Tetons.  Here we are at Two Oceans Lake.  We found lots of very fresh bear and wolf tracks by the lake so we didn't stay very long. 

One of our favorite spots is Signal Mountain.  

This is one of our classic moves - scaring innocent hikers along the trail.  

And, of course, one of our most favorite things to do is throw rocks in a river/lake/any body of water.  Here the boys are at Oxbow bend throwing rocks into the Snake River.  

 

There's always good eats to be had in Jackson. Here we are at the Bunnery sharing a hot cocoa with Aunt Jen Jen one morning.

Here we are with Aunt Jen Jen and Uncle Michael before they left for home.  We sure missed Aunt Fran and Uncle Carl this year - darn that broken leg of his!

 Sneak peak - mom caught this funny picture of me and Sam sleeping one night.  We're all snuggled up together keeping warm and feeling safe.

 We saw lots of great animals this year.  We saw some BIG buffalo up close and personal.  This is one of the big buys, un-zoomed, right out mom's window.  Wanna pet a buffalo?

 

 Here is one walking down the road. 

 We saw a little herd of big horn sheep - females and babies.  Super cute!

Here are some more buffalo - this little group had the itches.  See them scratching against the signs.  They itched themselves and rolled in the dirt for quite a while.  

 We attempted our very first "jumping" picture with mom - apparently we all need some jumping practice.  We didn't get off the ground very far.

Here are some great scenery shots - the Tetons from the top of Signal Mountain.

 A stormy evening - pretty cool watching the storm clouds move in.

And look at this sunset - it's like the clouds are on fire.

This old barn over on Antelope Flats is always beautiful against the big mountains.

Oh - and one other fantastic thing we saw this trip - a cute little black bear.  He/she found a grove of bushes with some berries still left on them.  He/she stayed in the area for a couple of days and we went and watched him /her every morning and evening.  Cute little guy/gal.

 

Here he is getting a drink of water from the little puddles on the side of the road.  

 He could sure climb up high in the trees.  He would just lounge around up there, lean around from bush to bush and reach over to grab up all the berries.  Very, very, very cool!

 Aunt Christy and Uncle Noley joined us the last couple of days of our trip.  Nothing better than a good meal at Bubba's!

And a family picture at mommy's favorite spot - Oxbow Bend.  Beautiful!

 In other happenings this weekend, after we got home, I had a soccer game.  I scored TWO goals this time.  I'm in the gray shirt with the long sweat pants with a white stripe down the sides.

Sam Alert:  Hey everybody!  Yep, it was definitely a great trip to Wyoming.  Enjoy a few of my favorite Sam pics from the trip. 

 

Here I am snacking in the back of daddy's truck.  (BTW - I have FINALLY made it to 30 pounds!  That is a huge milestone for me.)  

Here I am walking on Aunt Jen Jen's back.  My light weight has come in pretty handy in making backs feel better. 

 

And here I am snuggling with mom during one of our bear watching trips.  That darn sun can be so bright in a little guy's eyes. 

 

Sam out - have a great week!