Fall in Jackson, WY

There truly isn't anything better than spending a beautiful fall week in Jackson Wyoming! We get to do it almost every year and we are just getting back to a normal life after 8 great days away from home. We spent a few days with just the four of us and then Uncle Noley and Aunt Christy joined us for the rest of the week, while mommy had to leave us and go to Minneapolis. What a great week! Put your seat belts on and get ready for some pictures . . . we had a hard time choosing which pictures to include - so you're getting lots of them. Plus they will appear in the order in which they were taken . . . so for your viewing pleasure we present "our week in Jackson".

Here are the boys planning the week's hikes while enjoying the view from the Teton NP Visitor's Center at Moose.A picture of the whole family with the beautiful Grand Tetons in the background. One of the first hikes we did was at Two Ocean Lake. Here's the lake. It was fun to watch a storm roll in while we were there. Of course, where there are water and rocks . . . there are very happy boys nearby. Brothers . . . hiking in the big, big mountains.
On our way back to the main highway, Mason saw this "goat" cloud. We love looking for shapes in the clouds! Can you find the goat?Some beautiful scenery shots. The next morning we got up early and went in to the Teton NP to find animals and just enjoy the day. Probably our most favorite spot is at String & Leigh Lakes up at the North Jenny junction. It is so pretty - especially when you are the only people around for miles (except for the elk).
The whole family.Daddy took some pretty pictures didn't he?That afternoon we wandered around the town. Here is our bear . . . we take our picture with him every year.

Aunt Jen Jen is always checking the Town Square web cam and manages to capture a picture every year of us eating some yummy ice cream under the elk horn arch.

Uncle Noley and Aunt Christy joined us on Saturday evening. So we all got up early on Sunday and drove up in to the park. Our early wake-up call was met with a wolf sighting. It was very early, still mostly dark, and he was fairly far away, but if you squint your eyes and look closely, you'll see him.

Sam loves the outdoors and he loves looking for animals.

We saw lots of animals on this trip - including antelope.

Here's a picture of Mason on top of Signal Mountain - you can see forever from up there.

More pretty pictures from the top of Signal Mountain.

And here's a picture of all of us at the top.

Another family picture at the Jackson Lake overlook at Signal Mountain.

From here we decided to stop at the Signal Mountain Lodge to see if they were still serving breakfast. It turns out that they were closing down for the season that very morning and we ended up having the very last meal served at the lodge for the 2010 season. Of course, the down side to that was that we pretty much had to eat whatever was left - the choices were slim, but it was yummy and it was a beautiful place to eat breakfast.

Then we headed over to another of our favorite spots - Oxbow Bend.
We always see something here and we weren't disappointed this time . . . we were treated to a bull moose. He's that brown lump right over daddy's shoulder.

We played in the Snake River - there were no rocks left on the river bank when we finished!

Another pretty picture.

We saw a couple of bald eagles playing on the winds.

We stopped at Jenny Lake and went for a walk. Here's another family picture.

Two boys just enjoying a great afternoon!

We watched this red-headed Grebe go fishing. He was a good fisherman! That's a fish flipping around in his mouth.

Yet another pretty picture.

On our way back to town as we passed through Moose junction, we spotted this pair of moose at the river. He was a big boy.

Mommy left to go back to work on Monday afternoon. We all headed over to take a walk on the Moose-Wilson road. Sam hiked the whole way by himself.

A picture from the beaver ponds.

And a beautiful sunset.The next day we wandered through the Jackson Visitor's Center. We got close to a lot of moose on this trip, but this one let us get the closest. He didn't even bite!We saw traces of bears, including a recent paw print and also some scat . . . But this stuffed bear at the Visitor's Center was the closest we got to one this trip . . . maybe next year.
We saw buffalo.And more moose.And more beautiful scenery.We hiked to Moose Ponds . . . ah, more water to play in!And we had a lovely afternoon picnic on the edge of Jenny lake. And we threw more rocks. Boys just can't ever get enough of this activity!
Daddy's favorite animal to see is Elk. We saw plenty of them - big boys too.
And yet more pretty pictures.

On our way home, we stopped to visit some of the L family graves. The boys decorated the headstones with the ever plentiful pine cones. It's always good to see where you come from!
It was a great trip - thank you to Uncle Noley and Aunt Christy for joining us. We missed everyone else who loves to go to Jackson with us! Same time next year!

Creepy Critters and a Halloween Sneak Peek

Our mommy/boys activity this week was the Creepy Critter Hunt at the Farm Country at Thanksgiving Point. We had so much fun! We started with a scavenger hunt around the farm to find ghosts, mummies, and spiders. Here we are with a mummy. Once we found them all, then we got to make a "delicious craft".

Once we finished with that, we went on a carriage ride.

See - it was fun. Look at our smiles (and the partial terror on Sam's face that mommy won't make it onto the carriage before the horse pulls away).They had the farm all decorated for Halloween - including this "scary" haunted house.
I went on a pony ride - Sam wouldn't go this time. And, of course, we fed the goats. Here's Sam posing with one of the bossy ones. We'll have more pictures to post from this week later.
Sam Alert: Hey everyone - I wanted to provide you all with a sneak peek of our Halloween costumes for this year. But all you get is a sneak peek! Here's me . . . .. . . . and here's Mason. Any guesses? All I can say is that we are pretty darn cute if we do say so ourselves. Sam out!

Oh what do you do in the

Autumn - time?

That's an easy question for us . . . .

1. Finish up our decorations for Halloween - here we are digging holes for our spooky headstones.2. Help mom make some new Halloween decorations. We are very good helpers!

3. Play soccer! This season has gone by quickly. I only have one more game and one more practice. It's been fun to be on a team and play a sport.Here's part of my cheering section - they say they're loud, but I'm so focused during the games, I don't even hear them! Perhaps the crumbs on Sam's face tell a different story - maybe I should have eaten my snack before going back out to play.Here's my break-away for a goal - s c o o o o o o r e!
4. A trip to our favorite Pumpkin Patch.
This local pumpkin patch near our house is the best! They grow a huge variety of pumpkins - it's so hard to choose the very best one.Look - we harvested pumpkins and "a Sam".

We were able to catch a hay ride around the patch this year. Daddy stood guard over our pumpkins - so that's mommy and the boys riding toward the back. You'll get to see the pumpkins we picked later - when it's carving time.Sam Alert: Hey everyone - Sam here. Mommy always says that "play is the work of childhood". So . . . we take that motto seriously at our house. Here I am helping daddy get an upper body workout.And here I am heading to the car after soccer. I really am laughing even though it looks like I'm mad. And just another cute picture of me at the pumpkin patch. We got some of the coolest pumpkins this year. Surprisingly, only one of the pumpkins in the wheelbarrow with me made the final cut. I made the cut too - just in case you were wondering! Talk to you next week.

BFF's

"A" is my BFF. I've known her since I was just a tiny, little guy. It's great to have a good friend!

Our B I G Day Out

Wow - talk about a nice warm, summer-like week! We tried to make the most of it and enjoy lots of time outdoors.

For our mommy/boys night out this week, the boys chose the Dinosaur Museum again for "Pumpkins Please". We made pumpkin hats and went on a pumpkin scavenger hunt through the museum. Super fun!We did some art projects - we just can't get enough of painting. The messier the better!Then, on Friday, we had a B I G day out - daddy and mommy both took the day off and they surprised us with a ride on the Heber Valley Railroad. The fall leaves were out and the day was beautiful and warm. Trains are the best! Look at some of the pretty pictures of the fall colors that daddy took:
Such a pretty day!The boysAnd, as always, a quick trip down to the river to throw rocks during the train stop at Vivian Park. Trains and rocks . . . that is a great day!And the other sign of a great day . . . . exhaustion. This is what the back seat looked like on the way home. And today, we went with daddy up to the cemetery to take flowers to Grandma June's grave. He had a vase put in so that we could put flowers in it whenever we want. It turned out great! (PLEASE don't judge us - yes, we are in pajamas out in public in the middle of the day! What can we say . . . it was a slow, relaxing day around the house!)

Sam Alert: Hey everyone . . . we are loving the warm weather. And I really really loved the train ride. I had the best time!Here's one more picture of me from this week - nap time. I'm such a silly sleeper! Sam out.