Vacation 2010 Part 1 -- Grand Tetons

We went on our first family vacation in June/July. We drove through Kansas and Colorado into Wyoming to spend time at both The Grand Tetons and Yellowstone Park. On the way home we visited Mount Rushmore and the Badlands. This was my first visit West. (Not counting flying to California when I was six.) The scenery is amazing and the weather was beautiful.

We tried to take a slow, laid back approach to the vacation, so that we would be spending time having fun, rather then stressing about getting places on time and worrying about cranky children. We traveled with Jaired's family and had one of the girls with us each day of the drive. They were an amazing help caring for the boys in the car.

I packed a lot of books and toys, as well as our portable DVD player, so Edmund and Nathaniel were pretty well entertained in the car. Jeremiah did not have quite as much fun; he was temporarily scarred by car travel, and for the second half of the trip would start crying the moment we entered the car. Fortunately, he has recovered.

These are some of my favorite pictures from the trip:

Edmund entertaining himself in the car with a Duplo "recorder".

Car break! We stopped in Kansas City to enjoy some delicious Lamar's doughnuts. Yum! I love how the boys are all looking in different directions, but none at the camera.

One of the rest areas in Wyoming had a Prairie Dog village. The boys had a great time feeding them our wilted grapes and lettuce.

The view from the family's cottage on Slide Lake. The beautiful Grand Tetons mountain range. We stayed in the cabin that you can see on the right edge of the top picture.

Hiking. Nathaniel took possession of Justice's hat for part of the trip. Family picture, nine bumps on a log, and two besides. The man who took the picture opted to get a good close up of us, rather then show the mountains in the background.

Mountain climbing at Slide Lake. These small mountains are MUCH bigger than the Ozark Mountains!

In the top picture you can see Slide Lake, and the slide it is named for. In the bottom picture is the 20 foot cliff we climbed down as we made our descent.

There was good food in abundance.


Plenty of playtime with relations.

Lots of rest and hanging out.

Edmund got inventive in his play. Books for a train track, and there is something about those plastic water bottles that makes them so fun to drink out of, much to the owner's chagrin.