Jackson, Wyoming

The weather was great, the kids were crazy. We stopped at the Willow Park Zoo in Logan which was really cool. I'd recommend it to anyone, especially if you haven't seen a coyote or a baby emu. The kids were in rare form avoiding photographs.

Any photo like this with a calm-looking and smiling Isaac has almost certainly been bribed out of him.

This is a cool place that closed before we got there...we'll try again some day. No one would pose with me for this photo.

It's a long drive to Jackson from our house. Jovie yelled, "The sun is in my eyes!" every time it was. I told her to look out Ikey's window and she'd always ask if she could. He said no one time, so she fell apart until I gave her my glasses. Isn't she a cool kid?

The kids talk non-stop in the car and sometimes it's funny. Ikey said, "I noticed my bed was missing in my room." Jovie said, "Is it under the sheets?" Ikey laughed and said, "Oh yeah, it is!"

I told TB that we should do one of those old-timey family photographs as are so popular in Western resort towns. He said, "What, so the three-year-old can hold a rifle and dress up like a bank robber and the two-year-old can look like a saloon girl?" So instead, they just wore costumes at the history museum. 

 I told Jovie that this was a "trapper" costume. The next day, she said she wanted to "dress like a catcher again".

 

We went to the National Park and took my required photo at the sign.

We rode the Jenny Lake boat and it was Jovie's first boat ride, besides canoes and rowboats, and she loved it. It threatened to rain, and it did just a little.

 We hiked to Hidden Falls and Jovie threw several "logs" and rocks in.

We hiked up to Inspiration Point to see the whole Jenny Lake.

 The kids lugged around some moose antlers in the visitor's center.

Ikey flashed a gang sign at the antler arch in Town Square.

Cecret Lake

The whole family joined the crowd hiking up to Cecret Lake in Albion Basin above Alta.

Dad came on this hike, even though I know he doesn't like to do the same thing that hundreds of other people are doing at the same time. He "cecretly" liked it though...

We were one week early for the Wasatch Wildflower Festival, but Jovie still found some beautiful flowers.

There were four big moose on the trail and we marched right past them like we weren't afraid, but I was.

Cecret Lake was really pretty, but the kids wouldn't smile at the camera because sometimes they won't.

Floats and Albion Basin

We checked out the awesome floats at the parade preview party. Of course the train floats were the most popular with our crowd.

We hiked in Albion Basin to Catherine's Pass. The kids said hello to everyone we passed. Ikey would start conversations like this: Are you having a good hike? We started hiking way down there. I'm obsessed with trains. They call people obsessed with trains "railfans".

Jovie told a few hikers, "I've got granite. It's igneous." She was right too!

Jovie said, "We're hiking to Silver Lake Lodge." She wishes!

We camped out in the back yard last night. When the fireworks started, Ikey said, "Does someone have poor judgement?" I guess we've expressed our opinion about fireworks to him enough. I was very brave about camping with the kiddos by myself until I was awakened by a cat fight in our yard. It was so scary - It sounded like babies crying! The kids slept through that one.

City of Rocks

Our next one-day vacation was to City of Rocks in Idaho. TB even joined us on this one! And this is the last photo you'll ever see from this camera because after balancing it on the hood of the car for this group shot, we forgot to pick it up before we took off down the dirt road, remembering just after it flew off and broke the lens. So now it's just iPhone pictures until/unless we buy another camera... or break the iPhone.

It is a long drive, but the kids are good at entertaining themselves with music and drawing. Ikey pretty much only draws trains, and he told us from the back seat that this train says "OOOP". He handed the "IkeyPad" up and we found that he had written his first word. He didn't even ask how to spell it (today) and now he can write OOOP any time he wants. He said that he couldn't write CHOO or ISAAC, although he knows how to spells those words, so OOOP is it for a while.

The visitor center in Almo had cool wagons that we climbed on to check out the ride. Ikey pretended his was on a train of course.

We hiked around Camp Rock/Register Rock and Jovie learned the word "signature" and has used it constantly since then.

 TB did some non-technical climbing to look at the "tubs" on the top of the rock and get a great photo of the view. He took a little time out to text Hank that he was on "one of Aimee's crazy adventures". I thought that was nice.

We hiked to Creekside Towers and to Parking Lot Rock too. The kids were great hikers and didn't need a lift.

Jovie took a chance jumping down the steps on the trail. She was pushing the weeds out of the way and said, "These plants are KILLING me."

We posed in Window Arch just like every non-climbing tourist that has ever been to City of Rocks.

 We had a pretty good steak at Almo Creek Outpost Steakhouse, and then a nice long drive home ignoring the GPS's instructions to take every private dirt road between there and here.

Jovie grew it!

Jovie chose and planted a tomato plant and has been diligently watering it. Now she harvests each tiny yellow tomato and eats them herself too.

Aimee's Birthday

We went on our first ever camping trip for my birthday. We picked out the prettiest campsite in Redman Campground in Big Cottonwood Canyon and waited all day for it to stop raining. The state hasn't had a drop of rain since we set up our tent at 5 pm on the 5th, so sorry about that...

My parents brought cute red, white, and blue decorations and a delicious chocolate cake. Helene brought four kids who know a lot about camping and playing outside and the little Burrows had a great time with them.
 

We slept for about eight hours and we were nice and warm. We went for a very noisy hike around the campground very early in the morning. Sorry about that too.

Todd made eggs, pancakes, sausage, hot chocolate and coffee for breakfast. It was so good!

We had a great time and the kids want to go again already, so let us know when you want to head into the wild world with us.

Fossil Butte trip

We just keep going on these crazy day trips to see all the things I can't believe I've never seen before. We headed out to Fossil Butte National Monument near Kemmerer Wyoming, which was really cool and not even too hot. Did I mention that I majored in Geology and lived in Utah for 31 years and I've never been here? What have I been wasting my time doing?

We took Grandma Rainey along for this trip because she's always up for an adventure. Jovie is crazy about log houses, so we checked out Wilford Woodruff's cabin in Randolph.
Rainey told us that TB's dad is a direct descendant of WW, but I don't really know if that is through the wife that lived in this cabin or another one (another wife and another cabin I mean).

The visitor center was very interesting and the rangers were so nice. Ikey is testing one of the fossils to see how dusty it is. He was also very interested in their tick display while I was kind of freaked out by it.

Of course we went on a hike at the monument. We took off on the 1.5 mile loop called Chicken Creek Nature Trail and they hiked in front of me the whole way so I could brush off any bug that landed on them. 

 They finished the hike with red cheeks and absolutely no carrying. Yay! This is the longest Jovie's gone without a lift and they were both pretty proud.