Sent from my iPhone
Sunday, June 26, 2016
Saturday, June 25, 2016
Wednesday, June 22, 2016
Sunday, June 19, 2016
Family vacation Wyoming June 13 - June 19, 2016
Family vacation Wyoming June 13 - June 19, 2016
Monday:
This trip is just the five of us (Matt, James, Noelle, Greta, and myself). I have a conference in Jackson Hole, WY on Emergency medicine. The great part is that the conference is only a couple hours each morning. We decided to do a direct flight from Chicago. We departed around 4:30 Monday evening with the Armada packed and "go pro" recording. Dad splurged this vacation and decided to invest on hours of entertainment and memories with our waterproof, hands less, video recorder.....ie. "go pro". After our first stop in Janesville at our favorite....Jimmy-Johns....the games began. We played a game similar to the famous TV game show 25,000 dollar pyramid. The challenge was trying to let Greta participate without her understanding one thing about the game. We arrived at our "show and tell" (what Greta calls a hotel), unpacked and headed to the Chicago outlet mall of Rosemont. We found a Haagen Daas and officially celebrated the start of our vacation. James gaucked at the LED light up tennis shoes, Greta droolled over stuffed animals, and Noelle and I found ourselves cute rompers and sundresses. We couldn't convince dad to get that new swimsuit....oh well...the pink swim trunks live on. Once back to the "show & tell" Greta and I crashed while Matt, James, and Noelle tested out the "go-pro" while swimming in our "show-and-tell" pool.
Tuesday:
Our morning started early....5:10AM. I did my 4 mile treadmill run and we had our instant oatmeal breakfasts in our room. We shuttled to the airport and made our 8:55 AM flight. As we were waiting to board I received the text I had been waiting for. Grandma Carol made it back safely from her senior trip to Italy. She said it was trip of a lifetime! Whooo-hoo!!! Now time for our trip of a lifetime... This day was spent exploring Jackson hole. We had lunch at . I had an amazing caprese salad, kids enjoyed their burgers, and Matt his BLT. We watched Fifa Soccor waiting out the scattered thundershowers while playing "What animal am I? We hit the local grocery store and finally checked into our 4 bedroom condo at the Grand View Lodge. We did our dinner in tonight and hit the pool and hot tub at the neighboring Snow King Hotel.
Wednesday:
This morning ended up being a chilly run for Matt and I....only 43 degrees. We took turns running up the hiking/mountain bike trails. We didn't make it too far up, we aren't yet accommodated to the altitude.....6,000 feet above sea level!! After breakfast we packed up the car and headed for Yellowstone. I explained to the kids our planned trip outlines a lollipop on a map. The stick being Rossevelt Highway and the pop being the Southern loop of Yellowstone. Our first stop was Old Faithful. We walked the perimeter viewing the small geysers awaiting the eruption of Old Faithful. We found ourselves first row seats and ate our picnic lunches while videoing the eruption. Quite an amazing sight!! Afterwards we got our ice cream fix at the Old Faithful lodge. Our next stop was the Great Prismatic Spring. Who would have thought such beautiful hot springs could smell so bad!! I felt like we were walking around baths of bard boiled eggs!! Our next adventure was finding the Firehole Swimming pool. The stop wasn't advertised on some of our maps.....but Jill was determined to find it! At last we found it. The swimming area was a run off from a hot springs....only much cooler. James, Noelle, and Greta were the brave ones to dip into the 60 degree waters. Next we hoped in the car and drove to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone....amazing waterfalls!!! We walked to artist point and took photos from the lower falls. Our next stop was Yellowstone Lake. Along the way we had to slow down several times for Bison to cross. Our dinner tonight was at the Lake Lodge. It was cafeteria style.....perfect for our needs after a long day of touring. Somehow the cafeteria atmosphere brought out the tired sillies in everyone. For our final stretch back to the resort, I drove. Matt sat in row 2 of our Toyota highlander rental so he could bellow out Taylor Swift with Noelle and Greta while James caught a cat nap in row 3. Greta's backseat driving came out tonight......"mommy....you are going to fast!!" Once back to our resort we crashed!!!
Thursday
Today the kids slept in until 9am while I ran along the snake river. After French toast we piled into the car and headed towards Taggert Lake in the Teton National Park. We decided to do some family hiking. We packed up our lunches, camelbacks, and power-ups and started our 3 mile trek with 300 feet elevation gain. We crossed 2 streams and meandered through beautiful trails with Tetons in view. Taggert lake was our 1/2 way point where we ate our lunches. Our return trip was mostly downhill....even so....Greta's little legs began to tire. Lucky Matt got to carry her on his shoulders. Next we drove to String Lake (mountain fed) where we got on our bathing suits and dipped in...James & Greta went in the furthest...mid thigh! Our legs felt numb after that. We promised Greta she could swim in our "show and tell" pool next. She showed off her swim abilities while I attended my conference. Our pre dinner entertainment consisted of games of scrabble on our condo's patio. We showered up, got into our dressy clothes and dined at the Snake River Brewery. Dad was in heaven when James shared his cheese dipping sauce & hot pretzel. I'm not sure why no one wanted to try my walnut and gorgonzola salad topped with tofu. Unfortunately...no Harrison Ford sightings...he often dines there. Afterwards we strolled downtown looking for soul infers. James found a hooded Jackson hole sweatshirt. No luck for the rest of us. Once back to the condo Greta and I crashed while James, Noelle, and dad watched the movie "Parental Guidance ".
Friday
Today Matt & I decided to have a chill day (if you can call it that??). We let the kids sleep in and each took turns running. Once they woke up we went out to breakfast at a Cafe Genevieve. This restaurant was featured on diners, dives, and drive-ins. The homemade bacon and sugary Belgian waffles were a hit. We hit a few stores downtown Jackson and headed to the snow king sports rental to get our 2 mountain bikes, 2 hybrids and our tag along. Matt & James hit the mountain bike trails and Greta, Noelle, and I chose a more flat route. We went 16 miles round trip to Wilson...paralleling the snake River. Once to Wilson we had lunch along the river at a bagel shop. The girls were entertained by the store dog with 3 legs. Greta did a great job in entertaining us on the ride home with knock knock jokes, pop music sang by Greta, and counting the tunnels we went through and streams we crossed. Once back to our resort we let Greta swim in the pool. She reminded us of Noelle 5 years ago.....in 5 minutes she had 3 friends. Tonight we dined in. We had pigs in a blanket on our condo's outdoor patio. Tonight the kids wanted to see the opening premier of "Finding Dory" in 3D. Greta and I stayed back to make fruit pizza.
Saturday:
After my morning run along the snake river we loaded up the highlander and headed for the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort. We got passes to their all day adventure park. We started with the aerial tram ride to the top of the Rendezvous Mountain (at roughly 10,000 feet in altitude). Once on top we took some photos, had ourselves a snowball fight and hiked a short 1/2 mile around the top. James and I tried to sprint up to the top. I think our hearts were going to pound out of our chests!!once back to base camp we took we tested out the bungee jump before having lunch. After our burgers, salad, pizza and chicken fingers we were off to the ropes course. I'm so glad dad was in charge of Fuzzy (Greta). She had a bit of a melt down once 30 feet off the ground walking across the tight ropes. The nice ropes course leader came to the rescue and talked her through it. Of course after finishing I asked her how it went...she said it was fun....thank goodness!! We then did the drop dower...minus Fuzzy. It was 10 foot free fall...60 foot fall in total. Wow...was that an adrenaline rush! After that we got our final ice cream fix of the trip. After refueling we headed next to the bungee jump. All the girls went this time. Matt wanted to but was told he was too big :(. Our final stop at was the climbing wall. We opted for dinner in....grilled cheese and turkey sandwiches on the outdoor patio. Our evening consisted of cleaning up and packing. Early morning...leaving our resort at 7am tomorrow.
All and all the trip turned out well. No major injuries or set backs...unless you can count the sliver in Greta's finger or accidental scattering of Jackson hole Christmas ornament in the airport gift shop. I can handle that....
Until next time.....
Sent from my iPad
Monday:
This trip is just the five of us (Matt, James, Noelle, Greta, and myself). I have a conference in Jackson Hole, WY on Emergency medicine. The great part is that the conference is only a couple hours each morning. We decided to do a direct flight from Chicago. We departed around 4:30 Monday evening with the Armada packed and "go pro" recording. Dad splurged this vacation and decided to invest on hours of entertainment and memories with our waterproof, hands less, video recorder.....ie. "go pro". After our first stop in Janesville at our favorite....Jimmy-Johns....the games began. We played a game similar to the famous TV game show 25,000 dollar pyramid. The challenge was trying to let Greta participate without her understanding one thing about the game. We arrived at our "show and tell" (what Greta calls a hotel), unpacked and headed to the Chicago outlet mall of Rosemont. We found a Haagen Daas and officially celebrated the start of our vacation. James gaucked at the LED light up tennis shoes, Greta droolled over stuffed animals, and Noelle and I found ourselves cute rompers and sundresses. We couldn't convince dad to get that new swimsuit....oh well...the pink swim trunks live on. Once back to the "show & tell" Greta and I crashed while Matt, James, and Noelle tested out the "go-pro" while swimming in our "show-and-tell" pool.
Tuesday:
Our morning started early....5:10AM. I did my 4 mile treadmill run and we had our instant oatmeal breakfasts in our room. We shuttled to the airport and made our 8:55 AM flight. As we were waiting to board I received the text I had been waiting for. Grandma Carol made it back safely from her senior trip to Italy. She said it was trip of a lifetime! Whooo-hoo!!! Now time for our trip of a lifetime... This day was spent exploring Jackson hole. We had lunch at . I had an amazing caprese salad, kids enjoyed their burgers, and Matt his BLT. We watched Fifa Soccor waiting out the scattered thundershowers while playing "What animal am I? We hit the local grocery store and finally checked into our 4 bedroom condo at the Grand View Lodge. We did our dinner in tonight and hit the pool and hot tub at the neighboring Snow King Hotel.
Wednesday:
This morning ended up being a chilly run for Matt and I....only 43 degrees. We took turns running up the hiking/mountain bike trails. We didn't make it too far up, we aren't yet accommodated to the altitude.....6,000 feet above sea level!! After breakfast we packed up the car and headed for Yellowstone. I explained to the kids our planned trip outlines a lollipop on a map. The stick being Rossevelt Highway and the pop being the Southern loop of Yellowstone. Our first stop was Old Faithful. We walked the perimeter viewing the small geysers awaiting the eruption of Old Faithful. We found ourselves first row seats and ate our picnic lunches while videoing the eruption. Quite an amazing sight!! Afterwards we got our ice cream fix at the Old Faithful lodge. Our next stop was the Great Prismatic Spring. Who would have thought such beautiful hot springs could smell so bad!! I felt like we were walking around baths of bard boiled eggs!! Our next adventure was finding the Firehole Swimming pool. The stop wasn't advertised on some of our maps.....but Jill was determined to find it! At last we found it. The swimming area was a run off from a hot springs....only much cooler. James, Noelle, and Greta were the brave ones to dip into the 60 degree waters. Next we hoped in the car and drove to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone....amazing waterfalls!!! We walked to artist point and took photos from the lower falls. Our next stop was Yellowstone Lake. Along the way we had to slow down several times for Bison to cross. Our dinner tonight was at the Lake Lodge. It was cafeteria style.....perfect for our needs after a long day of touring. Somehow the cafeteria atmosphere brought out the tired sillies in everyone. For our final stretch back to the resort, I drove. Matt sat in row 2 of our Toyota highlander rental so he could bellow out Taylor Swift with Noelle and Greta while James caught a cat nap in row 3. Greta's backseat driving came out tonight......"mommy....you are going to fast!!" Once back to our resort we crashed!!!
Thursday
Today the kids slept in until 9am while I ran along the snake river. After French toast we piled into the car and headed towards Taggert Lake in the Teton National Park. We decided to do some family hiking. We packed up our lunches, camelbacks, and power-ups and started our 3 mile trek with 300 feet elevation gain. We crossed 2 streams and meandered through beautiful trails with Tetons in view. Taggert lake was our 1/2 way point where we ate our lunches. Our return trip was mostly downhill....even so....Greta's little legs began to tire. Lucky Matt got to carry her on his shoulders. Next we drove to String Lake (mountain fed) where we got on our bathing suits and dipped in...James & Greta went in the furthest...mid thigh! Our legs felt numb after that. We promised Greta she could swim in our "show and tell" pool next. She showed off her swim abilities while I attended my conference. Our pre dinner entertainment consisted of games of scrabble on our condo's patio. We showered up, got into our dressy clothes and dined at the Snake River Brewery. Dad was in heaven when James shared his cheese dipping sauce & hot pretzel. I'm not sure why no one wanted to try my walnut and gorgonzola salad topped with tofu. Unfortunately...no Harrison Ford sightings...he often dines there. Afterwards we strolled downtown looking for soul infers. James found a hooded Jackson hole sweatshirt. No luck for the rest of us. Once back to the condo Greta and I crashed while James, Noelle, and dad watched the movie "Parental Guidance ".
Friday
Today Matt & I decided to have a chill day (if you can call it that??). We let the kids sleep in and each took turns running. Once they woke up we went out to breakfast at a Cafe Genevieve. This restaurant was featured on diners, dives, and drive-ins. The homemade bacon and sugary Belgian waffles were a hit. We hit a few stores downtown Jackson and headed to the snow king sports rental to get our 2 mountain bikes, 2 hybrids and our tag along. Matt & James hit the mountain bike trails and Greta, Noelle, and I chose a more flat route. We went 16 miles round trip to Wilson...paralleling the snake River. Once to Wilson we had lunch along the river at a bagel shop. The girls were entertained by the store dog with 3 legs. Greta did a great job in entertaining us on the ride home with knock knock jokes, pop music sang by Greta, and counting the tunnels we went through and streams we crossed. Once back to our resort we let Greta swim in the pool. She reminded us of Noelle 5 years ago.....in 5 minutes she had 3 friends. Tonight we dined in. We had pigs in a blanket on our condo's outdoor patio. Tonight the kids wanted to see the opening premier of "Finding Dory" in 3D. Greta and I stayed back to make fruit pizza.
Saturday:
After my morning run along the snake river we loaded up the highlander and headed for the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort. We got passes to their all day adventure park. We started with the aerial tram ride to the top of the Rendezvous Mountain (at roughly 10,000 feet in altitude). Once on top we took some photos, had ourselves a snowball fight and hiked a short 1/2 mile around the top. James and I tried to sprint up to the top. I think our hearts were going to pound out of our chests!!once back to base camp we took we tested out the bungee jump before having lunch. After our burgers, salad, pizza and chicken fingers we were off to the ropes course. I'm so glad dad was in charge of Fuzzy (Greta). She had a bit of a melt down once 30 feet off the ground walking across the tight ropes. The nice ropes course leader came to the rescue and talked her through it. Of course after finishing I asked her how it went...she said it was fun....thank goodness!! We then did the drop dower...minus Fuzzy. It was 10 foot free fall...60 foot fall in total. Wow...was that an adrenaline rush! After that we got our final ice cream fix of the trip. After refueling we headed next to the bungee jump. All the girls went this time. Matt wanted to but was told he was too big :(. Our final stop at was the climbing wall. We opted for dinner in....grilled cheese and turkey sandwiches on the outdoor patio. Our evening consisted of cleaning up and packing. Early morning...leaving our resort at 7am tomorrow.
All and all the trip turned out well. No major injuries or set backs...unless you can count the sliver in Greta's finger or accidental scattering of Jackson hole Christmas ornament in the airport gift shop. I can handle that....
Until next time.....
Sent from my iPad
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