How Ally Spent her Summer Vacation

July 2, we went to Rocky Mounain Natouinal Park and we hiked to a water fall called Cascade Falls.  It was cool.  There was lots of trees and rocks in the falls. 

July 3, we drove from Shian to Cody.  On our way to Cody we stopped on the side of the road to take pictures of a river called Wind River Canyon.  We drove through to small tunles in the mountain and then one big one with yellowish orange lights on it.  It was aswome. 

July 4, Dad went fishing and Ty me and mom went to a puraid it was terrific!  There was lots of hourses and old fashioned cars.  We got lots of candy.  We got more candy then we’ve ever got for holaween.  We got rutbeer barles, lafee tafees, Jaw brakers, hard balls, tootse rols and pops, and lots more.  We also went to see a rodeo.  I liked it exep for the caff roping.  I didn’t like how they treated the cafs.

July 5, We hiked Elephant Back hike.  It was a fun hike at the top we could see the hotel that buffalo bill named his daughter Irma after.  It was a big yellow building.  We could also see the lake it was super.  It was cool that as far as you could see was part of Yellowstone.

July 6, We wet to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.  It was an awesome walk most of it was a walk but getting to the ledge we had to go down a lot of steps, to be presise there were 328 steps.  After we got root beer flotes.  They were delicious!

July 7, We went hourse back riding.  We had fun.  My hourse was named Hurrse.  Ty’s hourse was Dalie.  Dad’s was Sam. And Moms was Charlie.  After hourse back riding we went to the Burffalo Bill musame we learnd about Buffalo Bill Indeains and Yellowstone.  2 cool facts I learnd were 1 Buffalo Bill named a hotel after his daughter, second the native amaricans used 3 parts of the buffalo.  After learning about Indeans I’d rather be a Indean.  People are so crule.  People kill buffalo just for the skins mostly.  Sometimes the bones would pile up as high as a man.  Its sad to think of people suting as many buffalo as they can mostle only for the skin.

July 8, We went on a fun hike and from the top we could see Old Fathful.  It was very cool to see then Ty and dad went fishing and me and mom look in a store and got slushess and then got Ty and Dad and went to see Old Fathful we went with a gide and she tat us a lot about histure.  It was very intresting.  A long time ago people use to put there londry in Old Fathle and it would shut up out of Old Fathful a little shrunken.  Then we went to our hotel room.  It was rely nice.  It had a jucuse.  I liked it.

July 9, We went on a hike to Jeny lake we hiked 6.7 miles.  Then we got in the car and drove to Jackson.  We went to the Mangie Moose to eat diner.  Then we got ice cream and went to the hotel and got in our bathing suites and went in the hot tub the we took hot showers and went to bed.

July 10, We went in the hot tub and walked around town Ty got an anklet and I got a moose.  Then we got in the car for 9 hours.

Truckin'

July 3, 2012


Going out of order here, but a few thoughts on our drive from Cheyenne to Cody on July 3...


The first time I was ever in Wyoming was the mid nineties with my friend Kathy.  We flew in and out of Denver (sound familiar?), skied Vail and Steamboat and then headed up for a few days in Jackson.  And if you make the drive from Denver to Jackson, you basically head North to Cheyenne, make a hard left turn, and set your cruise control at 80-something.  A few hours later, you get your first glimpse of the Grand Tetons and pull over to take a picture.  And then, about four hours after that, you realize the mountains don't appear to have gotten any closer.  You can just see forever across this amazing, endless prairie.  But then you get there, and you realize why you made that drive.

With full knowledge of that, we still decided a few months ago that we would take a stab at putting the kids through that same journey.  Books on tape, journals, ipods... surely they could deal with a long, somewhat dull drive in the car.  And with only a few moments to the contrary, they absolutely did.  This time, the drive was to the eastern side of Yellowstone, heading up to Cody, WY.  And it was as long as advertised, but there is an important lesson here, too... one I doubt the kids can grasp today, but something they can hold onto for the future.


Without getting too philosophical here, you can't always focus on the destination or you'll miss out on the ride.  And since most of your life is spent working to achieve some goal, you'd miss a lot if you don't pay attention to the journey.  And with the aid of a map and Siri, we got to drive through the Wind River Canyon, which, we didn't even realize existed when we landed in Denver.  One of the most beautiful places I have ever seen for sure (and loaded with monster trout!).  We met some unbelievably nice people at Sherrie's Place in Casper and had four of the best milkshakes (30+ flavors!) you could ever get.  We found out that Thermopolis has hot springs you can swim in and one of the top dinosaur exhibits in the world.  And in hindsight, even when there is a breakdown from one of your kids that you cannot fathom the logic behind, that can become part of the story, as well.  And we found out that you can experience a lot even when you are stuck in a car for an entire day.

From the Mouths of Babes

July 6, 2012

Day five of the Great Wyoming Adventure featured another trip into Yosemite, including a 6+ mile hike around the “Grand Canyon of Yellowstone”.  Really amazing views and one of my all time favorite hiking lunch spots.  The drives in and out of the park had us spotting lots of wildlife, including a pair of up close and personal visits with roadside bison. 

Enough from me, though… lets get the Ally & Ty perspective:

From Ty:

We saw four grizzlys and 2 big elk.  We alsow smelled a mud volcano.  And went on a long hike.  We had an amazing day!  We had a amazing lunch spot.

From Ally:

We saw 4 grizle bears.  We went to a stinkey mud volcano.  We saw babby buffalo.   We hiked to a realy cool waterfall.  Its hier than Niagra falls!  We also had root beer floats!  They were awesome!  We saw two big buffalo by the mud volcano and stuff. 

Sorry guys we have to go back we mest up the car is over the other side. (see Joke of the day).

Joke of the day:

Five and a half miles into our six mile trip, we could see a parking lot across the canyon and informed Ally & Ty that we’d made a wrong turn and had to double back over.  The faces were AWESOME.  We might as well have told them there wasn’t going to be a Christmas this year.  

Running a little behind on trip updates due to a combination of lack of time and a severe lack of internet accessibility (which is probably a good thing)... more to come.

Fourth of July, WY Style

July 4, 2012

After a ridonculous day in the car, we finally got to wake up in Cody, WY.  Really early.  I signed Lauren up for the Cody Runner’s Stampede 10K a few weeks ago.  It seemed like an awesome idea at the time, but with a 7am start after a 37 hour drive in the car the day before, a couple more hours of sleep would have been welcome.  But we all rallied (even Lauren) and made it to the very cool Cody recreation center with plenty of time to spare.  And, as usual, Lauren rocked out with a fast time (despite the altitude) and walked away with a very cool Wyoming race shirt (probably her true motivation for running this one).

After the race Lauren and the kids headed down into town to check out the Fourth of July Parade, while I hooked up with my new best friend, Nate from The Humble Fly.  I decided that in order to take full advantage of the trout waters of Wyoming, I would need to pony up for a day with a guide.  And as I’d hoped, a day in the wilds of Wyoming spent avoiding grizzlies, rattlesnakes, wolves and bull deer in order to wrestle with native cutthroat trout was indeed money well spent.  Nate offered to take me on a couple miles of hiking through the “Wyoming Serengeti” to reach “cutthroat holy waters” and did not disappoint.  Great fun.

And just when you thought that might be enough, we all hooked back up on the Busiest Fourth Ever by meeting up at the World FamousCody Nite Rodeo.  I have to admit, going to a rodeo has never been on my bucket list (or Lauren, Ally or Ty’s), but when in Rome, right?  And while wavering between trying to fit in and setting aside our concerns for the safety of the cowboys and animals, it was a pretty good time.  Had some explaining to do with the locals as Lauren and Ally blatantly cheered for the calves that outran the lassoing cowboys, but other than that it was all good.  Probably not going to run out to another one, but a cool experience.

Capped the BFE with a gorgeous view of the Cody fireworks from an overlook just outside the city.  This area is just stunning visually – you literally can’t take it all in.  Beautiful mountains, rivers and lakes, lots more to come tomorrow as we head into Yellowstone for the first time.  Stay tuned.