Grand Teton National Park - Part 2

This is the gondala we took to the top of Rendevous Mountain.

This is me "On Top of the World" at the top of Rendevous Mountain.

Some wild flowers.

This is Jason scouting some elk with his new "field glasses". Unfortunately, some little girl kicked them off a railing when we were scouting for wolves in Yellowstone, and broke them. We've only had them for 3 weeks, so we were not very happy. What really annoyed me was that her parents didn't say anything to her about it. She wasn't told to apologize for kicking them off a railing she shouldn't have been climbing over anyway. They were only $120 for the pair and the dad gave us their address to "send the bill" because he "doesn't carry that much cash." Whatever... I think we're probably out $120 because I doubt the warranty covers some little girl kicking them off a railing and I doubt he'd ever send the money for his daughter breaking them.

These elk were here most of the time we were in the park.

A close-up of the elk.

A sunrise from the same spot in the park.

This is a sunset in the mountains.

Our first moose sighting.

This was a bonus. We got to see her swim across the stream to get onto the island.

The crows here were humongous.

We had an awesome breakfast at one of the lodges in the park. We worked up quite an appetite scouting for creatures that morning.

This was our second and final moose sighting in the park.

Our First Day in Grand Teton

This was off the highway before you reach the Tetons.


Some rain clouds moving in over the mountains. I know we may be weenies, but we really don't like camping in the rain. Thus, we stayed in a hostel this night.

More rain clouds over the mountains.

I must say, I'm loving our new camera. Our old one just could even get close to capturing half of the beauty of these mountains.

I love the road signs in the mountains.

This one is probably my second favorite this far. The first we didn't get a photo of. It was telling you to slow down and had a picture of a SUV nose to nose with a squashed moose.

Watch out for bears!

More rain over the mountain.

This is The Grand Teton.

Can you tell we love the mountains?

An elk herd.

Jason's first Bison sighting.

Sinks Canyon State Park

Jason found this state park somewhere in his research. It was well worth the stop. Here's some photos from the state park and surrounding areas.

These dandelions were huge! The heads were around 2" in diameter.

This little guy had hopped the fence into a cabin's lawn. He was eating the flowers out of their lawn. He's pretty cool, eh? He's a bighorn sheep.

This is the river just outside of the cave with me on a rock near the bottom.

This is Jason studying the river and cave.

This is the Popo Agie river from inside the cave it disappears into.

This is Jason standing inside the cave. You can see the river in the bottom right hand corner.

Jason cooking our dinner. Steaks and camp fire corn.

Best corn recipe ever! Slather one cob in butter. Salt and pepper to taste. Wrap in foil and place in camp fire. El delicioso!

This stream (or maybe it's the Popo Agie River; I'm not sure.) was about 40 feet from our tent.

This is a lake we found further up the mountain. I wish we would have found this before we set up camp at the base of the mountain. Oh well, our site was still awesome.

Another really pretty lake we found up the mountain.

Here was the best thing we did in Sinks Canyon. There's a trail that takes you up to the falls. At the top of that trail is this rock. People slide down it and plunge into the ice cold water. Here's a flash video Jason put together from the photographs he took from my trip down the rock. Just click on the play arrow to view.

This was as cold as ice! Here is Jason's face after hitting the water.

Here is my face after coming up from the water. It was so cold you could hardly breathe.

This is a photo a nice man took of us at the bottom of the trail. We left the rock slide just in time to beat out a nasty looking thunderstorm.

Mom, don't worry. We didn't get trapped in the storm.

The rock that juts out just to the right of the center of this photo is only about 2/3 of the way up to the falls. It was a really cool hike.

Writing this in Wyoming

Hello.

Jason and I are on vacation in Wyoming this week. We're currently staying at a hostel in Teton Village in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. I thought I'd share some photos of our trip so far, since I paid $5 to have access to the internet.

So, here's a few; hope you enjoy!

This photo is of me standing on a rock adjacent to the "Tree in the Rock." Apparently this tree has been here since sometime in the 1800's. The railroad was routed around this rock. The men running the train used to stop here to give this tree a drink. Fun, eh?

We made it to somewhere in Wyoming on our first day out. The sky that evening was really cool.

Somewhere along I-80 in Wyoming there's an exit called Happy Jack Road. I think it might be at the start of the Lincoln Highway, but I could totally be making that up. This is the third time we stopped on a trip to visit with this guy.

This time Jason climbed up to pose with Abe.

It's a neat sunset isn't it? Our first night out we slept in the car at some rest stop and this was the view from that place. Nice, eh?

I spotted this guy running along the side of the highway. It's a coyote.

Jason spotted a mountain lion running through a field earlier this day, but I didn't see it. Some of these creatures are really hard to see if you don't catch them just right. Unfortunately, there wasn't a spot to pull over to get photos of the mountain lion. I wish I would have seen it... I've never seen a mountain lion outside of the zoo.

"She Doesn't Have a Weak Spot in Her Game"

We just got back from the Lake of the Ozarks about an hour or so ago. We had a blast. One of our friends' parents have a cabin and a boat down on the lake. Andy (the friend), his girlfriend, Beth, Jason and I headed for the hills on Friday night.

We went out uncovered the boat, went out on the water for an evening cruise, played Apples to Apples, and petered out.

Saturday morning, we packed up everything we'd need for the day and climbed into the boat for a full day of fun. We swam, we picnicked in the boat, we tubed, we swam some more, and then headed back to the cabin.

Here's a photo of Beth and I on a nice calm part of the tube ride.

Next thing you know, we're being jerked this way and then that way.

Soon after that, Beth's feet are flung over towards me and then a second later she bounced out.

This video is a bit choppy, but it's still pretty fun. You can see how beat up you really get being dragged behind a boat. My legs are flying all over the place. It's also fun to hear the people on the boat laughing and hollering and commenting on the ride. That's where the blog post title comes from... Andy says during this video, "She doesn't have a weak spot in her game!" This video was taken after probably 15 minutes or so of me riding solo in the tube. I went on 2 rides with Beth and 1 with Jason.

Andy was getting annoyed he couldn't dump me, which made it all the more fun!

When we got the boat docked, Andy pulled out a few hammocks for us to rest the remainder of the afternoon. Jason and I crashed out for 3 hours! Andy washed the boat off, fished a bit, Beth lounged, helped Andy with some miscellaneous chores, and they swam.

Three hours later they woke us up so we could head to dinner. We went to this place called Captain Ron's. It was cool. There was a cover band playing that was really good. They had a good beat. We were able to sit in some chairs with our feet in the water for a while. It was a nice place to people watch, eat some good food, and have a good time.

Unfortunately, all four of us got sunburned. I think mine legs are probably the worst. I think it must have happened when I was in the tube because the tops of my legs (which were wedged into the tube's hole) are not burnt, but everything on me that would have been exposed during my rides is. So, we had a great weekend. It was a much needed time away from work (where we've had two VERY long and busy weeks at the office.)

Thanks Andy & Beth for dragging us along!

Hello readers,

It's me; popping in to give you a brief update. It's been a few days since I've posted anything, but unfortunately, that's not going to stop for at least another week.

Let me start by telling you about work. Right now at the office (I work for an architect) we have a huge project for a firm of our size in the works. Tomorrow we had to have a (mostly) full set of drawings for a new grocery store in Omaha. This store is going into a new development at 204th & Pacific. So far this week, I think we have a little more than 15 hours of work over what we would normally have.

Normal work week through Thursday = 32 hours. That's usually where I stop; remember I take Fridays (or at least did before this project came along) off to stay at home and work on Sewbot projects. Well, this week, Jason and I both have 47.25 as of tonight. Whew! We've been busy.

Yesterday, I turned 25! We went to work yesterday and left at our normal time. We came home so Jason could frost my birthday cake and then went to Genghis Khan (I think I might have misspelled that) for dinner. Jason's mom and her husband Terry joined us. Jason's brother, his wife, and their 2 kids came along as well. It was super tasty! I love mongolian food.

After dinner, we came home and had some birthday cake and opened presents.
Note: I'm so worn out from work, I'm not going to attempt to post any photos tonight. Check back in a week or so and we may be able to upload some by then.

After cake, Jason and I cozied ourselves into the couch. After about 20 or 30 minutes, I turned to Jason and said, "I feel like we're just wasting time sitting here." So, we got off the couch, threw on some big kid clothes, and dragged ourselves back to the office. We ended up staying until 11:30 last night. Happy birthday to me.

So, this weekend, we're not working. We've decided to take the weekend off and head down with some friends to their cabin near or on (I'm not exactly sure) the Lake of the Ozarks. I'm so looking forward to it. I think it's the little break we need away from work.

At the end of the month we're heading up towards the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone.

If I'm a little absent the next few weeks you'll know why.

July 5, 2009 Favorite Things

1. Mom, 2. Jason & I, 3. Dad, 4. Terry, Momba, & Jason, 5. Dad & Rafiki, 6. Katie & her gingerbread., 7. Ella, 8. Katie, 9. Chris, Sam, & Aaron, 10. Mike & Ellen, 11. Katie and I, 12. Ellen, Mike, and Lauren, 13. Takin' a break, 14. Fragile Area, 15. More of my family, 16. My family, 17. Elle, me, Jason, and Kevin, 18. Momba, Terry, and I, 19. Gramma and I, 20. Petra, Alex and I, 21. Uncle Pat's Bike, 22. A Sunday Morning in Central Park, 23. Ella helping Jason with corn, 24. Thanksgiving Dinner, 25. The Pumpkin Fairy

This week, my favorite thing is my family (not all pictured above).