Day 6: MT -> WY -> ID

I spent much of this week on DC. Work is good, 2/3 of the kids are good (Cora is sick), Dallas is far too hot, and the joy of the DNC is taking over my whole life. Let's go back to my new favorite states that are much closer to Canada than I am.

Day 6 was the day we were in all three of the states that we'd touch on our trip! We slept in later than planned (this is a theme of the trip on any day that didn't involve an alarm clock and I'm not mad about it), woke up in our little cabin in Gardiner, Montana, packed up our minivan, and drove 200 miles southwest through Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks.

First, armed with our GuideAlong app and infrared thermometer, we explored the geological formations throughout Yellowstone.

Such a different part of the park from the Lamar Valley area we spent all our time the day before.

Yellowstone really is incredible in the variety of landscapes you can find in one park.

We saw geysers, bubbling mud points, boiling springs, and more.

All the kids mentioned how much the hot springs reminded us of the beautiful cenotes in Mexico, other than the temperature of course.

The thermometer gun was a HUGE hit. Note the only person smiling in the photo below is the one holding it. It was such a hit that the fighting over who got to hold it next and how many times that person could point it at something before it was no longer their turn became such that I got to use the thermometer quite a lot by the end of our explorations.

We walked the Boardwalk leading to Grand Prismatic, the largest hot spring in the US (3rd largest in the world!), and one that is particularly gorgeous in color thanks to the thermophilic bacteria that enjoy life at near-boiling temperatures.

We also took the hike to the Grand Prismatic Overlook which gave an even better perspective of the pool's beautiful coloring.

Unfortunately, thanks to the hike that was longer than promised, we JUST missed Old Faithful going off, and with the next scheduled eruption not for about 75 minutes, and with a few hours of driving left to go, we decided to move on and keep the geyser on our bucket lists. But the Old Faithful Inn was a cool stop and we were glad to have seen smaller geysers in other areas of the park (as well as the geysers we saw in Curacao years ago), so we were okay with it.

We continued our drive, eventually exiting Yellowstone and entering Grand Teton National Park. The lush, gorgeous landscape through the Grand Teton part of Wyoming was so different from what we'd just driven through at the south end of Yellowstone, it was just incredible to see so much in one ride.

I didn't take any pictures, but just took it in - the tall mountains jutting out from the ground, the lack of foothills, the lush green of the forests... just beautiful.

We stopped in Jackson for dinner, grabbing pizza at Yeah Buddy on a balcony looking over the Town Square.

The Town Square has four of these gigantic elk antler arches (bull elk shed their antlers each year), one at each corner, so of course we got a photo.

We got some very tasty ice cream and walked around town a bit more until I finally dragged James back to the car, noting we were already not going to get to the rental house until 10 p.m. We vowed to return soon though, even making a reservation for the following night at a particularly delicious-looking restaurant we passed by.

The last hour of our ride was through a lot of mountains and driven in complete darkness, which wasn't ideal after a very long day, and then we drove up to two wrong houses before we found the right one in Swan Valley, but we did finally make it about 10 pm and it was WORTH IT.

The home was built by a friend and former law partner of mine. She and her husband have four girls all between my kids' ages and I'd been following along her building journey since joining the firm. They're renting it out through Airbnb now and I can't recommend it more highly.

I can't imagine leaving these views for Dallas, especially in the summer, but as I always say, we all have to return to reality to work for our next vacation.

Despite four available bedrooms, all 3 kids hunkered down in the super cute bunk room.

The gameroom was a welcome hang out for our first family movie of the trip.

And Shuffleboard was fun.

It was so perfect that this was our last spot. Our first 6 days were spent in much smaller cabins without central air, which was absolutely fine since we were out exploring and adventuring all day for those parts of the trip. But for this last chapter, we wanted to just soak up the vacation part of our vacation. We slept in every day. We made food in the beautiful kitchen. We watched movies. We just enjoyed having a home- a home with spectacular views and no clutter or chores calling for me to do them.

We still explored and adventured, but we also just were. And that was pretty great too.

Real Life: Week 1

Taking a break from vacation blogging to dip back into real life events. I SWEAR I am actually going to finish chronicling this trip- I have already uploaded the pictures for the last few posts and everything, but there have been happenings in the 106 degree place we currently call home and I suppose we should cover those too. Dallas wildlife sighting! It's a bulldog with a tummy ache that cost $700 to diagnose!

Our wild house cat needed a lot of comfort after our absence. It was all cuddles and kangaroo time all the time. None of us minded.

As I last mentioned, our return to reality was a little rough, what with 3 kids having orientations at 3 different schools on the first day we were back, Cora having two separate orthodontic appointments on that day, and Landon needed an emergency periodontist appointment also on that day, and me having about 10 calls scheduled over 8 hours, Maggie needing to be picked up from boarding, Landon suddenly getting his wisdom teeth out on Friday, but we did it!

We also got James and the kids' passports renewed Friday morning. Landon is finally old enough for a big boy 10-year passport and it hit me that he will be 27 the next time he renews his and I will not any part of that process. Also, when I was 27 I had been married for 5 years and had 2 kids. Holy hell.

ANYWAY, staying in the now.

The kids started school on Monday!!

First days of 11th, 9th, and 5th grades. Two high schoolers, one elementary schooler. A junior with post-wisdom teeth removal swollen cheeks, a very nervous freshman heading to a new school, and a 5th grader mostly just annoyed she had to wake up early instead of sleeping in like a cat in the sun as she prefers.

Everything went pretty well. Everyone got to school on time. Schedules were largely correct. Mornings were surprisingly smooth, though man is it a different world with big kids rather than littles. My summer mornings have been a delight. I wake up when everyone is asleep, I drink my tea in quiet surrounded by happy pets, and heading off to work is the only thing I have to do before I... head off to work. Now it's help with outfits and hair, lunches and "yes you need to eat something for breakfast," making sure the house is ready for whatever might be happening that day, etc. I use to love the return to school because it meant no more patchwork of summer camps and total lack of a regular schedule. Now I already can't wait for our next school break.

But mostly, everything went well and we're all so very glad.

I did deeply enjoy this text exchange with Landon on Thursday. The "F around and found out" phase of parenting is my favorite because it means the list of things that are my problem just keeps getting shorter.

We did a little back-to-school party for a few of Cora's friends on Saturday morning. We did this last year and it was so fun to get in a little get together with the girls and moms before everyone's activities kick up again.

Okay, let's talk about me! I had my pre-fall stylist appointment, this time with Bonnie's Associate Wardrobe Stylist and she killed it. Love love all the outfits she put together for me.

While the kids were conquering week 1 of this 2024-2025 academic year, I was learning how to use Instagram (I am the latest of adopters) by posting my outfits of the day in my "stories" which are magical things that disappear? Expire? I don't know. But it was fun! Here's Tuesday - Friday.

And the color-by-numbers I followed:

So fun!

Also fun? This mini branding iron James thought we needed when he was doing our grocery shopping. Maybe he was inspired by the fact our trip to Yellowstone finally inspired us to watch the TV show?

In some families, you brand your steaks. We brand our vegan burritos.

On Friday night we watched Twisters and ate pizza and it was most excellent (the movie, the pizza, Glen Powell, and being all together). Tonight we had Claire's new swim team dinner; it was great to see her sitting with her new teammates and we're so excited for what the year holds.

Tomorrow morning we kick off Real Life Week 2! I'll be in DC for most of it, but don't worry I'll be back to vacation blogging soon.

These new pins in our National Park map deserve their details.

Days 4 & 5: Yellowstone Wild

School started this past week and we'll get to that, but first let's go back to Montana! And welcome Wyoming and Fike Family National Park #18 to the chat!

On Day 4 we slept in at least an hour later than intended, but we weren't mad about it. We ate some breakfast, packed up our things, loaded up our minivan and headed 400 miles Southeast to Gardiner, MT.

We stopped at Wheat Montana for some gigantic cinnamon rolls and a loaf of delicious wheat bread that turned into hiking PBJs later in the week. We listened to our GuideAlong app when possible, listened to a few other podcasts, and stopped in tiny Wolf Creek, MT for an incredibly good meal at Lazy I Beerworks.

We made it to cute little Gardiner, Montana in the late afternoon. We checked into our cabin, which was lovely, right on the river, and had window units for a/c in the bedrooms which was a relief since it was 100 degrees outside. It did involve driving several miles down a bumpy gravel road that James was not at all convinced our minivan could handle. But handle it did! And look, so pretty.

Once settled and with the a/c units cranked all the way down so we could sleep on our return, we headed into town!

We stopped at the famous Roosevelt Arch for some pictures, did a little shopping at the national park store, and grabbed pizza for dinner. In continuing the trip tradition of consuming something with huckleberry at every meal, I had a huckleberry wheat beer. Delicious. #HuckleberryForever

On our drive back to our little cabin some elk decided they had the right of way and so, they did.

We went to bed pretty quickly after our return (our cabin had 2 bathrooms and 2 bedrooms, each with two queen beds, so everyone got their own bed. Except James and I who shared, which is exactly our layout at home: 4 queen beds, and James and I share one. Feels normal at home, was funny in the little cabin where you could see all the kids with way more space than us). For the 3rd time on this trip we set early alarms, this one for the truly horrifying time of 4:15 for our Wildlife Tour with Yellowstone Wild.

"This better be worth it," I thought silently to myself as I assured everyone in the cabin it would absolutely be worth it.

And it was!!

Our guide, Kyle, met us in the pitch dark Yellowstone entrance at precisely 5 a.m. with a van, snacks, drinks, and our next two meals and off we went! Kyle Moon is also a biologist, conservationist, and photographer and we were so lucky to have him. You can follow his Instagram here, it's worth it!

We told him how lucky we'd been in Glacier to see bear and moose, so we were really hoping to see wolves and anything else. He noted that August is a tough time to see animals because of the heat, but we would try! We headed to a spot he thought wolves might be, knowing they are only active right at sunrise and that time was fast approaching.

After about an hour of driving he stopped at a deserted spot, set up his very powerful scope, and boom- wolfpack!! A couple adults and PUPS from the Junction Peak Yellowstone pack! There were so many pups! Kyle connected his phone video screen to the scope so we could all see. They were on a mountainside pretty far away but we got to see them run around and play- just like their doggy cousins. It was awesome.

We continued on, finding a fox, some osprey, and multiple kinds of eagle.

And bison. MANY bison.

So handsome! So many babies. So many randy gentlemen trying to corner their ladies.

I loved them.

Our guide was awesome about pointing out things we should see. I'm not exaggerating when I say the only animal we would have seen without him was the bison.

They were hard to miss.

He also took us on a hike. "A SHORT hike," I promised our kids who both loved but had not quite forgiven me for our trek to Grinnell Glacier.

And it was a short hike (less than a mile!) to the most beautiful lake.

Trout Lake in the Lamar Valley. I mean.

How is this real? You just keep taking pictures because you want to capture it and then the pictures aren't good enough so you stop for a while, only to see something new that's so beautiful you have to try again.

We enjoyed a picnic lunch and then the kids went scampering over some rocks with Kyle, who helpfully pointed out all the grizzly bear poop on their trail.

It was a really great day. We learned so much from Kyle- stories about the history of the park, stories of his own adventures and photography, detailed information about conservation, the animals we saw, and the ones we didn't but could have. I am so thankful my friend Nicki recommended Yellowstone Wild to us- it absolutely made our time in Yellowstone.

We got back to the cabin about 3 pm, feeling like it was at least midnight. We rested for a bit, which meant James and Landon went swimming in the river behind the cabin, the girls played, and I fell fast asleep.

We ventured back out for a really fantastic dinner at Wonderland Cafe in downtown Gardiner. We waved to the elk roaming about and headed back to our little home. Obviously after an incredibly long day in which I am the only one who napped, everyone decided to go swimming in the cold river with a strong current behind us.

Landon swam around the rapids like a happy little river otter while the girls mostly stuck to the calmer side, but everyone had fun in the freezing crytal clear water.

My kids are nuts, but there's no denying how beautiful it was.

Oh, Montana, we loved you. (Fun fact: my Grandma Jo and Grandpa Jim were borned and raised in/around Billings, MT!)

The next day was a long ride to Idaho, through the rest of Yellowstone, stopping at the various geothermal features, stopping again in Jackson Hole, WY, which we LOVED, and finally pulling up to our third and final home for the trip in Swan Valley. But that's for the next post!