Days 8 & 9: Grand Teton and Home

It's happening! I'm finishing a travel blog! I've also published more blog posts this month than I've managed in a few years, so huzzah to me. It helps when you don't do much each day so it's mostly just posting pictures and talking about how beautiful everything is.

Speaking of, here we are at Day 8!

The day we explored our last National Park! Number 3 on this trip and number 19 as a family. We'd driven through Grand Teton on our way from Yellowstone to Swan Valley, but we weren't able to stop and explore.

We started our last full day of vacation by, you guessed it, sleeping in! Once awake and dressed, our first priority was breakfast. My friend recommended Butter, in Victor, for brunch and it was INCREDIBLY good. It was also on the way towards Grand Teton, so that seemed like enough of a plan for the morning - off we went!

Those cinnamon buns, I dream of them. The food was fantastic. We ate everything and more and I wish I could go again tomorrow.

At brunch we made the next part of our plans for the day by asking the wait staff for their favorite hikes at Grand Teton and if there were any that could possibly involve jumping off rocks into water. We'd been thinking about String Lake or Jenny Lake, but after getting input from our waitress, we settled on Phelps Lake with its promise of a big jumping rock and fewer people.

We parked at the Laurance S. Rockefeller Preserve Center and learned more about how this great man used his wealth to further a legacy of conservation stewardship.

He is a big reason there even is a Grand Teton National Park and the nature center is a neat stop. It's also where you park to begin your hike to the Phelps Lake Jumping Rock.

It started raining on our hike. Luckily not too heavily, since we didn't have umbrellas or raincoats, but we did get wet and it seemed to send the few other people we saw heading back towards their cars.

We passed our usual bear warnings. I enjoyed that this one encouraged us to fight back if the bear was not discouraged by our bearspray or attempts to play dead. Luckily we didn't have to put any of those potential responses into action.

After a couple miles of fairly flat hiking along the lake, we came to a very big rock!

We went behind a little copse of trees to change and next thing we knew, James and Landon were flinging themselves off it.

The water was crystal clear and absolutely beautiful. Cold, but not the frigid ice water of Glacier.

The girls swam a bit first and then Claire took the leap.

She spent a while trying to convince Cora, who was not at all convinced.

I decided it was time for me to jump. So I did, twice!

Each time I swear I'm going to keep my arms down by my sides, but no, off I go like an incredibly awkward flightless bird.

I do always land with my arms by my side though. I learned that lesson young and growing up in the Rice family which also likes to jump off things into water while on vacation.

Still, I feel so graceful flying in the air. It's a genuine shock to me everytime when I look at the pictures and see them flapping about at the start.

The water really was lovely.

Cora did eventually jump! She balked and retreated many times, and after she did finally jump she told us she was glad she did, but also told us she was not doing it again. Boundaries. Cora has them.

James and Landon jumped lots of times and then went for a swim, while the girls and I swam and sunned on the rocks.

After everyone had jumped and swam their fill, we changed back into our regular clothes and hiked the 2 miles back to the car. We drove back to our beautiful borrowed home one final time, through the mountain passes and tunnels, and stopped at the Swan Valley General Store for a few dinner items and get an order of the square ice cream we'd been meaning to try for three days. We made dinner at the house, hung out, and tucked ourselves in bed, feeling very good about our adventures in our National Parks.

On Day 9 we still got to sleep in since our flight wasn't until 1 pm out of Idaho Falls, only an hour drive away. We packed our things, ate up the rest of the food through some creative brunch ideas, and slowly drove away. The Idaho Falls airport is teeny tiny and our flight home was smooth and easy. As reported, things got a little more complicated once we took the shuttle bus to our remotely parked car only to discover James's battery was dead, but now that all feels hazy and long ago. What feels bright is the cool mountain air, the spectacular views, the wild animals, the gorgeous water, and the number of things we got to jump off into the gorgeous water.

I took a few pictures with my real camera before leaving it at home because we kept constantly jumping into water. But here's some better pics of some wildlife we saw early on, on our Grinnell Glacier hike day!

And finally, here's our own animal who was at a boarding place while we were gone. She had lots of fun and slept for three straight days upon her return.

All in all, our MT/Wy/ID National Park trip was really wonderful and I'd recommend it to anyone. That part of the country is so beautiful and we are so lucky the National Parks have been preserved for us.

Back here in the real world, I just got back from taking Cora to the ER because she fell onto her wrist at recess and has a minor fracture. I am having surgery tomorrow, because despite promising my belly-button she was done being cut into, this is something I seem to do every quarter. This time they're removing my gallbladder, so now I'm done a uterus, fallopian tubes, and a gallbladder and I'm wondering if they should just grab the appendix while they're in there so I can SERIOUSLY not have my poor stomach cut into a millionth time in the future. Anyway, more on that surprise drama after a sufficient amount of the anesthesia leaves my system. On the kid front, Cora was sick for most of last week and is now VERY stressed about catching up on her schoolwork with a broken right wrist. Claire is learning how to study and do homework; I am not allowed to offer advice and will have no further comment on how it's going at this time. Landon is finally no longer swollen from his wisdom teeth and is anxiously awaiting his updated class rank. Maggie's stomach ache appaers to be gone and the cats are excellent.

See you again when I'm down a gallbladder!