Grand Teton Camping Trip

On August 4-6 we went camping at Colter Bay in the Grand Teton National Park.  We went with Allen's brother, Doug and his family, and his two brother-in-laws and their families.  Allen's Dad and younger brother, Nathan, came also.  It was beautiful weather and a gorgeous place to be.  It rained during the night Thursday and a little bit Friday evening, but sunny and nice the remainder of the time.  The mosquito's were awful.  They were out all day, not just at dusk.  Alyssa looks like she has chicken pox because of all the bites on her face.  We sure missed having Ashley and Kaylynn. I almost feel guilty going without them, but know they are having a great time with the cousins and grandparents in New York.  We love you girls and we missed having you with us.  We will have to go again so they can enjoy what we did.

We met at Doug's house in Preston at 6 am Thursday morning and had a pleasant drive to the Tetons.  We arrived and set up camp, ate lunch and then headed to the near by lake for a swim and rafting.

Allen watched the younger girls so I could go out on the lake with Sherith in the tubes.  It was very peaceful on the lake.

Tyler, his cousins and Uncle Nathan went out on the raft.  All of them had life jackets and all had fun.  You could hear them laughing at the shore.  Nathan enjoyed a blissful ride out with the kids doing all the paddling.

Doug's brother-in-law, Mike, is a doctor which came in handy for Bradley.  He fell off the bike and scraped up his knee pretty good.  Mike had all the supplies and put 5 stitches in his knee.  Brad was the only casualty.  We were all impressed that Doug didn't pass out because he his as bad as Allen with blood stuff.

Our family was in charge of Friday morning breakfast for the gang.  We had sausage, eggs, hash browns and pancakes.  Allen did a fabulous job cooking.  It was a good breakfast to start out the day.  We drove to Yellowstone - to see Old Faithful.  We were disappointed that we didn't see any animals.

The geyser had just gone off when we arrived so we had another hour before the next eruption.  We ate lunch to pass the time.  The anticipated eruption was at 1 pm.  Unfortunately my children needed to go to the bathroom and old faithful went off 10 minutes earlier than expected - therefore we missed it!!!  We decided we had to stay for the next one, we couldn't leave without seeing it.  The next one finally erupted at 2:30, a longer wait than we had anticipated.  Tyler said it was worth it though.  Allen and I came here for our honeymoon in August 1993.  The cabins were still there that we stayed in, but several new things have been added.  It was fun to go back.  It brought back lots of good memories.

On Saturday we did a 2 mile round trip hike to Phellps Lake overlook.  It was a pretty easy hike, but Alyssa was tired.  We finally made it to the top and it was well worth it.  I have decided that there are certain things in life that are difficult, but the final reward is definitely worth it.

We had a great time and are glad for the invite to go.  The last picture is another view of the Tetons.  We are going to set the tent up tomorrow night and Alyssa and I will camp in the back yard.  We need to air it out still.  It was to late to do it when we got home last night.  I enjoy camping, but don't look forward to the cleanup.