Grand Teton National Park

Since we were much closer to Teton National Park, we decided to spend a day there, as well. We had heard that there were some gorgeous lakes and the hiking was great this time of year around the lakes. Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate with our plans. It was snowing off and on for most of the day and the clouds completely blocked the amazing Teton Mountains. We did the car tour of the park and then got out and walked around for a little bit around a couple of the lakes.

This bench was cool. This is one of my favorite pictures from the trip.

Due to the cold and snow, we didn't last long. Our car headed back to the condo. Becky's car decided to walk around a little bit in Jackson

I think the kids really enjoyed just playing around the condo, as well. The three middle girls really had a lot of fun together.

 Alyssa and Conner had fun playing games with each other and talking late into the night.

My kids sure miss their Knudsen cousins. They always have so much fun together. We wish that we lived closer to them.

Yellowstone

While we were at the Miner Family Reunion this summer, we planned a trip with my sister, Becky, and her family. Our kids were getting along so well at the reunion that we thought it would be fun to give them some more time together. We decided to meet up during our Fall Breaks. They had never been to Yellowstone, so we decided to meet up there. It was the beginning of July at the time that we planned the trip and super hot outside. We didn't think about the fact that it would be freezing in Yellowstone in the middle of October. We bundled up and made the most of it.
We stayed in Teton Village, which was about an hour drive from the south entrance of Yellowstone. Since it was the Knudsen's first time there, we decided that Old Faithful was a must see. While driving into the park, we checked online to see when the next predicted eruption of Old Faithful would be. We knew that if we headed straight there, we would be cutting it close, but we went anyways. The prediction gives a time and then says that Old Faithful will erupt within 20 minutes surrounding that time. As we were driving there, we decided that we would make it as long as Old Faithful wasn't early this time. We pulled into the lot and put on our coats and headed over there only to find that we missed the eruption by 5 minutes. Old Faithful had been 8 minutes early this time around. It was such a disappointment and totally threw off our whole day. Because now, we had to hang around Old Faithful for and hour and a half to wait for the next eruption. And did I mention it was freezing outside plus a lot of the tourist buildings were closed for the season. We did manage to find open restrooms, which we all used, and an open gift shop. We went inside, only to warm up a bit. These hats were cute

We also wandered over to the visitor center for a bit, also to keep warm. About 20 minutes before the next predicted eruption, we headed out to the ring of benches.

We got some pretty decent seats and even got to see another geyser erupt a little ways off in the distance while we were waiting for Old Faithful. That was cool.

After Old Faithful, we ate lunch in the car as we drove around the lower loop of the park. We stopped at this really colorful hot pool because it was one that our family had never seen. The walkways were icy and the kids had fun kicking around chunks of ice. The colorful pool was not visible at all because of wind and steam, but this other pool off to the side of it gave us a little taste of what it probably looked like.

Our family decided that the second "must see" of Yellowstone was the Canyon area. The canyon views are beautiful and there are a couple of impressive waterfalls.

(I dropped my phone without realizing it right after this picture was taken. Fortunately, an honest couple found it, caught up to us and returned it to me. I felt like I dodged a bullet with that one). We hiked down to view the lower falls, as well. Unfortunately, Becky fell on the ice on the hike down and hurt herself a bit so she and Jake didn't make it down to the bottom. The rest of us did. There was a couple down there that came from California. They were so impressed by all of our kids that were able to hike down the icy walkways. We told them that we were from Utah and Colorado, so the kids were used to walking on ice. The hardest part of the hike was having to climb back up 3 hundred and something stairs. The kids did great, though. Even Tyler and Camden climbed all the way back up on their own.

We saw a few other stops along the way, too, but some of the stops were just convenient places to get out, stretch our legs, and use the restrooms.

The wildlife didn't disappoint, either. We saw a lot of bison and deer. There was one spot where a bunch of people were gathered and taking pictures of a big owl up in a tree. Our car didn't see the owl because we were looking on the ground, but Becky and Jake's car did see it and they said it was pretty cool. We saw these two elk right across the road from us when we stopped to use the restroom.

It was a super long day, but we had fun. The kids loved all of the snow on the ground and had fun throwing snowballs at each other, sliding around on the ice, and just spending time with their cousins.

Frisbee Golf

We were trying to take advantage of one of the last warm days of the year and took the kids to a frisbee golf park. They couldn't resist playing on this large rocking dino while we were there.

They also thought these 4 rocks were perfect for them to pose on. you can't tell from the picture, but Tyler wasn't very happy that he got stuck with the pointy one.

The boys stayed right with us for most of the time. They couldn't throw as far, but they would keep picking their frisbees up and throwing them again and again until they could reach the hole.

We ended up splitting up for half of the time we played because 6 people throwing at the same hole became a little overwhelming for Alyssa.

It was a fun morning and we already miss that warm sunshine.

Introducing the Newest Member of our Family

About 5 months ago our van started acting up. We decided it was probably time to replace it. It took a long time for me to decide on what kind of car I wanted to replace it with. I got it narrowed down to the Chrysler Pacifica and the Hyundai Santa Fe. Then in the process of deciding, my van's battery died so I had to drive our Tahoe around for about a week. After driving the kids around in the Tahoe, I decided that I really wasn't ready to give up on the convenience of my mini van with young children, so we settled on the Pacifica.
Once we had it narrowed down to a specific car, then we started a more specific search for the right car. This is the one we settled on. It looks black at night, but in the sunlight it has kind of a maroon sparkle to it. I love the new car and have really enjoyed all of the new features it has.

Alyssa and Middle School

Alyssa decided to join her school cross country team this year. She enjoyed running, but learned that she does much better at shorter distances, so she is looking forward to trying track and field out in the spring. She did enjoy being part of a team and being forced into exercise every day. The only bummer was that she injured her foot at the first meet and ended up having to rest her foot and sit out of practices and meets for a couple of weeks so she missed a fourth of her season.

Alyssa is part of the beginning orchestra at her school. When she started school, she had never even picked up a string instrument and now she is able to play recognizable music. She decided to learn the viola because it isn't one of the big instruments and she thought it would have less competition than the violin. She had a concert in the middle of October that I was able to attend. They did a good job considering they had only been playing together for a little over a month. She especially loves having her good friend, Olivia, in the orchestra with her.

It's fun to see her try new things at her new school. She is doing well in all of her classes and seems to like her school.

Labor Day Fun

On Labor Day, Gawbie and Grandpa invited us to join them on a short hike around Silver Lake(up Big Cottonwood Canyon). It was supposed to be a half mile walk around the lake. The weather was beautiful and the kids had fun exploring.

However, as we were walking around the lake, we got sidetracked by a trailhead. It didn't seem too difficult(after all, our kids had hiked to the Y and Danny and I had just hiked to the top of a mountain). The hike was a little harder than anticipated and we certainly were not dressed for a full on hike. As a result, my nice running shoes and Tyler's school shoes ended up super dusty. And Camden's shoes would not stay strapped so they kept falling off of him. We did see some fun wildlife and scenery along the way.

 

When we got to the destination, some lake that I cannot remember the name of, I walked around the lake a bit with Alyssa and we found this cave.

So we called the others to come explore it with us. It had a pretty narrow opening, but you could stand all the way up inside.

 While the others rested...

I took the girls down close to the water. They had fun wandering around and I was just glad their feet didn't end up in the thick, quicksand-like mud.

Our hike ended up taking much longer than we had anticipated and we were super hungry by the time we got back to our cars. So we got linner at Black Bear Diner.

It was a fun day, enjoying the last bit of summer and warm weather. We are so glad that Gawbie and Grandpa invited us to join them.

We Came and We Conquered - Mount Timpanogos

Two years ago, Danny had the opportunity to hike to the top of Mount Timpanogos with the young men. I didn't tell him beforehand, but this was one of the items on my bucket list and I was SO JEALOUS!!! When he got home, he was exhausted. He told me later that day, "Never again." I replied "But I really wanted to do this hike. Who is going to go with me if you don't?" It took him 2 years to forget the pain that this hike caused (he seriously struggled to walk for like 3 days), but out of love he did it again with me this summer. We had planned to get his fitness level up to the point of being more prepared to do it. However, we didn't end up doing anything (except for one hike to the Y and sending him on Trek).
The hike did not disappoint. We left at 2 am, hoping to beat the crowds and be able to park in the trailhead parking lot. We had invited multiple people to join us, but on hike day, only 1 other crazy couple joined us- Aaron and Rachael Hales. We are so glad they did, because we got to know them really well and talking with them passed the time more quickly. We were not early enough to reach the summit by sunrise.

It looks so close in the picture above, but it was still quite a climb to get up there.
When we got up to the saddle, most of Utah County was still in the mountains shadow. Oh, and it was soooo cold in the wind up there.

The trail at this point was mostly rocks, like stepping up a bunch of rock steps. There was a bit of a drop off to the right.

We made it to the top around 8:15am, if I'm remembering right. The view was AMAZING! But it was super windy and my whole body was shaking from shivering. I could hardly even take pictures because I was exhausted and I didn't want to take off my glove to work the camera. This is the Utah County side of the mountain.

And here is the Heber Valley side, with Deer Creek there in the distance. I was able to find a nice sunny rock looking off in this direction with a bit of the mountain behind me, blocking the wind.

After sitting there for 15 minutes, my body finally stopped shaking. I didn't want to leave my perch, but Danny talked me off of my rock to take some pictures and to sign my name on the white shack.

I did take this video right after we got up there, before I started shaking so bad I had to retreat to my warm rock.

The hike up to the top, really wasn't that difficult, in my memory. It was especially cool to hike in the dark, with only our head lamps to light our way. I didn't enjoy the long stretches of hiking over medium sized rocks(like the kind of rocks that aren't big enough to fit your whole foot, but too big meld into each other to make a flat surface for your foot. In other words, my ankles took quite a beating during those long stretches.
The most difficult thing for me was hiking back down the mountain. The first stretch, on the rock steps, was so hard on my knee joints that one of my knees was bothering me quite a bit by the time we got back down to the saddle. And unfortunately, we still had like 6 more miles to go. Then, I started to feel a blister forming on the toe of my other foot, so both legs were giving me trouble. Danny wanted to run down the mountain, but the rest of us were not up for that. When we were probably a mile from the trailhead, we gave him permission to take off and get the car from it's parking spot about a quarter mile from the trailhead. We did make it to the bottom before he returned with the car.
The kids were very kind to us for the rest of that day, letting us sit and rest while they fetched things for us, especially from upstairs. I had put a pork roast in the crockpot for them to enjoy for lunch which did not cook the way it was supposed to and ended up being completely burned by the time we got home. We ordered pizza for dinner and had it delivered to our house for the first time, ever. We introduced all of them to the movie "The Three Amigos" that night. Danny and I would cringe and look at the girls every time we heard a cuss word or some kind of crude joke. I think most of them sailed over their heads, but they picked up on a couple of them, including an fairly inappropriate joke that, to our horror, Ashley repeated for Gawbie and Grandpa the following week over Sunday dinner.
I'm so glad that I got to experience standing on the top of such a tall mountain. We hiked about 15 miles that day, climbing and then descending about 4500 ft. On that day, I told Danny that he never had to do this hike again, but now that some time has passed, I would be willing to try it again if the opportunity ever presents itself.

Family Hike to the Y

In preparation for our(Danny and I) hike to the top of Mount Timpanogas, we went on a family hike up to the Y. The last time we did this was probably 2 years ago. On that hike, Danny and I both carried a boy in a hiking backpack. Not this time, though. Both boys hiked all the way to the top of the Y and back down. We were so proud of them both. They did so well. In fact, the one that struggled the most on the hike was our child we didn't even think would complain about it, Ashley. Her body seems to shut down, a bit, when she is hot, and it was pretty hot that evening.

We took lots of rests on the way up, but they did great.

The view was amazing, and somehow we timed it perfectly to be able to watch the sunset from up there. Actually, now that I think about it, we didn't plan it that way. Tyler went to this pond with one of his buddies from preschool and they ended up bringing him home an hour later than they had told me they would. That put us behind schedule by an hour, which ended up giving us the opportunity to watch the sunset from the mountain.

 We sure love these 4 kids.

Unfortunately, the late start also made for a very late dinner. I think we ended up at a pizza place eating around 9pm.