gorgeous Jackson Hole

chris and i took this picture the day after our wedding on our honeymoon.

here we are, 12 years later.

life is good.

it was fun visiting one of our favorite places with the kids, grandma, grandpa, marc, and cory.

we took the aerial tram in Teton Village. it has an elevation rise of over 4000 ft!

these smiles kill me.

on top of the world! 

the skies were crystal clear all day except for the 30 minutes we were up the mountain. it was so, so, SO cold and windy at the top. seriously cold.

good thing they have a little waffle restaurant! we grabbed three waffles and 5 hot cocoas to share.

charlie.

king of faces.

here is a view of Corbet's Couloir.

chris went skiing here in high school. he stood on the edge of Corbet's with his buddies and tried to work up the courage to ski the infamous chute. he didn't do it.

after our tram ride we went into town for some lunch and a few pictures.

chris really wanted to take one of those old western photos as a family. i did not. he convinced me to do one on our honeymoon and it was so uncomfortable and so overpriced. the picture is hanging in our closet so no one can see it! well, chris wanted the tradition to continue and the kids were really excited about it. but when we went to get it taken, we found out it was going to be over $100 for our family of 6 to get one picture. i lucked out :)

we stopped to watch some white water kayakers and surfers on our way home

and grandpa treated us all to a scoop of square ice cream. yes, square! it pretty much blew our minds.

some day chris and i hope to go back to jackson hole for our anniversary and stay at the teton mountain lodge again. its a magical place.

Yellowstone National Park

for several months leading up to our trip out west, our family researched yellowstone national park. we watched several documentaries on the geysers, waterfalls, and of course, the wildlife. these kiddos were so thrilled to be going and exploring it all first hand! so on july 1st, after spending the night at the cabin in island park, we went on our yellowstone adventure! we entered through the west entrance of the park and followed the bottom loop. our pictures can not do the beauty of the park justice.

the kids really loved hearing the bubbling sounds coming from the paint pots... the sulfur smells coming from them though... whew!

we sat in the perfect spot to watch old faithful. and by perfect i mean we could hardly see it because the wind blew the mist perfectly in our faces haha! but the kids loved feeling old faithful :)

i remembered old faithful drawing a big crowd, but man! it was busy! and I'm pretty sure every single tourist there was asian.

charlie was probably the most excited to see buffalo. the buffalo pictured above came right up by our sequoia and then walked behind us and across the street. it was pretty spectacular! this was charlie's "i saw a buffalo herd!" victory cheer.

we ended up seeing so many buffalo, individuals and herds, that by the end of the day charlie said "i'm tired of buffalo". yellowstone sure delivered!

we saw quite a few elk. several cows right up close to the car, but only a few bulls. we even saw a bear, although it was quite far away.

owen was so happy when he wasn't strapped in. poor kid spent most of the day strapped in either a carseat, stroller, or backpack.

when we got home that evening, the family had set up an outdoor movie night. it was a perfect day!