Vacation report...

Can someone tell me, please, why I live in Arizona? Every time we come north to vacation I wonder why we endure the nasty heat and, no offense, not-so-pretty landscape of Arizona. Don't get me wrong... I love being near Jarad's family and of course I live in the best neighborhood imaginable. I just wish I could transplant all of us to cooler climes where we could actually have a garden, green grass, beautiful fall colors and yes, even a little snow. Is that too much to ask? Who's with me?

My parents live in Orem, UT at the base of Mt. Timpanogos, and with super easy and quick access to some beautiful hikes, camping, etc. We are loving it here! We've been here for 2.5 weeks, and despite the rain, we've hauled the kids all over the place, wandering around Sundance and Park City, many trips up Provo Canyon, hiking to the Timpanogos Cave, and the pinnacle of the trip: Yellowstone, Grand Teton and Jackson Hole.

NOTE: FOLLOWING IS MY TRAVELOGUE OF OUR YELLOWSTONE TRIP MOSTLY FOR MY OWN PURPOSES - FEEL FREE TO SKIP DOWN TO THE PICTURES OR STOP HERE!!

We were scheduled to go up on a Tuesday, but we were keeping our eye on the forecast, which was telling us to expect thunderstorms, snow and 29-degree lows. Camping? With Arizona kids? Of course their Alaska mom could have handled that for sure! No thanks. We held out for a few days and the forecast changed slightly. The lows were in the 34 range, but it was still supposed to be rainy and cold. We decided to just do it, and I'm so glad we did! We got up there on Saturday evening and encountered partly cloudy skies. Not too bad. Within five minutes of entering the park we saw some bald eagles, a coyote and some bison. We were thrilled to see that kind of wildlife! We got to our campground, got all set up and tucked in... it rained on us that night, and we had intermittent showers throughout the next day, but were able to do the entire upper loop on our first day. Amazing landscape! I couldn't believe how it changed so much in the 70-mile loop we drove that day. That loop took us to the flatulent paint pots (the kids thought the tooting mud was hilarious, and the twins loved seeing the "Gooey Geysers" they learned about from Diego and Dora). Day two the kids went to take their Junior Ranger oath and receive their badges (any of you who go to national parks and have kids under 12, make sure you do this Junior Ranger program - it gives the kids something to do/think about and they get a patch/badge when they finish it. It's so cool!), then we did the lower loop and the lake before heading down into Grand Teton. Talk about God's Country. Honestly. Alaska is beautiful, no question. But I was totally taken aback by the grandeur, the ruggedness of the Tetons! The clouds obscured most of our mountain views, but as the sun was setting the peaks started to stick out and you could get an idea of how jagged the peaks are. We will go back there for sure.

On our last night we stayed in Jackson in a hotel (I was done camping in the rain, and those clouds did NOT look promising for us). Jackson is such a cool town. It reminded me a little of Anchorage, but way cooler :). I guess other places are always cooler than your hometown :)

On that 4-day trip alone we took almost 400 pictures - mostly of wildlife and scenery. I will spare you a slideshow of all our pics, but I'll include a good portion. No offense if no one but the grandparents actually watches it :).

OK I couldn't get it to post in this message, so it's posted as its own message above. sumtimez i nede halp wen i uze tha compyooter.