Miss Shauna's Ranch

One of the great things about living in Montana is being closer to "the ranch" in Star Valley, the summer home of our dear friend Shauna from Texas. This is our 2nd summer to visit, but the first time for Josh. We met my mom and sisters there too, for an awesome family mini-vacation.

 

The real treat for the girls is the horses. Every morning they'd go on a ride to feed the horses at her dad's place.

  

 

Then in the afternoon we'd pack some snacks, grab some extra wheels and all head out to the mountains (except for my mom, who was happy to stay back with Hadley!) We each had a little girl on our 4-wheeler, but the most envied spot was the back seat of Shauna's ride. Scarlett even fell asleep back there.

 

the steep descent

 

Scarlett was a speed demon. Once she learned what button the throttle was, she was racing past all of us

 

 

at the Wyoming/Idaho border

 

One afternoon, when I decided to stay in, they all rode out to a grove of aspen trees to carve names in the bark, and explore nature with Miss Shauna.

 

 

 

 

And when we weren't 4-wheelin, we were playing. Playing with new friends, playing with family, playing at Shauna's, or playing at her uncle Bob's.

There's always fun to be had at the ranch :)

 

  

 

 

 

Jackson Hole & the Tetons

After Yellowstone we spent a couple days visiting the Grand Teton National Park, and exploring Jackson Hole. Here's some pics of our hike around Jenny Lake.

 

 

We read that the hike to Hidden Falls was an easy 3 mile hike along the lake. No big deal, right? But with this crew it took a while. Josh was always carrying at least one girl. I'm very lucky to have him. So many people we crossed paths with made comments on how crazy brave we were to go on this hike with 4 little girls. Or maybe they just thought we were crazy to have 4 girls. There was an elderly couple taking a break, and the wife said to us "Well, if you can do this, I can do this" and she pressed forward. That made me happy. At times the hike was steep, and we were slow, but we made it. We were proud of ourselves and our girls. And we were happy to take the boat ride back to the trailhead :)

 

 

We stayed at the Snake River Lodge in Teton Village, which is at the base of Jackson Hole ski resort. It was pretty quiet in the summertime, and a perfect place to relax.

 

 

 

The girls even tried out the bungee trampolines in Teton Village

 

 

 

We visited the city of Jackson for lunch, did some shopping, rode the stagecoach, and treated ourselves to Moo's Gourmet Ice Cream.

 

It was a wonderful place to visit - we will definitely be back!

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Viets do YELLOWSTONE

One of the things on our "bucket list" for our time here in Montana was a trip to Yellowstone National Park. The first national park, and maybe the best, in this country. We were on our way to visit friends and family in Star Valley, so we decided to tackle Yellowstone on the way down.

The DRIVE

We live about 120 miles from the northeast entrance to Yellowstone National Park, but to get there we had to drive the Beartooth Pass. Breathtaking. The highway zigzags up the steep Beartooth Mountains to an elevation of 11,000ft, where there is usually snow. Yes, snow in June and July. There is even a ski-lift running year round. Then at the top there are beautiful mountain lakes and pristine wilderness. It was a slow drive, because it was both dangerous and beautiful. The girls didn't appreciate it as much, especially when Josh made them get out for a picture.

 

The WILDLIFE
This was the most exciting part for the kids, but spotting wildlife is a rare occurrence on a hot summer day. Except for the buffalo. The buffalo are everywhere, in large herds, grazing the valleys, the roadsides, and sometimes taking leisurely strolls along the road.

 

The elk were pretty common too. At least the females were. There were a lot of elk near Mammoth that just made themselves at home, and didn't shy away from people or cars. We found one just sitting on the lawn outside the gift shop.

 

We did see one male though, with antlers still young and furry.

 

Some mountain goats high on the hillside.

 

And then there were the BEARS. You always knew when a bear was spotted because there would be tons of cars pulled over to the shoulder, and a bunch of overzealous tourists with cameras trying to get close to this deadly animal. We fit right in.

I was so unlucky, I got out for a picture and all I ever saw was this big brown bottom. Then as I was getting back to the car, the bear decides to cross the road just a few cars ahead of us - and I missed it! Lydia and Josh saw the whole thing. Josh saw 4 bears that day. He took this picture of a momma bear, and she had her cub hiding in the grass next to her.

 

 

The HOT SPRINGS

I didn't realize until this year that Yellowstone is a supervolcano, and that's why there are so many geothermal features throughout the park, like geysers and hot springs. We visited the Midway Geyser Basin to walk through the hot springs and see the Grand Prismatic, the 3rd largest in the world. There were lots of pools to walk along, and lots of steam to walk through! Claire's glasses kept fogging up, it was so cute we all had a good chuckle.

I didn't take the picture below, but this is a view of the Grand Prismatic from the hillside. Maybe next time we visit we'll hike up the hill to get this view.

 

Mammoth Hot Springs is a large, terraced hot spring that is thousands of years old, and mostly dry by now. But the calcium deposits over those years created some pretty impressive landscapes.

 

 

The FALLS
Yellowstone is full of waterfalls, and big ones at that. It was so great to be driving along the road, turn the corner, and spot a 200' waterfall in front of you. The most popular one is the Lower Yellowstone Falls, at over 300 feet! I took this pic at a lookout spot from the road.

It was the only waterfall we decided to hike to. There was a short trail that lead from the road down to the brink of the falls, so we took the girls down there for an up-close look. Both Josh and I were a little queasy as we looked down the waterfall...but the girls were picking up rocks and throwing them into the falls to the interminable depth below.

 

Yellowstone's Grand Canyon

 

The FAITHFUL
No trip to Yellowstone is complete without a visit to Old Faithful, the most predictable geyser in the world. We had dinner at the Lodge, then got our ice cream cones and found a bench to park on while we waited for the "show".  We had trouble explaining geysers to the girls, so we just called it a "water volcano"...and left it at that. It was a perfect night, and great to see so many other geysers in that basin erupting at different times too.

 

 

And yes, it is possible to do all of this in a day. That's what we did! 

Father's Day "Heart & Sole" Run

The Heart & Sole Run takes place every year on Father's Day weekend in Billings. There was a 5K, 10K, and a 2 mile "fitness walk". We both wanted to run a race... but what about the kids?

We decided that in honor of Father's Day...Josh should run with the girls. So Lydia and Claire did the 2-mile race with Josh, while he pushed Hadley in the jogging stroller! What a sight. Then I was free to run the 5K, my first race since Hadley was born. As for Scarlett...we all agreed she would be too much work during the race...so she just went to a friend's house.

My 5K race performance was not impressive. I was pumped up with music, excited about the big crowd, doing my first race in well over a year...but the excitement wore off as I began gasping for air and getting passed by 8th graders. How did I ever run a half marathon last year? It was definitely a different body. I was struggling to keep my pace below an 11minute mile. Struggling. Ugh.

Josh's experience was frustrating in a much more comical way. For some reason he had his mind set on winning this 2 mile "fun run", with 3 little girls with him. He had to start at the back because he had the stroller, but at the shotgun start he wove through all the other racers to get to the front, all the while cheering the girls on to keep up with him. At one point Claire was slowing them down, so he threw her up on his shoulders and pushed forward.

Yes, he was that guy.

But they stayed with Lydia's pace, and had fun along the way, even with their crazy dad. We were so proud of our girls. The next day the race results were printed in the newspaper. They all finished in the top ten for their age group ;)