We spent the past week in the mountains, first at Wild Iris, then in the Tetons, and finally at Independence Pass. We had a cabin in Lander courtesy of Trango, but after that we camped. It was our longest stretch camping with kids-- 5 nights straight. We were ready to come home by the middle of the week, but we stuck it out. The kids loved camping-- every night was a party in the tent with lots of wrestling and dive bombing mom and dad in their sleeping bags and many threats before everyone finally settled down to sleep. The best part was falling asleep to the sound of rustling aspens outside... over and over and over again, as we were woken up by repeatedly each night by the kids. Besides the camping and climbing, we got in lots of hikes to mountain lakes, bike riding, superhero coloring, and games of Uno-- interrupted periodically by Amelie trying to sit on the cards and steal the draw pile.
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| We stopped at Vedauwoo on the way up to Lander-- we've driven by it a million times but never stopped to look around. Turned out to be really cool with lots of massive boulders to play on. |
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| Logan & Mark under the boulders |
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| A quick climb on our hike up to the lookout |
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| Running down |
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| We spent a couple days climbing at Wild Iris during the Lander climbing festival. Logan has discovered big swings-- enabled by ropes hanging from steep overhanging routes. He has now started negotiating for his turn to climb or swing. I feel like this is a precursor of years to come when Mark will no longer be the only one deciding where and when to climb. |
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| A different kind of swings at the Lander park |
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| After Lander, we headed to the Tetons. Here's Logan throwing rocks into Lake Jackson. This is right before he decided to wade in fully dressed and got completely soaked. |
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| Biking through Grand Teton National Park |
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| Hike to Taggart Lake |
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| Logan & Amelie at Taggart Lake |
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| Logan can't resist an icy mountain lake. He reminds me so much of Andrew at this age-- looks just like him and acts like him too. He sure didn't get his love of water from Mark or I! |
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| We took the boat across Jenny Lake and hiked up Cascade Canyon |
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| Continuing our tour of Grand Teton lakes... sand castles and swimming at String Lake |
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| String Lake |
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| We camped at the Signal Mountain campground. Here's the view from the top of Signal Mountain, looking out at Mt. Moran. We were hoping to camp at Jenny Lake, but it was full, and Signal Mountain turned out to be great for wildlife. We saw a grizzly and a black bear! |
After the Tetons, we made the marathon 8 hour drive down to Independence Pass near Aspen. Our original plan for this trip involved driving all the way to the Canadian Rockies, but we gave up on that idea. 8 hours was plenty, so we were really happy we didn't have to drive all the way to Canada.
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| Climbing at Independence Pass. The kids are getting better and better at the crag-- Amelie is pretty happy as long as she is next to me with a bucket, shovel, truck, and bag of goldfish that she can pour in the dirt. Logan plays make believe Minecraft games. |
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| Thank you grandma for the matching sweatshirts! |
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| Amelie & me |
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| Besides climbing, we did some rest day hikes around Aspen. This is Weller Lake. This was just a short distance from our campground, but was not as nice as the other mountain lakes-- full of sharp rocks and mosquitos. Logan, however, did not mind. |
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| Maroon Bells. This was the coldest lake of them all |
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| Hiking at Maroon Bells |
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| Logan & Ama at Maroon Bells |
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| Back at home, playing with the bubble machine. |
