After a week or so in Boise we headed to Jackson Hole to spend time with my little sister. She took the whole week off just to play with us, yesssss! I love Jackson Hole in the summer. Love. Love. LOVE! I've never been in the winter, so I might love it then too. But oh my. The summers are amazing. I'd be content to play there every summer day for the rest of my life...
A day after we got there Alethea promptly kicked me and Abbie out on our own so we could go for a great hike while she watched Sawyer and Jack. We hiked up to Hidden Canyon in Teton Nat'l. Park, which had a lovely hidden lake for us to take a dip in as well. It was awesome! I'm out of shape and altitude challenged (Florida), but I huffed and puffed my way up and Abbie cheered me on :)
Thimble berries, watermelon berries, huckleberries, blackberries, service berries, black currants, and some other unknowns. The huckleberries were tiny, but they were BURSTING with flavor. All those berries were such a treat on our hike, and made our hike considerably longer. We couldn't stop picking and eating!
The blessed lake on top!
Abbie was excited to see this smoke column - hoping Chris would come down from AK to fight fire in Idaho, turns out he did :)
Nice place to push a stroller and for Sawyer to ride his bike (Tetons in backdrop). This is what Alethea was doing while Abbie and I hiked.
Wooden boat rides right at tipi camp. In the summer the owner of tipi camp runs these wooden boat tours down the Snake River and then serves great food, in the winter he offers horse drawn sleigh rides. It's such a wonderful environment!
Abbie created this master piece.
Sawyer and Abbie having fun launching their home-made water craft down the stream and chasing after it.
The boys were in heaven with their own personal hot tubs.
Look at this service! Aunt Abbie spoiling them with hot cocoa in their hot tubs.
Oh Sawyer, the cuteness is too much!
Content litle boy...
Ahhh, this is the life.
Abbie & Jack went out for a little hike and then rode the lift down.
Alethea took us to the Wildlife Art Museum in Jackson Hole. Such amazing art!
Sawyer chillin' with the AA's
Abbie & Alethea on the Big Kahuna rapid.
Liz & Alethea on the Big Kahuna rapid.
Alethea guided us in this duckie down the canyon. We didn't flip! It was a blast and so fun to be sitting so low in the water. The boat is called a Tomcat Tandem. I want one! The next day we took the boys out on the lake near tipi camp.
Just because he's so cute :)
Love these rare times that Sawyer and I can snuggle up on the grass for a nap, and we actually sleep :)
Am I a bad mom? Sawyer hadn't tried hot cocoa until this summer! We just don't drink a lot of that stuff here in Florida. He loved it SO much. Every morning he'd hunker down for his cup of hot chocolate. And since then we've been on a couple plane rides and that is what Sawyer ordered from the stewardess.
The magical tipi. You can see Alethea's raised garden bed off to the left.
Playing in the tipi with Aunt Aleafala (that's how Sawyer says her name--so cute!)
Morning time at tipi camp. My boys are still early risers - usually it's at least in the 6's now though, and sometimes even the 7's if I'm lucky.
We enjoyed eating outside for all of our meals.
Alethea and Abbie swimming across String Lake one evening in Teton National Park.
The boys really enjoyed 'outside' living and would be pleased to continue this feral lifestyle, haha. We had an absolutely wonderful visit, thanks Aleafala. It's hard to believe snow is covering the ground there already, yikes! We sure miss all the family time.
