The Tripp Trailer????

As mentioned in a previous blog post we bought a trailer. She is a bit of an old one, but still going strong. We brought it out for the first time this past weekend and we are in love with our old little trailer. Everything works and I wasn't worried about four little dirty feet running around in it.
We went camping at a State park so we did a little swimming.
Bebo did some playing in the sand.

We had some great camping meals including some fabulous corn on the cob.

S'mores are always a must.

Monk and Daddy bought some worms...

...and did a little fishing. All in all it was a successful first camping weekend. It rained a night. I loved listening to the sound of the rain while staying dry in the trailer. Fisherman and I always tent camped wherever we went and while I miss things about a tent, like falling asleep breathing fresh night air, I LOVE camping in a trailer with kids!

Splash Park

Today we went to a near by splash park in GREAT company. I could not see the screen on my camera when I was taking the pictures so a lot of them didn't turn out that great.

Monk loved running around and playing in the water.
Bebo thought he would help himself to a drink.

The toddler belly goodness in this picture was just too good to pass up.

Monk has been talking about the "shooter guns" all day.

It was a good morning!

Where is his supervisor?

Bathtime followed

Grand Tetons - July 8, 9 & 10

On Thursday of our vacation we just hung out at my brother's house for a bit of the day. The boys loved feeding some of the fish.
Monk was able to do a little fishing with his dad. He came back and told me that the fish put up a fight.

Here is his prize. Despite having a nasty fever this day, he was still sooo happy to have caught that fish. This picture is one of my favorites from the trip.

I didn't get around to showing you our ride for the week. We were bumped up and given an infinity to have for 10 days. We picked up the car in the dark and I didn't understand what all the fuss was about on Fisherman's end UNTIL we drove it the next morning. I must say that even though I got sooooooo sick of only having the space a car has to offer, it was pretty

P-I-M-P!

On Friday we packed up, said our good-byes to my bro, and headed back for Jackson Hole. This may sound lame, but we went to the Visitor's Center. The visitor's centers out west are AMAZING! They had all kinds of stuffed animals inside with lots of helpful information. After I took this one picture of Monk by this elk he wanted his picture taken by every animal in the place.

After lunch we headed into the Grand Tetons.

The mountains were beautiful...

...unfortunately we didn't see any animals in the park.

That night Monk was worn out. On Saturday we got on the plane again and headed for home. Thank goodness the boys fell asleep on the second flight. We had a really great vacation. Lots of fun memories were made. It was good to see my brother again and spend some time as a family. Hope that you all enjoyed the journey through Wyomingland.

Yellowstone Part Two - July 7 & 8

On Tuesday the boys slept in until 7 am in the tent with a little bit of praying. We were still on the road with no traffic, but also got to sleep in a little. We packed up our campsite (our neighbors rejoiced) and headed over to The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. The pictures that I took do not do it a bit of justice.
Monk loved climbing up on the rocks and looking over the edge, I did NOT! At one point he was standing on a rock looking over the ledge and I was sick to my stomach. Fisherman thought I was being a little ridiculous, but I kept envisioning the worst.

We stopped by for a nice picnic lunch right near the Yellowstone River.

While the boys were napping in the car I had the opportunity to go in the Midway Geyser Basin and see the Grand Prismatic Spring. It was AMAZING! The pictures don't show all the colors, but it was just gorgeous.

This is a little spot on the map, but well worth a look if you make it to Yellowstone someday. In the afternoon we drove into West Yellowstone, I did some shopping, and we had pizza at our favorite pizza place. After that we were on our way back to my brother's place.

One Wednesday Fisherman got the day off and went fishing with my brother for the day. Some male bonding or something. The kids and I went with my parents and my sister and her family to a nearby hot spring. The wild flowers around the river where just beautiful. I wanted to get a good picture of them with Monk in the middle, but his three year old attitude refused.

The water was better than bath water. The water came right out of the spring and into this pool. It was pretty cool with a gorgeous view. If you look closely you can see two little love birds on the middle right of this picture. They swam linked like this the whole time they were in the pool, oblivious to the swimmers around them and the best part was that they were like 65. Hhhhmmmm.

Monk loved the water, but started getting a sore throat while we were there. He kept complaining that his neck hurt. Bebo had fun too, but wanted to walk around the pool like an adult. There were times when I let him and let's just say I am surprised he didn't get sick from all the water that he swallowed.

This was the view on the walk back from the hot springs. We ended the day with a campfire at my brothers and some yummy s'mores.

Yellowstone Part One - July 5 & 6

On Sunday afternoon we headed to Yellowstone as a family. Fisherman and I have been to Yellowstone a couple of times, but it is so AMAZING that we just had to go back.

Two little boys LOVED helping set up the tent.

Camping in a tent with two little boys was an adventure. They did well sleeping through the night, but had a problem sleeping past 6 am the first morning. When we returned to the campsite at night Bebo came toddling out of the car to the neighbor saying, "oh you were the little man up at 6 am." We made yummy pizza fry pies and made sure to keep ALL our food out of our tent and clean up outside so we wouldn't have any bear friends.
At night we walked down to the river near our campsite. The boys enjoyed wading in the water. I think Bebo even drank some, mmmmm.

This guy probably poo'd in that water. We saw some elk bright and early on Monday morning

The bonus to being up at 6 am is that we were one of the first ones at Old Faithful. We had some breakfast in a lodge at Old Faithful so we wouldn't be keeping our friendly camping neighbors up. Old Faithful was faithful and was glorious.

We saw this guy in the parking lot.

It is so hard to pick what pictures to show of Yellowstone because one picture can not possibly capture each spot. Above is the Paint Pots. This is one of my favorite spots because it is so colorful. After this we went back to camp and took a little snooze.

Next up was Mammoth Hot Springs. As you can see they are mammoth, but they were neither hot nor springy. Apparently they dry up here and there and it can be anywhere from days to years. It was still very cool to see them.

While in Yellowstone Monk purchased this here Junior Ranger wallet. He "bought" Daddy, Bebo, and myself some ice cream while we were in Mammoth and called it our surprise. It was the cutest thing that I have ever witnessed.

At night we went back to camp to roast some hot dogs...

...and have some s'mores. All in all a great couple of days.

Fourth of July - July 3 & 4

Friday, July 3 was a low key day for us. We tried to catch up on some lost sleep. We went into town to get some groceries.
I was amazed at how quickly the weather could change in the mountains.

On the 4th we started out our day by getting a personal tour of the fish hatchery that my brother works at. The boys LOVED feeding the fish, seeing the baby fish, and the fish eggs.

On our way into town we ran into this bald eagle. Monk saw it fit to "hawk" at him to scare him away so we only saw the bird for a couple minutes.

We went into town to watch the 4th of July parade. I am pretty sure this is the only parade that goes down one side of the road and then comes right back up the other side. We got to watch it TWICE! The kids liked getting candy and Bebo loved all the "shies" (horsies) that were in it. My brother and Fisherman both mocked the boys matching outfits, but I thought they were especially cute.

At night we dressed the boys in their cowboy gear and headed for the rodeo.

Monk thought he was so cool in his cowboy hat and cowboy boots.

Bebo was not as thrilled about the get up, but sure looked cute.

The rodeo was not the best that we have seen out west, but was still enjoyable.

The sun went down...

...and the night ended with a firework and lightening show combined. We had a wonderful 4th.