School's out for Summer

 Easter was especially cute this year because it was Arthur's first Easter Egg Hunt. He got the hang of it pretty quick, and he loves chocolate so much. It was his ideal holiday activity.

The end of the school year means lots of field trips. We visited the Capitol building and Governor's mansion with Paul's class. 

Lee joined Paul's class for a multi-cultural festival at the SLC library.

And Paul's class went to a park to play and launch the rockets they built.

Laszlo had a big preschool graduation and carnival. He is so ready for kindergarten next year, it is really impressive how much he learned in pre school. 

Arthur is learning some new words. More, oh no, hello, yeah, mama, and shoes. Well, he says "ssssssssh" and we know that means shoes.

When I went in for my allergy shot in May, Arthur got jealous that the rest of us got to wear masks, so he got one of his own to play with. He's the only person I know who is excited about wearing a mask.

Our first real act of summer vacation was a family reunion with Lee's family. We went to Island Park, Idaho. On our way up there we stopped off and hiked to Mesa Falls, which is a really beautiful waterfall. I've noticed that my kids hike without complaining when they are playing with their cousins along the way. Even Arthur wanted to walk part of the hike.

We played games, went out on the four-wheeler, made smores, and Lee and I (but mostly Lee) put together an escape room game for everyone to do one night. Some folks went fishing or rafting or just chilled in the hot tub.

We even managed to get family photos between rainstorms. 

Arthur was really excited to have a cousin around who was more his size, though he didn't quite know how to get her to do what he wanted her to do. He tried pushing her, like he does to his parents, and Violette did not appreciate it. He tried doing the "c'mon" gesture, but she didn't know what that meant. He tried grabbing her sleeve and dragging her, but she didn't care for that either. But she did seem happy to give him hugs, so I guess he wasn't too much of a torment.

The last leg of the reunion was to spend a day in Yellowstone. 

Thanks to angry buffalo, severe indigestion, crowded parking lots, and bad phone/gps service, we didn't really spend the day together with the extended family group.

Yellowstone is absolutely gorgeous, totally unique, and as such a very popular destination. It was very busy when we were there. We spent most of the day up in the northern part of the park near Mammoth Hot Springs. I'd never been to that part of Yellowstone before, so that was my highlight. We also stopped at the Artist's Paint Pots and spent a huge amount of time at the bathroom near Norris Geyser Basin...we saw the geysers too, but I think we spent more time in the bathroom.

I am really glad we went when we did, though, because we managed to miss the severe flooding and washed-out roads the following week. 

We soldiered on through nice weather, rainy weather, even a hail storm. The geysers and animals were amazing, the weather managable, the logistics complicated. I'm just not a fan of long lines at bathrooms and parking lot entrances. And, of course, the bison cross the road whenever they want, which makes traffic a bit slow going at times.

Our kids were in surprisingly good moods for such a long day spent hiking and driving, so we took advantage and stopped to see Old Faithful rather late in the evening. It was wonderfully uncrowded at the Visitor's Center and we were able to get the kids their Junior Ranger badges while we were there. Paul doesn't care one bit about being a Junior Ranger, but Laszlo and I are both all in on collecting badges. You can tell which day a photo was taken of Laszlo on this trip based on the number of badges on his vest.

The next morning we said our goodbyes and started our road trip home. 

We headed through Yellowstone and stopped at Grand Prismatic Spring. 

After eating our picnic lunch, we headed south. We drove through Yellowstone, passed Yellowstone Lake, and headed to Grand Teton National Park. The comparative hustle and bustle of Yellowstone to the quiet tranquility of Teton was dramatic. Teton is a much smaller park and much less touristed than Yellowstone, but absolutely beautiful.

We stopped at one of the lodges to work on Junior Ranger books and walk to the Lunch Tree. I still don't know which tree is the titular Lunch Tree, but it is mostly about the view anyway. Here's the view from Lunch Tree Hill:

There isn't a better backdrop in the world than those snowy peaks! We really only stayed for the afternoon. If we'd been able to stay longer, I would have rented a kayak or something and paddles around Jenny Lake. 

But now we know that we want to go back and plan a whole trip around visiting Grand Teton! 

We stopped for the night near the Wyoming border and finished our drive home the next morning, so that wraps up the big road trip!  Now summer has really kicked off, hot weather and all, so we'll have a few more adventures at home including some drought-friendly landscaping projects and enjoy some of the local holiday events and activities. Ciao!