Cooler than I expected.

We randomly got talked into going over to the Sandy Balloon Festival in August.  I wasn't that excited to go but we dragged the kids over anyway.  It was better than I expected.  Not really much to say about it but here are some cool pictures I took while we were there.  We stayed for maybe an hour before we headed back home.  Jackson did at least get to pull the lever and make the fire .. that was cool.

Don't fall out.

Saturday was our only full day in Jackson Hole.  We had split our large group into two groups since Baylee and Oliver wouldn't be going white water rafting.  We sent the big people off first thing in the morning.  This worked well since I knew we wouldn't have been able to get organized with the kids that early.  So we were able to get up, relax and enjoy the beautiful location.

There was a small playground down by the water that the boys played on for all of 5 minutes.

Before we knew it it was already time to leave and head over to the boat place.  Mad River Boat Trips is the organization we've done this before with.  They did a good job and so we were a repeat customer.  My parents, Evan and Rachel all had a great time on their trip.  At this point Wyland had agreed to come on the boat too.  He was a bit nervous but really not much.

You ride down to the drop in point on a bus, NOT like the cute one below.  Just a regular old school bus.  As we rode down the bus driver pointed out Osprey nests along the way.  Once they drop you in the river they take the bus a little further down and wait for you.

Goodbye hug as they head off to risk their lives.

Our boat captain was a guy in his 60's by the name of Fritz.  He was pretty nice.  I felt fine about Wyland being there with us until Fritz told us that occasionally they DO flip boats.  In fact, he'd done it once earlier this year.  WHAT??!!!  My kids are used to being in life jackets and the such.  However, should that boat have flipped over and they were being washed downriver in fast moving water I'm not certain they wouldn't have panicked and drowned!!  So while they were old enough, I would not have put Wyland on that boat had we talked through the whole flipping the boat before hand.

Thankfully we didn't flip the boat.  However, there was one point that could have been very scary.  We were actually headed through the Lunch Counter section and we just hit a wave funny.  The front of the boat flew up in the air and the back end dropped down VERY low in the water.  When I looked back Fritz had fallen back (still in the boat, however on his butt with feet in the air).  Even he said afterwards that he almost went in!  It was a bit scary!

Jeramie is in the very front passenger side.  Notice that Jeramie is not paddling.  He was NOT a good front of the boat person.  When things got crazy he just sat there yelling and NOT paddling.

Jackson is one row behind him in the middle (red life jacket on his back).  In this picture he's bent down holding on to the boat handles.

I'm in the fourth row back on the passenger side as well (green t-shirt).  With Wyland sat next to me in the middle.

Jeramie NOT paddling.  Kerry paddling.

Jeramie NOT paddling.  Kerry paddling while talking to Wyland.

We had a lot of fun!  But like I said I wouldn't have taken Wyland on had I really thought through the possibility of him falling out of the boat.  But he had a good time and we all arrived back safe and sound.

Jackson under the Jackson sign.

After river rafting we headed into town to meet up with the parentals.

Watched the down town shoot out show.

Did a little shopping. Got Jackson a Jackson Hole sweatshirt.

Little boys got hats.

Yelp directed us to a fun pizza place for dinner.

Beer and Pizza .. does it get much better?

It was a very quick trip. But we all had a ton of fun.  Jackson Hole is expensive.  I look forward to going back to the area when the kids are maybe a couple years older and talking them through Yellowstone as well.

Jackson Hole .. it's been too long.

I love Jackson Hole.

Love.

Could it have had anything to do with where Jackson's name came from?  Yep.

We have been talking about taking a trip up to Jackson Hole for the past couple of summers.  This year we finally pulled it together and went.  Evan and Rachel joined us as well.  We headed out nice and early on a Friday morning,  Lesson learned, apparently you can't rely on you phone GPS when driving to Jackson Hole and if it's been a really long time since you've driven there you may not remember exactly how to get there.  We didn't actually take any wrong turns but I was a bit worried occasionally.  I had forgotten just how beautiful it is there.  As we drove in we stopped at the Lunch Counter to show the kids.  We had river rafting tickets and Jackson was feeling a bit apprehensive about going.  I figured if he could see some boats float through what I described as the scariest part that maybe he would feel a bit better.

A little family selfie.

(Baylee had ridden up with my parents so she wasn't with us at the time)

It worked!  Jackson agreed to go.

Even Wyland was thinking about it after we sat and watched for awhile.

It wasn't long before we arrived at our pricey KOA campground.  My parents had pulled up the trailer since while it was expensive it was still cheaper than staying at a hotel.  The KOA was sat right on the Snake River.  Unfortunately the kids couldn't swim in it because it was moving much too quickly.  So they just did a little paddling instead.

Once we were all settled it was time for pre-dinner drinks and snacks.  We like to have little cocktail parties when we camp.  It's kind of a tradition.  It was fun to try some local brews too while we were there.

We always have the best snacks.

Have you tried the Fresh Market deli salsa?

If not, you MUST.  Now.

Our first official "event" of the trip was to take the kiddos on the cowboy wagon ride and dinner.  We'd done this one before.  In fact it was before we even had kids.  It was BEFORE I even met Jeramie.  This was his first trip to Jackson Hole too.

We did the later dinner offering and it was just gorgeous light as we went up to the little camp spot.

Then the Indians came and scared the crap out of Wyland.

He spent the rest of the evening a bit afraid they'd be coming back.

It didn't help that they sat on the hill and watched us!

Short story, dinner was good.  We sang some songs.  But honestly I don't think this was as fun as I remembered.  We did a similar kind of thing in Idaho Falls I think that was better.

to be continued ...