Colter Bay Part 2: More Animals, Water and Family

So Clara got to see her first horses up close and personal on this trip.  Colter Bay has some nice corrals with beautiful horses.  They are in walking distance from the tent cabins so we headed on down.

Looking at horses with Aunt Nicole.  This was the first time that Clara got to meet Brandon's sister Nicole and her husband Brian.

She was a little nervous about the horses at first but warmed up to them.

On our way back from the corrals. 

We got to spend some time in the water too.  If you don't know the lakes in Grand Teton National are filled with glacier water so it makes it pretty chilly to swim.  The first place we swam was Jackson Lake.  It was quite windy so there were some little waves.  Clara didn't mind the cold water but she didn't like the waves at all.

Brandon's cousins at Jackson Lake.

The second place we went swimming was String Lake.  She loved it.  It was a little chilly but not too bad and the air was warmer that day.  We went out on a tube and Clara was so happy that she kept trying to dive in the water head first.

The best part about Colter Bay was spending time with Brandon's family and having some away from the apartment time with ours.

 Clara loved the backpack.  She even fell asleep once and almost asleep another time.

Clara's birthday was right before we went up so we got to open up some presents!  She got some cute little harem pants from her Aunt Nicole, Uncle Brian, Aunt Audrey and Uncle Nathaniel.  They got them for her in France!  She also got a little piano and some balls from Grandma and Grandpa Nelson.

 Swan Lake or the "Moose Pond".  I've never actually seen a moose here but everyone swears that they used to see moose here all the time.

 Hidden Falls.  It is SO PRETTY up there!

Inspiration Point.  This is just passed Hidden Falls.

Clara also really loves tortillas, which I knew, but I guess I didn't realize how much she loves them.

Clara really was such a trooper.  She missed naps and was placed in and out of the car seat a lot.  On our way home she slept really well but I had to wake her up so that she would sleep that night.  Because she was awake we had to get pretty creative to keep her happy.

The day we went home we stopped at the Colter Bay store and Brian and Nicole got her this cute little onesie.

We had a great time and can't wait until we can go back!

Colter Bay Part 1: Animals and Dirt

These are the Tetons.  Aren't the amazing?  I actually took this picture with my cell phone.  Pretty crazy, huh?  This last week we were able to go up to Grand Teton National Park with Brandon's family.  We stay in a campsite called Colter Bay.  It is really nice because we don't stay in tents we stay in tent cabins.  Two walls are wood and two walls are canvas.  It's also cement floors, bunk beds and a nice patio area out front with a picnic table and fire-pit.  It was so much fun and I have a lot of pictures so it's going to have to be in two parts.  We'll start with animals and dirt. :)

Animals:

Something that is very important is what animals did you see and how many.  We have gone three years now in the almost four years of marriage and I hadn't seen a bear so I was on the look out.

First we saw some buffalo. They were right on the edge of the road so I was able to snap a quick picture on my phone.  (The car was moving so the picture isn't great.  Also, I left my camera at home so most pictures are either taken by others or my phone.)

Next we saw some elk.  We actually saw a big herd running across through the grass but we didn't stop for those either so no pictures. Sorry.  

We also saw two moose on our way home!  We thought about stopping but there were a lot of people and it was a pretty high traffic area so we didn't take their picture either.

The highlight though were the.... BEARS!  We went up to a place called Signal Mountain where apparently there are bears often but we haven't seen one up there yet.  Anyway, it was getting late and Clara was all done with the day so I talked Brandon into taking his sister, Camille's, car back to camp before the others were done.  Boy am I glad that we did.  There was a rumor of a moose living down Pilgrim Road so we were discussing whether or not to stop.  As we came up to it there were A LOT of people stopped.  We looked at each other and said, "Moose?"  But then we saw the Rangers.  RANGERS MEAN A BEAR!  We pulled up and I got out to ask the Ranger what they were looking at.  Not only was there one bear but there were THREE! A mom and two cubs.  

He told us to drive down the road a little bit and we would be able to see them.  So off we went and sure enough, there they were!  I was pretty giddy with excitement by this point.  I grabbed Clara out of the car seat and got out of the car.  Again I only had my phone so we got Camille's camera.  I was complaining that her camera was not very good when a nice young man with a huge camera told me that if we wanted he would give us his website and we could contact him for pictures.  So I gave him my phone and emailed him when we got home.  So thanks to Chase Dekker at www.chasedekker.zenfolio.com we have these amazing pictures of three grizzly bears.  

Enjoy!

Thank you again Chase!  You can check out other amazing pictures at his website that I posted above.

Dirt!

Can I just say that our dear child LOVES dirt.  She was seriously in heaven all week.

Stay tuned for part two where there will be more pictures. :)

Feeding the Ducks!

I love living in a place where we can drive 15 minutes and be in such beautiful places like Logan Canyon.  Tonight we decided to have family date night. So we grabbed some bread and some grapes and headed up the canyon.  (I read online that grape halves are better for the ducks then bread but they didn't have any interest in them. )

Clara loved it.  She loves ducks and even tried to walk out into the water with them.   Here are some pictures from our night.