BACK SOON

Hi Everyone!

My family and I have been having such an awesome Summer, that I just haven't had the time to blog! I've been practicing what I've been preaching, and taking my young ones outdoors! Here's a snip-it of all the fun we have been having:

Princess caught her big frog prince --he was HUGE!

The sweetest and most friendly frog, oh, and HUGE!

Learned about snakes! In the process got to pet a Bull Snake. We learned they some times imitate Rattler snakes.

Created imaginary trains out of rocks, while playing in our backyard.

Caught a crayfish at a local pond. Learned about the art of camouflaging in nature. Crayfish are not easy to spot in creeks because they blend well with their surrounding rocks. The kids were amazed by the Crayfish's ability to go unnoticed underwater.

Touched a butterfly...a huge highlight for a 2-year-old.

Growing our organic veggie garden. Having fun harvesting our first "Beef Tomato", and eating it.

It was yummy!

There is more fun that I should document, but I must go to bed.  I will be back to write about my amazing Yellowstone Park adventure in a few days!

I hope you all are having a phenomenal Summer like we are!

WYOMING: GRAND TETON

Well, we did it! We rented an RV and went on our road trip to Wyoming! As promised, we took my lovely Mom with us (it was her Mother's Day gift), and something she and our kids have been looking forward to for a very long time. 

Our trip was all sorts of amazing and wondrous! Wyoming is a beautiful State, blessed with so much natural resources and glorious landscapes.

My hubby and I were so happy that were able to take our two little ones on a family oriented outdoor adventure that we were sure would make them fall in-love with Nature. Yes, our trip to Wyoming did that!

Here is my hubby, camera in hand next to the RV we rented for our trip to Wyoming. Bless him, for he drove for 10 hours straight (he started driving from Colorado at 3:00 AM) while we all slept comfortably in our beds. We want to let him know that we all appreciate all the driving he did...and we love him for taking us on this amazing trip!

Of course, our little peanut thought he could do the driving too. He actually told us "I'm driving the bus". Maybe next time buddy! LOL

Here we all are at the beginning of our trip.

For the first three days in Wyoming, we decided to stay and check-out the Grand Teton National Park. Once we saw these amazing mountain range, we had to get out of the RV and take a picture!

My Mom wanted a picture with me, and the beautiful mountains in the background. It was so emotional to see these strong beautiful mountains and have my Mom there sharing it with me. It's a memory I'm sure we will both cherish for the rest of our lives.

Hubby's turn to take a picture with the Grand Teton in the background.

Oh, let us not forget the kids! :-)

There is a God.

After driving through The Grand Teton, we headed to an RV Park located in Colter Bay. Here we were able to refill our water tanks, dump our sewer (an experience my hubby is still talking about), and plug into some electricity. Here is our little princess somewhere in one of the RV Park's wooded area trail.

These two loved the RV Park in Colter Bay! It had one of the most beautiful views of the Grand Teton!

Lake view in Colter Bay of the Grand Teton.

Colter Bay Marina.

My kids were so happy to make some new friends in Colter Bay!

Oh, did I mention they got to see a female Moose! Wow!

Moose!!!

Moose and the Grand Teton!

The next day was a bit rainy and cold, but we were all determined to go fishing! We went really early to the Marina and rented a small boat, brought our fishing license, some worms, and off we went!

Here I am freezing my butt! :-)

It was raining really hard by the time we were fishing on the lake. It was so cloudy that we could hardly see the Grand Teton anymore.

My Mom could not keep her raincoat's hood on so she tied a paper bag around her neck to keep it from falling off. She's so inventive!

Hubby made light of the fact that we were all cold and wet!

But don't be fooled by his silly behavior, he was all business and was serious about fishing.

Princess and her worms...

Must get fish.

 Too bad it didn't happen that day.

My theory was/is, that it was just too cold and wet for the fish to come out and eat. My theory, and I'm sticking to it!

The hubby was determined to go fishing, so we unplugged our RV, and got on the road to go fishing at a close by Dam. The Colter Bay natives swore to us that it was the best place to catch fish.

On the way to the Dam, we were pleasantly surprised by our first Bison sighting!

There were three of them by the side of the road. They were so HUGE!

Sorry, I just couldn't resist!

We made it to the Dam!

Daddy was serious...MUST GET FISH!

Mom was not interested in fishing, but she really enjoyed the view!

Oh, and we got to see our first Brown Eagle. It was just perched majestically on a tree across from the Dam's running water.

Meet Danny: he took pity on us and gave us the fish he just caught (a 7 to 10 lb Cut Throat). He said he had been fishing all week and that his wife would kill him if he brought home another fish. I'm actually smiling while I type this...

Princess holding Danny's gift. She loved how it was still wiggling a bit inside the bag.

Danny also clued my husband and I on how to catch fish in the Dam. He mainly told us what we were doing wrong.

Apparently, our main problem was that we were only using worms as bait. Danny told us that we needed to use a lure AND a worm to attract the fish in the Dam.

And keeping with his generosity, Danny gave us a couple of his lures...

...and we attached one of our worms to the hook.

And lo-and-behold, my hubby caught his first fish! YES! Thank you Danny, where ever you are!

As you can see above, my hubby was trying to say that his fish "is-this-big"...HA!

Again, thank you Danny!

With new information and confidence, I gave fishing a try.

And I tried...

Eureka! I caught one too! A lake trout! The kids were thrilled!

After our successful fishing expedition was over, it was time to once again explore the Grand Teton National Park.

What a beautiful place!

Serenity.

Glorious.

I wonder what he was thinking about when we drove by and first saw the Grand Teton from the RV window. This is a child that hardly sits still. However, on this trip we caught him many times glued to the window for long periods of time. The landscape was just that captivating!  

Divine.

A lone Pelican flying on one of the rivers located in the Grand Teton National Park.

We were so lucky to see this little fella! It's a Pika!

This little bird is missing a leg. Poor thing. The kids wanted me to take him home so that we could teach it to walk with only one leg. Awe!

We need to identify you...

My kids are all about bugs these days, so we made sure to bring on the trip their favorite toy of the moment: the bug vacuum! It allows the kids to safely collect/trap any bug of interest, and then view them under magnifying plastic bottle. It also makes it easy to safely release the little creatures once we are done looking at them. The kids take their bug vacuum gun everywhere!

They wanted to look at this large Red Fire Ant. Daddy helped them "vacuum" it up. I'm glad they were safely able to look at this little creature...they are known to sting!

After bug catching, hubby wanted a hug! So I obliged!

We drove to Jackson Hole one day, and rode the New Aerial Tram, at Rendezvous Mountain. The Tram took us to an elevation of 10,450 feet! It was scary, but it was just so breathlessly beautiful up there!

Awe! A daddy and princess moment.

The princess loved being up so high!

We just couldn't believe the view!

This was the last day of us exploring The Grand Teton National Park. I still can't believe I was there!

This is divine Nature!

We weren't done with Wyoming yet...after the Grand Teton, off we went to Yellowstone National Park.

Our adventure wasn't over! There's more to come, and more to blog about!