General Conference Tetons Trip

We took our annual October General Conference trip October 4-6th.  We picked up Callie from school on Thursday afternoon and left from there, stopping for dinner at Rocky Mountain Sea Food in Afton, Wyoming.  We stayed in a brand new hotel in Victor, ID (which had a pool and a breakfast room, of course!).  Friday morning after breakfast and a swim we spent the rest of the day exploring in the Tetons.  It was beautiful to be there in the fall with the golden leaves, and we even got to see fresh snow as we drove over Teton Pass.  The kids weren't quite ready for freezing temps, it seemed (despite my bringing all the layers), so our stops to explore and view and hike were much shorter and fewer than I personally would have liked.  But we did get to see a baby black bear in a red-leafed tree, got to hike a bit along the shores of String Lake, and get our passport stamped in a new National Park.  I can definitely think of worse ways to spend an autumn Friday.

Rocky Mountain Sea Food Company - never
would have expected to eat somewhere like this
in the middle of land-locked Wyoming, but man,
it was good!  And they even gave us their leftover
clam chowder, which won Gregg's loyalty forever.

Tasting the famous Shrimp Bread (recommended
to us by the Herzogs) - soooo yummy!

Checkin' out the views of Victor.

Snow fell overnight on Teton Pass!

A lovely sight!

We entered the park through the Wilson entrance
and found ourselves on the most lovely of fall
roads.

The Jenny Lake visitor's center was closed for reconstruction,
but we did get to walk down the path to see the views
before we froze.

We moved onto String Lake, and the clouds
on the Tetons were finally starting to lift a bit.

A lovely walk in the woods.

Sam was just not feelin' the hikin' today.  He's
lucky his dad loves him enough to carry him on
his shoulders.

I just couldn't get enough of the colors as the sun popped out
of the clouds!

The walking totem pole.

Dad of the Year right there!

In his element splashing sticks and rocks.

And he was out . . . in his typical car-sleeping
(or burley-sleeping) position.

Cal stepped in the lake on accident, so while we cruised and
Sam slept, the shoes and socks and gloves were dried by the
defroster.  Oh, and look at those lovely trees!

Checkin' out the visitor's center and gift shop
at Colter Bay for a potty pit stop, and of course
I'm snapping pictures of books to add to my TBR
list.

Can't stop, won't stop.

As we completed our loop back to Jackson we stopped for to
get some views of the Tetons.

And to check out these digs.

We found a park in Jackson Hole to let the kids
run wild on till the clouds covered the sun and
the breeze picked up and we got too chilled to
hang out there any longer.

Still frosty as we went back over the pass.

Hotel hallway views.

Back at the hotel we swam again, then ordered pizza from the next-door brewery and ate it while watching Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune (Cal told me about the latter: "this show is much better than the other one!") while we waited for the USU vs BYU game to begin.  The kids slept through the game while Gregg and I watched it on mute (and I read my Mr. Rogers biography in the down times).

Saturday morning we had breakfast again, went swimming again, and then watched the first few speakers of General Conference.  During a song break we loaded up the car and started our journey home while we listened to the rest of the Saturday sessions.  We stopped again in Afton at a park for a picnic lunch and some leg-stretching, and made it home in time to unpack, make some tortilla soup for dinner, and get me off to the church to watch the Women's Session.

Star Valley was looking lovely.  My photos don't do it justice,
unfortunately.

Typically on these getaways we have stayed through Saturday night, making our drive home on Sunday while listening on those sessions.  This time we decided to come home early so we could be ready for our friends, the Milcareks, to come visit Sunday afternoon.  They recently moved from Syracuse, NY (where we visited them in May) to Chandler, AZ and had never been to Salt Lake for General Conference before.  So they came up to a session and then stayed over at our house Sunday afternoon through Monday morning.  It was so fun to hang out with them again, and especially to watch their girls and our kids play so easily, like the "old" friends that they are (having met only one other time in their short lives :D).

Story time before all these kiddos were put to bed.
(Amelia, Brittany, Ryan, Julianna, Sam, Cal, and Kaylee)

Breakfast bunch!