Utah 2018

After we left the Tetons, we drove south to Logan and Neil's family reunion. I admit, I was LOUDLY complaining as we watched the temperature climb...by the time we got to our tent site for the reunion it was at 104! I absolutely absolutely absolutely LOATHE the heat, so I was pretty miserable. Thankfully it cooled down (slightly) while we were there and we had some good water sports days! (The picture above was taken one morning right after I'd showered after a run up the canyon with Neil, Caleb, and Juli--Caleb & Juli totally took off straight up the mountain and Neil & I were like guys guys help elevation help why. Then Neil fell into some sort of stinging bug nest...it was a whole thing.)

Anyway about five minutes after we'd arrived at the campsite I looked over at the water pump and saw this, so yes it was really hot, I hope everyone enjoyed their first introduction to Matthew. Please to meet you. 

Neil's sister Monica was in charge that year and she did a great job! We were at a girls' camp (there was a stake camping there but we barely saw them) and they had these cool handcarts to transport luggage to the girls' tents that we found out later were not for transporting children, but...the kids had a really great time with them until we found out. Hah! 

Neil's sister Tina had a really fun bead craft going one day that our kids just LOVED. Like they were there for hours long after everyone else was done and Tina was so patient with them! (Neil: "I made like a finity of those at scout camp.)



Matthew had a great time with Grandpa Steve! 

So many little Baileys!

One morning we drove into town and went to this teeny little zoo. It was really cute but it was so hot that our kids basically wilted into sad little puddles and were panting in every patch of shade. 

I can't remember who--Luke maybe?--almost collapsed and so the two of us just sat under a tree for a long time drinking water until Neil caught up with us and we went to sit in the car with the blessed holy AC. Then all the Utah folk went to go do something else fun, I forget what, but the AC-loving wimps (us) drove around Logan and looked at the temple and basically hid in the car until the sun started to go down. (You guys, I cannot possibly underscore what a complete mess I become in the heat and apparently I have passed this on to my kids, whether through nature or nurture or both.) 



Thankfully since it's the desert it cooled off enough that night that when Neil & I whipped up five dutch ovens' worth of Dr. Pepper and cherry cobbler it actually sounded good to eat! (You guys, that stuff is the BEST.)



Neil, Nathan, our niece Emma, and our nephew Eli (craaaazy we used to babysit Emma all the time when she was two or three). 

The next day, thankfully, was a water day!! Not that Matthew needed it or anything...



Matthew fell asleep in the car so I sat there for an hour with him watching everyone else...so tantalizing...

This was such a fun day!! I paddleboarded and canoed a lot (I couldn't submerge my head because I'd had a 5-cm tumor removed the week before and I had to keep it dry...that was so not fun) but the kids and Neil had a fantastic time cliff-jumping. 

The paddleboards were so fun!! Probably the best part of the day was when all of the adults sat on the beach and watched Chad try over and over again to stand up on his paddleboard (at one point someone was like should we tell him you have to pop the fin out so it doesn't flip and I was like nah let's watch him fall a few more times first). 

Nathan and his One True Love--kayaking!!



Seriously--this kid was five and he was continually crossing the reservoir--probably paddled for four or five hours straight. 



And Jooj on the paddleboard!



The next morning the reunion wound up, so we drove down to Lehi to spend a few days with Elise and her family. When I was looking through my phone camera roll there were like...200 pictures of me & Iris. We go way back. 

Elise's car got a flat tire on the way to Provo, Iris got fussy, so I had to show her my 6-babies-tried-and-tested method of settling kids down (works like a charm every time). 



Matty and Iris wheeling around the Bean Museum (look how fluffy his cat is! It does NOT look like that now). 



Such a fun museum!

We stopped at the Creamery for the requisite BYU ice cream--Nathan suggested that Pierce get superman ice cream and Pierce wasn't so sure...

And back to Elise's for more Iris cuddle time!

Iris is an equal opportunity cuddler. 


Out of order, but the day we arrived at Elise's was my birthday and she made me feel so loved!!!



Also--I was SO hammered after a couple of weeks of camping (and those last few days of 100+ temps!). 



Cuddling cousins!




I don't remember the circumstances of this photo, but this is basically Elise in a nutshell. So fun, always the best laugh, and one of my very best friends in the entire world (if I go a day without talking to her it feels sooooo off and weird!). 

Jackson Lake

We had such a fun time hiking out from Coulter Bay onto the little promontory that goes into Jackson Lake. It was a pretty warm day, so when we got to the end of the promontory, the youngest five kids stripped down and went skinny-dipping while the adults & Abigail looked on longingly. (Luke has given me strict orders to post zero skinny-dipping photos.)

About two minutes before these kiddos said goodbye to their clothes...

 

Cascade Canyon and Jenny Lake

We only had one full day in the Tetons, but we were determined to make it count!!

We took the ferry from the Jenny Lake dock over to Cascade Canyon. That view--unbeatable!



I'm typing this post almost three years later in 2021 and it's crazy how much the kids have grown (Abigail: "I look like Juliet!")




Although tbh this dirty little guy looks about the same, haha. 



Such a beautiful view! We opted for the ferry since it cut off 4 miles of hiking around Jenny Lake, but I was so glad we took it just to see the view from the lake itself. 



In hindsight, I think this was the first "big hike" we ever really did with our kids. Matthew was 1.5 and Nathan was just barely 5, so we were basically going at Nathan pace and distance. I want to say we went maybe 5 miles on this hike? (It's a much longer hike; we basically just turned around when we felt like it...which is so weird for me because I like to have a very distinct end point! It was bugging me the whole time, haha.)

Anyway, this hike rises SHARPLY from the boat dock towards Inspiration Point & Hidden Falls, which very very sadly were closed while we were there because there had been a pretty significant quake a couple days earlier. 

But as we didn't know what we were missing, it was pretty darn breath-taking. I thought of this hike when we were at Avalanche in Glacier and I was wishing for those constant wide-open views! The Tetons are always what I think of as "mountains" (my dad is from Idaho; his father was a very experienced climber who had first ascents on many of the routes through the Tetons and died there not long before I was born).  I love those jagged outcroppings of sheer rock clawing at the sky and any other mountains (looking at you, Utah) just don't have quite the same visceral punch for me. 

On our way in we saw a HUGE moose! He was pretty far off the trail but even my little phone camera could pick him up since he was so enormous. 

I made this with my mom earlier that summer--I think it's on my keys now. Someone years ago told me they always thought of the Olympic motto in connection with me and it's one of the nicest compliments I've ever received. I was having a really tough time that year (this was the trip we took right after Ruth was diagnosed with stage 3B breast cancer) and I needed this reminder. 

On our way back we stopped for a long time and played in this stream. We were hot and our feet were aching and the icy water felt AMAZING.

Legit could have stayed there all day. 




DYING over his long shorts! I think he and Nathan both wore those interchangeably for several years (they still fit Nathan...)



Isaac wants you to know he was still wearing shorts--just rolled up really really high. 

Eventually it was time to start back...

Gorgeous wildflowers everywhere!

And insanely gorgeous views. 

This part of the trail was SO SO SO HOT. I wanted to get right back in the stream!

Plenty of boulders for scrambling!!

When we got back to Coulter Bay, we decided to do some laundry, so we started a million loads of laundry and then went back to our campsite to drop off the older four kids, then went back to swap the laundry into the dryer. While we waited for it to finish, we took Nathan and Matthew to grab ice cream (we needed to kill some time!). We told Nate not to tell the older kids and he did such a good job keeping his secret, haha, until like a month later he was like "HEY GUYS AT TETONS I GOT ICE CREAM THE END." 

Loved the ice cream sizes! 



Pretty apropos...a very fun day.