The Great Family Road Trip of 2014 Part 1

Last weekend, we embarked on the Great Pauley Family Road Trip of 2014, Part 1.  Part 2 is later in the summer and will involve me, two kids and 838 miles.  Stay tuned.  For the GPFRT2014(1), we took a few days off and headed over to southwest Wyoming where we stopped at a pick-your-own-fossil place that Glenn and I had both heard of on work trips, but had never had the time to stop by.  I didn't get any pictures of the fossil hunting because (1) it rained part of the time, (2) I had to keep track of a small blonde archaeologist who wasn't necessarily interested in fossil hunting but definitely wanted to visit the gift shop and (3) I wanted to find fossils!  Suffice to say, we came back with a giant tote full of fish fossils and now we need to figure out a way to display them.  After fossil hunting, we drove into the Bridger-Teton National Forest and found a place to camp for the night.  We had one half of a giant campground to ourselves because it's still a bit early in the camping season and oh by the way, there was a decent-sized forest fire not too far away. 

They seem really concerned, don't they? 

Will's second grade teacher sent home a summer reading assignment (which I really appreciate) - the original adventure of Flat Stanley.  Flat Stanley is a boy who gets smushed flat (obviously) by his bulletin board and goes on a bunch of adventures even though he's, you know, flat.  The book is much less gruesome than I'm making it sound here and as part of the summer homework, we have to photograph Flat Stanley six different times and write about his adventures with our family.  So here you go, Flat Stanley bravely hovering over a campfire and a stick full of melted marshmallow goo. 

Will and Flat Stanley

Glenn does not have a summer reading assignment but here he is unpacking or packing something.  That was the unofficial theme of the GPFRT2014(1). 

The Pauley kids love camping.  They love the outdoors.  They love being dirty.  They love eating food out of doors.  They don't love moths or being cold.  But pretty much everything else is a-ok. 

Will enjoying the best muffins I've ever made.  Recipe found here.

Reina loves wearing pajamas out of doors and carrying a giant gold purse that's actually a toy pet carrier.  Not sure if that makes it better, or worse. 

Playing some game that involves swords, bad guys, robbers, handcuffs and a small blonde girl who may or may not be a bad guy. 

 

The next morning, we packed everything up and drove into Jackson where we ran into Aunt Vicky, Uncle Matt and the Star of the Show Baby Cousin at the grocery store, of all places.  We were all meeting later in the day in West Yellowstone but we got a head start on the familial activities.  After buying groceries (to make up for all of the stuff we forgot in Cheyenne), the GPFRT2014(1) headed into Grand Teton National Park with Yellowstone as our final destination. 

I drove this stretch so I only had a chance to take a picture when we pulled over for various reasons.  If you are curious about the reasons why we would pull over after just stopping in town for an hour, here are those reasons in no particular order:  someone needed to go potty, someone needed a snack, someone took their seat belt off for unknown reasons and for additional unknown reasons could not get their seat belt back on,someone couldn't find a tiny piece of plastic that was a super important component to his/her immediate happiness.

Gorgeous views! 

After crossing the border into Yellowstone, we headed west to West Yellowstone and stopped off at Old Faithful for a quick stretch of the legs. 

Pro tip, if you just happen to pull over at Old Faithful and see crowds like this, something cool will happen in about 90 seconds. 

I hadn't been to Old Faithful since I was a kid so I kept taking pictures in case that was the grand finale.  Not yet.....

 

 

There it is!  Even the kids were impressed with that one. 

After the exciting part was over, we posed for the obligatory family picture at the Old Faithful sign.  Flat Stanley Picture #2 in the books! 

Disclaimer, we were safely tucked away in the truck when I took this picture. We tried to obey the 100-ft wildlife rule but
when said wildlife is calmly sauntering down the highway, well... you take a quick picture and drive on. 

Besides the GPFRT2014(1), the other purpose of the trip was for Glenn and I and Uncle Matt to run the inaugural Yellowstone Half Marathon.  Here's a picture of us pre-race, shot by our budding photographer Will.  Let's face it, Glenn's hat and forehead were just supercilious to the picture anyway.  We've been training for a few months now and it's been fun to take a few minutes here and there to jog together on the weekends.  It's turned into our new 'date night.'  Anyway, we've been training, the dogs have been getting a lot of exercise, it's a great time of year to get in some long runs andddddd the race was really hard.  For me.  Glenn had a fun time and was definitely tired out at the end but that race kicked my fanny.  If memory serves me, we had to jog up a mountain, jog back down a mountain and then keep jogging for a really long time.  But I finished without throwing up, which is always a win in my book. 

This is definitely the 'before' shot. 

The day after the race, we woke up bright and early and headed home.  We had to stop right at the park exit for numerous reasons (see previous list) so I took a minute to act like a total tourist and take this picture, which will definitely find it's way on to Reina's high school graduation collage. 

Zoom in for a closer look if you need to. 

 

She wasn't even that grumpy in the car, so I have no idea what transpired to cause such an awesome expression.  Well, it was probably something I said or did, but that's obvious. 

Love these crazy little monkeys.  Side note:  Reina was perfectly happy to wear her mismatched jammies all the way home.  We got up early enough that our plan was to just take them from their sleeping bags right into the truck and hope that they'd keep dozing for a while.  Reina obliged but Will woke up and insisted on getting dressed because people might seem him in his pajamas.  Remember the kid who strutted around Target in a head-to-toe fireman's outfit?  Yeah, me neither. 

The GPFRT2014(1) continued as we drove and drove and drove and drove and stopped to have lunch at Sinks Canyon in Lander.  Glenn had never been and I remembered the giant fish and the way the river come seeping out of the hillside.  The kids were impressed.  They were also impressed by the giant grasshopper-looking/cicada thing that was near our picnic spot so frankly it doesn't take a lot. 

Glenn's not frowning, just chewing.  Why do my pictures always need a clarification?! 

We made it home in one piece with most of our sanity intact.  The kids are great travelers, even though there are a few moments here and there and a couple of temper tantrums (mine included) sprinkled throughout.  We had fun visiting with my sister and Matt and Baby Cousin was an absolute peach.  It feels like summer is officially here and we have some awesome adventures to look forward to.  We traveled all over our beautiful state, saw amazing views and lots of wildlife.  We feel lucky to live in this part of the world.  Plus, we come home and look out the back window and see this guy.   

Glenn tells me this is not Banjo - the older buck.  This guy is a little younger and oddly curious about the goings-on in the Pauley backyard.  I'm naming him Bandit and I think he'd like to snuggle.