Jackson Hole

This summer we were so fortunate to get to visit Luke & Sami in Jackson Hole, WY. If a couple of your closest friends have to move out of state, Wyoming is not a bad place to visit! I've never been to that part of the country, and it was really breathtaking. Not only was Jackson Hole a great place to visit, but we also drove to Yellowstone while we were there, and it was beautiful! I'm not really "outdoorsy" and have never quite gotten the allure of national parks/Yellowstone, but after visiting, I totally get it. Definitely a place we would go back.

This was Ben & Jack's second plane ride, and their first to have their own seats! Also, it was basically a free upgrade to first class seats, so while my first time to fly first class was this summer to Boston, J&B got to fly first class to Wyoming at the age of 2. Daddy said don't get used to it, boys.

They were so great on the plane; they looked out the window, colored, ate, slept, played with toys, and they watched a couple of shows on their iPads.

This was just the view from the car window on our way to the cabin:

 

Speaking of the cabin, we stayed at the Fireside Resort and they were the cutest little cabins ever! They were small, but cozy, and they even provided us with the makings for smores in the outdoor fire pit :) 

We went hiking with Sami & Luke, hiking with just Sami one morning, and various lunches/dinners/etc. We also rode the gondola up the mountain together and the view was breathtaking!

This is Luke's pic of a moose that I borrowed. We were unlucky in our moose-seeking!

J & Luke went golfing one morning while Sami & I took the boys swimming, and then we ate at the golf course - outdoors - during a light rainstorm - that we got to watch roll in - amazing. Seriously, check out the picture below - all I could do was sit on that porch by the fire pit, take in the view, and think "this would be the life." And afterwards the boys played a little golf on the practice greens :)



The downtown Jackson area was so, so cute - it was a little square and we loved just walking around, looking at shops, and I will just go ahead and tell you we spent a significant amount of time in the toy store while the boys played trains!

And finally, we spent a day at Yellowstone! We woke the boys and took them in their jammies, because it was a fairly long drive, then changed when we got there. We saw deer & bison, but no moose, and all the natural beauty of Yellowstone was just amazing.

Old Faithful!

Grand Prismatic Springs (I think) - these were ahhhmazing, wow!

It was a beautiful place to visit, and can only get more fun as the boys get older and we can do things like swim in natural water features at Yellowstone, go horseback riding and white river rafting, etc, etc.  Someday we will go back! Thank you, Luke & Sami, for the hospitality & showing us your new town :)

Summertime Fun

Going to the splash park is a little different this year! I still have to encourage them to stay together though, when it's just the three of us.

Jack's new favorite thing to do is cross his arms. Then I get, "Ben, too?"

 

Jack's other new favorite thing to do is act mad. It was reeeeeally cute for a while, then he started believing his own acting skills and for a couple of weeks he was a dude with an attitude. So unfortunately we had to stop encouraging his "mad face," cute as it was, and I'm glad to say my happy Jack is back :) 

Library time: 

Target is way more fun with slushies, especially when it's hot outside: 

Fishing for ducks:

Fun at the Lot:

 

Ben builds a tower: 

The letters B & C; and here we stopped, because we had some difficulty retaining. The boys love the letter "O" and have "A" and "S" down, but I'm pausing this activity and doing some other alphabet stuff for now. 

Chase, ending with "ride 'em horsey:" 

Fine motor skills:

Milk, food coloring, and dish soap - so much fun!

And my terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad idea of blowing dish soap bubbles...the instinct is to suck, even if they are really good at blowing bubbles in their milk glasses with straws, you don't want them to drink dish soap. Notice my bad camera angle as I noticed what was happening, and then proceeded to freak out and try to make the boys throw up. Ughhhhh:

Fortunately, we all recovered, and Ben & Jack love do-a-dot art:

 

Glow stick baths:

Pom Pom Drop:

Coolest activity ever

This was the coolest activity ever. It was a lot of work and took days of planning and getting ready, but it was so worth it. I think we'll do it again, but I am giving myself a few weeks off. So to do this activity, I blew the eggs out of 12 shells (tediously, as we used them for breakfast, etc) then rinsed and let them dry for a day. When I had 12 (and later wished I'd waited til 24), I filled them with powdered paint, then hot glued other egg shell pieces to cover the holes. That's a lot of egg shell saving. It's also a lot of work to get the paint in there, even using a funnel.

Anyway, so we went outside and the boys got to throw the eggs down and watch the paint puff up! Pinterest is so cool. Needless to say, they loved it, and I was so sad when they asked for "more, more?" when it was all over. Afterwards, they stomped the rest of their eggs, then I let them water the paint and to make sidewalk paint. I have no idea how Jack got completely covered in the paint and Ben didn't. Maybe Ben was throwing his eggs a little farther. Funny dudes. So fun!!

Fourth of July!

For this year's fourth we went to the Fourth of July Lakewood Parade for the first time and it was so much fun! One of our friends, Sarah Katherine (O'Neill's mom) hosted a big parade watching party at her parents' house, which is on the parade route. There was a bounce house and everything :) The boys had fun watching the floats and occasionally grabbing candy that was thrown. We also had fun visiting with friends.

Afternoon fun and dinner was at Honey & Papa's with the Solomon fam. Check out Katie's cool pic below :) We had a great time and even let the boys watch fireworks on t.v. when we got home before bed. They were so tired! Happy Fourth!