Labor Day in Jackson

We made the trip down to Coulter Bay Campground in Teton National Park again this year for camping over Labor Day. We left Friday as soon as Carson got back from his fifth grade campout and drove there. We stopped in West Thump to walk around and use the bathroom. We got to the campground around 7:30, had some hot dogs, zucchini and sautéed mushrooms for dinner. Grandpa and Grandma Foulger had gotten there the day before and Megan and Jabin showed up about an hour after us. We hung out in our camper for a while Travis opened up one of his gifts from Grandpa and Grandma Foulger. We was so excited to get 2 of the nerf guns we had wanted (bringing his total to 3 of them). We called it a night around 10:30.

There was a large herd of buffalo in the middle of the road on our way to the campground. It took us nearly 15 minutes to get through them because people wouldn't just drive!

The South Entrance to the Park had been closed until the Tuesday before we were supposed to leave because of fires. As we drove closer to our campground, you could see more and more of where the fire had been. The trees were burnt and there had been fire up to the road in many spots. We could even see hot spots on the side of hills that were still smoking and you could definitely smell the smoke in the air. We were just happy that they were able to get it all under control so that they could open the South Entrance and we could go camping.

Travis with his new guns!

Chilling in our camper.

Saturday morning, we got up and had breakfast in grandpa and grandma's camper. We fixed French toast, eggs and sausage. After we had finished breakfast, cleaned it up and gotten ready, we headed down to the lake to kayak. We had decided to do the lake because it was supposed to be the nicest day during our trip. It ended up being a beautiful day and warm enough that the boys ended up getting wet (imagine that) and weren't cold. We kayaked around the lake and sat around on the shore enjoying the sunshine and our family.

Christian and I on a ride in the kayaks.

There was still quite a bit of smoke in the air from the fire.

Our crew hanging out at the beach area.

The boys had SO much fun kayaking!

Travis really wanted to be able to go out in the kayak by himself this year and was a little unsure at first. Christian went with him for a bit and then he felt confident enough to go on his own. We just about couldn't get him out of them!

Travis riding solo.

Landon even got to paddle by himself this year.

Travis and Landon racing.

When Travis wasn't on a kayak, he was building "ships" (logs) and putting passengers (rocks) on them to see how long they would stay on when they went out into the water. He had the Titanic and S.S. Poo #2 (don't ask me where he comes up with these things)

While the boys were out riding in the kayaks, we had many competitions with the rocks on shore. We started with trying to see who could hit a spike on a log first. We then moved to seeing who could stack the most rocks on top of each other. I think my dad ended up winning! We also pretended like we were shooting clay pigeons with rocks. Megan would say "pull", Christian would throw a rock in the air and we would all throw a rock to see if anyone could hit it. We were really bad at this game and I'm pretty sure no one ever hit one!

Megan concentrating on her stack.

Working hard to see who could stack the most!

The master!

Landon balancing on a log.

After we had all had as many turns as we wanted on the kayaks, we decided to change and head into Jackson for dinner at Merry Piglets (a super yummy Mexican place). We ate out dinner, walked to a couple of shops so Travis could see if there was anything he wanted to spend birthday money on (he didn't end up finding anyting) and then headed back to our campers. We, of course, had to take our annual picture by the antler arches.

Someone told the boys to stick their tummies out during the picture and being the good listeners that they are...did! Sillies!

All of us...and Landon being weird!

Landon asked Christian to take a picture of his with this moose outside of one of the shops.

On our way back to the camper, we stopped for a Kodak moment in a spot that the trees had started to change color and the mountains were in the background. It was beautiful!

We rode the scooters around until it got dark and then we sat around in the dark playing cards and eating candy mix!

Travis going for a ride with grandpa Foulger.

Playing cards in the dark.

Sunday morning, we got up, the boys went for a bike ride (Jabin was always willing to go for a ride with the boys) and we got ready. We didn't end up eating breakfast until 11:30 and then went on a hike before the rain came.

Grandma Foulger, Christian, Megan, Jabin and Carson on our walk.

We stopped at a clearing to let the boys play and throw rocks.

Christian, Carson and Jabin

Someone had built a cool fort out of sticks that the boys hung out in.

We took some group pics while we were down there.

Once we got back, we just hung out. It was kind of chilly, so we didn't really want to do much. We played more cards, rode bikes and scooters, watched a movie and worked on dinner. We usually go down the the lake and cook foil dinners at the fire rings, but since it was cold, we just grilled burgers and ate up at the campers.

Travis and Landon built a catapult with some bungie cords they found in Grandpa's camper. They were shooting sticks and "bombing" Canada.

All of us snuggled in watching the new Jungle Book movie.

The boys with their glow sticks during dinner.

After dinner and smores, it was quiet time (10 pm) so we put the boys to bed and then went over to grandpa and grandma's camper and played telestrations with them and Megan and Jabin until after midnight. We had some good laughs! Monday morning, we had some muffins for breakfast and then worked on getting everyone cleaned up and loaded to head home. We checked out around 11 and drove to Leeks Marina for pizza for lunch. It was delicious! We went our separate ways from there and got home around 5 and started back to real life!