June 30, 2024

Oh June. You are my favorite month and you pass so very quickly. Far too quickly. We sent you out with a delicious watermelon and some 4-square. 

June 29, 2024

Still smiling at our Teton trip. Some of the many things still making me smile:

Awesome campground and great campsite (18). Jagged mountain peaks. Calm reflective Jenny Lake. Moose (regular and Swiss - ha ha). Black marmots. Uinta squirrels. The most amazing camping weather. Delta Lake. Random lake wind gusts. Nightly coyote howling. Hot chocolate and 5 Crowns. Tent sleeping with friends. Colter Bay chatting. Only a few mosquitoes. Baby pronghorn and mom. Deer and spotted fawn. “Where are the pika?” - “Meep.”  Ragging waterfall all to ourselves. Hiking to a point the inspires. Sunrise so pink. Finding parking spots. String Lake. Paddle boarding with a beautiful backdrop. Leigh Lake rest stop on the boards. Liberty Burger and sweet potato fries. Soaking in everything for 4 days and 3 night in a gorgeous place with my Snow grinds. 

June 28, 2024

Went on a hike and then came home to find a few ripe raspberries. Mmm. 

Good evening eating JCW’s and going to see Inside Out 2 with D C S. Fantastic spending time with #lovinlehilife. 

June 27, 2024

GTNP - Back home and thankful I added some awesome memories to this 33 year friendship with Pats, T, and me. Nothing brings friends closer than sleeping in a tent together. Except maybe climbing mountains, soaking in a river, drinking hot chocolate at a campsite, seeing moose, floating on a lake, and eating treats.

June 26, 2024

5am wake up for a beautiful hike and a gorgeous sunrise. Jenny Lake and the mountains were so pretty this morning! Sigh. 

Patty and I hightailed 8 miles around the lake and up to Hidden Falls and Inspiration Point. We were inspired. And said hi to some marmots and chipmunks. Saw another moose. “Might as well check and see if there’s any wildlife in the meadow.”  There was. 

Chilled at the campsite after cleaning up camp. We said goodbye to Joe our camp host. Hiked to Taggart Lake since we found a parking spot. We scored in the parking spot game this trip finding one at String Lake during lunch time as well as the Taggart spot. Just after starting our hike to Taggart we saw a stoat. It was very cute. 

Absolutely amazing trip! The weather was perfect. We couldn’t pick a favorite because everyday was so much fun.

June 25, 2024

Started out the day with a delicious breakfast by Patty with bacon and French toast. Today was lake day- Jenny Lake, Jackson Lake (Colter Bay), String Lake, Leigh Lake. Such a fun time paddle boarding this afternoon. Lots of laughs and awesome scenery. I cannot imagine a better place to paddle board than String Lake. 

Saw some deer in our campground. One was a mom with a new little fawn bouncing around. 

Evening continued our routine this trip with dinner, 5 Crowns, hot chocolate, and coyote howling (so cool they did that every night). 

June 24, 2024

This morning we tackled Delta Lake. Wahoo! Hard hike with a beautiful payoff of a milky blue lake with Grand Teton behind it. Saw a mama pronghorn with her baby pouncing around in the meadow on our drive to the TH. Also saw black marmots at the lake. Coming down some guys from Switzerland told us there was a moose up on the hill. Turns out it was a deer with antlers. We called them Swiss moose all trip. :)

After our hike we stopped at Cottonwood Creek to relax and soak our legs. It was nice to wash off our sweatiness. Patty spotted a moose in the creek across the way. Awesome!

Dinner in Jackson at Liberty Burger. It tasted so good after our hike day. 

June 23, 2024

Playing with Patty and Tara in the Tetons for a few days. We set up camp at Jenny Lake Campground. We old lady enjoyed the beautiful drive and a walk around the campground. Also loving our campsite with a view of the mountain. 

June 22, 2024

Kenz and Tanner invited us over this evening for a summer BBQ. It was fabulous. Burgers were so good! Plus watermelon. We played a fun 2 games of backyard croquet. Good times. 

Oh, Sadie saw a badger at Youth Conference. What the?

June 21, 2024

What a fabulous summer solstice day. This morning was a great hike with green, a waterfall, and two moose! Love love loved watching the moose from the Timp shelf. 

This afternoon I got froyo with Cam and Kenzie. Mmm. 

This evening we hung out with some of the Kynastons. We went to Tony’s Burger for dinner and it was so yummy. It was great chatting and laughing with Em, Lexi, and Kelcie with Cam and Darren. 

June 18, 2024

Cam keeps saying, “Don’t yuck my yum.” I think it’s brilliant. I also love when she says, “She’s just yappin’.” :)

June 16, 2024

Good week:

Hike with Kenzie and all the green. A good documentary. Granite Flat campground. Reading a good middle grade book in about 24 hours. Roasted mallows. Playing Blank Slate in a bug net. Girls in a tent. Granite and green hike. Backyard sitting. The Original Pancake House. Hashbrowns. Hanging with K C S with a caramel apple. Watching K R C do Christmas monsters. 

June 15, 2024

Another good Granite Flat camping adventure. What a fabulous camping day we had yesterday. Hike in the morning. Read about an entire book in the afternoon that I totally enjoyed. Then RCS plus K and T came up and we went for a campground walk, roasted dogs and mallows, played Blank Slate (that Sadie and Camrie even played) inside our bug canopy, also played down by the banks of the hanky panky :). Then it was some trailer hanging. They all slept over which was awesome and a change from the usual evening visit. Seeing the girls this morning laughing and swatting bugs just made me smile.

June 14, 2024

Oh Silver Lake and Glance. Your beauty is astounding but you kick my butt every single time I hike to see you. And this time Silver Glance was 90% under snow so I didn’t even get to enjoy the alpine lake. But that granite and green still made it worth it. 

June 13, 2024

Found a quarter while walking around the campground. (Camping at Granite Flat for a few nights - site 22. Love this campground, even with the mosquitoes.) It reminded me of when my dad used to tell someone - “I met a guy once and boy was he hard to look at. He was ugly. Well he gave me a quarter and told me that if I ever found anyone uglier than him that I should give them this quarter. Here you go.” And he would hand them a quarter.  Ha ha.

June 12, 2024

Went on a hike to Primrose Overlook with Kenzie this morning (how I love the green). Then we grabbed Cam and Sadie and had some The Original Pancake House deliciousness. Their hashbrowns are so good (they just hit different). And their French toast. And their breakfast burrito. Mmm.  Then we did a little shopping and grabbed a caramel apple. All this on a Wednesday. Thanks summer. 

June 9, 2024

Such a great getaway to Bryce Canyon. Love the campground site, love the hiking, love the views, love the temps, love the sunrise over the hoodoos, love our Tropic evening, love the ice cream (with and without the apple turnover), love the stars (4am stars were the best), love seeing the prairie dogs and the lone pronghorn, love the pizza, love being with Darren, and love being in Bryce Canyon.

June 8, 2024

Today I had a really good day in Bryce.  Woke up bright and early and caught the sunrise at the rim.  It was amazing the way the hoodoos lit up.  I got there about 5:40am and was a bit early.

After sunrise I finally got to hike Fairyland Loop.  It's been on the to hike list for a long time.  It was great.  Hot and hard, but great.  I found one of my favorite new views of Bryce along the trail. 

Today I also saw Lizzi and her fam.  We chatted at the campground, hiked Navajo Loop, ate pizza (delicious Tropic pizza with the locals discout), and went on a side by side ride to see the backside of Bryce.

 

June 7, 2024

I love camping in our Utah National Parks.  We're at Bryce Canyon (North Campground) for 2 nights.  We stopped at the Prospector Cafe in Marysvale for lunch for my first time eating in Marysvale even though I've passed through there hundreds of times.  We're in site 39 which is great.  There's shade and a 15 minute walk to Sunrise Point.  Spent some time at some points this evening - Sunrise, Sunset, Bryce, and Inspiration.  Our best decision of the day was getting ice cream in Bryce City at the rock shop.  Also, I love seeing the prairie dogs in their fields in Bryce.  We also saw a lone pronghorn.

June 5, 2024

Summer hike morning. 11 miles up and back to Forest Lake with Lorien. It wasn’t hard, just long. And good. There was a river crossing then through a stream hiking then over some snow patches to a big puddle. But it was a pretty puddle with snow capped mountain views and green trees around. While hanging out two red tail hawks flew over pretty close and landed in some trees. They said hello and then flew off. Pretty cool. 

June 2, 2024

It was a good Sabbath. I wasn’t sure how to teach the Sunday School lesson but God came through with help.

The weather today was so beautiful. I love June so much. This evening Darren made us a Mexican feast and Cam made us brownies. We played Marbles and Jokers which we haven’t played in a long time. Then it was 4-square which I love followed by grass sitting and chatting which I also love. 

June 1, 2024

The girls (R C S and Jessie) went to lagoon today. They had so much fun. It was a bit pricey but I encouraged them to just go and it would be worth the good memories. I’m happy I was right. :)

This is the pic they sent.  :)