Summer trip to Yellowstone, Grand Tetons, and Mt. Rushmore

This trip has been planned since this time last summer and the time finally came. We wentย there with the Lenzen family and spent time with three other families at Yellowstone. A broken foot and a ear infection were the two issues that we had. Ruby is one tough cookie and Kyle was an animal carrying her to Inspiration Point. The bottom line is that the weather was terrific and we had a great time!

Click here to view the full album (lots of pictures)

P1010165

We took our time getting to Yellowstone by leaving a few days ahead of time. We stopped in Alexandria, MN then Medora, ND, and finally to Livingston, MT before entering the park. Once ‘there’ we spent four days in the Madison Campground at Yellowstone, another four days and Colter Bay in the Tetons, two days in Spearfish, SD.

Medora Campground
2014-07-19 19.28.08

2014-07-19 17.57.19

Livingston KOA
P1010145

Time in Yellowstone
Our view from the campsite
P1010244

The first day in Yellowstone we headed over to Old Faithful
P1010196

P1010238

There she blows!
2014-07-21 17.43.08

The springs are so cool (and hot)
P1010217

P1010220

P1010212

On day two we visited Artist’s painters pots and Uncle Tom’s trail
P1010260

Bandits!
P1010262

2014-07-22 13.23.05

This valley was incredible!
P1010317

The falls from afar
P1010331

2014-07-22 14.56.29

Dragon’s Mouth Spring – This thing really does roar
P1010370

Bison!
2014-07-22 16.11.15

Yellowstone Lake
2014-07-22 16.47.07

We enjoyed plenty of time in this river
P1010398

2014-07-23 11.44.24

A nice warm third day
2014-07-23 12.18.18

On our way to the Grand Prismatic Spring
P1010429

P1010438

I cannot get over how colorful this wonder is
2014-07-23 16.09.27

One last night at the river
P1010460

2014-07-23 11.44.24

Grand Tetons

The lake just down from our campsite
P1010471

View of the mountains from our campsite
2014-07-24 15.38.33

Day two – Up at Jackson Hole
P1010498

P1010500

2014-07-25 12.08.51

2014-07-25 12.15.47

Going back down
2014-07-25 12.36.30

Up on the chairlift
2014-07-25 13.50.33

Day three – Tetons
P1010545

The Lenzen crew
P1010568

The girls helped us start a fire on the beach. Later that night the stars were unreal! We met a couple of college students from China and a couple from New York the Mrs shared a story of surviving the first tower falling on 9/11, incredible stories.
P1010590

Jackson Lake Dam
P1010609

Our journey to inspiration point – Kyle gave Ruby a piggyback ride all the way up!!
P1010612

2014-07-26 14.09.35

P1010662

7,007 feet up
P1010680

Mt. Rushmoreย 
Spearfish, SD (Chris’ Campground)
2014-07-27 19.55.37

Some geocache fun
2014-07-29 12.04.47

A beautiful drive
P1010695

A fun restaurant named after one of our own
P1010704

One week until Sturgis
2014-07-28 13.59.37

Mt. Rushmore
2014-07-28 15.15.36

P1010727

Minnesota is the 32nd state in the union
P1010730

This was so much fun to study
P1010739

Wall Drug
You have to stop right?
2014-07-29 14.11.18

Baker Park and Father/Daughter Dance

Last weekend started with a father/daughter dance and went straight into camping mode.

Click here to see the full album

Both daughters and dads had fun at the dance…
2014-05-16 18.09.49

2014-05-16 18.09.15

2014-05-16 18.01.03

The girls are on the wrong side of the dance floor here…
2014-05-16 19.26.40

Kyle and I had some fun with our fancy camping attire once we arrived at the campground ๐Ÿ™‚
2014-05-16 20.50.59

The kids were ready to go right away Saturday morning
2014-05-17 08.50.15

download_20140521_093359

2014-05-17 20.07.21

Spring Break 2014 – Disney World

I was in Orlando for a conference the week leading up to spring break and so Carolyn and the kids hopped on a plane to join me and we extended the trip into the weekend to enjoy some time at Disney World ๐Ÿ™‚

We spent an evening at Downtown Disney, a day at Epcot, and a day at the Typhoon Lagoon water park. At Epcot, we stood in line (against my wishes) for three hours to see the princesses from Frozen, we were able to get autographs from a few more princesses into the autograph books, and the Test Track was also a good time! Joey’s face during that ride was so funny as we whipped around turns and accelerated down straightaways. At Typhoon Lagoon, we enjoyed some sun and warm water. I loved the wave pool, the kids had a great time on the water slides, and Mommy enjoyed a chair in the sun ๐Ÿ™‚ It was nice to get away from the cold and see the kids have such big smiles on their faces.

View the full album here

Hanging out at Downtown Disney
P1000459

A three hour wait… Elizabeth was happy though ๐Ÿ™‚
P1000540

Snow White!
P1000556

The famous Epcot ‘ball’
P1000608

Hulk Smash!
2014-03-20 18.10.47

We love Typhoon Lagoon!
2014-03-23 16.13.54

Cozumel with friends and family

Carolyn and I were joined by Dan, LeAnn, Nix, Jenny, Stan, and Chrissy in Cozumel this past week. We faced a lot of rain and cold weather until the day that we were due to leave but still managed to have a great time! It was a bonus that ‘cold’ Cozumel weather was still upwards to 90 degrees warmer than it was at home ๐Ÿ™‚

Click here to view the full album

P1000026

View the slideshow here

It rained for four of our five days but we did not care and enjoyed ourselves
P1000043

Carolyn sent a picture to Mom each day to show that her boys were still alive ๐Ÿ™‚
P1000039

A few of us went on a snorkel tour
P1000225
P1000265

The nearby ships were fun to watch
P1000089

We saw the ship that my parents and Stan are going on in the coming months…
P1000211

It was so hard to leave on our last day with our first views of the sun
P1000367
P1000378