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| Snowing in Wyoming! |
We actually set the alarm clock today because we had a bit of ground to cover. When I woke up, Robby was laying crossways in the bed and next to him was Anderson. Robby said that Anderson was scratching so much that he just got him in bed with him so he could try to stop him. Everyone's eczema is acting up and Anderson even had to use his breather once yesterday-all of that is just do to a different climate and the weather channel said that the allergy alert was bad here now. Anyway, we all did sleep fine and after doses of medicine and lots of hydro-cortisone they are all itch free this morning.
We never really thought about the weather until Graham looked out the window and said "hey, it's raining." Thankfully the hotel had a covered drive-thru for us to load the roof bag under and we opened it up to see that it was soaking wet inside. It has been waterproof before when things are in it but I guess getting wet all night long and probably not exactly sealed properly the rain just got to it. I went back to the room and gathered some towels and we had it dry and loaded in no time-didn't really help that we had someone who just stood and watched us do all of this. He was out smoking so I guess that he had a reason to just stand around and watch us but seriously? Robby's shirt was wet from dumping the water out and my shoes are not waterproof and had soaked up quite a bit of water and all of our fingers were a bit numb from the cold weather but not too bad considering.
We left town at 8:02 a.m. and we drove 317 yesterday (for those of you keeping up with our mileage totals). This hotel didn't have breakfast so Robby told the kids that we would go to McDonalds this morning. Well, we just followed the gps and we were on the outskirts of town and never went back through town so there was no McDonalds for miles and miles. Graham said "we are were there are no buildings again" and we were. I eventually had to pass out snacks and tell the kids that we may not get to a McDonalds today. Reagan started pouting but did eat her granola bar but then when I handed one to Robby he made a face and didn't want his. He was pouting too.
Finally, we came to a town that had a McDonalds. Anderson begged Robby to drive on the "fast road" and Robby even passed someone to make sure that we pulled into the drivethru before they stopped serving breakfast. Thankfully we made it or we were going to have some unhappy children. They love their McDonald's big breakfast with hot cakes-hot cakes, biscuit, potato cake, sausage and egg. The kids used to could split all of that but now Robby does buy an additional order of hot cakes since they are eating more and more.
This McDonalds had a playplace so after ordering our food in the drivethru we took our food in and let the kids play. They had quite a bit of energy to burn off so they enjoyed playing. Even though I had already passed out a snack before breakfast, they were still very hungry. We left McDonalds and left the town it was in and headed back on our desolate route to Jackson. We have been checking the weather but it just doesn't look good-rain, rain, snow, snow, yuck! Today on our drive it rained on us, snowed on us, sleeted on us and the sun shined on us. Quite an experience driving in all types of weather within just a few minutes.
The kids spent the time this morning by watching a few episodes of the Backyardigans that Robby had taped. We have never watched that show before and it is like crack for kids. Seriously, all eyes are glued to the tv-wonderful, wonderful thing. Well it is wonderful until we turn it off and say "look at those beautiful mountains," "look at the deer," "look at the river" or even "look at the space aliens landing on the farm" and they reply with "can you turn the tv back on?"
I gave the kids a little coloring thing today as their prize and we heard Anderson look at his and say "that is pretty good for a 5 year old boy." And I thought is was excellent for a five year old boy. Graham also enjoyed coloring but spent much of his time counting. He can make it to about 14 before he starts messing up and then his counting goes something like this-14, 15, 16-7, 8, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 860, 61, 62 and it just continues and continues. When he would stop I would try to urge him to keep going but he would say he was tired. Robby and I had a bet going on how long he could count.
We went over a mountain pass and snow was everywhere. The kids kept calling it a snow storm but the snow wasn't new and it was only spitting snow outside. Then they started talking like "news people" and were reporting about the snowstorm. Finally, Robby was able to pull over and let them play in the wet snow for a few minutes. We bundled up, went out there and within 2 minutes Graham was coming back in and then Campbell got a snowball in the back of her head and also returned to the car.
A few miles later, we started seeing road construction signs. Finally we made it to the workers and traffic was stopped. We had to wait for a lead car to take us across the construction area. They were tearing up the road and we drove for 7 or 8 miles on a dirt road down the side of a mountain. It wasn't scary but you can just imagine what the pioneers had to go through.
Before too long, we had come down the mountains and were nearing the Teton mountains in the Grand Tetons National Park. The mountains were partially covered by clouds but it was still sunny and beautiful. We passed the Jackson airport and had to turn around. We were a few minutes early but we pottied up and waited not so patiently for Grannymom and Grandpa's plane to arrive. When they were finally here, you would have thought that we hadn't seen them for months by the way everyone was so excited. The Dennies got their car and we all loaded up to go see Jackson Hole.
The sun had come out again so our first stop was the town square. We took our picture with the elk antler arches and walked through the park. The elk antler arches are pretty impressive-even to the kids. As we were walking to the car, I bought a little antler to hang on the Christmas tree as our Jackson Hole ornament. The kids even spent quite a bit of time trying to chase down a prairie dog. I did read that other day that prairie dogs have the plague so we did make them keep their distance. Ha! If Reagan could have gotten close enough to pick that thing up she would have. There was an ice cream place on the square so we thought we needed to try it out and it was very good. The four big kids set on bar stools and Robby had bought them 2 cups of ice cream to share. They would take a bite and then pass it on-like a little assembly line. No one complained or fussed and they kept doing that until the bowls were clean. Campbell didn't like the chocolate so she would pass it along to the next person when it came to her.
We then ate supper at Snake River Brewery. We had nachos and pizza and were pretty hungry. I even smashed up so beans from the nachos for Keaton. She is so happy in restaurants now that we have started putting her in high chairs and just looks around, smiles and claps all through dinner. After we ate, Robby and Grannymom ran into Albertson's for more milk and bread. Who hoo, this was our first time on the trip to have to buy anything other than ice at a store so that is great-yea for my packing skills!
We then drove a few miles south of Jackson to the KOA campground. We are spending the night in the cutest little cabin. Seriously, I have already figured out how I can have it sleep more people, have a washing machine and have mentally added a screened in porch on the front. Now just to have a place to put on back at home.
After we got all settled, we took a little walk down the trail so we could see the Snake river flowing rapidly behind the cabins. There are camping spots down there but it would be a little too chilly for me to camp right now. Pretty neat little place. We fed all of the kids a half sandwich and then everyone asked for more after I had put everything way, so I got it all back out and started over with my sandwich making. Reagan and Anderson are sleeping in Grannymom and Grandpa's cabin and Campbell and Graham have claimed the bunk beds in our cabin. We put those two to bed here and overheard them talking for a bit and then they were out-looked like they never moved they were so tired.
Tomorrow, we plan to drive up to Yellowstone and spend the night at Old Faithful Inn. Graham is so excited to see the Geyser and I am too!
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