We had some fun camping trips this summer. Mother/son weekend at Roy Lake was NOT the cause of the wounded Bevil on the right. Broke his arm riding bike on the last day of school. Not a fun start to summer. But making your own mac and cheese while camping IS a fun start to summer!
The Smore-off is born. As is the Nature Smore, which is too inappropriate to discuss on this family-friendly blog post. Use your Kindergarten potty-humor to imagine what a
Nature Smore might include.
Luckily, there were quite a few Hankinson campers at Roy Lake. We moms didn't think of bringing a fishing pole for the kid who can't swim.
Hanson/Evens 4th of July resumes after a year off for the Buckhouse/Glasow wedding. Couples' golf included!
Just an adorable picture of Travis and Chuck. I often say that I'm surprised they chose us as friends when they did. Back before they even had kids, but we were dragging little ones with. And then, why not be friends with someone who has double the kids as you that can mess up your house in half the time, including one who becomes their Godson who loudly wakes up at 5am????? If we didn't scare them off then, I'm guessing we're pretty secure in the friends-forever category.
I have no explanation for why fireworks shot-off in your own backyard that are YOURS are so much better than any other fireworks? You would've thought $5000 was spent for the excitement this caused as Chuck put on a show.
Hanson/Evens pyramid!
We are off for a Black Hills vacation! I have no idea how this is accomplished, but all these people and their clothes/toiletries and food and camping supplies for a week are in this mini-van.
Hiking Harney Peak was the first thing we did.
Gerry, Erika, Adam and Sheena were the brave hikers.
Adam and Sheena at the top of Harney Peak.
Grandpa Gerry and Grandma Tree cuddling with the little girls in the morning. We all stayed together in a house. Halle and Eleanor had their own closet...I mean room!....in Tree and Gerry's room. And no, Chris didn't bring that Bison with;
it was here greeting him!
All the Buckhouse grandchildren.
A wonderful hike to nowhere while we wait for Jewel Cave. Super hot with no water in that backpack. I had swimsuits though?!?! This was not a good start to making them love hiking.
Panning for gold at Wade's. Everyone found gold!
They were able to sit in a river and actually pan for gold!
If Wade's wouldn't have been out of them, I would've bought a pan and sent Luke out to Timberline's creek to keep him busy.
Travis has a high fever and is very sick. This is about the only thing he did for the 3 days he was sick. Poor buddy.
Make way for BISON on the road!
Driving through Custer State Park.
In an attempt to make them dislike hiking even more, I decided to convince them to take a small hike to Little Devils Tower. I didn't really think we'd go very far up on this trail. It was 90+ degrees and we had one bottle of water to share. And then we didn't stop or turn around. (this was before Travis got sick; I'm not THAT mean.)
But we ended up above the helicopters.
Totally worth it said 50% of us.
It was real rock climbing. We reached the rock climbing after hiking uphill for 70 minutes. Marie said the real rock climbing was the only part she liked.
Luke loved the entire hike. Particularly the rocks. And the terrifying cliff at the end that caused me plenty of nightmares the next few nights.
Beautiful view.
Luke was very far ahead of us. Shocking that he was often lost to me on this hike? No. Although Chris mostly stayed with him and I stayed with the hiking-complaining-committee; Marie Elizabeth President. Eva Kathleen vice-president.
Doin' a dab on the rocks.
I gave Halle a horse-riding trip for her birthday. Marie and I enjoyed Halle's gift as much as she did! Horses were Radar, Chainsaw and Daphne.
A beautiful ride through the trees. I requested that Halle be led by the cowboy since it was her first time. However, Halle often ended up at the front of the line on her own because the girl behind her was much worse at horse riding and the girl's dad behind me was actually riding sideways in the saddle at one point and didn't notice and the cowboy had to take-off sprinting to catch him.
The Cosmos for the non-horse riders: Everyone is a different height...
Everyone is the same height!
A wonderful morning at Mount Rushmore. MUST REMEMBER TO TAKE OFF RIDICULOUS HAT FOR PICTURES. Clearly the brim is not wide enough; there is still sun on my face.
We had a picnic in Keystone after Mount Rushmore.
This was one of the best pieces of history the kids saw all day.
We've been to a few ropes courses. This was definitely the best one we had seen. It was like the Ewok Village entirely in the real trees.
Travis loves ropes courses, but he was sick.
So it was Luke, Ellisyn and Eva.
Adam and Sheena took Marie and Halle on the giant slide.
And Joseph hung out with Uncle Chris. Doesn't Joe look like Dennis the Menace? The movie version with Walter Matthau? And he's adorable like that kid too.
After the Black Hills, the kids and I and Tree and Gerry continued on to the Grand Tetons. We spent two nights in Jackson Hole camping just off the Snake River.
We were in a camper cabin. But I need to remember how amazing these tent sites are.
When a kid has been sick for 3 days with a high fever and sinus cold, take him up in a tram to the top of a mountain and see how his fluid-filled ears feel: We ended up at the doctor later that day where she said "well, I definitely wouldn't take him on the tram." Too late. Whoops.
It was pretty fun having a snowball fight in July!
Cottonwood Creek was such a beautiful picnic spot.
This was Day 7 of our trip. See earlier photo; I had been carrying swimsuits, towels and flip-flops around all week thinking we might stumble upon a place to swim.
Didn't find anywhere to swim until I put all of those things on the BOTTOM of a week's worth of supplies.
And on that same day, we randomly found a lovely swimming pool at a campground in the Tetons. Lovely until all contents of my mini-van were emptied onto the parking lot to find these swimsuits.
Majestic.
Chapel of the Transfiguration. Travis eventually said, as I dragged them to location number 4 to look at things in front of the mountain, "I could put a Buzz Lightyear toy in front of this mountain and it'd look majestic and amazing."
The hike to Hidden Falls earned me a little bit of trust in the hiking category. They definitely thought this was worth the .4 miles they put in. Clearly haven't learned the "remove ugly hat" lesson yet.
And .2 miles further to Inspiration Point on Jenny Lake was also worthwhile.
And then we left the Tetons through Yellowstone and Beartooth Highway. Torturing Eva by singing Hamilton the entire length of the highway. I had to get the mini-van in this photo. I had missed much work this past year because of this Honda Odyssey and the engine trouble it had. We finally found out there was a warranty extension and had that repaired. It failed AGAIN after that issue was repaired, which supposedly had never happened in all the Odyssey's they had fixed. So, to say I was nervous to drive 2000+ miles in the mountains was an understatement. Luckily, the mini-van and I are back to being great friends and we had no troubles.
More summer happenings: Here's the new puppy we got in May named Luna Moonwolf. Baby Moonwolf and baby coyote. Which one is which?
Dad had a man-party at the house and we had to vacate the premises and kill time.
Luke loved doing this when Luna was little.
"Is that a coyote dog? Please tell me it's name is Wile E.?" says a patron of Buffalo River state park. Dang! Didn't think of that!
Luna's first paddle boat ride with Marie and Eva at Grandma Tree and Grandpa Gerry's campground.
I should honestly check with Eva before I leave the house. Now I do often stick a comb in my hair to keep it out of my face, but clearly the headband and braid can show you that wasn't my intent. I found that comb laying downstairs and stuck it there to take upstairs and put it away. Forgot. Went to grocery store. Eva discovered it when I picked her up at a friend's house. She said my outfit was equally bad so she thought I had only come to pick her up. She says "nice comb in your hair" and I look at her and shout "what comb!?!?!?!?!" She says "you didn't go anywhere else right?"
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