Road Trip to Jackson Hole

Some of my best memories from growing up involve road trips. A few times we took the trek to Colorado to visit family and each time we drove through Yellowstone. I love those memories. Four kids crammed into a mini van full of bags, food, toys, blankets, pillows. Listening to Adventures in Odyssey, playing games, fighting constantly and asking how much longer every five minutes. In hindsight, I think my parents are pretty amazing for making those trips happen because I'm sure they were horribly torturous for them at times. But they are some of my fondest memories as a kid. I will never forget getting up at the crack of dawn in our pajamas to hit the road before the sun rose, or getting  blasted in the eye by a giant bouncy ball that my brother accidentally bounced at me at a random rest stop in Wyoming. Or practically pulling my sisters arm socket out of alignment as we competed to spot the next mile marker on the horizon. 

Jonathan's family did road trips like mine - just multiplied by five. The Hook fam has literally seen every nook and cranny of the northwest. Every back road, historic marker, hike, beautiful view. They did it all, and on a teaching budget (just like my family). Nothing fancy, just time spent crammed into a car as a family, seeing the world and making memories together. I love this about his family. 

And so you'd better believe that we jumped at the opportunity to visit my brother Ethan in Jackson Hole, Wyoming this summer. Ethan landed a ridiculously posh tennis pro job this summer at a resort in Jackson. He basically works a handful of hours each day giving lessons and then golfs for free every day at a premier course, hiking the national park in his spare time. It's a rough life, I know.

We hit the road just as early as Jono could get off work July 3rd and drove to Livingston, Montana in time to watch the last bull ride at the rodeo - as well as catch the fire work show. It was a long 7-ish hour drive with just a few stops along the way. The kids were champions and the timing of our arrival, mid-rodeo, was perfect. Someday I'd love to see the whole show, but at least the fireworks felt like a prize at the end of a long day driving.

Bike riding in the McDonalds parking lot. Totally classy!

A little outdoor dinner @ McD's

The Livingston Rodeo = pure awesomeness

Our little cowgirl

The Finale!

We stayed the night of the 3rd in a small town just outside Livingston called Clyde Park. Ethan's girlfriend Michael's family lives there and graciously opened their home/ranch to us. The funny part about it is that neither Ethan nor Michael were there. Michael is spending the summer in Pennsylvania working at a camp while Ethan works in Jackson. But the McInerney family is fabulous and we had a great time even without Michael & E. One of the best parts of the trip for all of us was watching Clara ride a horse for the first time. The McInerney's have four horses and Clara got to take her pick of which one to ride. She chose Grace and KC (and promptly renamed her horse at home "Grace"). As you can tell, she absolutely loved it!

The McInerney "ranch" :)

My mama still loves horses - years after having her own as a little girl

Clara takes after her Grammy

Michael's horse, Oakey

Happy 4th of July! Loving the 4 wheeler!

He's so sweet

And so silly!

And she's on a horse, folks!

And she's LOVING it

She even tried riding bare back

After riding horses in the morning, we hit the road to Jackson. We spent most of the 4th of July driving through Yellowstone. You can't really beat that! It was such a surreal moment for me - experiencing Yellowstone again with kids. It was probably not earth shattering for Clara or Caleb, but I will remember it always. 

A brown (black) bear

Hurray for the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone ;)

Caleb sabotaging the family shot

A grizzly! - from a safe distance, thankfully

He was sticking his tongue out at us

Approaching Jackson Hole

My parents found this great little KOA cabin just outside Jackson for us to stay. We crammed into the one bedroom with a loft and Ethan even stayed on the pull-out couch each night. It was perfect. And the cabin's design might be the most impressive use of space I've ever seen.

 

We fit quite a bit into our two full days in Jackson. We ate at some great restaurants. We visited Ethan's tennis courts and the boys golfed nine holes. Jono and I went on a few runs together. We swam at an incredible lake inside the national park and went on a beautiful (and memorable!) hike. My parents rode bikes and the tram to the top of the ski mountain. We celebrated ten years of marriage with a great little date in downtown Jackson (more on that later). And we even got in a little napping/reading time with the kids in the afternoons. It really was a wonderful time together.

Pizza dinner - taken by photographer Clara

Gramps & Eth, golfing at The Pines

A blurry group shot at Moo's ice cream shop

On Friday we spent the morning at String Lake in Grand Teton National Park, enjoying the most gorgeous swimming hole we'll ever experience. There are many stunning alpine lakes but I've never been to one as warm as this one. Both Clara and Caleb loved playing in the water and Jono (plus my dad and Ethan) got in a little triathlon swim training. It was pure loveliness.

Hurray for beautiful lakes! 

Caleb agreed 

Grammy & Calebo

Our hike on Saturday to Phelps lake in Grand Teton National Park was one I won't soon forget. We began the hike (our little family of four + Ethan) at around 10am. It was sunny and beautiful. We sweat our way to the lookout above the lake and then descended to the lake, where Ethan wanted to jump of a rock. We had been hiking a few miles by then and had decided Ethan would run back to our car at the parking lot above and that we'd meet him about a mile and a half from the lake, at the visitor's center. Within a few minutes of Ethan's rock jump, we heard our first thunder. And I'm not exaggerating that a few minutes later we were caught in the craziest downpour/storm I've ever experienced. Ethan took off running immediately while Jono and I (with kids on our backs/fronts) ran for the visitor's center. There is nothing like running through the woods on an unknown trail with a child on your front, trying to see the path enough to avoid rocks, all the while picturing the headlines "Hikers carrying children hit by lightening in Grand Teton National Park". I was seriously terrified. But we obviously made it. Soaked to the bone and arriving at the visitor center about thirty minutes before Ethan, who probably ran the fastest he's ever run in his life, made it to us with the car. It was crazy. And since we didn't die, I'll even admit it was kind of exciting. Maybe even fun. But I certainly hope never to repeat it.

View of Phelps Lake

Hiking with my girl 

And the boys - loving it too

Such beauty!

The rock jump (see the storm moving in?!)

Crazy blurry picture but you get the point, we're soaked!

Our drive home Sunday was not divided in two like our trip to Jackson. That made for thirteen total hours in the car. We stopped a few times for food and to stretch our legs, but mostly we just drove and drove and drove for what felt like forever. I'm not going to lie. Even though I love road trips this stretch was tiring. And our kids were even (mostly) well behaved. We arrived home late Sunday night feeling very happy about the fact that we don't have any long-ish road trips in our immediate future. Next year, however, we would love to venture out again. Maybe even a Jackson Hole repeat?! We shall see.

Clara decided to share her red marker with Caleb
about an hour into our drive home. Awesome, right?!