First Snow

We woke up Saturday morning to a lot of snow! About 4-7 inches of snow, depending on who you ask. It's way too early for that much snow. We had a few flurries a couple of other times, but this is the first white stuff to stick around for a while. (At least it's mostly gone now!)

The kids were enjoying being lazy inside until a neighbor friend came to ask them to play outside. Then they were gone for two hours! They even broke out the sleds, in addition to making a snow fort, having a snow ball fight, and playing fetch with the neighbors' dog. Yea for good, clean childhood fun!

This will be our look for the next six months...

Here's my artistic take on the early snow: Winter pooped all over fall!

But the forecast was good enough for Sunday that we decided to venture to Jackson and Grand Teton NP (always a gorgeous spot in the fall), before fall was over.

Although it was supposed to be 50 degrees that day, there was still quite a bit of snow on the ground. Hiking in the snow was new for us. And we didn't think to bring our snow boots, so the kids feet got pretty wet! 

If the trail wasn't snow, it was slushy mud. Yuck! Between cold toes and a muddy slip she had on our last hike, Hadley wasn't very excited about this muddy trek, so she got some help from Dad over some of the more treacherous parts.

While the trail wasn't in the best shape, the scenery was still spectacular, even highlighted by the dusting of snow, and the crowds were pretty thin.

So we pressed on from String Lake to Jenny Lake in the muck.

Made it! Our reward was a beautiful view!

We turned around and then decided to cross the creek for a different path back to the car. Luckily, it was an uneventful crossing!

Another stunning view of Jenny Lake, from the official overlook, on our way out of the park.

And one more artistic shot for this post: our delicious post-hike beers (fun to say - Dunkeldorf and Dortmunder) at our favorite brewpub in Jackson with Snow King's newly dusted ski runs in the background. Perfect day!

Pumpkin Patch

We took advantage of the sun's return by visiting our local pumpkin patch. The kids were very excited to pick out their pumpkins! (and costumes, and house decorations inside and out... They love Halloween!)

The patch has really upped their extras this year, and it's all free. The kids loved the dried corn pit, straw maze, slide, and pedal cars. I had to pry them out of here!

A Tale of Two Creeks

With fall making an appearance, we just had to get out one last time to Cress Creek with friends. I think we were a little early on most of the color there, but we did get a nice view with minimal effort. The kids were occupied with a nature scavenger hunt where they competed to collect the most different kinds of leaves on the hike. Their favorites were the cattails (aka corn dogs)!

 But I think they had the most fun throwing pebbles into the river at the end.

A couple of days later, I took the kids to Pocatello to check out City Creek. Fall was there in a big way! It was like a fairy tale, which is hard to translate in pictures. Suffice it to say, it was gorgeous, magical, and chilly.

The trail meandered next to and criss-crossed City Creek on these picturesque bridges. The kids had fun kicking leaves off into the creek and seeing how many flowed past the obstacles down stream.

I really liked the variety of colors in the trees and the way that parts of the trail felt like going through a tree tunnel.

The kids enjoyed posing for many pictures, though the second one here is not a pose! 

Here's the chilly part! It snowed on us a little bit shortly after we started. We found more snow down the trail. Hold on winter, you'll get your time soon enough. Let us enjoy another week or two of fall first!

Eventually we had to turn around. Sadly, the kids wanted to head back by the road rather than back through the creekside wonderland. But it made them so happy!

When September Ends

Just a little light reading... (Actually Owen has been faithfully reading this coffee table book and learning quite a bit about the history of jet fighters.)

And we picked some apples from a friend's tree.  Maybe a few too many...?

Cold September Rain

Not much to report from September so far, except sometime during the second week it was a high of 85 degrees one day and 50 the next 10 days with rain! Feels like we skipped right over the nice part of fall, but this week looks better... We shall see! Seems like a long time ago, but I took the kids for some ice cream to celebrate their first full week of school.

They were also able to use the backyard pool one more time before it got too cold.

Today we enjoyed the return of sunshine by going to the big park for some disc golf and some different scenery than our usual walks. First time disc golfing with the kids - Owen liked it a lot and even beat Dad on a hole or two! We also discovered that the river has some little beaches along the shoreline of this park; I guess the water had been too high in trips past. Kids had a good time getting dirty, even if the water was too chilly.

And our garden is winding down, what with a week of nearly freezing temps, but the raspberries keep on coming! Raspberry bars, raspberry pie, fresh raspberries, raspberry muffins, frozen raspberries, raspberry smoothies, raspberry parfait...

Labor Day Camping

The final summer bucket list item was checked off over Labor Day weekend: camping! It was our first time camping with the kids, and it was a success. We headed up to Island Park, 1.5 hours away. We did get a late start though, so that we could watch the Longhorns' first football game. Sigh. At least we got a good family photo out of it!

Our friends let us borrow their 6-person tent, because we thought our old 4-person one might be a bit snug. It was pretty awesome! The kids loved getting all "cozy" with sleeping bags, blankets, pillows, loveys, and books in their part of the tent. And spying on us from their window. Glad they liked it, but I wasn't a fan of sleeping on the ground!

The Buffalo campground is surrounded by woods, so the kids went exploring and protected our campsite from unseen enemies. Unfortunately for Hadley, her unseen enemies were black flies that bit her all over her head that night. :(

No one believed me that we'd need fleeces and warm hats for sleeping, since it was in the mid-80s during the day, but it did get down to the 30s at night (near freezing according to accuweather)!  Luckily, J was adept at starting our campfires each night. Also good because dinners were planned around cooking over fire - foil packet ka-bobs one night, hot dogs and smores the next.

The next morning, we took our time thawing out and enjoying not having to do anything in the great outdoors. Then we headed over to the Coffeepot Rapids trail in another campground. The hike started out with the serene Henry's Fork of the Snake River on one side and dense forest on the other. It was beautiful, and we were the only ones on the trail until we were nearly back to the car.

We did see several fly fishers. If you look closely, you can see two below. 

Finally, we made it to Coffeepot Rapids! The calm river waters gradually got more rippley over a couple of miles, eventually churning over rocks and making a picturesque stretch of rapids worth the hike.

After lunch back at our campsite, we walked over to play in the Buffalo River, just adjacent to our campground. It was a pretty wide river, but only about 6-12 inches deep. Perfect for kids! And tubers apparently, as we saw several groups float by.

Just a couple of parting notes: 

1) The kids loved it and want us to buy a camper.

2) Don't forget to pack the oatmeal. You'll want it on those chilly mornings!

3) Try to get a campsite a bit further from the highway to amplify the 'getting back to nature' silence and to reduce road noise at night. You'll thank me later.

4) It was great that we got to hear a Smokey the Bear program. The downside was Hadley was afraid of bears afterwards! I don't think there are any non-bear camping areas up here.

School Bells Ring

Summer is over and school is back! Owen started last Wednesday, much to his chagrin. His last day of summer request was to go to Kids Town and the library. Check, check! He didn't know what to put down for when he grows up, so he put "worker". Haha!

Hadley and I had a few days to ourselves between Owen's first day and hers. Her last day of summer request was to hit the climbing gym and the pool (check!), but then I suggested a mom-and-me pedicure, and she was all for it (though she went for fingers instead of toes)!

Hadley was over the moon, very excited to start school. She's doing all-day kindergarten at the Catholic school, so she has to wear a uniform, which she is still adjusting to. But she looks pretty darn cute in it! She likes to sing and has ambitions of becoming a scientist/artist/gymnastics girl/magician.