Tetons Day 1

Travel: We had all day Tuesday to pack and organize for our trip.  The weather in South Dakota was starting to look questionable so we contacted Paula and picked Lucy up from daycare early and hit the road a little after 3 pm.  This made for a mad scramble right at the end!  Lucy was very excited to hit the road in Aunt Molly's truck.  We also learned that our child seats can't fit behind the captains chairs, so lucy got the middle of the back row and could look straight out the window.  

We drove for about 4 hours and then stopped for dinner. It became clear on the radar that severe weather was coming about 30 minutes down the road.  It looked perfect out though... Then it came, a big black band of weird looking clouds.  We found an a good place to hide out in our car at the Sioux Falls municipal transportation building.   In the midst of the storm, a bunch of highway patrol cars came racing in and made us move because they wanted the spots.  Eventually they pulled into their car wash and we got the spot back.  It was unfortunately 1.5 hours of lost driving time.  Isaac was a caffeine machine and drove through the night with Kerry taking over around 4am in the middle of nowhere-Wyoming.  Charlie traveled amazingly well, and Lucy did better once we reclined her car seat.  The last 4 hours of the drive were by far the worst and we had to stop at a playground for Lucy as she kept saying "get me out of my car seat, I need to get out".  

We arrived to Signal Mountain Lodge at 12:15 pm.  Lucy and Isaac immediately took naps.  Kerry, Charlie and Maddie explored the stores and campground.  We woke the others up at 4:45 and headed off for a hike and dinner.

Hike: Colter Bay Lakeshore Trail.  1+ miles with great vistas and mosquitos.  There were several loops, but we chose one that had a good and unique view of the mountains.  Lucy did a little hiking but she needed to ultimately be put in the hiking pack as we were getting hungry.

Dinner:  We tried out Leeks's pizzeria for the first time and would definitely go back.  Even though Lucy was overtired, she loves to people watch, so she was entertained.  Only one tantrum occurred...when her purple icecream wasn't purple enough!  

Lodging: We are staying at the Signal Mountain Lodge (right next to our favorite campground).  We decided to lodge it this year as it seemed a little too cold in June to push camping with Charlie.  We have a 2 bedroom rustic cabin that has a a decent view and a porch.  It even has electricity.  

Driving over the pass into the park...snow everywhere.  Yikes!  It was a winter weather advisory the day before we arrived.

Lucy watching her first ever movie (Frozen).  She is exhausted at this point and didn't even want to watch the whole movie.

The playground we let her burn some steam off at.

Ahhh mountains.  We can't get over how different the tetons look with all that snow.  We don't feel like we are at the same park.

Charlie's first national park hike.  He slept the whole time.  

Lucy loves big rocks.  It took some negotiation to tear her away in order to do the rest of the hike.

Here's Maddie!

First family picture in the tetons 😊

We Made It!

We left Tuesday at 3:30 pm and and arrived Wednesday at 12:15 pm, followed by naps.

Rain Delay

We took cover until the state patrol booted us out of their fill up area.

Charlie Week 6 and 7

Highlights: Charlie went to the cabin for the first time for Memorial Day Weekend.  We picked up Maddie along the way and she was helpful in getting Lucy to fall asleep while Mom was able to continually put the Nuk back in Charlie's mouth to keep him asleep on the rest of the drive north.  Charlie also went to his first state track meet to cheer on Maddie and Johnny (he of course slept most of the time).   

Changes: Instead of the constant "caveman" grunts, Charlie is starting to have cute little coos and goos.  He is starting to get onto a predictable schedule in terms of awake periods and naps.  His head control is improving when sitting up and being carried and he feels more durable in general. He is starting to take a bottle with a little bit more ease, but he gets rusty when we don't practice on a regular basis.    

Sleep:  A 4 hour stretch of time is a bad night now, and the record is 7 hours!  Charlie goes to bed between 8:30 and 9.  He's usually up for the day by 7 and spends the first 1-2 hours of the morning kicking happily and staring at things like fans and curtain rods.  He cat naps here and there throughout the morning but does a monster afternoon nap from 1:30-4.  Both Mom and Dad recall how hard we had to work with getting Lucy to sleep at night (but once asleep she was a champ).  Charlie is easy to set down awake and so far he's a decent self-soother.  Fingers crossed that this will continue.

Charlie was instantly calm with Tyler.  Tyler is no stranger to babies!

Would we call this a tummy time failure or success?  Charlie loves being on his belly and will even fall asleep there.

There's the smiley Charlie Boy

Snuggles with Cousin Johnny

The first boat ride of the season.

Charlie is not so sure he loves it.

Some excellent neck strength developing!

Story time

Lucy shares her chair with Charlie

Elton John?

Charlie and Sully