Camping with the Jarquez's

Michael's Aunt Cindy and Uncle Tom have got to be some of my favorite people ever. This year, they invited us to go camping with them in Alpine, WY. I love camping. Michael loves camping. Ivan loves dirt. And Charlotte loves me, so we were all set to spend a couple days in the middle of nowhere.

We had been having some car troubles and didn't get there as early as we hoped. But the drive sure was beautiful. And our campsite was this little spot along a gravel road in the mountains right by a creek.

We hiked up the mountain across from our campsite the first night we were there. Cindy watched Charlotte for us. That white speck in the background is one of the camper trailers of our group.

We were the only ones there in a tent. Everybody else had a camper. It still gets pretty cold at night here, even in the hottest month of the year. Ivan had warm pajamas and plenty of warm blankets, but he was pretty scared to sleep in the tent so that made things a little harder. When we camped with Michael's family, Ivan kept climbing out of his pack and play, so we didn't even bring it this time. He had all sorts of padding on the ground and blankets on top, but he's such a restless sleeper that any time he moved, the blankets would come off and he would wake up from being cold. So that meant he was on the air mattress with me and Michael. He kept laying on my face and pushing me off the bed. Ugh, it was bad. So the second night we tried something new. I slept on the ground with him. That was better, much better. Didn't feel as good on my back in the morning, but at least I got half a good night's sleep which was probably 3 times as much as I had the night before. Charlotte did remarkably well. We doubled her jammies, swaddled her, and covered her with a blanket and she slept til she was hungry.

The view of the drive from Alpine to Jackson. The river down to the right had a ton of people rafting in it. Maybe next time.

So we got there on Friday, later in the evening. Saturday we went as a big group to Yellowstone. We drove in through Jackson Hole, which is always a pleasure, up through the Tetons and through a small part of the park. We saw Old Faithful and some of the geyser basin. On our way to the park we stopped in Jackson to get more walkie talkies. So we could walkie and talkie. Or drive and talk. That made for good fun on the drive. :]

A much needed stop to see the Tetons. 

Sunday was a hang out day. We rode the four wheelers around, and took Ivan with us, cuz he loves the four wheelers. He had a little helmet on him. We debated for a bit whether to let him wear it or not because it was really heavy. But he liked it, so he wore it. Ivan sat in front with Michael driving and me riding on back. About ten minutes into the ride, Michael slows down a bit and tells me Ivan's helmet must be too heavy because his head keeps dropping. So I look around at Ivan and he's fast asleep. Silly kid. He fell asleep riding a four wheeler. So I put him between me and Michael and we kept riding! I figured this was the only way we would get Ivan to take a nap while we were camping without driving in the car somewhere. We had a pretty good time too. Ivan stayed asleep for almost the whole drive, which was a little over an hour. And any nap is better than no nap at all in my book. We had a nice little Sunday get together with those who wanted to be there and talked about our Savior. It was nice to know you can feel like you're at church when you add the Spirit and witnesses of the gospel anywhere.

This is the first time Ivan has actually paid any attention to Old Faithful going off. He thought it was really cool and kept saying "water, water, whoa!"

He thought the steam coming off the hot pools was cool, but climbing on the railing was much more fun. 

Grand Canyon of Yellowstone

On our way out of the park we saw evidence of a fire! Must have been a big one. 

Ivan and his cousin, or some kind of cousin ish relative, Carson. They had a blast together! Carson is about 4 and he is such a sweetheart. They played well, shared, and dug in the dirt a whole awful lot. 

The whole camping gang. 

Monday we packed up and headed out. We went to Jackson to pick up my sister, Heidi from the airport, but that's a whole different story!