Fun at the Pumpkin Patch

We took advantage of the beautiful weather to go play one day at the local Pumpkin Patch. We even got Greggy to go with us this year, which made it even more fun!

Sof is 7 and Claire is 5. I couldn't help but wonder how much longer they are going to entertain me on these fun family outings before deeming themselves too big ... I'm trying to soak them up as long as I can.

And all of the sudden, these girls are looking like teenagers 😐 My little beauties!

We buried Claire in the corn pit. It was awesome!

💙💙💙

Fun on the tractor ride!

I hope I always remember Sofi without her 2 front teeth.

They got up on those hay bales and surprised me by posing without even being asked. They are so hilarious, I'm including them all. Be sure to pay attention to Claire's foot, she pops it there in the end.

Where's Greg? Everyone who knows him knows that he is patiently waiting at the car for us. :)

Throwup, Pancake Machines, And a Beautiful Drive Home

So ... what happened Saturday Night to deserve its own post?

Well, it all started with that Mediocre Mexican Place we decided to eat at for Dinner. Claire was absolutely starving by the time we found a place to eat, that she pounded as much salsa as she could, then didn't really have much room for anything else. The Salsa was Hotter than the average appetizer, so Claire also consumed a bunch of water in the process. 

After swimming, coming back to the room and getting showered, and then ready for bed, it took awhile to get everyone settled, as you can imagine. 

Sometime in the middle of the night, I woke up to Claire moaning and whining, which isn't super common for her to do. After about 15 minutes, I couldn't stand it any longer and got up to go check on her. Well, it turns out she had thrown up in her sleep and was covered in it - everywhere! The poor girl. So, we got her out of the bed she was sharing with Sofi, and over to the blessed couch that just so happened to be in our extended room. We got her changed into her last clean pair of clothes, laid her down on a towel to preserve the couch, put a garbage can below her on the ground, and right as we did, she started throwing up again. Luckily it landed in the garbage, but the poor girl! I'm pretty sure all of that salsa on an empty stomach had burned her stomach lining and made her sick. But, luckily the tortillas had mostly absorbed it so it was a dry throw up (TMI?). I went to the bed to check on the damage, and found that most of it was contained to Claire's side, so I laid another towel down and decided to deal with it in the morning. Sof was dead asleep anyway, so there was no need to wake up another sleeping kid.

Well, in the morning, after we told Sofia what had happened, she said, "I was wondering what those chunks were everywhere in the bed." Whoops! Turns out I hadn't done as well of a job cleaning up as I thought. I blame my sleepless state in the middle of the night. Sof's fine ... she's fine.

Greg and I can't stop laughing, and the whole incident didn't even faze the girls. It either means we've done enought traveling this year to not care about another Throwing Up incident, or it's a good thing they're too young to take it personal. Either way, it was hilarious and made for a funny story.

Claire slept in, and I waited in the room with her until she woke up before going down to breakfast. Greg had taken Sofia and Quincey earlier and had messaged me about this really cool pancake machine, so we were excited to check it out!

This machine was super cool! You would push a button and it would spit out 2 blobs of pancake batter, then the pancakes would come down the conveyor belt, fully cooked, and be flipped onto the plate waiting at the bottom. I decided when we get rich and famous, we can invest in one.

I took a minute to walk around our hotel. It may have been a little on the ghetto side, but it had a ghetto charm about it. It was decorated with the coolest historical photo's of the area, and I took some time to snap a pic of my favorites. Our Hotel had 3 different buildings, so I can only imagine the photo's they had hanging in those hallways as well.

Can you believe all of that snow?!

This picture stopped me in my tracks. It spoke to my soul.

We had an hour or so to kill between Checkout and when Sacrament Meeting started. So, we dressed in our Sunday best and hit the closest park. It felt good to be out in the fresh air - it was a cool morning; Fall was definitely on its way.

I always enjoy visiting church buildings in areas that aren't predominately dominated by our religion. There were 2 wards in all of Jackson Hole, and it was fun for me to see how they decorated their rooms. I found this quote and loved it. It struck a cord, probably because I am a girl mom. And, I know that some of my quirks, anxieties, and defining moments are shaped by the women who went before me.

After Sacrament, we had lunch in the church parking lot, then loaded up for the 3.5 hr drive home. We had never gone that way before, so Greg plugged the address into the phone, and off we went in the direction it told us to. It definitely took us along the back roads before connecting to the main I-15 highway, but boy were those little towns beautiful! It was a very scenic drive, and Greg got to enjoy most of it while I slept/played in the back seat with this little nugget.

What a fun Fall Break! 

We saw so many beautiful things, and created some unforgettable memories - my two favorite things.

Old Faithful, Jenny Lake, and Jackson Hole

Here I sit, 3 months later, and I still can't believe how much fun we had on our Fall Break! The Earth really is so beautiful, and it is my goal in life to explore as much of it as we can with our kiddo's. These memories with them is So Important!

Anyway, back to the Fall Break Goodness.

Saturday, we didn't really have much left to see in Yellowstone except for Old Faithful, you know, nothing spectacular ...

After Breakfast, I left Greg in the hotel room with a sleeping Quincey and 2 girlies happy as clams to be watching a movie on the tablet, and I set off down the stree to do some shopping. I was determined to find a Yellowstone shirt, dangit! Well, I must have spent a little too much time perusing the shops, because when I got back to the hotel room, Greg was a little frantic because we were way behind schedule as to when the next projected Old Faithful eruption was to occur.

We quickly loaded the car and drove as fast as we could to Old Faithful. Greg was determined to see it, so I let him jump out of the car and run to the site while I tried to find a parking spot.

Well, you guessed it. Greg missed Old Faithful by mere seconds. Again. Poor Guy. We decided to wait around the next 90 minutes or so. He's a good sport. We had a quick snack in the car and waited for cousins to arrive. My Sister and her family were in Yellowstone for Fall Break as well but hadn't been able to meet up until we were leaving. It was fun to see cousins!

Quincey's new thing is pulling her socks off. 

We walked around the History Center and read about Old Faithful. Have I mentioned yet how cool Yellowstone is?

The group!

These two are hilarious!

I'm including both pictures simply because I can't choose between the two.

It happened!

There she blows!

They aren't joking when they say "Third times the charm." Poor Greg.

front row seats!

We're not sure what this thing is for, so we had Sofi stand on it.

We said our Goodbyes to Old Faithful, Yellowstone, and cousins by heading out Yellowstone's South Entrance. If you think coming in from the West was beautiful, we were awestruck at the view! There were valleys, forests, waterfalls, and beautiful Fall foliage. Greg and I took in the splendor while the girls were completely oblivious in the backseat giggling away to yet another movie.

My sister mentioned stopping at Jenny's Lake, and I had no idea what that was, so in true FOMO fashion, I told Greg we were stopping there as well, and I'm so glad we did. 

It. Was. BEAUTIFUL! 

Like, so beautiful I'm going to plan a trip just to go back there. 

Let me show you what I mean...

Look at that view! 

The real MVP.

Sof [im]patiently waiting for us to catch up to her.

Rock hunting. Then throwing.

Splash!

By now, Claire was all pictured out and headed back to the car.

We saw a fox!

We were starting to get hungry, so we got back in the car and headed toward Jackson Hole, where we were to stay for the night. On our way in, we saw a lot of cars parked on the side of the road. In true tourist fashion, we found a spot and jumped out. We found a mama and baby moose shading themselves in a river wash. Look really close and you might be able to see them.

Moose are only safe from a distance. And, how funny is it that we seemed to see more wildlife outside of Yellowstone than inside? 

By the time we got to Jackson Hole, we were all pretty much starving. We decided to eat at a Mexican place, because it seemed the safest bet to have something at least most of us would eat (I'm looking at you, Sof).

We all managed to eat something, the place really wasn't that great, and afterwards we had fun walking around the streets and admiring the beauty of Jackson. 

Sof found a bear.

After the girls were able to find a fun souvenior, we headed back to the car to go check into our Hotel for the night. We were given a room with a mini bar, couch, and two beds. It was fairly spacious, which was a perk. Greg took the girls swimming while I put Quincey to sleep. Afterwards, being the stellar parent that I am, I left her and went to join them.

Sof had made a fun friend in the pool and was thrilled to learn that they lived in Clearfield. So, I got the Mom's number to coordinate a playdate with the girls one day.

Claire's Mermaid dreams came true when someone let her borrow their mermaid tail. I have to admit, she was a beautiful mermaid.

Our hotel had a couple of different buildings. It was pretty cool how they engineered the pool to be inside the main building on the 2nd floor. 

We had a fun day!

Wait until you hear the story of what happened that night, but that's for another post 😲.