a memorable memorial weekend

friday afternoon of memorial weekend,  the kids (jamie, jeremy, courtney & baby adelyn) arrived to spend the weekend.

jamie traveled from portland, oregon to richland, washington and hooked up with jeremy and the gang.
from richland, they came here to the tetons.  jeremy was able to take his new truck on a good long drive.

we took them to a fun restaurant for dinner where we did more visiting with adelyn than her auntie and mom  dad.

 and then just hung out at the trailer the rest of the night since everyone was pretty tired from traveling for 2 days.


saturday, we all piled in to the bunnery for breakfast and then headed out to the park for the grand tour.

unfortunately, it was rainy and overcast. 

the mountains were pretty much covered up most of the day, but they did peek out every once in awhile to give the kids a pretty good idea of just how grand they are.

john and jamie at jenny lake

courtney, jeremy, john & jamie at the overlook with jackson lake behind them

of course, the animals did not cooperate either.

after telling everyone how the animals are everywhere, we could not find one of them.
we drove forever and could not even find the bison, who are usually all over the place.

satuday evening we bbq'd burgers and hung out again.
john & the kids had our first campfire of the season, but it was too cold for courtney & i.

sunday, we ended up back at the bunnery for breakfast and heading down a different road out of town.
this road goes thru teton village which is where the ski lifts are.

jeremy & courtney had a coupon for the lift to the top of the mountain, so we decided to give it a try.

it was a quick ride up the front and to the top of the mountian. 

the gondola was warm enough for the ride, but oh my!!!
it was freezing at the top once you stepped out on to the platform.
the gondola operator told me it was 21 degrees, but i think it was a bit colder than that, plus the wind was blowing.

the view was absolutely stunning!!  we were told we were 10,000 feet up. 

that first step on to the platform was a bit nerve wracking.  it is just a bunch of grates welded to the structure and you are out over the ground quite a bit up.

we got a quick picture of adelyn at the top of the mountain, but it was way too cold for her.  she is probably one of the youngest to have traveled up to the top.

the guide told us there is a waffle shack we could have walked to for really great waffles.  i don't think anyone took the offer up.

everyone walked around outside for a few minutes, but because of the cold, we were all ready to head back down the hill.  you can see how spring is coming to the tetons.  the trees are starting to sprout all their fresh bright green leaves.

on the way home we stopped to see some great horned owls that are nesting in a tree on the side of the road.  due to so many people getting too close to the owls and bothering them, the park service had to put up security tape to keep the owls safe.

  it's too bad that humans can not give the animals the respect they deserve.  now it's too hard to get a good look at the babies.  if everyone would have just stayed back and looked at them thru their cameras or binoculars, we would have been able to enjoy a bit of nature at it's best.

down the road, we saw a moose cruising thru the willows, but he was already on his way up the hill by the time we got there,

the sun eventually came out. 

after a quick stop at the visitor's center in moose and taking the back way (where we eventually saw some bison) to the campground ,

notice the little bird on his back?

mommy & baby

 we called it a day.  the kids had to get up early on monday to head back home and we had to go to work, so we just hung out back in the campground.

we went over to see the baby owls in our campground

and on the way back we came across a moose wandering along the edge of the campsites.

we walked to the river behind us.  it takes a couple of minutes and it is really peaceful. 

the sun was just beginning to set behind the mountains and the clouds were turning a pretty pink.

it was a good visit for us all. 

we discovered our trailer can hold quite a group for slumber partys.

john and jeremy and jamie got to hang together

and we all got to enjoy baby adelyn.

she is an excellent baby and just hangs out and laughs and giggles.

they were speaking a language only a grandpa and baby can understand.

she definitely has the dourley dimple

courtney is a great mom. adelyn reflects all the love and attention she gets from her mommy & daddy.

she has really grown since we saw her in california back in april.

the weekend went way too fast.

we are pretty sure the kids all had a good time.

i know john & I did.

a lot of good memories of memorial weekend 2010.