Majestic Grand Tetons

We met up with Sam's brother and his family in the cute, albeit touristy, western town of Jackson Hole, WY and spent a night in a hotel before heading into the national park.





We rolled into the first-in, best-dressed Jenny Lake campground insanely early to ensure a spot, and upon arriving we saw this guy waiting to greet us:



Um, hello there. What a great way to start the wildlife portion of the trip. It was Father's Day, so I snapped this photo of Sam and his boys:


The Grand Tetons are aptly named, and rise so dramatically and close to where we camped.





The campsite was equipped with a bear box to store all our food items. Riley was fairly petrified of bears and insisted on sleeping between Sam and I in the middle of the tent during our stay. It was overly cozy with us and Little Kenyon on the edge of the tent; luckily, Jackson and Alex felt comfortable staying in their separate tent. We never saw bears here, although we did see a couple of silver foxes trotting nearby.
We took a predawn float trip on the Snake River; it was leaner on the wildlife than we had hoped, but we did spot a bald eagle.











On what is now known as the Day of Australian Complaint (although there have been others) we all took a hike to Inspiration Point. If you are curious what would spawn endless complaints from a certain Australian teen, forego the round trip ferry ride across the lake and decide to hike around one way, only taking the ferry on the return. Whoa. 5-year old Kenyon managed to log his longest hike (4 miles) without a negative peep; the 14-year old also logged his longest hike but I can't say the same for his attitude.




Even though Inspiration Point itself wasn't terribly inspirational, the waterfalls on the way there were great.








A local told us about a hike to Huckleberry Hot Springs, so we set out after a kind stranger stopped us and lent us his bear spray just in case.
The area was gorgeous...








...but the hot springs weren't all that special--much of it was too hot or shallow to enjoy. Worth it for the hike and scenery more than the springs themselves.








The night before we left, we went on a drive in search of wildlife and scored two amazing finds:
A beaver!




And a MOOSE!








The awesome moose was the highlight of the Tetons for me.

Bear Lake State Park

Typically, my recipe for a sleepless night is to drop me in a camping area with no other sign of life. All sorts of fanciful tales of murder dance in my head, and I (and therefore my dear husband as well) am miserable.



At Bear Lake State Park on the Utah/Idaho border, we were the only ones there for two of three nights, and miraculously I found it relaxing and just lovely.


Known as the Caribbean of the Rockies for its blue water, Bear Lake didn't disappoint but unfortunately I can't say that the water temperature was Caribbeanesque.


When we rented a massive water trampoline, we also had to rent a paddleboat to shuttle us (save for Riley and Jackson, the two hearty souls who braved the icy swim) back and forth. Other than my nearly broken nose from Kenyon's head accidentally bashing me, the trampolining was great fun.






This area is known for its World Famous Raspberry Shakes, and we managed to have a few during our time there.


We spent a leisurely, pleasant three days there exploring.












Quintessential summer, and a perfect way to cool down after the heat at Arches.

Water Abounds at Bear Lake

After the inhumanely dry landscape at Arches, the greenery that came into view as we headed into Idaho was a feast for the eyes.






(obligatory state border photo op)

We camped at Bear Lake State Park on the border of Utah and Idaho. Known as the Caribbean of the Rockies for its blue water, it didn't disappoint at first glance.


The campground was right at the water and was desolate but (luckily for Sam) for some reason I didn't have the imminent feeling that we were going to be murdered as I often do when we find ourselves the only family camping somewhere.

When I researched our road trip online, I was sold on camping here with the whole 'Caribbean of the Rockies' bit and the fact that this area is known for its 'world-famous' raspberry shakes. Pretty scenery and a tasty treat? Done and done. We managed to get a few shakes in us during our four-night stay.



Our days were spent adventuring around


building sand castles


reading stories


and listening to Riley obsess about wanting wi-fi. Ha!

We rented a big water trampoline one day at Rendezvous Beach, which sounds totally awesome except for the fact that the water was FREEZING. I mean, ice cube cold. So how is a girl that was raised in Miami supposed to swim through it to get out to the trampoline? I like my water like a bath, thankyouverymuch. Like any good racket, the beach rental also offered paddleboats, so we rented one of those to shuttle us back and forth. Crisis averted!








We had a couple windy nights and a threatened storm


but overall the weather was pretty perfect and it was a relaxing place to spend a few days.


This morning, with Riley's clothes safely Zip-locked (true story!), we were off to Jackson Hole, WY for a night in a hotel (wahoooooo for a shower and a real bed!) before heading back into the bush (i.e. Grand Tetons).

Summer 2013: US Road Trip Begins in Arches National Park

Seeing the beauty Australia had to offer really made all of us want to spend more time enjoying America's beauty as well. Since I was able to manage a law practice while roadtripping around Australia, we figured we could spend the summer break camping and visiting friends around the country here as long as I had fairly regular Internet access to work with.
One of our favorite people from Australia, a 14-year old boy named Riley, flew over to spend the summer with us (his take on his experience here is being chronicled at rileysroadtrip.wordpress.com). He said he hates camping, being in a car, and isn't impressed with nature--so why he agreed to a summer full of driving with a bunch of Americans and sleeping in tents in national parks is beyond me, but we're thrilled to have him here.




The night before we left for our road trip, Riley was researching how much a flight home would be mid-way through the summer in case he hated camping. Armed with an awesome tent he scored from Craigslist, though, I could tell he was as excited as we were to set off.




One of the best parts about road trips is taking the obligatory photo as you enter each state. We have pictures of all of us together on our real camera, but this is the only one I had handy on my phone...we must have entered a time warp at the Colorado/Utah border because we are clearly a family from 1972 here.




I wanted to impress Riley with the true beauty of the American west, and where better to do that than Arches National Park?




Months ago, I booked the last available spot in the aptly named Devil's Garden campground--aptly named at least in the summer, where the temperatures were in excess of 105 degrees (that's 40 Celsius).
We arrived late afternoon when the temperature was a totally reasonable 99 degrees. Riley bolted out of the car like a jackrabbit to claim the best camping spot for himself--to no avail, though, because we spent both nights camping under the stars, with the Milky Way in full view. For as hot as the wether was during the day, it was perfectly lovely at night and we all slept great.












Hikes to Delicate Arch and Landscape Arch in the morning were awesome--there is really nothing that matches this landscape.
















Between hikes, we were all kept amused by Riley's incessant pleas to be dropped off at an airport and threats that he was going to make friends with someone in an RV and go off with them.
The English language doesn't have a word to describe the heat that we experienced by midday on our second day--fortunately, we escaped the heat by venturing out to the Mill Creek waterfall area for a much-needed swim.




I'm so glad we went through Arches, but two nights was enough and by the time we packed up on the morning of June 11 we were all looking forward to greener pastures and cooler temperatures ahead.

Fostering Escapades, Chapter One: A Duct-Taped Heart

I'm an unabashed dog lover; there's just nothing quite like having a dog around to love.  I'll take the hair and muddy pawprints if I have something soft to pet.  I know there's people that are totally in love with their dog, and then once they have a kid the dog plays second fiddle.  Now, this certainly doesn't get me any closer to that elusive Mother of the Year award, but dogs in my life have always been told they how loved they are far more than the people in my life.  (don't call Child Protective Services, I swear they're reasonably clean and fed!).

The Family Dog position in this household has been vacant for quite some time, for various reasons, one of which being the fact that we just spent a year on the other side of our planet.  Although having a dog grace our household again is never far from my mind, the roadtripping that we're doing this summer isn't all that conducive to furry companionship, so all hiring for the position remains closed.

Shortly after we settled back into our lives here, a neighbor of ours posted on our neighborhood's Facebook page about an urgent need for fostering a dog.  My Fluffy Pet-Wanting Radar sounded an alarm for sure, but I've always chalked up dog fostering as a ruse to get a dog into your home, at which time you'd pretty much have to end up adopting it.  Isn't that the way it works?  All I hear about are 'foster failures'--people who take in a foster pet, fall in love with it, and keep it.

But fostering--wasn't that the perfect way to fill my need for something lovable around here?? (not that my kids aren't lovable, mind you).  I ran it by the Head of HR (Sam), and he agreed that we could have a temp position available to up the fluff quotient in the house.  And while I'd like to say that the root of my desire to foster a pet came from my innate hope to instill a sense of caring for the needy in my boys, in all honesty it was purely selfish.  That Mother of the Year Award isn't looking any more likely, I know.

The very next day, Colorado Canine Rescue gave me a crate, food, toys, a leash, and a collar, and that Friday, after making it very clear to the kids that THIS WOULD NOT BE OUR DOG, WE ARE JUST SAVING ITS LIFE AND PROVIDING A SAFE HOME UNTIL IT'S ADOPTED (and wrapping some duct tape around my heart to insulate it from that pesky emotion of love), our first foster dog made its way from a high-kill shelter in New Mexico where it was scheduled to be put down that weekend to a parking lot in Denver, where we picked her up.

on the way home

Sally, as Kenyon named her, was an Australian Shepherd/Bernese Mountain Dog mix, and had the softest fur ever.  As you can see, after a bath, she settled in nicely.

She was an absolute pleasure to have around--she slept by my bed, followed me from room to room, and was perfectly happy to be a true companion to her human.

helping Jackson with his homework

After just two weeks, the foster organization notified me that an adoption application came in for her.  It looked great--a retired couple had another Australian shepherd and liked to take long walks each morning out in the country.  I called them, and as soon as I started telling them about Sally...I started sobbing.  Not just a little teary-eyed, but can't-get-words-out-sobbing.  Somehow, I was able to choke out some sort of assurance that I was not a crazy person, but that Sally was just really such a wonderful companion.  I guess duct tape isn't the fix-all for everything, because it sure didn't help a damn with protecting my heart.

The day Sally left to start a life with her new family, I managed to keep it together and was truly happy for her.  To help fill the void in my home (and heart), I arranged to have our next temporary fluffy pet arrive later that same day.

I am the last person who you'd think would be a candidate for fostering...but I love it (and the kids do, too; hear that, Mother of the Year judges?).  Taking in a dog is easy, and rescuing from a high-kill shelter that took in 4000 dogs last year and euthanized 2000 of them is directly saving a life.  Try it; you won't be disappointed.