Jackson Hole

 Mendis had a business trip in Jackson Hole July 11-14 so we made a vacation out of it. On our way out of the valley we found out that Christina could come with us so we picked her up in Orem and headed up to Wyoming.
We had a condo up there so there was room for her on the couch. While Mendis went to meetings Christina and I played. Sounds fair right! We headed up the mountain to the alpine slide first thing. It was super fun...

View from the top of the slide.

Let's light this candle!

A quick self portrait before we go

I tried to video the ride most of the way down. I don't know why I guess I thought it would be cool but it's really not that awesome. We thought we were pretty high up until we did our next adventure.

We took the "scenic trip" up to the very top of the mountain on the chair lift. On the way over Christina asked me if I was nervous and I said heck no. Well about half way up I changed my mind. I don't love heights anyway but man it was high up. Apparently it is the steepest chair lift in North America!! Yikes

The view from the top was incredible. There was a 1/2 mile nature walk up on the top that we did. It was beautiful up there.

We could see for miles and miles from the top and then all too soon it was time to face the long steep ride down. Going up was scarey enough so I was not looking forward to the trip down.The worst part was when they kept stopping the lift for one reason or another and just left us swinging up there especially at the top!

Believe it or not going down was much easier!

So we had a lunch at the ski resort and dinner with Mendis at a banquet they put on for everyone and their families. It's never my favorite thing to attend functions and especially when I don't know people but it was really great. Good food and we met a very interesting man who told us all about Alaska. He has a hunting lodge up there so now we were all primed for our upcoming cruise to Alaska! After dinner we drove out to Teton Village to look around and ended up going into the park because the entrance booth was closed for the day. We saw beaver, elk, lots of deer and even two moose. I fun, fun night.
The next day after Mendis' meetings we decided to head into Yellowstone.

We had lunch at Jackson first and did a little shopping and then headed over to the park. We were supposed to have Jeff & Rachel meet us for dinner there but they had an expensive and exhausting night the night before. They had a blowout on the way home from Ogden. So we decided it would be better for everyone if we just went to Rexburg to them instead. We had a blast going all through Teton Park this time.

Here's a great picture of Christina enjoying nature with us!

As soon as we got into Yellowstone itself we decided to take a back road a ranger told us about instead of going around through Yellowstone on the main road. It was awesome because it was beautiful and so peaceful that way.

You could really see the old fire damage as you drove right through it!

So it was gravel most of the way and narrow so we thought for sure we would see lots of animals...nope just deer and squirrels. Oh well it was very scenic and we enjoyed getting away from the crowds. We hit Rexburg just in time for a great Mexican dinner. It was great to see Jeff & Rachel again and visit with them. Christina was happy to see them putting her couches to good use too.

 After dinner we hoped to meet up with Tori & Dreah for dessert. Originally they just needed an hour or two so we enjoyed touring campus for for awhile. It is a beautiful campus and we love the gardens especially. Then we drove around and showed Christina some awesome gorgeous homes. When we found out Tori & Dreah needed more time we thought we better grab dessert and go back with out seeing them. Bummer. SO Jeff & Rachel to us to Sammys for "PIE" shakes. Holy cow they were good. They seriously take a piece of pie and blend it into the milkshake. Oh yeah good. After we said our goodbyes we headed back over the mountains to Jackson. What a mountain pass that was too I might add. It was harder to see in the dark but maybe that's a good thing. All I could think about was Jeff drove that road when it was snowing in the winter!! Not cool. There are some serious cliffs through there.
The next morning we hit the road and drove all the way home. We decided to be tourists and take the back way through Bear Lake and Logan like we did years ago. Another beautiful drive. So we dropped Christina off at her place and headed home. We got home late Saturday night just in time to start packing and to get ready for our cruise!!