Catching Crawdads

 I forgot to mention in my past post that one of the highlights of the swimming was catching crawdads. With the extremely low water levels, plenty of mud was exposed, along with holes that the crawdads like to hide in. The kids quickly found their favorite spots and started catching them.

Desert Boy wasn't so sure about actually picking up one of the crawdads with his bare hands. He tried using the shovel method, but didn't have much success. The convince-a-cousin-to-pick-it-up method worked for awhile, but eventually he was on his own, and had to give it a try.

He doesn't look too sure of himself, does he? Probably for good reason. I don't consider crawdads to be particularly appetizing creatures--by any definition!

Nevertheless, he did it. He was really proud of himself.

He loaded it into a bucket and during a weak moment, I let him convince me to bring it home. Yep, we had a pet crawdad. Fortunately I get to use the word "had." Past tense. Our new pet survived a few hours. We didn't hold a burial for it. In fact, I'm not sure where it went. Maybe I don't want to know. I'm just thinking that one pet crawdad for the summer has met our quota of extraneous pets, and now we can go back to enjoying life with our awesome dog, Henry. He's a wee bit more appealing than the crawdad.

Fun with the Cousins

 The California cousins came to visit, and we went for a picnic lunch with them. While we were there, this swallowtail landed on Ruby, and she gave it to Desert Girl.

 Desert Girl was enthralled. I don't know if she had ever held a butterfly before.

 She can't stop smiling.

 Now the butterfly is getting really close, and she's not so sure anymore.

 Maybe it's better if butterflies stay at arm's length!

 Beautiful Ruby!

 The swallowtail left Desert Girl, but it stuck around.

 Desert Boy took a look at it, but he was much more interested in...

 ...bones! He found a wonderful big bone and was so delighted when I told him he could bring it home. It's in our sandbox now.

 Next we went swimming, and the girls headed out into the warm water.

 Desert Girl loved swimming with her Grandma.

 Desert Girl was learning how to hang out from her older cousins!

We had a fun afternoon.

So much fun that we came back and swam the next day. You can never swim too much in a hot summer!

Day 7 - National Oregon/California Trail Center

 We arrived too late in Montpelier, Idaho to go to the Oregon/California Trail Center, so we stayed the night, ate a Boy Scout pork roast dinner, and watched a fun fireworks display (not necessarily in that order!). The next morning we headed to the center.

 Montpelier is at the edge of the Great Basin, and I've been doing research about the entire Great Basin for an upcoming book, so I had learned about this center and really wanted to go.

 This sign made me laugh.

 They had a special Bigfoot/Sasquatch exhibit, which was a little odd. I guess we just don't have Bigfoots coming down into the central Great Basin, so I don't have much experience with Bigfoot sightings.

 Down in the basement were some historical exhibits by the DUP (Daughters of Utah Pioneers) and railroad exhibits, as Montpelier has busy train tracks through it. The nice lady in the museum really interacted with the kids. Desert Boy walked through the museum once and was ready to leave.

She told Desert Boy, "You're looking at things too fast." She led him over to the typewriter and let him type. Then he got to do some other activities on the old equipment.

As we headed up the stairs, he said to me, "Mom, she was right. I really was looking at things too fast."

 This quilt caught my eye. It's based on an historic photo. What impressive craftmanship!

Then it was time to begin our tour of the Oregon/California trail. It's a living history tour, with costumed interpreters.

 We first learned what we needed to take on the trail, how to make rifles, and other assorted important information. Then we prepared for our 2,000 mile journey.

 We were fortunate, we didn't have to walk the whole way, we got to make some of the journey in a covered wagon. The moving wagon freaked out Desert Girl, and she kept saying for hours afterward, "Oregon scary. Oregon scary." It was kind of cute. Hopefully she will recover some day.

When we exited the wagon we stopped at some camps and learned more about life on the trail. Those people sure had it rough! Desert Boy and Desert Girl were fascinated with the 45-minute program.

It was a fun stop. After we finished the living history portion, the kids ran back to the basement to continue looking at the local history museum. I've never seen them so interested in history!

Day 6 - Paris Ice Cave

 Heading south from Grand Tetons, we decided to visit Paris Ice Cave near Paris, Idaho. We got some directions from a local and headed up the good gravel road.

 After putting on helmets and finding lights, Desert Boy took off down the trail to the entrance.

 It was an impressive entrance, with huge blocks of limestone. We could feel a cold breeze coming out of the cave.

 We found lots of snow and ice still in the cave, despite it being July.

 A sturdy boardwalk helped us get across the icy wet parts.

 We still had to do some walking on the snow and ice, and Desert Boy found that it was painful to fall.

 The boardwalk part of the cave is not long, and you can see one entrance from the other. However, I could see that there was more cave, cave where we needed lights.

 We found another big room, with lots of ice.

 Ed checked out an ice formation.

 It is amazing how slippery the ice is!

 Ed looked up to see where all those big chunks of ice had come from. You certainly wouldn't want to be underneath when they fell.

 There was another entrance in this room, but it led to a long chimney that was too difficult for the kids.

 Quick pose!

 The ground is really rough around there. We wandered a bit and found one cave that looked only accessible by rappelling into it.

 Meanwhile, Desert Boy and Dad found another passageway and surprised us by coming out.

The Paris Ice Cave was a highlight of the trip. It's not big, but it sure is fun!

Day 5 - Grand Tetons

 Desert Girl loved camping, especially since that meant she could make lots of messes (note that she is holding the milk bottle upside down!).

 Precious.

 Desert Boy needed some extra rest--note all the dirt on his face. We didn't quite see all that when we went to bed the night before!

 I figured the Grand Tetons would be kind of a rest day for the kids and me, and the kids agreed thoroughly. They didn't really want to hike. So my brother Ed found a good place to go hiking up into the high country for a couple hours, and we hung out near the trail head.

 I convinced the kids a little hiking might be okay, and we went a half-mile at a very slow place. Walking sticks were an important component of the hike.

 Going so slow gave us time to savor the little things, like this beautiful butterfly.

 I also took plenty of photos. (Yep, we finally did get him cleaned up!)

 And then we found the perfect beach for a little skinnydipping. The kids were ecstatic. They threw sticks into the water and then went and got them. It was a good thing we didn't have our dog Henry with us!

 On the way back, Desert Girl was in her jumping mode. She jumped more than she walked.

 I kept forgetting to take videos, but this still shows her in action.

 Sometimes the jumps don't go exactly as planned.

 We ended up with a little extra time, so my brother and I took turns riding a bike down the really nice bike trail from South Jenny Lake.

 When we got to the new visitor center (as of 2007), we looked at some of the exhibits. I'm not sure if the exhibit designers realized they were modeling some behavior.

 I must say that the kids understand teamwork!

 Desert Boy had been working on his junior ranger badge and he took the junior range pledge at the visitor center.

Then it was time to head to the surprisingly busy Jackson Hole airport to pick up my husband, who flew in to join us for the last few days of the vacation.

It was good to catch up with drinks and pizza and fantastic views of the Tetons.