Yellowstone Day 1

We planned our trip to Yellowstone on the Tetons almost a year in advance, and we planned it over Round-Up week in Lehi so we wouldn’t miss any baseball games in the City Tournament. Of course, we didn’t know then that rainouts would push the games back to Monday and Tuesday of our trip, and we didn’t know that Dax’s team would be in the final three and they’d need him to win. We also didn’t know that the Sunday we left would be Ward Conference and Dad would have to speak with President Webb. So Dax decided to miss his games and we decided to leave at noon after Church. Since we were doing the trip backwards from the usual way, that put us in the Tetons on the first night. We needed to be at the Bar J Chuckwagon by five-thirty.

Somehow we managed to get out of the Church, changed, and on the road before eleven-thirty, but we had to make a stop for lunch. Traffic was thick for a Sunday, but we didn’t slow down too much, and we stopped for a quick lunch at Wendy’s in North Ogden. We’ve always used the route through Logan, but Siri insisted that the shortest way to go was up through Idaho Falls and across the pass into Victor, Idaho. It took around five hours of driving time. We only made two stops after lunch: one for the bathroom at a rest stop, and one for square ice cream and gas in eastern Idaho at Rainey Creek Country Store in Swan Valley.

We stopped at the rest stop to go to the bathroom and there was a pretty view of the river. 

There was a line, but Mom was insistent on getting square ice cream. 

It was worth it!

As we pulled into the Bar J, we got a text from Stephanie saying she was in line. By the time we hugged her, Melanie texted saying she and her kids were looking at a moose on the chuckwagon’s road. After paying for our meals, we walked out and saw that moose on the first night. The boys were excited to cross it off their Bingo sheets along with the marmot, mallard, and chipmunk we’d seen along the way.

The moose was right on the road into the Bar J.

The kids were so excited. It was a great kick off to our trip!

Mom saved seats while the kids went to see the moose.
So later, Mom walked back with Mark and they found the moose heading into the trees.

After teaching the cousins a few card games, we were ready to eat. The meal was good as always. We got Seth ribs because he wasn’t going to eat any of the choices and we all got to try a few. Of course, there was plenty of food, and we went back for seconds. We enjoyed the show, too. This year they played a song called Uncle Noah’s Ark with goofy animal sounds, and we laughed until our sides hurt! We enjoyed it so much that we bought a new CD and got it signed by all the members afterward. 

We had two different games going on. 

These kids were hungry!

Everyone was excited for the show. 

The Bar J was as good as ever. We laughed and laughed.

It was an hour drive up to Colter Bay, but it was partially light until after ten o’clock. We pulled in about ten-thirty and got the kids settled in our favorite cabins by eleven. The next day we were ready to start seeing animals!