June 14th - Provo Utah
Since we were in Provo we had a lot to catch up on. I spent about 45 minutes fixing the blower motor in the van and got ready to meet up with Josh and Trevor and had lunch at Sensuous Sandwiches which was yummy. We made a stop at Costco and then went to Macy's where we got some Dole whips. Later on in the day we went to a splash pad in Alpine and the kids did not enjoy the cold water and screamed most of the time so we left and got ready for dinner at Jake and Kristi's. We were surprised on the size of their home in the Draper hills. It was massive. We had a wonderful meal that Jake made and enjoyed their hospitality.
After dinner we put the kids to bed and got ready to head out to get some ice cream at Brooker's near Orem. We had quite the company there, Josh, Chad, my good roommate Cameron, Brett and his wife Becca. The ice cream was good but the show was more entertaining with the employees dressed up in colonial clothing. We had a good time catching up and had a great time seeing one another, if only we could have stayed a little longer.
June 15th - Provo to Idaho Falls
We had a little bit of traveling to do but we weren't done with Provo just yet. We met up with Trevor for lunch and ate at 7 Brothers inside the Provo beach resort at the Riverwoods. The burgers there were large and amazingly tasteful. We also had to get some ice cream as it was a daily thing to do while on vacation and of course we had to go to Handel's in Orem. We were stuffed after all that food. We then made our way toward Idaho Falls but stopped at the Costco in Lehi to get gas and pick up more snacks. Chad wasn't working but we ran into my friend Lindsay and her two daughters randomly which was a fun surprise.
We finally drove the 3 1/2 hours to Idaho Falls and ate in town across from the Idaho Falls temple at Jalisco's. It was delicious and afterwards walked along the snake river and then made our way to Diane and Delyn's home. My uncle Delyn grew up in Idaho Falls so he gave us all the in's and out's of what there was to do around there. We had a lot to go see.
June 16th - Idaho Falls to Tetonia
My uncle Delyn had a sweet BMW M3 with a rare V8 motor that he let me drive around with him showing me a little bit of the local area. It was fast, smooth and exhilarating to drive. After 20 minutes we made it back to the house and headed out to get gas and explore a cool waterfall pouring into the snake river. We got some ice cream that scooped squares into cones from a gas station but it was still good. We then took a back road that took us to the main highway to go into Jackson Hole. We made our way to the ski resort and realized we were going to the wrong place to get some food so we backed tracked and went to Jackson to get some Bison Burgers. The restaurant we ate at was alright, it definitely didn't compare to the place we went to the first time we visited Jackson. After lunch we ran back to the ski resort and rode up the Gondola and walked around the upper lounge area. It looked like a fun place to ski and snowboard. We still wanted to get to Teton National Park and tried to go through a nearby entrance but the road to Jenny Lake was closed. We also found out Alyssa left her phone at the top of the Gondola so we called it and fortunately someone answered the phone and brought it down to us. We gave up on going to the Teton National Park this day and headed to Tetonia for our Airbnb. Alyssa was not happy we didn't get to explore the Teton National Park so we changed plans so we could go.
Our Airbnb was in the middle of some farmland and was a cool 3 story home. The owners lived on the top floor and we stayed on the second and first floors. It had an awesome view of the Teton mountains and felt pretty secluded. The hosts were great people and very friendly. They had a couple dogs that the kids definitely didn't enjoy because their barks would startle them but over all was a great place to stay.
June 17th Tetonia to Island Park
We had a long day since we changed plans to make it to the Grand Teton National Park. We left early and drove over the pass into Jackson and went through the right entrance where the road to Jenny Lake wasn't closed. On the way we stopped at the fish hatchery and got to see the one year old fish that would later be released in some of the lakes in the area. Once we got to Jenny lake we paid the admission to take the boat ride across the lake to go see the Hidden falls about a half mile hike from the boat dock. It was nice out since we had a heat wave come up. The rangers that lived in the area said that it was normally cloudy and cold at that time but with the heat wave burned off the clouds and cleared up the skies. After the hike we waited 40 minutes to cross back across the lake and another 2 hours to get to Yellowstone. The drive was pretty and slow and a little tiring but all we had planned in Yellowstone was to check out Old Faithful. We got to watch it go off three times in the time that we were in the area. The first time it went off it went the highest but we didnt get a great look because we were just pulling into the parking lot. The second time we just got a lot of mist and smoke in our way and the third time we watched from a new area which worked out great. Afterwards we checked out a couple other geysers then drove out the West entrance to Island Park.
Our Island Park Airbnb was like a little cabin resort. It was pretty cool to be honest. It had all the cabin vibe without all the woods part and had all the modern conveniences. The best part was the hot tub but unfortunately we didn't stay too long in it since Alyssa's sun rash was bothering her.
