Monday 3rd July

We woke up knowing today would be a long day. We had to leave Gainesville drive through Atlanta, tackle Atlanta airport on the day before the 4th July, fly to Jackson, sort a rental car and check into a new hotel in the dark.

All the boys wanted to do was swimming. Swimming happened, but before that a gym workout!

Mummy decided to get the boys on the running machines. Both boys did amazing after some coaching from Mummy.

Then onto swimming as Mummy reorganised the suitcases. The swimming pool was cold, but the boys wanted to practise their dive bombs.

As we left the hotel, Daddy noticed Category 2 Tropical Storm on the local news. More about that later. We hit the road for a 1hr drive to Atlanta.

The drive to Atlanta was mental. Someone decided that you needed to drive through the middle of Atlanta to get the airport. Seven lanes people driving like crazy people. Daddy wished we were back in South Carolina on the country roads, to take him home.

Moving the suitcase trolley through Atlanta airport. We met a lovely man from Delta who didn’t care that our suitcase was too heavy to even lift onto the scales. He shared the weight across the group and told the boys about his badges.

We had one of the worst flights (turbulence wise) into Jackson. Daddy hasn’t been on a flight that bad, it turned out there was a tropical storm over Georgia and the Rocky Mountains causing fun. The boys didn’t even notice, Mummy and Daddy have more grey hairs.

Landed into Jackson was a once in a lifetime experience. The most picturesque airport we have ever seen.

The famous Antler archway!

We were relieved to be on the ground, but anxious about the rental car. Mummy sprinted off to the Alamo desk and started sweet talking our friend Hector.

Team Hunter seemed to be winning, until we got the boys in bed and realised we left one of the bags at the airport! It was a gym bag and the only one without an AirTag. Luckily the airport is only 15mins away so we will be heading back there in the morning.

Both boys asleep in car on the way home and carried into bed. We are now in Mountain Time so blogs may arrive at later times!

Tuesday 4th July

Happy 4th!

We had a tasty breakfast, Nate said the deer on the wall was made of antlers, conkers and lights.

We collected our lost bag from the airport along with a can of bear spray (we are in Grizzly country now) and headed back to the centre of Jackson to catch the 4th July parade.

The Americans know how to do patriotism and today we had that with a side of French fries (not chips otherwise you get tortilla chips).

The boys loved the parade as it was basically a sweet fest. The best parts of Halloween. They just stood there and sweets (candy) were hurled at them at varying speeds.

We collected so many sweets, they resorted to storing them in Elliott’s hat.

Couple of our favourite moments from the parade.

These guys from the Jackson Ski lift who just resorted to spraying the entire crowd at close range with water guns.

Nate some how finding a dog during the parade.

Elliott got a fireman’s hat from the nice folks at the Jackson Hole Airport

Once the parade had finished, what was lovely was just walking the streets and seeing everyone spending time together. Jackson seems to be a very bike friendly place and lots of people had kids on there bikes.

We had a quick stop at the playground, then into Jackson town square to see the sights and grab the all important ice creams from Moo’s!

Moo’s was a smash hit with the boys and honestly some of the biggest ice cream cones we have ever seen! We decided it wasn’t as good as Kelly’s from Orlando, but certainly a top five contender.

Huge Bear

We didn’t have any solid plans for the day, so we decided to do some shopping and looking around the many great, boutique shops in the Town Square.

We ventured into a hunting and outdoor store. Ground floor contained your standard tents, bags and clothing. Second floor…

It’s only when you see this out on show that it gives you a chilling reminder about the gun culture here. We are in a state (Wyoming) where you need to be 21 to own a gun. You can carry a gun in a car, you can carry a gun nearly everywhere except jail. This state has the 2nd highest gun ownership in the USA. It gave us a shift reminder that guns aren’t going anywhere soon.

After the gun shop, we headed into a few cowboy outfitters for some cute photos.

We headed over to CVS to get some cream for Elliott’s face (just some hydrocortisone as the edge of his mouth is a bit sore), then a trip to Albertsons! Which had some interesting items.

We headed back to the Town Square for the annual shootout!

We met possibly the nicest policeman on the way. He answered the boys many questions “What’s the difference between your guns?” “What are those keys” and “How much does that gun hurt baddies?”

He also gave the boys Junior Police badges and a whole bunch of stickers. If all the policemen are like P.Jacobson then Jackson Hole is a lucky place.

We got a place outside Wells Fargo and settled down for the upcoming Jackson Hole Shoot Out that has been happening on the 4th July for the last 60 years.

Guns even with blanks are loud and scary.

The shootout ended with a sing-a-long to Ghostriders in the Sky

We had tickets for the sold out Jackson Hole Rodeo! Lots of USA flags, cowboy hats and competitions to win water bottles.

We started well by jumping the main queue and confusing the lady on the gate. One queue had 50 people and the other had 2 people, no clue why. We backed out of the queue and found some seats, two rows from the front.

We stood for our the national anthem. We had impressive patriotism from the announcer. They also stood up all the military veterans and gave them a round of applause.

Impressive to watch, but the risk of injury was constant. We kept watching and hoped no one would get hurt. Luckily nobody did.

The rodeo was paused to announced that someone had lost their Visa card. The announcer said he would be booking flights if the card was unclaimed.

The announcer asked “Anyone from outside the USA?” Faint cheers from us and a few Chinese people, the announcer continued “And we are not talking about California!” Mega cheers!

The boys started to fall asleep after the barrel racing, so we headed off 30 mins before the end. We watched the end of the “craziest fan” competition and headed home.

We were so glad we did, as the car park completely full and would have taken an age to get out. Imagine trucks, cars and large motor homes parked back to back.

The boys watched the fireworks from the room and then bed.

Wednesday 5th July

Our baby is seven! Where does the time go? But having your 7th birthday in Jackson Hole, Wyoming is one Elliott won’t forget.

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The Daddy wake up call was 05:15, Daddy sang Happy Birthday half asleep and went back to sleep. The birthday boy started on his mountain of wonderful cards and presents.

Quick breakfast before we headed to the Craig Thomas Discovery & Visitors Center inside Grand Tentons National Park.

We grabbed our America The Beautiful pass and some worksheets for the boys to earn their Junior Ranger badge. The scenery continues to be amazing.

Everywhere looks like a Bob Ross painting.

We started the birthday hike along the Taggart Lake Trail which at 3 miles, would be our longest trail yet.

Another issue is we are in Grizzly Bear territory and those things don’t play around. We have bear spray but we kept on trying to stay closer to groups. The trail was quite busy so that was good news.

We saw Bear scat (the Americans use that instead of poop) along the trail, but luckily no bears. The boys started collecting stones along the way.

We were making great progress until Injury Number 7 happened. This time Daddy! Rolling his ankle on the crazy rocks along the trail.

Daddy walked and hopped off, probably a mistake as the ankle is now very swollen. Lots of free flowing rivers before we arrived at the lake.

We arrived at the Lake ahead of the man with two small children and the blowup stand up paddle board. Breathtaking views!

One thing we hadn’t accounted for was fish. There were large and small fish swimming freely in the lake. The water was like glass and so clear it almost looked fake.

Elliott was convinced he could caught a fish with his handed. He started to sneak up, change direction and alter his technique. A random man told him catching catching sleeping catfish but not these fish.

We spent a little too long at the lake, and needed to rush back quickly change before we headed to Bar T5 Covered Wagon and Cookout

We jumped into our wagon D where our guide Emma set us off. Emma grew up in Jackson, and seemed to be half playing a character and half actually being a bit ditsy. The horses works one day on and one day off.

Chris the owner called Daddy “London” and told us we won the prizes for the longest travel. Daddy told Chris it was Elliotts birthday and Chris told London that he would call Elliott up when the show starts!

Nate took his brownie and placed it inside the bread roll and proclaimed a brownie sandwich. We are unsure if he is the new Heston or a mad four year old.

There was an interesting mix of people at the cookout. 50% arrived on a bus tour all apparently from Florida. There were two or three very large groups of Amish families and us from England.

The boys were lucky enough to sit at the front and help steer the horses back. They were also the only children in the wagon who asked questions and showed some interest.

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We headed back after another long and exhausting day. Daddy iced his ankle, Mummy packed the suitcases and the boys played with their Legos. Another day of making life long memories together.

Happy Birthday Elliott our bright spark! Keep shining and lighting up everyone’s lives with your kindness and love – we are so proud of you!

Thursday 6th July

Time to leave Jackson! We had more to see but the ankle sprain needed a bit more time to heal, so we cut down the hikes and chilled a bit.

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We started the morning with breakfast and a chat with a man from Hawaii. He told Daddy that he made his money from the jewellery business and retired at 30. Daddy learned that his wife is the top tennis coach in Hawaii, his house was worth $1.7m and what his daughters were doing for work. Quite a one way conversation but his phrase “I work six Saturdays and a Sunday” made Daddy laugh.

Elliott wanted a birthday swim that we did before we headed off to get a shot of the Grand Tetons sign.

Due to the ankle and Mummy not feeling 100% we decided that heading to Jenny Lake for a chill and letting the boys play in the lake.

The boys had a great time just jumping from rock to rock, the water at Jenny Lake was crystal clear due to being a glacial lake.

We met some Americans who thought the boys were Australian, but we just watched as people swam, fished and kayaked on the lake.

We were jumping on rocks, when out of the bushes a bear standup paddle board appears and went straight into the water. The man who owned the paddle board Ilya would provide the boys with one of the highlights of the trip.

Elliott started asking Ilya a million questions. Ilya was a mix of chilled out surfer and confused by the constant barrage of questions. The questions moved onto what is the paddle? Can we touch the paddle board? Where are you going next?

“Do the boys want to try?” OMG YES!

We started but just going to those rocks. The boys absolutely loved it and didn’t want to get off. Ilya asked if they wanted to carry on.

At this point, we thought they were done, but boy were we wrong, they were only getting started!

Both jumped up and started standing! Next they wanted some paddle action.

Ilya brought them both back safely, we thanked Ilya for being so kind. Elliott asked Ilya “Where are you going now?” and Ilya replied “Wherever the water takes me”

We waved goodbye to Ilya and continued to explore Jenny Lake.

The water is crystal clear!

We packed up and headed out of Grand Tetons and moved into our next hotel. This one is inside the National Park and is a cabin in the woods.

It the only hotel we have stayed in that has a requirement to call reception if a bat or mouse is in your room!

We sang Happy Birthday to Elliott and eat the $3.99 doggy cake that he picked from Albertsons.

As Colter Bay has a marina, camp ground, lake and restaurants there was a lot to explore. Approaching 17:00 is a great time for a swim in a glacial lake right?

Elliott found a giant log with his American friends Gunner and Graham (yes, actual names) and started work on building a canoe.

Daddy asked Elliott what he was doing and Elliott said “Daddy I’m off to explore America”

Nate was happy to sit and reflect, then got bored and started throwing stones at a tree stump.

We saw Nate’s dream car on the way out

Mummy has been keeping us healthy by peeling carrots in hotel rooms!

We have a 5am alarm tomorrow to start exploring parts of Yellowstone.