Grand Teton, Yellowstone, Glacier and more!

Amid all of the craziness of Covid-19 we decided to take a vacation anyway!  Paul pretty much decided he needed to have some time away from work and the heat.  I was certainly willing to go along with him!  (School will be starting back up soon.)  So we planned some of it and winged some of it and it turned out to be a great get away to cool and beautiful places.  

We left Tuesday afternoon, July 22nd, and got home yesterday, Tuesday, July 28th, late in the evening.  We spent the night at Jay and Brynn's that night and then we were off to the Tetons.  We got to our hotel too early to check in (at Pinedale Wyoming), so we just changed our clothes in a roadwork garage along side the road and took off for Teton NP.  It was so breathtaking when we got there.  The huge peaks come straight up out of the Jackson Hole Valley - a geological thing caused by plate tectonic movement.  We saw all of the sites we had time to see that day,  including hiking to Hidden Falls and Inspiration Point - 5+ miles) and drove back to our motel very late that night in a rainstorm.  We ate dinner in the car along the way.  It was all so beautiful!  The next morning (Thursday) we got  up and went back to finish up in the Tetons by driving the park loop and picnicking along a side road that we had pretty much to ourselves.  We loved it!  (We went to Signal Peak and Mormon Row as well.)

Then we drove on the Yellowstone and decided to see a part of the park less traveled that we had never been to before - the West Thumb Geyser Basin.  It was really cool with lots of different kinds of geothermal things along the side of Yellowstone Lake - which is huge.  This was an area neither of us had ever seen.  We should have had more time planned for Yellowstone.  We drove part of a loop to see more things.  We loved seeing a little part from the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone - Upper Falls.  Some of that loop was closed for road construction.  Then we just had to drive by a lot of cool things to get back to our motel for the night.  Still, we loved what we did get to see there.  We'll just have to go back for more at some future date.  The rainbow on the way back to the motel was glorious!

Friday - this was a long day of driving to get over to our next activity - The Route of the Hiawatha - Scenic Rail to Trail bike ride.  It included All downhill 15 mile ride with shuttle back to top/10 tunnels and 7 sky high trestles...all through a beautiful mountain forest.  We drove to stay the night at Thompson Falls for the night.  It was again, a little bit far from our activity, but worked out very well.  The motel was pretty small, but we had good dinner at a little local joint sitting outside by the river to eat.  Afterward we walked a trail across the river to see a cool dam, fish ladder set up and just enjoyed a beautiful walk on an island in the river after a long day of driving.  

We got up early Saturday morning to drive over Thompson Pass to Lookout Pass across the border to Idaho to pick up bikes and get started on our ride.  We took our time and stopped at nearly every historical railway marker along the way.  We ate lunch at one stop and then finished up the ride in the early afternoon.  Oh, along the way over Thompson Pass we saw a moose alongside of the road.  It ran away too fast to be photographed.  Also, on the drive over we tried to stop in at the Sweets Palace in Phillipsburg, but it was such a popular tourist stop they were lined up and we didn't really want to stand in line with so many people.  Another time on that one.  The bike ride was so much fun!  Of course, downhill is always nice and it was that.  The forest was beautiful and the tunnels, especially the one that was just over a mile long, were really a cool (literally) experience.  Crazy dark in that super long one.  In some of the very short ones you didn't need a light, but most of the time you wanted to use your light.  The trestles were amazing - a little disconcerting being so high, but awesome.

  

After the ride we headed over to Kalispell, Montana for two nights. Along the way we enjoyed the hay fields and stopped to see this old Mission.  It's a cool town - we especially liked the beautiful old homes section near our motel and went for a walk one night to enjoy it.  

Sunday morning we got on our way early to go to Glacier.  We messed up our directions with Siri and ended up at the wrong park entrance after a long drive on a dirt road and had to backtrack to get to the right one. Other than that, it was a really beautiful day.  We had an APP that gave great tour directions at all of the parks.  We drove almost the whole Going To the Sun road (the end was closed for road work) and stopped off to do the Three Falls hike and the Hidden Lake hike (boardwalk section) and also stopped in at other beautiful things to see along the way.  We did the Trail of the Cedars too!  All amazing and beautiful.  We found a picnic spot along the river and warmed up chili and had good stuff to go with it for dinner and then headed back to Kalispell for another night.  

Monday was a driving day - and we stopped at Lava Hot Springs planning to go to the hot springs...but it was 92 degrees, so we opted to rent a river tube and did a couple of times down the little river in town.  It was so cool, refreshing and fun!  Then we were off to our motel in Montpelier...which was the worst of the trip, but the town did have a really cool round brick tabernacle.  Other than that, it was a depressing little dying town it seemed like.  

Tuesday we planned our route home with some backroad fun.  We drove through Paris Idaho to see their beautiful Stone/brick tabernacle and then to Minnetonka Cave.  It was really neat.  We had to wear a mask, but they had downed the group size for the tours to only 9 people, so that made it much easier to hear the guide and ask questions.  It was really great for us.  After that we drove to Garden City by Lake Bear Lake and had a very expensive, but good lunch complete with raspberry shakes.  And then it was time to head home...we did back roads, including the Mt. Nebo Loop, until Nephi and then hit it on I-15 to get home about 10:00.  

It was a great trip!  We also listened to some great books and to our Sunday Lesson along the way.  So glad we were able to do this last get away before I head back to school!  So fun to enjoy some couple time and just deciding along the way what to do for the last bit of the trip.  (PS -  We tried to work on our selfie skills, but sometimes we just didn't get it...and those are some of the funniest shots ever!)

 

One of those best ever days! Fun in the sun and water!

What a FUN day we had at Virgin Falls Park today!  Juge texted us and invited us to join them at the river for a water day.  Lou and Ferf and kids and I came to join the fun.  Others were invited, but couldn't make it.  It was perfect with only a few other people there, the water was just right and the sun was hot to keep us warm and wanting to be in the water.  We just relaxed and played and visited.  The kids had fun and learned to jump of the rocks into the water...even though they were pretty scared at first.  Even Torin and Zion took the leap!  And all of us ladies too.  Brady braved the big waterfall and I braved up and did it too...in my new inner tube. And it wasn't that bad at after all! That was a fun addition for everyone to play with.  Lou and Juge brought their little beach tents to keep stuff in...they were supposed to be for our Family Camp at the beach, so it was good to see them getting some use.  We stayed as long as we wanted to and everyone got along really well and we had SO MUCH FUN!!!

Happy #3 Kai!

Kai loves cars, trucks, machinery...he just loves stuff like that.  For his birthday part of Christie's plan was to have Paul take him for a ride on the forklift!  Well, of all days to do it, that's the day it broke down.  Paul was down at the yard loading some junk onto the truck so that Kai could ride to the recycling center and push the dump button on the the truck and see it dump and then push it again to put the dump back down.  And he was also going to let him take a drive on the forklift.  As Paul was loading up the truck the forklift made a terrible noise and a hose broke letting hydraulic fluid leak out all over the ground.  So the actual event was to drive to the recycling place and dump as planned.  Then we came back and Kai road on the forklift as they loaded it up onto the trailer to take it in to get fixed!  He didn't seem to mind either way!  This little guy is what I call our bonus baby.  Moss and Christie were "done" after Brenden and Eliza, but then Christie had a change of heart and Kai became our bonus baby.  And what a bonus he is! He's such a fun little guy!  And he has been such a joy to their family...and all of the family.  Happy #3 Kai!  So glad you are part of our family!

Happy Baptism Day Tahlia!

We had such a nice time going to Tahlia's baptism.  Only 20 people were allowed to attend the event.  She picked and chose and we were happy to be on the list of chosen.  When we got down to it, there were less people because of some getting sick and not knowing if it was Covid-19 and even if it wasn't they didn't want to come sick.  So it was a small, but loving gathering.  We also had such a nice time just being there to visit Jay, Brynn and girls.  We brought Sarai up with us and Sarai and Afton home with us (Afton rode up earlier with her mom).  On the way up we had fun taking a very long route to see some beautiful things we had been wanting to check out - Joe's Valley, Orangeville, Spring Town and going over and down the mountain to Ephraim.  It was an adventure with 26 miles of dirt road we hadn't expected.  But it turned out well and we loved seeing the beautiful valley's, mountains, reservoir and the old stone buildings in Spring Town.  When we got there it was a house full of girls having such fun playing together.  They played and played and for the most part got along famously.  After the baptism we had a little dinner - again small - before heading home.  It was nice to see some of Brynn's family at the baptism and after at the dinner.  Such nice people they all are!  Tahlia is a blessed little girl to have such a wonderful family to love and support her in her journey here on earth!  Happy Baptism Tahlia!  WE LOVE YOU!

He's here! Jem Kekahuaina Lillywhite!

Yea!  Here's some wonderful news amid all of the crappy news happening in the world right now!  Supe and Beacher's little guy made it here safe and sound, and Beacher did too.  I'm just going to copy Supe's birth announcement.  We are always excited to have these little ones join the family.  Jem makes #26!  Now we are even at 13 boys/13 girls!  And now we have 3 boys including Jem, Brenden and Kai who will carry the Lillywhite name forward for this part of the family!  We were sorry not to be able to at least be at the hospital or go there afterwards to see Jem and Beacher and Supe, but the Covid-19 keeps us at a distance for now.  So tiresome it is!!!  Birthday - Wednesday, July 8th, 2020. A little piece of heaven here with us!  

The Jem Child has arrived!  He was pretty dang good about it.  He let Kal sleep in till 7 am before starting contractions, only made her labor for 8 hours and push for 40 minutes.  Showed up on his due date, 2 days after Kal's birthday and 5 days before mine.  Kal was incredible.  She did it with no meds.  It was really hard at some points and she definitely reconsidered that choice but by then it was kind too late.  Watching her struggle made me feel supe helpless and scared.  Really hard to see someone you love much in pain and working so hard at doing something so unknown to us.  The nurses were really great tho and helped so much.  Then Dr. Lunt came and guided akal through the pushing so well.  It looked so hard!  Kal is the toughest person I know (like stupid amounts of pain tolerance and dedication) and to see or working that hard was really intense and emotional for me (and her obviously).  She did awesome and after 40 minutes he was here!  Supe white and slimy haha.  Some brown fuzz.  I thought his hands looked like chicken feet (which we've been feeding to Auri our dog lately).  But then he was able to go snuggle up with Kal and it was one of the coolest things ever!

 Both Kal and Jem are doing good now.  I think Kal maybe slept an hour last night but hopefully that will increase soon.  Dr. Lunt and Dr. Clark have both been by this morning.  Supe good guys!  Jem's full name is Jem Kekahuaina Lillywhite.  Jem is from To Kill a Mockingbird, one of our favorite books. Also named after the Jem trail, one of the best mountain bike trail of all time.  Kekahuaina is Hawaiian (Jem is 1/8th Hawaiian) it means Guardian of the land.  But no just like land as in a plot of land.  Like the land and people and animals and stuff.  PRetty cool we thought.  Kekahu is a famly name from Kal's side.

Jem weighed 55 lbs when born, but magically shrunk to 7 lbs. 10 ounces when they weighed him. Weird.  He is 20 inched tall. Or long.  He's pretty freaking awesome.  He like to eat a lot and poop lots of black stuff.  He hates it when I change his diaper and loves it when mom holds him.  Seems to be indifferent about me singing to him.  So glad Kal and Jem are here safe!  Love you. 😘😘

And here's Kal's report:

Jem decided he wanted to come right on his due date and be in on this week of birthday celebrations!! (Mom's is July 6th and Dad's is July 13th) I don't think he could've made it any easier for me during labor unless he just magically floated out, but I guess I can't be too picky, so heavens bless you baby haha.  Iam so grateful for Supe for being with me every step of the way.  Any brief moment he had to be away from me while I was laboring were the hardest for me.  I love you!!

And here's our report:

We got to meet Jem on Friday, July 10th.  We came with masks on and got to visit with the new parents and hold Jem.  He's a really cute little guy and looked so good for having just gone through that whole birthing process.  We are so happy to have him here with his mom and dad and good dog Auri!  She seems to be happy to have him as part of the family too!  We look forward to getting to know this little one and hope for a wonderful life for him!  He has come into this world during a really crazy time.  And I don't know...we are getting into lots of crazy times to come in the future it feels like.  I'm so happy he has wonderful parents to take care of him and teach him.  And we will leave it to them and Heavenly Father...and all of the rest of us who love him, to help him have that wonderful life we hope for with every child that comes to join our family.  

Today is July 19th.  And today is the day I got to hold Jem (without my mask on) and finally get a picture with him.  He's such a cutie all bundled up in his burrito wrap! 

Happy 4th of July - Falls Park river fun

It was so fun to finally get to go here and get into the water!  There were LOTS of other people there too.  We were all trying to stay cool and have a fun day.  I got to jump of the rocks and walk/float the river down to the bridge with Paul and Bean.  Instead of being satisfied, now I just want to go back and go further down the river!  In the evening lots of family came over for rootbeer floats and fireworks from the front lawn.  They shot them off from the Tech Ridge this year instead of in the stadium at the university...more fallout from Covid-19.  Either way, we had a nice view from out house, so we were fine with it.  And we had neighbors adding to the fun with their own fireworks.  Happy 4th of July!  (We also gave Beacher her b-day presents since we don't know when she's going to have this baby...so exciting; it's getting close!)

More Covid-19 and other crazy things

We needed to go to NM to pick up some rock to match another job that we are adding to.  We were excited to go so we could stay with Ross and Lerlyn again and enjoy going over the CO mountains and especially because we'd seen on-line that Ouray Hot Springs was opening up again.  We could stop for a swim en route at our all-time favorite swimming hole!  But it was not to be...when we got there people were lined up and in their swimming suits.  Paul went to the front to find out what the deal was and found out that you had to be ready to go because dressing rooms/lockers were on a very limited basis due to Covid-19.  OK.  So we went in crazy small bathrooms in the park and got changed.  Then Paul and Bean went to re-park the truck/trailer in a better place while I got in line.  After not very long they started letting people in and then there was an announcement - 50 people had been let in and that was all they were letting in for the next 2 hours.  This was at 5 pm-ish.  If someone came out early, others could go in, but otherwise you could wait and see if you could get into the next session.  They closed at 9 pm.  So, unfortunately unless you had called and listened to their message you could not have known this was the case.  We just saw it was open when we looked on-line. Not great communication of their policies.  So, we just headed on over the mountain to spend the night with Ross and Lerlyn.  We stopped at a park in Durango to eat dinner that we had brought in the ice chest.  Well, at least that way we had more time to visit that evening with Ross and Lerlyn.

I had a couple of interesting experiences while there that gave me pause to think about all of the social unrest that has been happening of late, amid the other unrest caused by Covid-19, because of a black man who was killed by police officers who held him down while handcuffed, one kneeling on his neck until he quit breathing (he kept telling the officer he couldn't breathe).  That has caused major protests through out the country, even the world, because of the way police treat black suspects.  Many of the protests have been taken over by rioters who caused a ton of damage destroying property, looting and even killing in the name of the peaceful protests.  It has not been good and seems to be getting very out of hand in many places with protesters calling for the police to be defunded and even saying that we should not have police.  I have read a lot of things, pro and con about the whole issue and can see that there are problems on both sides, but the way things are being handled is not helping to remedy the problem.  Some people are organizing and trying to effect changes in ways much more positive and sane.  But it's hard to keep a clear perspective in the middle of the mess.  

Then while we were on our little trip we ran into a experience of our own - well really it was Lerlyn's experience that she told me about.  I shared it with family and friends via Group me and on Facebook.  Probably shouldn't have shared it on FB, but it was interesting to see the responses.  Made me think.  Here's what I shared with family:

Group me:  We are on a rock trip and stayed with Ross and Lerlyn last night. In the evening talking she said she’d been working at the stone yard the other day (Lillywhite Stone) when a black man stopped in and proceeded to tell her they needed to change the name of their business. She said that it was a family business with the family name. He looked skeptical. She showed him their business card with Ross’s name and explained that it was an English name and quite common in England. He got it, but still wasn’t too happy and didn’t buy anything. Do we really need to give up our family name so as not to offend the tenderhearted fools?

Facebook:  Stopped by the old family business while on a rock trip. Paul’s brother runs it now. And guess what? Someone came in to tell them they should change the name because it was offensive. Is the word white now a reason to be offended? It’s a racist word now? Give me a break. Lillywhite Stone.

Pretty much everyone thought this was a crazy deal and that for a person to think they could demand such a thing was totally unreasonable.  One person pointed out that it was a great step forward from past history to have a black person think they could speak out in such a way without getting killed or otherwise in trouble, which is probably true.  But others said it still way out of line for someone to think they can demand such a thing in the name of being offended by it.  Someone told about a family member asking for "black coffee" and being rebuffed for using that word to describe coffee.  They were told they should say "plain coffee" so as not to offend.  So, it goes on in silly little skirmishes that really remedy nothing and just get people hot under the collar and cause more friction in a place where there's already enough friction.  Lawful and peaceful ways to effect change are what we need.

Next experience from Facebook post:

Came over to NM to get a certain kind of stone to match an existing job we are adding to. Had to go to the boonies to meet a guy and pick it up. Had some bad luck on the way back and made it to town just in time to run out of fuel in our diesel truck...and then noticed a tire going flat. Actually good luck that we made it to town. Bean and I walked not too far to get fuel, but needed to walk more to get a gas can. Couldn’t go inside to buy it because we forgot our masks in the truck. No way would they let us inside. But a kind security guard did buy it for us and then insisted on giving us a ride to get gas and then back to the truck. Paul had the tire changed by then. All those times Paul stopped to offer help if needed to those at the side of the road came back to our aid. Thanks to Shar the security guard at O’Reilly Auto Parts in Gallup, NM, for her kind heart. And remember your masks! Just a side note: we were 2 white faces in a sea of brown. I was feeling a little lost. Shar made us feel just like people who needed help. A good example to all.

So, in this experience I really got to feel how it is to be in the minority and needing help.  I tried to go into a grocery store next door to the parts store to get a gas can and the security guard there was absolutely unswayed by my telling him of our predicament.  He was following the law, but had no suggestions as to how we could get our gas can and get on our way.  He was actually pretty harsh, and maybe just a little more so because of my white skin it felt like.  

Here are some drive by and other shots of scenery on our way home via Page.  It was an OK trip, but not my favorite.  It was nice to visit with Ross and Lerlyn.  They are kind and generous hosts.  Bean seemed to have a good time on the trip too, even without the swim outing we were hoping for.