Wedding Weekend Away

My cousin's son got married at the end of August outside of Dallas. The wedding was on a Friday {and kids weren't invited}, so Brent and I got away for a couple of days sans kiddos! We went up Thursday and stayed in an amazing hotel in Ft. Worth and had dinner with my cousin, Hagan, and her husband, Clay.

Driving up!

Not a shabby view for a Thursday afternoon

We ate at one of Hagan and Clay's favorite restaurants 

{where they had their rehearsal dinner!}, Joe T. Garcia's. It was delicious!

    The bride and groom!        

                   

We're cute when we get all dressed up! {grin}

When you twin with your cousin!

We had a blast with family but of course didn't get a picture all together, boo

We rented a house with my parents, my aunt and uncle, and my sister's family. They brought their kids because their babysitters were with us, ha.

Visiting after the wedding.

We got up at the crack of dawn on Saturday to make it home for the kickoff of college football, but we had a great time away!

Jackson Hole Part 2

On day 3 in JH, we took a scenic river float down the Snake River. This was everybody's favorite activity. It was a very relaxing trip, our guide was knowledgeable and so friendly, and the kids enjoyed themselves immensely. Highly recommend! All 3 kids got in the water - it was SO COLD!!

We saw so many bald eagles!

We went back into the downtown area of Jackson Hole and ate at Roosevelt's. The food was good - the kids voted it as their favorite restaurant.

Our last full day in Jackson Hole was spent in Yellowstone. It was a 2-hour drive to get into the park, then we were in the park for probably 6 hours, and then a 2-hour drive home. It was a long day but oh so memorable! There were so many gorgeous geysers to see - I didn't realize there were so many in Yellowstone. I found an itinerary online and we followed that somewhat - it was a 12 hour itinerary that went around both loops of the park, we only did the South loop. We came in through Montana, so the kids {and parents!} were able to check another state off our list.

The kids kept commenting on how stinky the geysers were. Yes, that's what sulphur smells like, ha! We all were also surprised at how BLUE the water was - some of the pools you just wanted to jump in and swim!

Unfortunately our timing was off to be able to see Old Faithful go off {we drove by it maybe 10 minutes after it had gone off and didn't want to wait over an hour to wait for it}. 

We also drove around Yellowstone Lake which is the largest lake at that elevation. It was also just gorgeous!

There were places to stop along the way to get food or gas. Restaurants, convenience stores, souvenir shops, they definitely know how to make money! We stopped and got snacks and picked out some souvenirs and moved to Hayden Valley where we hoped to see wildlife. Brent really wanted to see some animals, but we didn't have high hopes given we were driving through in the afternoon and there is usually more activity at dawn and dusk.

We hit the jackpot though and saw buffalo!!! We saw some herds and then also a few crossing the road - so cool! The kids loved it!

Our last stop was the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone at Artists Point and Inspiration Point to see the Upper and Lower Falls. SO GORGEOUS!!! It was neat since we have also been to the Grand Canyon and being able to compare it. Nature is just awe-inspiring.

Our last stop was Artist Paintpots and the kids were just over it, but Brent went with me on our last little geyser adventure.

Our last day, we had time to kill from checkout until the airport, so the kids voted for lunch and picked to return to Roosevelt's - they loved the pretzel bites, ha.

View from around the corner of our house!

More gorgeous pictures from Drew!

We got home late at night after a great vacation and had a few days to enjoy before starting school and getting back into our routine!