The Tetons-Nevada-Liberty Jail

I picked up Shanna and Lee about 11:30pm. The other kids were settled at the hotel and we had a lot of fun watching the summer Olympics. We left early that morning and stopped at Wall Drug!  So fun. It's been years since I've been here and we've never stopped with our kids before. 

Next stop Custer State Park!  Motorcycle heaven in the summer. So fun to see all the bikers. 

We were here for a few hours.  Loved going through the Needles Eye Tunnel. 

We did a fun hike out to the Cathedral Spires. 

We enjoyed berries along the trail. 

Next stop: a drive to see the buffalo.  Wow and did we see them!  

With the buffalo all over the road and people not moving, we were stuck.  We finally turned around and took a side road in the state park. 

We wanted to see the begging burros.  We saw a couple!

The groundhog didn't want to be missed either. 

We've seen Mt. Rushmore twice with our kids...this being the second time.  It is also the second time we did a drive by haha. 

Our final scenic destination for the day...yep, this was all in one day, Devil's Tower! 

After a fun view, we headed down to a picnic area for dinner. 

We spent the night in Gillette, Wyoming and had fun watching the Olympics again. Another early morning to our day trip at the Tetons.  

First, we had to walk from our car to the hike area.  The parking was completely full.  So a little hike before the hike. 

We hiked around String Lake. 

We were able to repark by Jackson Lake and eventually all of us went swimming and jumped off the rock that you'll see below. 

We drove around a little bit and then took off for Teton Village.  We stayed at The Hostel that night. It wasn't a true hostel, as we had our own "hotel" rooms. Since we had an extra person than was planned originally they made us get another room which was a bit painful.  But we landed on a room for just me and Lee so that was nice.  The Hostel had free hot chocolate and a common area in the basement.  You could relax by a fire, watch TV, play pool or games, or eat. Definitely a hostel vibe in the basement. 

We drove to Jackson Hole for dinner at Bubba's BBQ. Shanna spilled some water which we were laughing about. And then I tried to help her and my cuff knocked over my cups. Oops!

Lee and Haley getting the bikes ready for the ride tomorrow! 

The rooms were really cute. 

Love rooms with built-in bunk beds.  They seem so cozy.

Free hot cocoa!  Not the best, but it was fun to have a little. 

Time to head to the bike ride. Ahhh, beautiful view! 

We headed out on our bike ride.  Mentally I wasn't prepared for the first half. I didn't realize it was up a gravel road. I thought we were riding to the trail, but the road kept going and going. I found out the the road was part of the ride. We were slow going but finally made it up.  I liked the actual trail riding much better. 

We made it back to The Hostel.  Time to shower, check out and eat ramen. 

What's funny is while we were in the Tetons. so was Clark. He was camping on the other side with his friend Elise and her family for her family reunion.  We never saw him though as it didn't make sense with our plans, or really his either. We drove to Provo in the desolate western terrain and made it to Provo about 5-6 hours later. We hit up the bookstore of course!

After meeting up with Clark at Walmart and going to Costco and his apartment, we ate dinner at Quiero Mas.  Yummy!  And it was so fun to see Clark's apartment too. 

That night we enjoyed ice cream at Clark's apartment, courtesy of me and Lee haha. Joseph was in town so we he came with some friends. Roger, Sharon and Riley and Lexi came too.

We loaded Clark up and headed to Ely arriving in the wee morning hours. When Lee and I switched about 2am an hour outside of Heber City we saw amazing stars. Thankfully church was at noon! 

Lee's nephew Tyler is married to Annelise and she made all these cookies.  WOW!  She's so talented.  She made them for "Arts in the Park", a festival in Ely with booths and such. These were the leftovers and we enjoyed eating them over the next several days. 

It was Grandma Robertson's birthday that Sunday so fun to celebrate. 

Before the celebration, we drove around after church doing a little tour of Ely. 

Tyler's daughter Sophia makes earrings and Haley picked these out. So cute! Sofia also sold her earrings at Arts in the Park. 

Always great talking to Elder Robertson!

Monday we rented UTVs. There is a place in Ely that you can rent from and they delivered them to Ward Mountain Campground which was also awesome. We got a site there for the day, even though we didn't camp. We had it in case we needed a base for the day, which we didn't. The kids had a lot of fun driving them. Elden did an awesome job with his driving. It was freaky riding with the other kids....haha. They were a bit more crazy.

We got a bit dirty and enjoyed some great scenery. Lynn and Marv came with us and took us on a ride. It was nice having guides.  Carl and Susan were camping as well and it was fun having them too!

Dinner at the campground!

Tuesday....Since Nathan is the mayor I used his connection to get us free tickets on the Ely train.  Lee's parents came along too. 

It was a bit bumpy and warm, but fun to go on the train. 

That afternoon we did a bike ride starting at Ski Hill outside of Ely. Lee's dad came with us so he could drive the suburban home and we rode all the way back to Lee's parent's house. 

I went too!

It was a very fun ride!

We made it!

Time for a treat at Economy Drug. Lee's parents were so kind and treated all of us. 

Another trip to Nathan's garage!  Clark wanted to see the cars. 

That night we drove outside of Ely to see the stars (We had another group dinner at Ward Mountain Campground as Lynn, Marv, Paul, Cindy, Carl and Susan were all camping there.) Wow. Gorgeous! We were pretty tired, but it was worth it. 

We got up early the next morning so Lee, Shanna and Haley could catch their flights home from Las Vegas. But first, the Ward Mountain Charcoal Ovens. I've heard about them, but never been. I'm glad we made the stop!

We got Lee and the girls dropped off at the airport. They had a crazy flight home. Their flight was so delayed in Vegas, that it missed their connecting flight in Charlotte. Once they arrived in Charlotte the airlines gave them vouchers for food and a hotel. Sadly they didn't get home till the next day, which threw off Lee's schedule and making Haley even later for marching band camp (she missed the first few days because we were in Nevada.) When they were doing the food vouchers just Lee and Shanna received them. Lee had a bit of a hard time getting one for Haley because Haley had a separate booking. But the airline ended up giving her one. 

We needed to bring Clark back to Provo and going through St. George we stopped to see my mission president and his wife. Dean & Elaine Christensen.  It was so fun to say hi to them! 

We then stopped at my Aunt Anna Lee's house. It was great to say hi to her.  She's always so sweet loading us up on snacks too. 

We slept at Roger's house that night. Clark had left his car there so he drove home the next morning. We left in the early morning and headed to Missouri. 

Little America!  Elden didn't want an ice cream cone. He missed out because the next Little America's machine was broken. No ice cream on that stop....

Dinner in Nebraska at the hotel!  More olympics!!!

Shanna did some work at the office

I think it was much worse, but she did a great job cleaning this up!

The next morning we did about a 2 hour drive to Liberty, Missouri to see the Liberty Jail. We've been there before but I was glad we could go again. It's nice doing church history stops throughout the summer. Sobering place. So sad what the early church members had to go through because of their religion. But what strength came from their trials. Joseph Smith felt abandoned. This is what Christ told him in Section 122 of The Doctrine and Covenants:

7 And if thou shouldst be cast into the pit, or into the hands of murderers, and the sentence of death passed upon thee; if thou be cast into the deep; if the billowing surge conspire against thee; if fierce winds become thine enemy; if the heavens gather blackness, and all the elements combine to hedge up the way; and above all, if the very jaws of hell shall gape open the mouth wide after thee, know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good.
8 The Son of Man hath descended below them all. Art thou greater than he?
9 Therefore, hold on thy way, and the priesthood shall remain with thee; for their bounds are set, they cannot pass. Thy days are known, and thy years shall not be numbered less; therefore, fear not what man can do, for God shall be with you forever and ever.

We made it to Stephanie's in Indiana!

Nighttime pool jumping.

This is what I drove! 

We made it home!  I met Darrell in Maryland to drop off Eric. It was fun having him along.

Fireworks!

Haley's homemade pretzels are sooo yummy!

Great trip!!!  So thankful the Chevy made it the whole way with no other mishaps. So thankful we could see God and Christ's beautiful creations and be with family. Wonderful trip. Nice to be home too.