Grandma Camp

Weston had camps planned this summer to keep him busy while his parents were at work. One of those weeks wasn't filled with camp so mom was going to keep him for half the week and his grandma Connie was going to keep him for the other half of the week. Mom had asked if Emmy would want to come too. So, we joked that Emmy and Weston attended Grandma Camp that week. I think they had a blast and probably wore mom out with all their energy. They swam in Steph's pool, cooked, did crafts, went to the park, and picked mulberries. I think Emmy would sign up for Camp Grandma Jody in a heartbeat for next year. 

 

Firework Tent Camp

Bryce and Caleb went to Norfolk on June 25, to help set up the firework tent and run it for the season. Abby and Emmy also went for a couple days to help and to hang out with Grandma and Grandpa. Robb and I jokingly called it firework camp. It was great! The kids went away for the week, they got to see their cousins, Aunt and grandparents, they learned work ethic, it was free and they got paid to do it. It was a win win as far as we were concerned. I did feel a little guilty that this was the first full week that Bryce could drive on his own and we made Bob manage all of that. Bryce did say that driving in Norfolk did make him a little more comfortable with driving overall. Caleb, Abby and Emmy worked the morning shift and Bryce worked the afternoon shift. Bryce again was responsible for coming up with the daily deals and staffing. Caleb was the selling king! The owner of Fly By Night Fireworks, tried to steal Caleb away from Ginger on numerous occasions. Andie (girl Andie) came again this year to work the tent too. Brook was more preoccupied with her boyfriend this year, so the girls stayed with Bob and Susie along with Andie. Abby and Andie spent all their free time on the mule, driving it around the property until they had made a visible trail. Andie also managed to positively impact Emmy's music choices and after the week at the firework tent, she decided Journey was her favorite band. It sure beats some of her other choices. Abby was in charge of making the signs and she also had keychains, cups, koozies and coasters that she sold at the tent. The boys stayed in Norfolk for the entire time that the tent ran, and the girls would go back and forth when Bob made trips to Lincoln. 

Caleb's best quote of the season. "Hurry and find that firework, drunk people have a short attention span for me to make this sale." He's not wrong. I'm pretty sure he loaded up $700+ in some drunk guy's pickup that definitely wasn't even worth $700. 

Andie convinced Emmy and Abby that they wanted to go to a tractor pull. They asked me to take them but I didn't want to so they asked Grandpa and he was too nice to say no. 

Cruising on the mule.

Not only did we make Bob supervise Bryce his first week driving by himself, we also tasked him with taking Caleb to Madison to drive for his driving test to get his license. He had tried at Wilber a couple times and his nerves got the best of him both times. We decided that maybe a new person and a new town would provide that fresh start. It paid off and Bob and Caleb got his license. Whew! We have 2 drivers in the family. Watch out!

 

Day 4 of Vacation- Jenny Lake

Jenny Lake was one of the more popular attractions that we planned to go to. We got there mid-morning, and it was already packed! We got in line to take the ferry across to the hiking trails. We waited in line a fair amount of time, but it wasn't terrible. Once you get across the lake there are miles and miles of beautiful hiking trails. Caleb is not a hiker, so he had taken his fishing stuff and was going to find a place to fish. We hiked to Inspiration Point which was a way up there! When we came back down the trail and got Caleb, the plan was to take the ferry back across, but the line was now ridiculously long and was a 2+ hour wait. Lutz's don't do lines that are that long! You could hike it; it was just a bit of a hike. Maybe the understatement of the year. It was a really really LONG hike. Emmy was a trooper because I was wishing someone could carry me and I am an adult. Caleb, who hates hiking was not very amused by the length of the hike. It was pretty but it was also pretty LONG. When we got done, we ate our lunch at the car because we were all starving. We are big on packing lunches and making our own suppers for a couple reasons. 1. We are cheap and this is a way to save money. 2. It is always a toss-up whether or not you will be able to find something safe for Abby to eat. Next, we headed to String Lake. This was much more secluded and didn't have the touristy feel that Jenny Lake did. It was nice outside but not overly hot and not warm enough for most of us to want to get in the water, but we did get the paddle board out. It was really neat to be out in the middle of the lake and be able to see to the bottom and see fish swimming under you. I took a nap on the beach, and we all took turns paddle boarding. It was the perfect end to this vacation. There are always moments when we are planning or executing these vacations that we wonder what in the world are we doing but looking back on all of our vacations, I wouldn't trade those memories for anything! 

Paddle boarding on string lake. The water was so clear.

Robb always wears this hat when we go on vacation or trips. We all took turns taking pictures with his hat on just to be funny.

That night we went into Jackson, WY to eat at a pizza place that Robb and Caleb had seen on Diners, Drive In's and Dives. Robb really likes that show and he tries to hit as many of these places as he can when we travel or when he travels for work. The Pizza Place was called Pinky G's and it was a bit of a dive. The pizza was delicious, and the bonus was that they had gluten free pizza for Abby. It was a win all around.

We have to give Bryce a hard time! I made him take this picture and some couple walking down the sidewalk started laughing, then we started laughing. Oh, my gut disaster child.

 

We Made it to the Grand Tetons

The Grand Tetons destination was always part of the vacation plan, but it became a bigger part of the vacation when Yellowstone never did reopen while we were there. We stayed at this nice cabin at the base of the mountains. This cabin was much nicer and more spacious, but it didn't have hiking out the front door. The guy that owned this Air BNB lived right next door. It was a little odd, but it was also helpful to find out all the places that we should see. 

It was a little chillier here at the base of the mountains. We decided to go for an evening hike, even though I was scared of bears. Robb had a place in mind, but we drove through questionable roads for my van and as we got to the trail head it started to rain little pellets of snow. None of us were dressed to hike in the snow or rain so we drove around looking at things and when the snow stopped, we got out and hiked a bit. Who would have thought that it would snow on your summer vacations?

We found a pile of snow. It's pretty crazy that this hasn't melted yet!

 

Wyoming Trip Day 3

This morning we packed everything up and it was time to move to our next destination. We liked this little cabin with beautiful views, but water situation and the 1 bathroom was killing us. We decided to stop at Hot Springs State Park on the way to Grand Teton National Park. This park was exactly what we needed to break up the 4-hour drive. It was beautiful and unlike anything we had ever seen before. It also smelled terrible but if you could get past that it was pretty.

Caleb was determined he could catch a fish with his hands. I think he did before we left there.

They had a large extension bridge or shakey bridge as we call it. Thankfully, I walked on it with other people so the kids couldn't be ornery and scare me. Once the other people were off they were running and jumping on it to make it shake even more.

Caleb took this really neat picture. The hot springs had made layers of salt and sediment over the years.

The adventurous hikers went up this steep spot to see the views.

This cave like thing was made by erosion over time. We walked down in there. It was pretty impressive.

 

Cody, Wyoming Day 2

We had planned to do a float trip so that we could see more of the scenery. They assured us that this trip was family friendly, and they didn't have any concerns about an 8-year-old going. They put an extra guy in our boat just because Emmy wasn't big enough to paddle. 

I started out pretty uneventful. We were asking the extra guide (Christian) how often he did this and how long he had lived here. He told us he typically rode bulls in the nightly Cody Rodeo. He apologized for being quiet, he said that he had rode 11 nights in a row and he was just tired. Our other guide was nice enough but not personable at all. As we got farther down the river there started to be areas where you actually had to paddle kind of hard. Christian and I switched places at one point just to even out the strong paddlers because Abby was struggling a little. A couple minutes after we switched spots we got to a spot where the water was running pretty fast, and we were instructed to paddle hard through the small rapids so that it didn't push us around it. Well, that failed, and we got tossed to the side of the rapids and were up against the bank running into all the tree branches. Caleb was up front and was able to duck and paddle. Abby was freaking out a bit and rightfully so. She was getting hit in the face over and over again by branches. She eventually had to just put her head down and the guide sitting by Emmy shoved her to the floor to keep her from getting hit. It was scary. At one point Christian tried to push off of the bank and fell backwards into the water. The raft kept going and the other guy got us stopped and pulled us up on the shore. Christian had stood up at one point so we figured he had just walked to the bank and would make his way over to us. The guide kept yelling for Christian and I started to get really nervous for him. Finally, our guide walked on the bank around the trees, and we couldn't see him for what seemed like forever. At this time, we were all pretty shook up with what just happened. Finally, the guides came walking back and Christain was holding his arm which was at an odd angle. The poor guy had broken his arm when he tried to push off. The force then threw him out of the raft and into the water. He stood up and the rapids pulled him back under and he hit his head. He wasn't in the best condition when he got back to the raft. Both guides sat there for a minute trying to decide what to do now. We told them that we didn't care about the experience and just wanted Christian to get the care that he needed. They informed us that the pick-up area was the only area that was accessible by a road, and we would need to make it to that point. Christian took the lead position in the back and the other guide became a paddler on the side. At this point it became very evident that Christian was the experienced guide, and the other guy was new and may have even been training. Things went smoothly the rest of the way with Christian as the guide. We finally got to the meeting place and the van driver helped us get ourselves and the boat out. Poor Christian would not be riding bulls that night. He headed to the hospital with a broken arm and possible concussion. It was for sure a memorable float trip!

Beautiful views!

 

Cody Wyoming Vacation Day 1

Our cabin in Cody, Wyoming was nothing special, but the views were fabulous. There was hiking right outside the front door. We were all excited to explore the area, with the bear spray of course. Robb and Bryce were the most adventurous. They hiked to the highest place they could. Caleb isn't a hiker and he stuck around the cabin looking at things. The girls and I "hiked" a bit, but we tended to go horizontal and not vertical. Emmy did decide that she wanted to hike up, so Bryce and Robb helped her.

Happy Father's Day Robb!

We went to the Dam to explore. I had to take a picture of Bryce by the brown trout because until you ride in the car with Bryce you don't really understand how gassy a person can be. He was full of hot and stinky air that he was more than happy to rip during our car ride. Emmy at one point said, "I think Bryce needs to see a doctor". Yep, it was that bad. Sorry Bryce you got a blurb in the book about your gas, but you made us all put up with it for 12 hours.

The dam was pretty impressive, and they had recently gotten a lot of rain, so the water was running faster than it normally did.

Bryce and I are scared of heights and Emmy was making him really nervous by leaning on this railing. He kept telling her to get down, so she didn't die.

We had to make all new plans since Yellowstone was still closed. We went into Cody and rented a large ATV that fit our entire family and headed out on a half day of trails. We thought we were going to be gone a max of 3-4 hours. We had already eaten lunch, and everyone had their water bottle with them, so we were good to go. It was odd in the fact that you had to drive your ATV to where the trails started which was a little way away on the highway. The ATV had GPS that mapped out the trails. We were slow at first because the trails were a little steep and washed out. I felt like this might be the longest ride ever when I was scared 15 minutes into it. Caleb thought it was great, but he was upset that he didn't get to drive at all. 

We stopped frequently at first to see all the sites and hike up some cool areas. We saw a lot of Prong Horn which looked like a striped deer. 

We got done with 2 of the 3 trails and the 3rd trail was the one that had the potential to see Wild Mustangs. We were getting hot and thirsty, but we decided to push through. A while into the 3rd trail, we lost the trail. It stopped at a ravine that we weren't able to cross with the 4-wheeler. Robb did some crazy off-road driving and we made it a crossed one time, but we came to another area that was washed out and we had to turn around. We were dying of thirst at this point, and we were all hot and windblown. We came to a main road and asked some random guy if there was a gas station close to get water. He laughed at us and said, "No". He did however give us each a bottle of water in exchange for $5 we had with us. We really had to haul butt to try to get the ATV back to the place on time and we were going to be close when we were on track to finish the trail. When we had to back track, we were Late! We were supposed to keep it under 35mph on the highway and we were going over 55 until it started to make terrible noises and then we slowed it down. We got back an hour and a half late, but the guy wasn't mad. This was everyone's favorite activity at the end. I think it included just enough Are we going to get out of here alive but not any real pressing imminent danger. The best part was we were all covered in dust and mud, and we were excited to go shower off. We however had read the instruction book at the cabin later that morning and figured out that there was a limited amount of water and if you used it all up, they had to haul more up the mountain to you. This may or may not happen the same day that you run out. We had neglected to figure this out until after Robb had taken his usual 20+ min shower that morning. We drew numbers for who got to shower first and by karma (because I had initially "called" the first shower) I was dead last. We set a 3 min time limit for everyone and still only the first 2 people got hot water. We like things to be interesting on vacation!