Weekend Getaway!
For the first time in literally months, we found ourselves with a free Saturday. We decided to seize the day and we both took off early from work Friday and headed for one of our favorite places, Teton Campground. We have so many happy family memories there, but it was just as fun with only the two of us. The weather has turned very autumn-ish this past week and we even had our first early morning freeze, so some people thought we were crazy. It was a gorgeous day Friday though, and it always warms up during the day so we were excited to get out in the beauties of nature!

This picture will mean something to Griffin. Our first stop was in Driggs, where we went to the grocery store and bought breakfast stuff. Then we went to O'Rourke's for dinner. When Griffin worked in Driggs he would often eat there and we thought of him as we enjoyed our amazingly delicious dinner. Their food is worth the drive!

These pictures kind of ran together for some reason, but that's okay. The top one is me pointing to the Tetons. The scenery all the way there was just gorgeous. The picture on the bottom, if you can't tell, is Greg at the campfire. Remember our cord of wood that Greg bought last summer? Here was our chance to burn some of it and we pretty much filled up the back of the car with a nice stack. When we got to camp Greg built up a nice little teepee fire with the newspaper on the bottom and the little sticks of wood in a teepee formation around it. We were set! That's when Greg realized that he had forgotten something...matches! We found some old ones in the car, but they didn't light. It was getting darker and colder and we really needed a fire. Finally, we took a walk and decided to go meet our neighbors. There were only 4 campsites being used so it was easy to figure out where to go. Luckily, the guy we asked was really nice and said that the matches he bought came in a 3 pack so we could keep the whole box. There are good people everywhere! So, we had our fire, and I have to say that the wood we bought is really good wood for burning. It starts easily and there's very little smoke. Good buy, Greg!

Like I said, it was cold. Because we packed up so quickly I had forgotten about things like hats and gloves, but Greg found his ear muffs in the back of the car, so at least my ears were warm. The fire actually kept us pretty comfortable too.

This is the next morning stirring my hot chocolate. Hot chocolate on a camping trip is a must! And there's the morning fire so we could burn even more wood. I love morning in the mountains!

As we were eating breakfast Greg got up to get something and suddenly became very quiet and motioned for me to come over to him. There, in the campsite right next to us was a moose! He was what I call "a teenage moose" because moose stay with their mothers for 2 years and this guy had small antlers. He walked until he got to the campsite directly across from ours before he stopped to eat. By this time, 2 of the other campers had also spotted him and we all had our cameras out. He seemed to love the attention and as he walked very closely passed a woman taking pictures of him he actually stopped and looked right at her. She was kind of freaked out and slowly backed up, but then he just kept walking. It was later that we realized his mother was also in the campsite next to us eating in some trees. We were a little afraid that she would be protective of her baby, but she wasn't at all and watched him with only slight interest. If he wandered too far though, she'd go over by him. By the way, this is my messy camping hair and no make up look. 

The moose wandered around the campground for probably a good half hour. The young one was so frisky and reminded me of a baby colt, throwing back his head and kicking up his legs. It was fun to watch him. Moose are usually slow and mellow, but this guy was young and funny!

When the mother moose wanted to go back where they came from she walked right up to her son and put her forehead against his so they were eye to eye. Then she gently nudged him. Like any good teenager, he stepped back, but kept eating. She put her head back on his and nudged again, only have to have him nudge back, but not leaving. Finally, she gave him one last nudge and that's when he turned around and headed back up the mountain with her. It was fascinating to watch, and we felt so lucky to have seen it.

We took about a 4 mile hike up the path to Alaska Basin. The weather was perfect for hiking! It was nippy at first, but warmed up enough to take off our jackets and still be comfortable. You can see some of the trees starting to turn colors. It was beautiful up there!

This is really a picture of the mountains in the background to show that they have the first skiff of snow on them. The picture of my hair sticking up at odd angles is also fascinating though.

                                                   More pretty scenery, as well as a handsome man!

                                                                        Walking along!

                                           Greg on the bridge. The water was crystal clear.

We took this picture because we remembered the first time we ever went there and all the kids scrambled all over that rock. Like I said, we have lots of happy family memories there. It's incredible to think that everyone is grown up, some even with kids of their own climbing all over rocks. How in the heck did that happen?

All along the way we saw these berries. They were so pretty and it looked like Mother Nature was decorating for Fall. We love Autumn and this was a perfect way to celebrate the new season.

While we waited for the tarp and tent to dry we played a game of speed scrabble. Even though I had the Q and the Y and used them twice, Greg beat the socks off me. He usually does though. After all these years I'm only surprised if I ever DO win anything!

So that was our fun weekend. I saw a thing on Pinterest that said something like The best part of being married is that you get to have a sleepover with your best friend every night. I couldn't agree more, but having a campout with your best friend is pretty great too!