The Great Outdoors

Finally after 2 1/2 weeks of not seeing da kid, I was reunited with Max in Boise. I flew in late so the next morning I woke up to Caitlin bringing him in the room. He copped me a cheesy smile and then buried his head in Caitlin's shoulder. I was afraid he was mad at me and would punish me for a while, but then he lifted his head and reached out for me and that was that.

We spent two lovely days with Pam, Dave and Mike in Boise so they could enjoy some Max time. Friday afternoon we packed up and headed up the mountains near Stanley to go camping for Caitlin's family reunion.


I don't have many pictures (you remember my camera is dead), but I got some from Judes and Carley. We had S'mores, talked, reunited, played by the lake, etc. Kristin and kids were there so Max was in heaven with his cousins.


Grandma and Grandpa Jones...in their nineties and still camping. Incredible. We had a big fire program with the 69 family members in attendance.


Now I was told that Caitlin's family does sing, dance or play pretend...but some of those rules were broken when camping. Caitlin and I sang Party in the USA for everyone and I scored some serious man points with her East Idaho male relatives...or not.

On Sunday we drove from Stanley to SLC for a very short visit. I don't have pictures, but we had a party at my cousin Wendy's house with most of the Mulcock side. Finally some of my Utah relatives got to meet Max and they loved him.


We stayed at the Little America With The parents and had a grand old time, including pool party with Carley and kids and Cafe Rio.


Abigale and Lydia are basically the funnest to play with. It was great to be in Utah. I had lunch with relatives, with Mikey and stopped in for a late night visit at Craigy and Kristin's house. I love visiting Utah, even though it has only been about 5 total days in the last 5 years.


From their we drove up to Caitlin's family cabin/house in Victor, Idaho. It is about 20 minutes from Jackson Hole, 30 from Grand Targhee, and a little over an hour to Yellowstone. basically an amazing location.


The kids were all together and so were the grand kids. Max could not have been happier for 5 days straight. He played with the boys Will and Ryan and Ben


Uncle Jeff got to know his new nephew who was cute as a button.


I had to work during the day, but everyone else went on a hike one day to explore the great outdoors.


Ben and Abigale...these two were inseparable during the trip.


Lydia...blowing our socks off with cuteness.


Sisters and their little ones...all grown up.


We also did some bike rides to the town of Victor. A few chains came undone and there were some spills, and someone may have said, "this is the worst bike ride ever!" but it still was awesome.


Downtown we got burgers and sandwiches in the park. I am ready to claim that this burger place had the best bacon I have ever had.


Back home tickling and playing with kids happened almost non stop.


On the 2nd we went to a big party in Driggs because the Winmills wanted to see Glen Beck so bad! Okay, maybe we skipped the Beck and just enjoyed the toys and games and food. I got Pronto Pups...an Idaho staple!


The kids played lots of cool games and rocked the blow up slides. This is where Max discovered an extreme love of slides. We later road large water slides in Jackson and Max kept screaming "again!"


More water fun back home.


One of my favorite moments of the trip was playing duck duck goose with the kids. Max absolutely loved this game and instantly caught on the spirit of the game. He feeds off other people's energy and was ecstatic to see kids running and screaming from each other.


We watched fireworks in Driggs from the car and the kids dug it. The girls cuddled.


While the boys played it cool.


We also went up to Jenny's Lake at the base of the Tetons. We took a boat across the lake because somehow we figured the kids weren't down for the 2 1/2 mile hike.


Southwicks!


Super buddies Ben and jeff.


Papa and Abigale in da house!


The Tetons are arguably the most striking mountain range in the United States and I always enjoy hiking around them.


Completely amazing.


We hiked up to a waterfall with the kids and it was great. A beautiful day and all the kids really manned up to take it on.


And it was worth it when we got there...the waterfall was rushing at record speeds and quantity.


The fam. Love us, respect us.


A great view from the cliffs.


On the actual 4th we went to a parade in victor and in classic west coast form the floats were throwing out candy. Candy equals America.


The grandchildren except Baby Ryan.


We spent the morning in the park playing on the toys.


And playing frisbee.


Later Kristin put on an awesome scavenger hunt for the kids with little toys at the end.


Discovering the next clue!


Then we celebrated Kristin and Jeff's upcoming birthdays with none other than the Mulcock classic SURPRISE BALLS! They were filled with tender notes and memories from the family and many tears were shed.


Plus the kids enjoyed the energy of unravelling the balls.


Especially Ben...


Closing out the vacation with tender grandparent pictures. After 700 pictures, we finally get one with all the girls smiling.


Less luck with the boys thanks to Max. Ever since we got back he has been very attached to mom and dad and if he can see us he doesn't want to go to anyone else. I hope leaving him for a week hasn't done too much damage...he hasn't been quite the same. A little more needy, a little more demanding, a little more fussy. But maybe that is cause he is just getting closer to two years old.

Either way, we had an amazing trip and thanks everyone for the killer times all over Idaho and Utah!