A New Tradition

Jackson Hole - August 3 - 10, 2007

Back in the day, my mom tried to start a yearly trip to Jackson Hole Wyoming. We went a couple of years in a row and always had a blast. Even after she passed, we kept it alive for a bit with Vic but eventually, we stopped going. So one thing that I am loving being a Shelton is their yearly trip to JH, WY. Technically, for this trip I wasn't a Shelton just yet, but 21 days after we got home I was. This was the second time I went to JH with Luke (only the first time with the rest of the fam) with luke and every time we go, it just keeps getting better. I absolutely love this place.

The Shelton's had rented out a fabulous condo that had just enough rooms for us all. What made this trip special for me is I brought my wedding dress up there with me. Candace wanted to do some pictures to put in her portfolio and of course I jumped at the chance to get more pictures of me in my dress, not to mention get some gorgeous pics of me in one of my favorite places on earth.

The girls were so great and they did my hair and makeup (I know, me in makeup...)















You can see from one of these pictures it is pretty stormy. I was so scared that we wouldn't be able to do any pictures because since it was so close to our actual wedding day, we didn't want to get it dirty. But it actually turned out to be a great day. The lighting was fantastic after the storm. We drove all around the park and would just pull over where ever we wanted. I felt kind of like a park attraction while I was on the fence. People kept honking at us. It was interesting. After driving all over the place, we ended up at one of the many lake that they have up there and took some more pictures at a bridge. It was a good place to end. After we were all done, I needed to find a place to change out of my dress because we were meeting the rest of the family at the Ox Bow and we couldn't let Luke see me in my dress (you know, the whole bad luck thing seeing the bride in the dress before the wedding). The options were the bathrooms that they had there at the lake and....oh yeah, there weren't any other options. I decided against the bathroom for the obvious reasons and chose the parking lot. It was quite the feat the change without exposing myself to the rest of the park-goers. I really enjoyed playing in the park with the girls. It was even more fun playing in the park in my wedding dress.


Here is me and my sister in law Candace, aka the photographer.

After we got done playing dress up in the park, we were going to meet up with the boys at the Ox Bow. This is something that the Shelton's introduced me to. After all the years that I have been to Grand Teton National Park I have never really noticed the Ox Bow. It is absolutely beautiful there.Here is one of the pictures that I took while we were waiting for the boys to come around the bend. They started kayaking at the dam and would go and play with the beavers and otters in the Ox Bow. We got done before they did so we had another little photo shoot. Here is my self portrait. I mean, does it get any better than this? Look at that good lookin' guy out there. While we were there, it started raining on us. This is a choice spot to see moose and other large animals. So after the boys got done loading the kayaks. We ate garbage salad out of the cars. To the Ford/Pace family, we all know this as taco salad. The Shelton's have put a new twist on things though. We had to feed around 11 people and that is no small task when we are at the Ox Bow. So we did garbage salad in an actual garbage bag (don't worry, it was clean!) It was so tasty. Remember this picture, it is important later on.

The next day, we drove all the way through the park to see all the sights. It was so much fun to drive through the park and just remember when I came here with my mom. This is us at the top of one of the many look outs. This is me getting ready for bed and Luke thinking he is pretty funny taking pictures of me.

One of my other favorite parts of this trip was playing at String and Leigh Lakes. We took out the kayaks and packed a good lunch of sandwiches and chips. It was fabulous. The water was perfect and I almost got standing up and paddling on the kayak done, but of course I just ended up in the water. I love vacations like this where you can just relax and do really whatever you want. We also went into town and did the whole shopping thing. Of course, Luke and I did not last long so we ended up hanging out in the middle of town square which was fine by me.

During the days up there, Luke kept having some weird pains in his chest. Doesn't sound good right. We thought that it would just go away but he kept having pains. The day that we were all supposed to go down the river, we figured that we needed to go to the hospital to get him check out. Luke, Dean, and I headed down to the local ER and checked Luke in. At the registration desk we were answering all the questions and Luke said that he was having chest pain. Bam, next thing we know we are being ushered back to get a full work up. The time passed and our reservation for the river came and went and we were still waiting on results. I was sad to miss the river but Luke is my top priority. In the end we were discharged from the ER and had a diagnosis of pleurisy. Basically a fancy word to say that the lining on his lung is irritated. Remember that picture of the boys lifting the kayaks into the trailer. We think that he might have pulled something with all that repetitive lifting of the kayaks. So I got to see what the inside of the ER in Jackson Hole. Very exciting. Luke was given specific instructions to take it easy for the next couple of days. Don't worry, Luke recovered from his bought of pleurisy and is doing fine.

The next thing we did, besides take it easy, was go to Jackson Lake Lodge. It is a beautiful building that has this fantastic view of Jackson Lake.

Again, it is a good place to look for wildlife.

After a good couple of days of relaxing, it is now time to go home to finish up all of this wedding stuff. I am so excited to continue this tradition.

New Findings in the Giant Deer/Elk/Monsters from Havasu...

If you remember from my post from Havasu...I said that I didn't have any pictures of these crazy creatures. Well, I think I found it. We just got back from Chicago and I found the closest thing to it. Enjoy.
Okay, this is an Irish Deer that apparently died out 8000 years ago, but it is close enough I think they could be related!

There Aren't Bears Here Right?

June 10 - 11, 2007

Luke and I had been trying to find someplace fun to go camping that was relatively close to home. I have always gone up Big Cottonwood Canyon to the Spruces, but Luke wanted to take me to this place called Julie Andrews Meadow (doesn't that just make you think "The Hills are Alive...") that is up American Fork Canyon. Next thing I know, me, Luke, Scott, and Dan are packing up the truck and are heading up the canyon. It is so pretty up there!! We get there and drag all of our stuff up the hill. We get all settled and we decided to go play frisbee in the meadow.

We had a grand ol' time playing frisbee and goofing off. The boys then decided to have a little bit of a photo shoot. These guys have so much fun together. I love hanging out with them. Here are a couple of pics from the shoot

This picture is my favorite, for the obvious reason.

See no Evil, Speak no Evil, Hear no Evil.

Don't ask me about this one...

Or this one, but I like it

I think they are trying to be the Von Trapp children...

So they boys got the photos out of their systems and we made the campfire. It is one of my favorite parts of camping. I love watching the fire burn down to just the embers. After our fabulous dinner of hot dogs and smores, we decided to get some sleep.

All I remember was in the middle of the night, Luke jumped up and started looking outside the tent. It scared me just a little, but I was so tired I really didn't think about it. Dan and Scott woke up as well, but they went right back to sleep. Luke told me that he thought he heard something outside. Now I was getting a little bit worried because we were camping in a undeveloped campground way up the canyon. Who knows what could have been out there. Well, we made it through the night with no problems. We figured it was just this cute little fella outside our tent that night:The next morning, we decided to drive around the front side of Timp. The drive was gorgeous!

Look at that stud in his good lookin' truck

He thinks he is in a country music video
I love this guy!

Dan, Scott, and Luke

The Ultimate Tribute to Julie Andrews

After the day long drive through the canyon, we almost made it all the way through, but the road ended. We had to turn around and go all the way back. It was lots of fun though. Remember when I said that Luke thought he heard something outside our tent...we are now thinking that it was a bear. Scary, I know. The next weekend there was a family camping in the same spot and had a run in with a bear! Next time I am bringing bear spray!!

We're Engaged!

So, this post is only about a year and a half old, but yeah, Luke and I got engaged on May 31, 2007. He was so cute! He took me up to American Fork Canyon and had me thinking that we were meeting a bunch of friends up there. Nope. Just me and him under the full moon. It was so perfect.

Almost Heaven

May 7 - 9, 2007

The next trip up was absolutely amazing! No trips to the hospital, but still way fun anyways. I had been to Havasupai before and I wanted to go again, but this time I went with a bunch of my friends. There were about 15 of us there: Luke and I, Lu, Kris, and Crystal, Kate and Eric and 2 of their friends, Dan, Nate and Emily, and then 2 of Lukes friends. It was definitely a party.

The trip started out with us meeting up in Vegas at an In N Out Burger (mmmm) and then caravaning to the trail head which was about 6 hours away. We decided that we wanted to get to the trail head around midnight so that way, we could sleep in the parking lot and then get an early start. The trail head is probably 2-3 hours away from anything so this really was the best way.


Havasupai is this little Indian village near the South Rim of the Grand Canyon that is about a 10 mile hike in. This picture shows the group. Unfortunately, it is really washed out. I still think it is a fun picture though. It reminds me of the old time pictures. Anyways, back to the hike...It starts out with probably a miles worth of switchbacks all the way down to the bottom of a dried up riverbed. The scenery down there is just amazing. This hike is in my top 5 for sure. We planned on camping down there for 2 nights so we had to pack everything in with us. As you can tell from the picture, we had a lot of stuff on our backs.


My favorite memories from this trip were:

• Eating In N Out Burger in Vegas




• Getting carded at the last casino in Vegas and seeing Tina Turner in drag singing "What's Love Got to Do With It." Walking out of the casino and finding out that the Jeep is dead
  
• Having the Jeep start up after lots and lots of prayers and actually making it to the trailhead without any other car problems

• Driving down a dirt road in the middle of the night on the look-out for giant elk/deer/monsters. No kidding, these animals are huge with huge antlers!! We all had walkie-talkies and were warning others of their locations. Then as we make a turn, I almost hit 3 very sickly looking horses just wandering the plains...very creepy (Sorry, no pictures of these animals...I don't think they would show up on film anyways...)
  
• Spending the night in the middle of a dirt parking lot, only to wake up to the smell of mule droppings and wild dogs trying to climb in your sleeping bag




• Starting the 10 mile long hike down to camp

• Almost getting killed by the pack mules running up and down the trail. They will not stop for anything so you better be sure you can jump out of way real quick
  


• The very cool scenery that was everywhere down there. Look at the green on that tree! We are in the middle of the desert for crying out loud


• Seeing the Indian Village of Havasu and realizing that there was only 2 more miles to go. This is also where we saw the heli-pad...
  


• Walking around the corner, dying from the blisters on our feet and being so dang hot and seeing this: Havasu Falls

• Finding the rope swing at Havasu Falls (yeah, thats my Luke jumping. Doesn't he look good?)

• Playing all day long in the most blue/green clear water you can imagine



• Jumping into the water at Navajo Falls. The water is a little on the chilly side, but the sun and the hike in made it perfect
  



• Hanging with all my friends
  
  
• Dehydrated measl...yummy! I know you are all very jealous
  


• Guarding our packs from the genius squirrels. They are smart and they don't give up for anything. The would literally walk right up into the middle of all of us and start chewing through the packs for the food. They even got some food from one of our friends packs, chewed clean through the zipper. We got revenge though when one of the squirrels climbed into another friends pack. That squirrel got pretty dizzy after he was done with it...



• Climbing through the mountain to get to Mooney Falls...This one was my favorite
  

• Instant Pudding and Scum tournaments
  


• Not having to hike out with our packs becuase a handful of the group decided to ride the mules up and out. Since they paid for a mule, we all got to pack out our packs on the mules...even though I have packed out all my stuff on my own before, this was definitely worth it.
  
• Luke's massive blisters...poor guy
  


• My not-so-bad blisters this time. But look at that chaco line...or is that just dirt...?
  


• Making it to the top of the switchbacks and living to tell the story. Finding an ice cold coke...there is nothing better than this...it was worth the 2 bucks!
  


• Getting shakes at some podunk little town called Peach Springs...it was the weirdest place where all they do is mess with you. It was fun though
  
• Getting to spend some time in Arizona with Luke and Dan. Scott driving down with one of his friends to meet us down there
  
• Going to a movie and not finding anything worth watching. Getting back to the Grand and it not starting at all
  
• Calling my cousin to come and bail us out. Bringing us tools and in the end, she locks her keys in the car. We had to leave the Jeep in the parking lot because it would not start. We tried to go to stores around the area and get a new battery but everything was closed
  
• Getting a new battery and having the car still not start. Luckily, my cousins friend is a mechanic and he came and helped us out. We eventually go the car started and from that point on, we didn't have any problems with the car
  
• Actually stopping at the Hoover Dam to take pictures. You would think that out of all the times I have driven through there, I have only stopped like twice

So that is the end of this trip...It was way fun and I definitely want to go back. If only I knew how to put up a dang slide show I would have more pictures up. Until next time.