Lessons Learned in Wyoming

1. Before any trip to Yellowstone the movie Buffalo Rider should be viewed in order to be sufficiently excited about buffalo. We didn't see anyone riding a buffalo, but we did see some great buffalo shirts.

Jennifer was a champion buffalo shirt maker. Chris, Ashley, and Brandon were merely champion buffalo shirt wearers.

There was some buffalo on a buffalo.

2. We are very easily amused by throwing rocks.

3. The best time to be at one with buffalo is in early morning fog.

4. When faced with an animal that could eat you, run towards it. Most Yellowstoners seem to adopt this action.

5. The earth does some crazy things.

6. How to be in touch with Chris' inner Ansel Adams

7. The Grand Teton National Park is one of our new favorite places.

8. Jennifer learned that rafting isn't as crazy as it appears on TV.

A big thanks to Chris' relatives who took us rafting, it was a pretty fantastic trip.

Being eaten alive in beautiful scenery

No we weren't actually being eaten, we were just viciously attacked by mosquitoes. Last week we decided to use some of our great new gear we got for our wedding. We headed up into the Uinta Mountains for a little backpacking. The mountains were green and beautiful, and it seemed as though the trip would be full of backpacking bliss. All of that changed when we started getting by some lakes and swarms of mosquitoes formed around our bodies.   Jennifer put on her jacket and hood to try and keep them at bay, but it was to no avail. Both of us ended up with 20 plus bites, and that was with using bug spray. Maybe we should've picked up that 100% deet spray at REI?

The trip was gorgeous and because we went on Thursday we only saw four other people on the hike in and had the entire lake to ourselves.

Chris got up early Friday morning to take some pictures and it was too cold for the bugs to be up then so he was actually able to be at peace with the surroundings for a while.