2017 Christmas saw the return of Chris and his family to Louisiana. We were especially happy to meet the newest member of the clan, Lucie.
She likes her Steen's cane syrup.
And she sure had the Christmas Elf role down pat.
Her sisters were glad to discover that we had found documentation of a legendary treasure in the attic when we re-insulated.
Maggie discovered the clues when they appeared on the Solstice, and followed them out through the woods to find the magical treasure. Alice was on hand to help them sort it out. Yippee! Money for Hobby Lobby!
Bea wasn't interested in the treasure hunt...she's not much of a morning person...but she got all sassy showing me what she got at Hobby Lobby.
No Christmas visit to Gran's is complete without a little baking and decorating; Christmas cookies were first.
Then some practice measuring and mixing ingredients.
The girls also got to visit with the Thibodeaux great grandparents.
Meanwhile, the menfolk got in a little taste of Louisiana winter activities.
It was all good.
It's also a time when I remember some warm weather adventures. We hooked up the new 5th wheel and headed to Boise ID to see Brian and take in Gran Teton and Yellowstone national parks last September. Unfortunately a lot of the spectacular scenery was marred by smoke from widespread forest fires out west; however, here's a few pics from the hundreds we took.
The trip up was long, but we got to know the camper better. We left on the first day after the rains from Hurricane Harvey subsided.
The Vernon, TX KOA wasn't too scenic.
We cut across the southern Wyoming desert and started picking up mountains in Utah north of Salt Lake City.
The Boise campsite was OK for an urban area, but the smoke was horrendous.
We couldn't wait to hit the road with Brian. We had a spot reserved in Victor Idaho for the Grand Teton leg...easier than going over a steep mountain pass with the camper. We stopped along the way at the Craters of the Moon national monument. It looked like a scene from Hell, to be honest.
On to the Tetons...of course Brian and I had to wet a line while we were there.
It was a shame our drive through day was so affected by the smoke.
Brian and I headed back the next day for fishing, and there was some drizzly rain that had knocked down the smoke a bit. We were just a tad early for fall colors, but you can see the change was nigh.
We explored up the Gros Ventre river canyon, and found some better fishing.
From there it was up to Yellowstone. We stayed at a campground close to Henry's Fork lake, about 20 miles from the West Yellowstone parking lot campsites. It was nice and we tried out some crab stuffed, bacon wrapped bbq shrimp to celebrate. Tasty. We shared a few with some camper neighbors who raved about them until they pulled out.
We spent the next three days driving through the Park. The first day was spent doing the geyser loop including Old Faithful. Roux did well, but she did NOT like the buffalos.
The next day we headed to the historic North entrance and Mammoth Hot Springs. It was quite a drive, waterfalls and more thermal features...
Then another waterfall and more thermal features.
The final day in yellowstone went to the northeast, through the so-called "Serengeti of the Americas". When I enlarged the picture of the antelope, I saw that Brian also captured a pair of elk antler sheds...pretty cool.
I hope this smattering of pictures gives you a glimse of what impressed us.. After we dropped Brian off in Boise we headed home through Utah and Southern Colorado...but I'll have to save that for another post.
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