The Rahns head west - Day 4 ~ Happy Birthday Katie!! Paragliding Round 2, hiking and the Rodeo

Day 4 started off with a very early morning drop-off at the Jackson Hole airport - mom was flying home and the girls came with me! We enjoyed a 6 a.m. view at Mormon Row in 35 degrees and then to an early morning breakfast at The Bunnery in Jackson Hole. Don chose to sleep in this morning.

6:45 a.m. at the Antler Arches

Birthday Breakfast at the Bunnery!!!

We were back at the room by 8:45 because the girls had scheduled another round of paragliding. They chose to pay for this themselves and were lucky enough to have the same pilots that they had had the first time two days ago.

this is the tram spot that takes you up to the top of Rendezvous Mountain

After paragliding, we packed a picnic lunch and headed into the park. Our first stop was a "small" hill that the girls have been wanting to climb for years...so...we did. If you look closely you can see them ascending to the top in the center of the pic...

Then we had to get the mandatory sunroof pictures in front of the mountains - another Wyoming tradition.

Our hike was around Leigh Lake - it was about 4-5 miles total and we found a nice spot along the lake for our picnic.

That 5:00 a.m. wakeup and then a 4 mile hike on top of it wore the girls out!! :)

We got back to the hotel, rested and ate a nice dinner close to the hotel because we needed time to get ready for the Jackson Hole Rodeo!! It was what Katie had wanted to do for her birthday and it was a great 2 hours of Wild West Americana! So much fun and neat watching the locals compete against each other - all ages were out there riding from 6 year old girls barrel racing and little boys riding bulls to the adults that are priming to compete in the national rodeo circuit.  It was  a great night and we had to get the mandatory cowboy hats!

What a fun day and a great birthday for Katie!!  Day 5 is another hike - this time to Death Canyon and exploring - not a lot scheduled as we spend our last day in the Tetons before heading to Utah for 6 days!
Stay tuned!!

Day 3 - Mountain Photoshoot, Jackson Lodge and Rina's last day

Day 3 was a day full of fun and Wyoming visit traditions. We had our mountain photoshoot, took the Aerial tram to the top of Rendezvous Mountain to play in the snow and visited Schwabacher Landing. Today was also Rina's last day in Wyoming. She flew out with us but was only staying for 3 nights. We packed a lot into her last day.

met Michelle again for breakfast

 Our first adventure was heading to the top of the world on the Jackson Hole Tram. The tram took us up to 10,400 feet on the top of Rendezvous Mountain where there was still snow.

 It was REALLY cold up there and there was a thunderstorm moving in quickly, so we had a short visit as it started to snow...

This is the view going back down - our hotel is in that cluster of buildings at the base of the cable...

We then packed up and headed back into Grand Tetons for animal hunting and visiting the Jackson Lodge.

We stopped for some more beautiful views and made it to the lodge. We ate lunch at a very cute diner inside the lodge.

huckleberry milkshake for Carleigh, root beer float for mom

It was a cloudy day, but the views from the lodge were still beautiful!!

We then headed to Don's favorite place of solitude inside the park - Schwabacher Landing.

Carleigh liked it too!!

On our way back to the hotel, we found a baby moose and it's mother just wandering in a field...so cool to watch them in their habitat. We stayed for a bit..

Dinner time meant dress up time as the girls were anticipating their Mountain Photoshoot. It was a cloudy/rainy day, but the sun did come out for the evening and the pictures were on...

It was another great day with lots of activity!! Day 4 will bring Rina flying home, hiking around Leigh Lake and the Jackson Hole Rodeo...stay tuned!!!