Labor Day Teton Canoe Trip

Just returned from an incredible vacation over Labor Day with all our old college kayaking friends. It's been a few years and a handful of kids later, and we all met at one of our favorite spots, Leigh Lake in the Teton National Park. We canoed across String Lake, did about a 1/2 mile portage to Leigh Lake, canoed about another 1 1/2 hrs and arrived at our camping spot on the beach. We woke up to views of Mt. Moran and spent a few days in heaven. The kids spent every minute exploring the beach, navigating canoes by themselves, catching frogs, and swinging in homemade swings high in the treetops.

We plan to make it a tradition and try to reserve this same spot every labor day, it was so beautiful! The weather was perfect and there were no mosquitoes! We lucked out, that's for sure!

And this year, no one even dumped their canoe on the way to the campsite! YAY!

Warm, Shallow Water

The water was perfect for the kids and there were thousands of little minnows to catch everywhere! So fun!

Scott Slacklining

Scott and his friends doing slackline

Fox and Mom

Picking out which oatmeal flavor to eat...

The Campsite

You can see how clear and shallow the water was. Oh, it was so beautiful!

Scott and Riv

At the campfire cuddling...

Fox's Frog

Give a boy a wild frog, and he's entertained all day!

The Kids with their Frogs

Riv with her little Frog Friend...

Riv and Tyler

Exploring the area around their private island

Rivers and Tyler

Rivers and her friend Tyler packed their lunches and snacks and paddled the boat out to their "islands" far off the beach for a private picnic.

Fox and his special hole

Fox dug this hole and filled it up with water and kept saying, "MOM! Take a picture of my hand under the water!!" He thought it was SO cool!

Emily and Rivers digging for caterpillars

The kids played in the sand all day and kept themselves busy with digging for caterpillars, building sandcastles, digging holes and filling them with water, etc...

By Themselves

The water was super-shallow for about 200 feet out, so we let Riv and Fox take out the canoe by themselves. They were in hog heaven.

FREEZING Swimming Hole!

This was at an absolutely FREEZING swimming hole Scott found. Don't worry, the girls swam, too! We couldn't let the guys have all the "fun"!

Riv helping Fox

Rivers was so cute with Fox, helping him cross logs, catch frogs, and show his how life works!

All the Girls

The Girls

Debbie, Cree, Me, and Jessica (7 months pregnant!) Yes, she is hardcore!

Frog Lake

We hiked up to a Lake where the kids caught frogs, they named it "frog lake" it was so much fun seeing all these kids with wild frogs...!

Mornings on the Beach

This is the view from our campsite...it was SO amazing

Paddling Across

The boat was packed so full, it got a little tippy...we kept telling the kids, "DO NOT lean over the side, unless you want to SWIM!!"

Getting Ready to Go!

Fox at the Portage between Lakes

Ready to GO MOM!!!

Scott and the Guys

Moms on the Beach

We had so much fun watching all the kids play in the sand and out in the canoes, it was a perfect day!