Eclipse trip: the non-eclipse and non-Yellowstone part

We always become so fond of the rental houses we stay in. Teddy called this one our "Cabin House" and soon we were all calling it that. It was in a much less-wooded area of Island Park than the place we stayed last time, so it felt very different. This place had a wrap-around porch, with beautiful views of the sunset across the open meadows. We loved it.

One of the first thing the boys did upon arriving was to put up their hammocks. These were hung in many configurations over the few days we stayed here.

Triple-decker!

Inside, the kids loved all the animal skins (pelts?) and…busts? Heads? Are they just called heads?

We love it when we have a firepit to use! We cooked our dinner out here one night.

After dinner, the kids gathered rocks to line this gravel path. It looked great when they were done. I hope the next renters appreciate the improvement. :)

Marshmallow cheeks

Goldie was going around singing and dancing her little heart out, imagining who-knows-what. She's always singing and dancing these days! I'm particularly fond of the soulfully-crossed arms over her chest.

Boys and fire. One of life's great joys. They did everything this year, getting the fire started, tending it, and putting it out responsibly.

The stars were so, so beautiful here! I love seeing the stars and I always want to take a picture of them, and of course I can never really do them justice. It took about 20 minutes for me to manage to get even this one, but it doesn't show how brilliant and visible the Milky Way was! We even saw the (blurry) Andromeda galaxy, through the binoculars! Next time we have to remember to bring our telescope.

On Sunday, after a very eventful effort to get to church (including wrong addresses on lds.org AND Apple Maps, a hair-raising drive down a narrow ATV trail in our enormous van, and an eventual triumphant arrival at the church with several other cars trailing hopefully behind us full of confused-looking families wearing Sunday clothes)—we went to Mesa Falls. There are two great waterfalls there and we liked seeing both of them. Even more than that, though, I liked the golden light that evening…filtered through wildfire smoke, I think.