The night of Mareesa's 17th birthday we met our entire family up in West Yellowstone to go see Annie Get Your Gun at the Playmill. All of the plays we have seen at the Playmill have generally been REALLY good, this one was mediocre at best. The actors kept forgetting lines, the guns weren't working properly, the cast were fighting backstage; it was a bit of a disappointment.
Before the play we had a quick dinner of Mareesa's favorite, chicken paremsan and tortellini and then met up with the rest of our family at the Playmill. Coop did great the first half and then started squirming and wanted to scoot around, so Ry took him out and returned with him and a lollipop and a very content Cooper. I was not happy to see this, my family found it quite humorous and Ry was quite proud of himself. I'm pretty sure this little episode served as more entertainment than the entire play. After the play we momentarily lost my grandpa, after locating him, we went back to our room and had birthday cake and ice cream to celebrate Ween's birthday. It was so great to catch up with Uncle Scott, Uncle David, Aunt Heidi and Adam, Aunt Judy and Jock and to have everyone together; it has been quite a while since we have all been able to be together. We all visited for a while and then everyone returned to their rooms, cabins, etc. and Ry and Mareesa drove back to Pocatello (Mareesa had a volleyball tournament and Ry had a golf tournament). Scott ended up staying on the murphy bed in our room, and between Coop screaming at 2:00AM and the wolves howling i'm sure got little to no sleep. I got up and walked around the hotel with Coop for about an hour and then came back and he was still upset, my Dad came in to my room and ended up taking him out to the car and walking around outside until around 4:30AM or so and ended up falling asleep in the car with him for a while and then came back in around 5:30AM. I'm so grateful that my Dad was there, or I wouldn't have got any sleep at all.
The next morning we got up and I went on a drive with Scott and Coop, since of course, he was awake by 6:00 ish. After our little exporatory drive we came back and had some yummy breakfast, packed up and headed for Driggs. When we got to Driggs no one was making a definitive decision on what we were going to do, some people wanted to go on the monument hike, others wanted to float the river, and some wanted to go over to Jackson. My parents ended up going on the Monument hike and the rest of us floated the river. Coop and I went with Marcus, Andrea and Sheridan in a canoe...we had a rough start due to the on going life vest battle I have with Cooper. After he calmed down he fell asleep and I just laid him down between my legs and he stayed asleep the rest of the float. David brought his kayak and miss Maddie rode with him, Scott had to ride in a raft, Jock took Karli and Abby in a canoe, Grandma and Heidi had Lizzie and Beamer, and Adam had Zooey and Thomas; we were quite the caravan. We had a great float and got out just in time for a huge afternoon thunderstorm and down pour.
This is before the float trip; Coop was happy until we snapped the life vest up.
After the float trip, he was completely out.
Uncle David grilled for dinner, my parents had a fabulous hike and we had a nice evening hanging out together once again. My parents left that night so they could catch the second day of Mareesa's tournament and I was planning on going with them but decided to stay another day.
Cooper loving is Grampie!
The next morning we went up to Targhee, Scott and David rode with Cooper and I. Coop ate a banana on the way up and kept piointing to flowers and sniffing, he did great on his first chair lift ride!
At the top with my little nugget...
The whole gang...
My cute grandparents...
We hiked around the top for a while and gazed at our favorite mountains~
We relaxed at the bottom while we discussed what we were going to do next...
Always stopping to smell the flowers.
Lizzie and Heidi helping Coop have a snack.
Coop just wanted to scoot around the ground with his cracker, he is definitely Mr. Independent lately! We had such a wonderful trip together, i'm so glad everyone could make it and be together for some quality family time.
