Moore's Folley at the Teton Dam May 5

I am so behind in blogging, but I have a good excuse. I moved my office / scrap room downstairs, and I wasn't able to upload my photos onto my computer because the cord that usually sits next to my monitor wasn't there anymore. Tonight I had James plug it in for me. I know, it's pathetic how helpless I am when it comes to the computer, but I think secretly James adores that I have to rely on him so much. I couldn't live without him!


This was a good one!
See that teeny tiny red dot? Our fun's motivation!

We decided to go visit the Teton Dam Flood Site one nice Sat afternoon after Emily's final volleyball game. It was an unusually nice day. We drove to the lookout spot and noticed that a van had driven ALL THE WAY down to the water. The kids asked Dad if we could Please do it too. Well, I said that I didn't think the old van had it in her to make it back up, but against my better judgement, we headed down the steep, windy dirt road (what man could resist?).

The boys were so scared that we were so high up.
I had sandals on, so I pooped out and stayed in the van while James took the kids for a hike down a rock slide and over to what remains of the water in the dam. They spent about an hour throwing rocks into the water and exploring. They had the greatest time. While they were gone, my imagination got the better of me. I was watching the two men in the other van and wondering what they were doing all the way down here in this remote location with no one else around for miles. I wondered what I would do if they approached the van with a gun and tried to steal it or kill me. One man got out and started milling around. I sunk down into my seat and my heart began racing. I spied over the dashboard. He appeared to be looking around for something (a better fishing spot, probably, since his previous one was now ruined by kids throwing rocks). At the height of my worrying, I heard a loud gun shot!!!!! I about had a heart attack! I ran to check on my family to make sure they weren't dead. Well, James got the message that these people were hunting, so he decided it was time to go so that we weren't the ones being hunted.

Rock Slide.
Exploring the flora and fauna.
It doesn't look that steep in the pic, but take my word for it, it's Mt. Everest!






To my great relief, the two men packed up and started to leave. They got turned around and began the steep climb to the top of the hill. They started spinning out a short way up and had to back all the way down and try again. This time they made it, and we never saw them again.

James and I began to wonder if their full-size van had 4-wheel drive.


We then began our own decent to the top of the hill. We made a go at it and got stuck in the same place the other van did. We backed down and tried again. We backed down and tried again (a third time). Then James hiked up the hill and cleared the rocks out of the road. Then tried and backed down again. This time, all of us got out and climbed up the hill to clear rocks out of the way. The kids thought it would be a good idea if they pushed behind the van. Aw, aren't they cute. They would have been pancakes! The kids and I stood out of the way and James tried again really punching it. It was frightening because the road was fairly narrow and when you punched it, the van was all over the place. On the sixth try, I yelled at the kids to start praying for the van to make it. James made it to the spin out spot and kept barreling through. I yelled "don't stop, keep going!" and he zoomed past us. But then he kept going about another mile up the mountain. He stopped and waited for us. We started hiking up the hill. Okay, remember why I stayed behind before? Sandals! Not just sandals, but the kind your foot slides into with no back! I climbed that puppy like it was nothing. I don't know if my shoes will ever be the same.


By the time we made it to the top, an entire hour had passed by. I am so grateful for prayer because I KNOW that is the only way our old van made it to the top of the mountain! It was threateningly close to overheating, but she made it none-the-less. I am so proud of the old girl. It makes me want to keep her forever! I don't know how the underside of her fared. We don't dare look too closely.


THAT was one unforgettable Moore family outing!


Unfortunately Alex had to miss all of the excitement since he had to go to Saturday School (tee hee).