PHELPS LAKE: GTNP

Today was fantastic.  After what seemed to be a rainy start to the day,  the skies cleared and we made our way up to the Park.  We had wanted to hike Phelps Lake with our honorary little sister, Steph last weekend but the weather just didn't cooperate and we opted for the shorter Leigh Lake hike.  But since then, I've had Phelps on the brain so that's where we headed today.

I did not think we'd do the whole loop, but we did!  All 7.1 miles of it!  Sully is a machine on the trail, he impresses me so much.  He also must have climbed a dozen or so boulders (including one that was about 15 feet).

We came across a moose, a deer and a couple of marmots along the way-no bears!  (Yay).  Afterwards we noshed on some Thai food and drank some wine and now each and everyone of us feels oh so fine!

Enjoy the million pictures!  Believe me, there are more, I narrowed it down!  

The boys gearing up, Sully with his gloves and Eli with his sick Sunblock Hawk

This is Sully throwing one of his patented fits.  In this case it was over a bug I had pointed out to him that flew off before he could see it.  "Now, I'll NEVER get to see a bug like that in my WHOLE LIFE!!"  Luckily we talked him out of being a grouch for the rest of the hike. (this was barely out of the parking lot).

SNAILS!  We see a lot of snail shells on Snow King, but never any snails.  Quite the treat!

In this picture, I am explaining that the last time Mike took my picture at this spot, there was a giant Eli belly involved.

Away we go!

Caterpillars doing their thing 

The benefits of a post rain hike

Lots of big boulders on this hike, and Sully loves climbing boulders.  This one was about 15 ft high, and had very few good foot holds.  That did not stop him. 

First view of the canyon from across the lake.

Sully getting his water shoes on.  Look at those roughed up hiker legs!  He's a bad ass!

Ants doing their thing

Took a break to take in the view.

Back on the trail

An enormous mushroom of some sort. There should have been a weird cat speaking in riddles on this thing.

Lunch break.  Eli ate a pinecone with his meal.

This is what Sully calls "Hugging the View".  I love him.  

Kids jump off this rock in the summer.  Because they are nuts. 

This is the view of a Tom Mangelson picture we have in our house.

BEACH!!!

Mainers will find a beach, no matter where they are!

Beach Worm

Look out Robin!  The Joker!

This tree was enormous. I should have made some one stand next to it for scale. 

This is about the half way point of the loop. The trail goes off into an enormous canyon, or back around the lake,  It was so beautiful back there.

A young buck deer having his lunch.

A couple of Marmots!  I'd never seen these in the wild.

Checking out the mouth of the canyon.  There was a waterfall, which rendered Sully speechless.  "I don't know what to say!!!...." And then "It must be PARADISE FALLS" (Like the movie UP).  That kid.

Death Canyon

More boulder climbing

Lake View

That's one strong kid!

Sully plays hard and rests hard.

Sully made Mike "Hug the View"

Towards the end of the hike, this was a super neat bridge through a marsh with lots of frogs and bugs.  No moose this time, but I'm sure its a spot they like.


BONUS MATERIALS:  If you made it this far,  please enjoy a caterpillar dance party.

 

A Whole Bunch Of Pictures With Captions

This train ain't slowing down folks!  Here's what I've figured out.  Bust ass all week, try to get a couple of good backyard hikes in, then on the weekends, eat an enormous breakfast and then go on a really awesome hike... rinse repeat.   If this period of time does not kill me, it will make me stronger.

Pictures.....

 Hipster Eli.... I think this was the last time I saw these glasses.  Hmm.

 Fire Fighting Solis Boys

 Sunblock Hawk

 Hybrid Hawk From the Raptor Center

 Early Morning Niceness

 So, most boys use legos to build planes and cars etc (and so does Sully)...but he also uses them to make Lego Hotels.  Completes with elevators and front desks.  The picture above is of a drain on the floor.  Apparently a recent flood at Daddy's hotel that happened in the middle of the night, left an impression on him.  He said that all hotels need drains on the floor for when the plumbers make the toilets overflow. (plumbers used faulty valves at Mike's hotel which caused the floods).

 He's so cute I can't stand it.

 All the above are pictures of our hike to Leigh Lake with our honorary little sister, Stephanie. 

 These were from an after work hike across snowking.  

ELI being adorable.  Its what he does.

 Fire Truck Day at Preschool.  The little blonde girl is one of Sully's best friends.  He's constantly telling us he wants to marry her. 

 Sully and Eli at Elk Fest,  this deserves its own blog, hopefully I'll get around to writing it soon.

 Chuey sticking his head out like all the other Holio dogs do.

 Yeah Baby

 Sigh, sigh sigh... those Solis boys are dreamy

 Not sure why I look so pissed off, it was a magnificent hike.

 Sink or Swim Traik.... AKA our backyard

 Guess whose big enough to ride in the car cart?

We set up the tents to air them out.  Then Eli screamed for a while. 

Ninja Jen for the win

 

I know its not polite to brag,  but damn it, I earned this one.  I knew about a week into this course that it was going to be a loooooong difficult semester.  The course material was not that difficult but for me, the only way for me to get good at things like math, is to practice, practice, practice and it was extremely difficult to find the time to do that with everything that was going on.

Team Solis paid the price for this A too-  eating crappy foods (Hamburger Helper anyone?) and putting up with crabby Jen and a seriously disastrous house.  

I was pretty sure this A was not going to happen,  when I went in for my final I knew the material inside and out but for some reason when I put pencil to paper it just wasn't coming as easily as it should have.  I sat there working out logarithmic and exponential equations- things that I had down- over and over and not getting the right answer and it quickly overwhelmed me.  I left the class feeling extremely defeated and certain that all of my hard work and the Team's sacrifices were going to be wasted with a B or even (GASP) a C.  I haven't seen the graded final yet-  so I'm still not sure what the heck happened,  I'd even be willing to concede that this was a pity grade from my teacher.  But honestly- I feel like I earned an A.  I know this stuff and I had to drive myself to the brink of insanity to know it!  

I am going to now thoroughly enjoy my summer off and then get back at in in the fall with my kick ass academic scholarship.... Ninja Jen!