Tour of Autumn Leaves, Trip to Jackson Hole

The boys and I saw some amazing fall colors today.  We had to make a trip to Jackson Hole for a doctor's appointment, and took a little side trip on the way home to view some of the spectacular fall color.

We were on a bumpy dirt road, and the three year old was very excited because he had been trying to draw, and once we turned onto the dirt road, he told us, "The road is making me draw!"  He held his pencil to the paper, and let the bumpy road draw the picture :)

All those pictures were from the drive home.  When we got up this morning, we had heavy fog.  We had a hard, heavy rain last night and it was chilly this morning.

We headed to Jackson and saw multiple sets of cattle trucks heading to local ranches to pick up loads.  This one had more trucks than are pictured. I counted around a dozen trucks in this group.  And we saw 8 heading down another road to a different ranch.

It's kind of hard to see in the picture, but that row of white is thick low clouds we spotted down in the valley when we came over a ridge locals refer to as The Rim.

There it is ahead of us.

When we got close to Bondurant, we were in the fog.

The clouds were hanging heavy just above the tree tops.

Our doctor's appointment didn't take long, so we spent a relaxing day in Jackson.  We had lunch, then did a bit of shopping and went to a park.

What is it with boys and sticks?!?

 Like I mentioned yesterday, I'm going to have to get the boys their own cameras.

He does take pictures with interesting perspective though.  I love to see what the five year old takes pictures of.  I feel like it give me a glimpse into the way he thinks - and how the autism changes that perspective.

 We also visited the newly remodeled library.  I love the entrance - big tall ceiling with a massive fiber optic piece of artwork.  Each line is attached to a subject title that could be searched in the library system.  (As a side note, you'll notice the Teens and Children sign to the left.  The children's area is to the left and the adult section is to the right - with two sets of doors and a foyer separating the two.  Wonderful idea.)

Back to the fiber optics.  Can you see the pink at the top, and the blue line from the center, up?  Every time someone in Wyoming searches through the library system, the pathway lights up pink.  When they decide to click on one of their search results, say to find a book location, the pathway lights up blue.  It's set up on a time delay to protect privacy.  But, how cool is that???  It is quite a work of modern art.

 There is a table in the children's room with snacks - goldfish crackers and raisins.  The snacks are provided by the local charity food bank.  We found out that this is well used when all the after-school kids showed up.  They limit the places the kids can eat.

This is what it looks like inside the adult section.  See the giant tree trunk?  My three year old is on the right side of the photo.

This didn't turn out clear, but here is my five year old next to the same tree trunk, for size comparison.

There are trunks all through the adult section, but really that's the only interesting thing about the room.  It's big, but seems institutional and unfriendly (especially compared to ours).  Here's a link to a post I did on our local library if you're interested.  That post is a year and a half old, and it doesn't even come close to capturing the cozy feel of our library though.  I have several other smaller posts related to the library but I don't have time to look them all up.  We have a beautiful log cabin library, with a rammed earth addition.