Jackson Hole

Despite having a pretty rough start to our weekend (what, with a FedEx truck backing into my car in the middle of nowhere Wyoming where we had to wait for 2 hours for the police to come and then 2 more hours for him to do paperwork and then finally deciding that my poor smashed car might be drivable and making it into town at 6:30pm instead of 1:30pm...) we ended up having a great time! We decided to have a weekend vacation in Jackson Hole, WY with Dave and Heidi & family after T and Dave ran a 200 mile relay race from Logan, UT to Jackson Hole.

On Saturday night, after we finally arrived in town, got into our hotel rooms, and unpacked our cars, we all drove over to Bar J Chuckwagon where we enjoyed a good down-home meal of beef, chicken, applesauce, beans, rolls and spice cake! After inhaling dinner (I was SO hungry and cranky... and food helped a lot!) we enjoyed the music and comedy show they put on for the crowd. I was in heaven with the live country/bluegrass music and couldn't help but think that my Dad would have LOVED it!! We all got into bed pretty late that night, but we once we were asleep, we were out COLD until morning.

The next day, Sunday, we took it easy in the morning, recovering from the day before. Closer to noon, we ran some errands in town and ended up going to Sacrament Meeting at the Jackson 1st Ward in town. It was just a few blocks away from the main square, so after church we decided to take a stroll around the main tourist area of Jackson Hole!

Here is everybody (including a third couple - I can't remember their names at the moment - but the guy was the captain of their relay team) standing under the famous arches made of elk antlers!

And a bit later T and I got a shot of just the two of us (Charlie had fallen asleep... you can sort of see the stroller in the background).

Sunday evening we went out for dinner at one of the nice restaurants in the Teton Village resort where we were staying. The food was good, but not quite worth the price tag attached. All I can remember, though, was three tired kids making lots of noise. By the end of dinner, we were all exhausted and had headaches and sent our kids straight for their beds!! After the kids were all asleep, the adults had some much-needed social time talking, eating chocolates and ice cream, and playing a round of Settlers of Catan. Kudos to Heidi for claiming the victory! :)

Early Monday morning, the two guys went off to play a round of Frisbee Golf at a course set up on the ski slopes near our resort. After they got back, Heidi and I got to go on a girl's day where we ate breakfast crepes at a delicious little cafe in Jackson and then walked around the town square window shopping. My favorite store, by far, was a toy store they had! I LOVE toy stores and it took everything I had inside of me to keep from buying some new items for Charlie!

We then joined back with our families to have a late lunch at the Merry Piglets Mexican Restaurant (which had EXCELLENT food, by the way, and was totally worth the reasonable price tag!). Afterward we tasted huckleberry smoothies, played a little game of chess, and decompressed in a quiet park. The weather there was just perfect! Warm, but not too hot to make it miserable.

When we finally ventured back to Teton Village, we took an opportunity to take the free gondola to the top of the mountain to see the views. Here is everyone at the top:

And then when I saw how cute my little boy looked, seeming all grown up sitting on the steps with his Daddy, I couldn't help but get a little photo happy!

Toesies!

And a cute, tired face.

Sweet Emma with Heidi.

After we made our way back down the mountain, Trevor and I got everything packed back into the car so we could start our trip back home to Utah. I drove the whole way and it was utterly horrifying. I don't mind driving, but driving at night with no other cars around in the middle of nowhere when a deer could jump out in front of you at any moment and everyone else in the car is asleep... yeah... not my cup of tea. But, despite getting in at 12:30am and being very tired, we made it!!

The next morning we woke up to realize that Charlie had caught Emma's cold and that Trevor had left his car up in SLC (so we drove up to get it ugggh). I've been trying to decide if the trip was worth a busted car and a sick child... and after writing this blog post, I'd have to say we made some pretty good memories, so YES, it was totally worth it! At the end of the day, my car will get fixed and my son will recover from his cold. Those things will pass. But the memories will stay forever. :)

Like this one:

Yessir. That was the bedroom that T and I slept in at our hotel. Romantic, isn't it? ;) Have you ever seen anything like this in your life? Yeah, me neither. But it served its purpose and it sure gave us a few laughs. :D Good times.