jackson hole! yay!

joel and i went on an early anniversary trip to jackson hole, wyoming. yay! we had such a fun time. we really missed the kids. we said a zillion times "oh, the kids would love this!" and the like. or we would be at a restaurant and see a baby girl ellen's age. and say "aww, we miss the kids!" and then the girl would throw her lunch on the floor and i turned into that kid on the simpsons that points and laughs and says "ha ha." it is amazing to me the amount of time i spend in a normal day preparing food and getting people dressed/ready, etc. it was nice to have a break from that, it was nice to have just me and joel time, it was nice to not have to worry about my child wandering off into a geothermal pool. but i came back refreshed and ready to be the best mom i could be! (this feeling may have fizzled a little... but the point is the trip is exactly what i needed!)

our room was so nice and cozy and it had a fireplace, which in most areas of the good ol' us of a would be silly in the summer, but not in jackson, wy! it was 39 degrees when we landed and there were snow flakes flurrying around. hooray for a fireplace!!


i actually got to read a lot while we were there. i read the shack on our trip. also a short book about this really cool artist that joel bought for me for mother's day (the book, not the artist!) it was really nice. and i finally did one of my new years resolutions. nice! it was just really fun spending uninterrupted time with joel. he is really a lot of fun to hang out with. i am really glad that i am married to him! :)

here is me sitting in jackson square talking to our kids. there is a webcam that shows live pictures. the kids got to see us wave to them on the computer. fun! let it be known that i was completely creeped out by all of the elk antlers in an arch. is it odd that i would rather see a whole elk head mounted with the horns than a cluster of horns in the form of an arch? after being there for several days, you kind of get used to them. antler chandeliers, antler salt shakers, antler candle holders, antler utensil handles, antler backscratchers (i kid.) (about the backscratchers.)

the mountains the first evening we were there. you couldn't see much because of the low clouds. it was like 39 degrees. and rainy. but beautiful!

here is the view from our parking lot. the pretty green grass is a ski run. from what i understand, there is some pretty intense skiing to be done on this mountain. let's just say i would never hurl myself down anything this steep- snow or no snow.

so, here are a couple of pictures of the place we stayed. snake river lodge and spa. it was bee-utiful. i didn't want to wait until the tomato truck drove away. i am sure that our restaurant had great tomatoes. we didn't eat there, mostly because the prices were silly.

from the front... our room was to the right in a crazy place that i never did figure out. everytime we were leaving the hotel, i got us lost in the maze of hallways. our poor bell hop? bellman? suitcase bringer-upper? got lost, too, and had to go find help. poor tanner from south carolina. more to come...