Spring Break!

*Fair warning: this is one for the family scrapbook so it's long and wordy and pic heavy. I won't be offended if you move right along. ;)

So, after the birthday bash we took off for a Spring Break road trip.
It was a last minute plan and we were thinking of 3 different destinations:
Moab - would have been a nice break from the cold but it was also the Jeep weekend there and bound to be crazy busy.
Lava Hot Springs
Jackson Hole
I left it up to Roger and he chose Jackson Hole. Neither of us had ever been there before.
We kept the trip kind of quiet until a day or two before and then told Emily and Jaxon that we were going there and we would be staying in a little cabin. Kenzie is a working girl now, so she couldn't come along.
We chose the scenic route rather than sticking to the interstate. Just to see what there was to see.
What there was to see were lots of cows, some sheep, lots of cranes (birds, not machines) and TONS of deer. TONS.
The cows were my favorite, believe it or not. Lots of calves this time of year and I'm not gonna lie, seeing all those mamas and their nursing babies tugged at this mama's heart strings.
And the deer! Holy Hannah, the deer! I thought we had a lot here. I was wrong. It was dusk by the time we were an hour or two away from Jackson and they were EVERYWHERE. Hundreds of them. Standing right beside the highway as we drove by.
When we pass by the deer here at home they are startled. You can just about see their own lives flashing before their very eyes.
But the deer in Wyoming barely seem to notice you as you drive by. They might look up and give a casual nod as if to say, "Hey. Welcome to Wyoming." LOL Stressed. Us. Out.
So it was nice to stop for a dinner break in Afton, about an hour from Jackson.
This was the first of many antler structures we saw that weekend.

After dinner, we were loading back in the car and Jaxon, who had been pretty patient but was getting bored with the drive, asked, "When will we be to the cabbage?" He meant cabin, of course. Man, I just love toddler talk.
By the time we arrived in Jackson Hole it was pretty late so we just got checked into the motel which was made up of lots of individual little cabins and stayed in and played some games with the kids before bed.
The next morning was a little chilly, but otherwise sunny and just gorgeous!

 It was also Emily's actual birthday. We teased her about her birthday presents. When she wanted us to give them to her? What did she even want for her birthday anyway?!?! We suggested that maybe we'd wait until dinner that night. But in the end we decided to be nice and give her her present before we left the cabin that morning.
We have a little tradition that all the girls get their first "real" ring from us on their 12th birthday. Real gold (always) and diamonds (sometimes) are pretty well received as you can imagine. The older girls call them their "responsibility rings".
Emily had apparently forgotten about this tradition. So she was very surprised. And happy.

And she didn't stop talking about that ring for the rest of the trip and a couple days after we got home.
"It's really real?!?! How do I clean it? Does this mean you think I am responsible? Do you sleep with your wedding ring on? Do you shower with your rings on? Should I take it off when I wash my hands? Should I take it off when I put lotion on? Which finger should I wear it on? What are the markings inside of it?" Etc, etc, etc.
I think she likes it.
We spent that day just checking out the town. We drove to the town square and parked and just walked around checking out all the shops.
A lot of the attractions that we could have seen weren't open for the season yet so we are already planning to go back again soon. Many of the people we talked to suggested that September was the perfect time to visit.
We stopped in at  a thrift store to browse around for a few minutes.
Jaxon was happy as can be to just dig through a box full of random toys.

We had a hard time convincing him to leave.
Emily used some of the birthday cash her friends had given her to buy a little hand painted trinket box. To keep her ring in. Of course. ;)
We went into the Ripley's Believe It Or Not museum. Some of our friends advised against going in but we enjoyed it well enough. Emily has always been interested in those kind of oddities so she had a good time checking everything out.
At one point in the tour you have to go through this sort of optical illusion room where it looks like the room is turning upside down as you go through it. Jaxon freaked out and refused to budge. Since that was the only way to get to the next point in the tour I finally just had to pick him up and carry him through it. He was not a happy camper. But when we got to the other side, still alive and upright, he calmed down enough for me to show him exactly how it was set up and he seemed interested by it.
After Ripley's we stopped in at a little bakery for some lunch.
And more ring discussion, contrast, comparisons, etc. ha ha.

Maybe we just didn't hit the right spots, I don't know, but I can't say that the culinary experience was all that great in Jackson Hole.
We decided to take a little drive, possibly to Grand Teton or Yellowstone. We thought we were on the right path at one point. But after about 15 minutes of climbing 10% grades and watching the temperature drop by 15 degrees we soon realized that we were not going to be able to continue on that course.
I couldn't believe the rapid change from a beautiful sunny day at the Town Square to....

yikes!!! That's Roger standing next to a 12 foot deep snow bank.
So we turned back around and headed back to the town square where we were almost as comfy as this one...

as we checked out some more shops. Sprinkled among all the Western and Native American treasures there were even a  few decorating inspirations.

Roger has been wanting to hang a big mirror in our entry way and this is one that I would love. And can make myself for far less than the several hundred dollar price tag. The picture doesn't show it's true size. It's about 6 feet tall and 4 feet wide. I LOVE the chippy paint on the ceiling tile frame. Love it! I predict it won't be long till we have one of our own.


There is a Silver Dollar Bar and Grill near the Town Square. The bar top has over 2000 inlaid silver dollars. Our friend, Lori, suggested we check that out. Roger is (was? It's been a while) a coin collector so we wanted to see that.

We took the kids back to the cabin where Jaxon threw himself onto the couch and said, "I love my home". It was at this point that I realized that he thought we had moved here, to this little cabin, for good. And he seemed just fine with that idea. We tried to explain to him that we were going back to our "big house" the next day but I don't think he really understood until we packed things up the next day.
So Roger and I had a drink at the Silver Dollar Bar and Grill then walked around the square a little more.
Roger made some friends.

 We picked up some souvenir t-shirts too.

Then we went back for the kids and out to find some dinner. Emily requested Chinese food for her birthday dinner so we found a Chinese restaurant pretty close to the cabin.
It was...interesting. Emily seemed happy with her sweet and sour chicken dinner on her birthday so I guess it was a success.
We were all pretty tired after dinner so we went to the grocery store to pick up some celebratory Ben and Jerry's for that night's dessert and headed back to the cabin to play some games.
Skip Bo for Roger, Emily and I.
Operation and a few games of Toy Story 3 Jr Yahtzee for Jaxon and I. Dad even got in on one game.
The next morning we packed up and checked out of our little cabin.

(Jaxon says that the animal in that picture on the wall is a "camel ram". LOL)

We took a drive to the Wildlife Refuge to see the animals one more time before leaving.

Elk

 Sheep

and a few buffalo

LOL The road was closed so we couldn't get very close to them.
We had asked a man at the Silver Dollar Bar how to get to Grand Teton National Park and we decided to take a drive in that direction before we hit the road for home.
The Tetons were beautiful!

We made it as far as a place called Jackson Lake where we took a few pictures. I especially wanted a picture of Jaxon next to a Jackson sign. I'm a dork. I know.

Unfortunately there are no pictures from this trip of myself that I can stand to look at.
You'll just have to take my word for it that I was indeed there. ;)
We made a quick stop back in town to have some lunch.
And Emily ran back to that thrift store for a book that she had seen the day before.
A little "light reading" for the trip home. Alfred Hitchcock short stories. Told ya she was into the oddities. lol
On the way home I had Roger stop so I could take pics of these signs, since I'm a Biggest Loser fan.

And that was our Spring Break trip!