Having been a Wyoming girl since I was six, and having a desperate need for cold winters and piles of snow, I made my way to Jackson after spending Christmas with Mom, Ryan, Amy, Forrest, Ephraim, and Wallis at our home in Oregon. It has been a wonderful trip so far. All of the Wachob clan were here, so we have been having glorious adventures in the snow. Sunday afternoon we went for a sleigh ride on the Elk Refuge, courtesy of Doug and Becky - it was fun to see the elk up close and shiver together in the wind. Monday we took off for Granite Hot Springs and spent the day skiing, snowmobiling, and swimming. We got a late start so we had to ferry people in on the one snowmobile we had to make sure we made it the ten miles and back before dark. Although it cleared up later on, when we started out it was blowing and snowing quite a lot. We all made it by about 2:00 though, and then realized we had no pots or pans to heat the soup for lunch. But lo and behold, we found that we had a can of cougar gold cheese - it worked like a charm! The cheese came out and the chili went in, and Dad would be proud that his favorite gift was put to such creative use.
Elisa loved the hot pool, as did the rest of us - even Sadie had a big smile on her face the whole time. Since we arrived so late, by the time we got in the pool we had it all to ourselves! Elisa spent much of her time climbing out of the pool, grabbing a snowball, and walking back into the pool to throw it at one of us. Often it would melt before she could get close enough, and then she'd start back up again - quite undeterred. Adam challenged us to jump in the snow on both sides of our bodies before we could get back in - and then proceeded to lock his wife, sister-in-law, and myself out of the pool area which led to many screeches of protest and pain. :)
We didn't get around to leaving until about 4:30, which meant we had about an hour of daylight to ski back 10 miles. To make things more interesting, Doug thought the snowmobile had run out of gas (luckily it hadn't). We set out in the beautiful half-light of the evening and tried to soak in all the stillness and serenity before the night covered this enchanted world.
Night came, and with it a few sparkling stars poking their heads through the cloudy sky. Doug came too, roaring in on the snowmobile to pick us up. Nine people on a snowmobile, you say?? Yes, it can be done! Colleen and the girls rode with Doug, and Adam, Kristin, Becky, Erik and I each grabbed onto a rope and towed behind them for about five miles. It was heaven!! More and more stars came out to join the parade as we admired the splendor and the adventure of it all. Of course, we were traveling slowly and of course, I was the only one who fell down (twice); and yes, Doug did accidentally try to run over Adam on a downhill slope; and yes, the girls didn't get to bed that night until 10:00 - but heaven it was none the less!!
