Welcome to Winter

Here in Jackson Fall is a fleeting thing. It lasts at most a month. This year we were blessed to have a long and beautiful autumn but as all good things, it faded far too quickly. The warmth stretched into the first weeks of October, but as soon as November rolled around the snow came flying. The first weekend of November Jack had the good fortune to have a quick side trip to Ohio to visit Granny and Papa accompanied by the amazing and spectacular Grammy. So with the remaining two we went out for a short hike on the Taggart Lake Loop. This is a repetitive hike for us, having done portions of the loop twice before. Alas it is where the road into the park closes for the season so its an easily accessible hike. We didn't make it too far in, to be completely honest we didn't really have it in us to let go of the easy, bright warm hikes of summer and settle into the cold, windy, frigid temperatures that will plague us for the next 5 months.  We trudged through the first mile and then the girls spotted an off trail boulder and decided this would be an excellent place to play. They spent the next 15 minutes trying to climb the snow painted rock in boots and mittens, needless to say that didn't go over so well so the settled for making snow angels. Then we headed on a bit, but couldn't find the motivation to make the loop so we turned and headed back to the car.

We had afternoon plans as it was,  FREE FIRST SUNDAY'S at the National Museum of Wildlife Art!! So we went home changed into more museum friendly attire and headed back north. The theme of this month was Penguins and Fall Harvest. There was a penguin painting craft project, and on display was a beautiful photographic study of penguins in the antarctic. Also the museum played two movies about penguins we only stayed through the first one. All an All the girls enjoyed their 'girl day' and we had a fun way to avoid the winter that loomed out of doors.