New Years Eve & Day

We decided to spend the last day of 2011 and the first day of 2012 hiking in Grand Teton National Park.
On New Years eve we hiked along the Jackson Dam. It was about a mile one way, at the end of the path we stopped and had some snacks and water. Fun short hike.

 New Years Day we parked where the road dead ends and took the snow covered trail towards Signal Mountain Road. Last year this path had been groomed, however this year it was not. There were some cross country ski trails but as we were hiking we left the ski tracks alone and trekked along on our own path.  We made it about a mile in before we decided that we weren't going to make it to Signal Mountain road with much time for sledding, so we turned and headed back to the dam and the best sledding hill we have found thus far. Great way to welcome in the New Year.

Taggart Lake

So this blog will been an 'undocumented' one. As mentioned earlier I am down to one camera, and that one is occasionally unreliable.  As is I am going to keep it short. We started the loop with the intent to finish it. We took the right hand side of the loop over the bridge along the creek and around to the lake where we stopped had some lunch and then headed out to complete the loop.  However after a half mile beyond the lake we came to an obstructionism that made us turn back.

The girls were running ahead of Kevin, when he had the sudden sense to shorten the gap between them . He called for the to wait for him and caught up, right as they began to head off together, a huge bull moose ran full speed across their path  about 30 feet up the trail.  He waited for Jack and I to catch up and then we all proceeded as a group. Another hundred yards or so up the trail and we heard a ton of rattling and grunting, and through the woods, we saw a tangled mess of large brown legs, giant antlers. Three Bull Moose testing their right to breed just a few short yards ahead of us. We stayed for what felt like a lifetime but was probably more like 5 minutes, watching them before we turned around and headed back the way we came.

As is our philosophy every time we go out into the wild we accept that we are entering the home of the wild, and as we would want respect in our home we give it to those whom home we are venturing into. We didn't venture further on the trail to see if there was room to squeeze by. We gave them space and took ours. We also warned the few hikers we did cross about the moose. So no pictures to prove my tail but a lasting memory none the less.

Christmas Tree

Lets Go Find Our Tree

So I know I have been slacking at putting our adventures up here on the blog. But I assure you it in no way means that we are slacking on our promises to keep at it. We have been dutifully hiking every Sunday. Though I must admit I am down to one camera (my phone) and it hasn't been the most reliable of devices. Anyway lets get on with it. On December 3, we took the family up Fall Creek Road on our hunt for the perfect Christmas Tree. We came from the Wilson side and parked at a well used pull off where there was a trail leading off into the forest.  We headed in  about a half mile before we spotted a nice full tree a it up an embankment. We all trudged through the snow to inspect it, and to be take the vote. With a unanimous decision the kids began self sledding and Kevin commenced in cutting down our tree.  

Here it is.

Chopping it down!

Emma's Birthday

For Emma's Birthday the Dillon's went to Giovanni's  ( http://www.jhgiovannis.com/ ), Emma's favorite place to eat her favorite food Calamari. We had a beautiful time with an excellent cake!  Afterwards we all went to see Annie at the Center for the Arts ( http://www.jhcenterforthearts.org/ ).  Top Presents,  Ears Pierced, Turtles, Earrings, Sewing Machine, Watch. Excellent birthday for an Excellent 7 year old!

The Children's Museum

Ahhhhh!!! It has finally arrived a place for kids in Jackson. An amazingly affordable, creative, fun, engrossing, fantastic place for kids to be kids. There are exhibits that range form science to creativity to imaginative play to fine and gross motor skills. In all honesty it is EPIC! I love it, just utterly adore it, and can not begin to praise it enough. For a mom of three very different children, all very different ages, with very different ideas of fun;  all  facing moths of snow and cold and winter, here came a haven. Catered to the interest of all of my kids, and even  some teaching going on hidden there behind the fun.  I don't want to give too much away because I want each and every person to experience it for them selves. Even as an adult I enjoyed both times I went and discovered new things myself. here is the link http://www.jhchildrensmuseum.org/about.shtml

The first time we went to the museum was a private party for St. Johns Church. My Mother was visiting from Cheyenne for Emma's birthday and we decided it would be a fun little adventure. This first time they had these blue building blocks and cylinders that were life size for most of the kids in there. The project of the day was making hands for The Clubhouse hand tree. We all made one and put them up on the wall. The other project was making fires by blowing paint. The shadow room was perhaps my favorite, until of course we found the reading nook and the bullfrog.  We spent about 2 hours exploring and just getting the basic run around of the place. Afterwards we went to Dairy Queen for a treat and then headed home.

Building Area, now it is an indoor playground.

Sensory Tables, dig for fossils or play with rice. 

Creativity Lab Grandma Cutting out our hands for the tree.

ooooooo....

Forest Fire Fighter Jack.

ToT Spot.

BullFrog!!!

Book Nook

This place is CRAZY!

I Love it!!

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.