Jackson Hole

Last weekend, we took a trip up to Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Dave has been there quite a few times and has been trying to take me there for about 5 years now. We finally found the time to go. It was our first vacation with just the three of us, and our first road trip with a baby. Lydia was SUCH a good traveling baby. We had a blast!

Lydia is excited for her first road trip!

After a stop for more baby formula, and then an emergency poopy diaper change after only being on the freeway for 1 exit, we were on our way! We drove up through Idaho Falls and made a little pit stop at the Idaho Falls temple. It was really beautiful, and I'd never seen it before.

I love that tongue!

The condo we stayed at wasn't quite ready for us by the time we arrived, so we went to Teton Village (just outside Jackson) and rode the aerial tram up to the top of the Tetons. It was pretty expensive, but SO worth it. 

Look at those mountains!!

Feeding Lydia before our tram ride up. Isn't it beautiful??

Riding the tram up, with kisses from my girl = mommy heaven.

The tram ride up was a little bit freaky for me, honestly. It was going pretty fast, and it was SOOO high up there. And each time we would pass one of the towers, the car would shake a little bit. I was glad when we finally made it up there. The view from the top was unreal. Seriously. I've never seen anything quite like it. We have mountains in Salt Lake, but not as big and grand as these ones PLUS I've never been to their summit before. We were literally walking through snow in parts at the top because they were still snow-capped. It was pretty amazing, and I wish these pictures could do it justice.

See that big peak over there? That is Grand Teton himself. :)

Those little cables were between us and death. 

You can see Jackson!

Here's a little video with commentary from Dave of the view from the top. It was so incredible!

There were people still snowboarding and skiing down from the top since there was still so much snow. Crazy!

Hahaha! Lydia was a little bothered by the wind, but she was a CHAMP! All the workers there kept telling us that they couldn't believe how nice she was being. I guess babies usually have a hard time adjusting their ears to the altitude and that the wind just freaks them out. Lydia had a little trouble with the wind, but no problem at all with her ears. She's the best. 

She played with snow for the first time. She didn't like it much.

Lydia and I danced in the Tetons.

At the very top, there is this shack where they make waffles! So, we enjoyed hot chocolate and a waffle smothered in Nutella at 10,450 feet. Not everyday you can do that, huh!?

It was so yummy.

We stayed for as long as Lydia could tolerate the wind, and then we headed back down. Again, Lydia had no problems with her ears, thank heavens! I was really grateful for that.

You can barely even see the top of the mountain where we had our waffles. So high!!

We ate dinner that night at a place in Teton Village called The Mangy Moose. It has been around for 60 years! We had a really fun waitress serving us. She told us when we sat down that she asked if she could have our table because she thought our baby was so cute. Every time she would walk by she would talk to Lydia, and tell us how adorable she was. Lydia loved her too. She kept reaching out to touch her face and she would always talk back to her. At one point, our waitress asked if she could take Lydia inside (we were eating outside) and show her fellow waitresses how adorable Lydia was. We said yes (don't worry - I kept an eye on her), and everyone inside loved her. It was fun that she was such a hit.

A pizza with a view. :)

That night after we put Lydia to bed, we had fun watching Catching Fire, snuggling on the couch, and eating some yummy treats, these little beauties included.

I made cowboy-shaped sugar cookies that turned out AMAZING! I've never been a great sugar cookie maker, but now I feel like a pro. They were so soft and light and fluffy. And yes, we ate the entire batch. Oops!!

The view from our condo..

The next day we relaxed at home in the morning for a bit, and then we wandered around Jackson. We walked all over the main square, went inside a few of the cute little shops, did a bit of geocaching, and took some fun pictures.

This was Dave's first Wyoming geocache. He was pretty excited.

This was inside the Jackson Playhouse, the oldest building in the town. It's been there since 1915!! We wanted to see the show there, Paint Your Wagon, but we had no one to watch the baby. So, maybe next time!

Later, Dave took me to the Boot Barn to look for some cowboy boots. I had been wanting some for awhile, and thought that of all places, Jackson would be the best place to buy them. I found some that I LOVED, and even though they were pretty pricey, Dave let me get them! What a sweetie, huh? My birthday is coming up soon though, so I justified it by saying that they were my birthday present.  After we got my new boots, we went to take some fun pictures in downtown Jackson again.

We LOVE this smile of hers. When she does it, we call her our Cabbage Patch baby because her mouth looks just like a little Cabbage Patch baby doll.

My favorite picture of the whole trip. It took a few tries to get it just right, but we finally got it!!

Sorry the movie is sideways. We are still rookies at the iPhone videos. Just tilt your head to the side and it's fine. :)

That night, we went to dinner at the Bar J Wranglers Chuckwagon Supper. I was a little hesitant about them. Dave had been talking them up for MONTHS before we came. They sounded pretty cheesy to me, and I wasn't sure how great it was going be. But, I was VERY pleasantly surprised. Dinner was SO GREAT! They served all 400+ people that were there in less than 10 minutes! That itself is pretty impressive. We had yummy BBQ beef and chicken, baked potato, Bar J beans, applesauce, buttermilk biscuit and spice cake. It was a GREAT dinner, and the show afterwards was great too. They sang old country cowboy songs, and they were actually really, really good. We had to leave a tad bit early because it was WAY past Lydia's bedtime, but we got to stay for most of it. I would go back again in a heartbeat (those words are music to Dave's ears. Haha!)

Waiting for dinner at the old Bar J Chuckwagon

The next morning was our last one, but on the way out we went to Jenny Lake. I was pretty excited to go to Jenny lake seeing as that's SORT OF my name. Haha. We were going to go on a hike there to some waterfalls, but we didn't bring great shoes, and there was still some snow on the trails which made it pretty muddy. It was also pretty cold, and we weren't sure if Lydia would last the whole hike without freezing. So, we ended up not going, but we walked around the lake and got some fun pictures. The lake was absolutely BEAUTIFUL, and we were having so much fun just taking in all of the pretty scenery.

Isn't it beautiful!?!?

This picture ended up being one of our favorites of the entire trip. We were taking a family picture when this little Chinese family walked by us, and asked if we could take a picture of them. We said yes, and took their picture. We thought that would be it, but the cute little lady was just LOVING Lydia. She was talking to her in Chinese and we had absolutely NO IDEA what she was saying to her. It was pretty cute, actually. They had a son (who took this picture for us) who spoke English very well, and explained to us that his mom wanted a picture with us and Lydia. Haha. So, we got in a picture and had her son take one on our camera too. Lydia reached out to touch the lady's face and the cute little lady was in heaven. She was just laughing and smiling at how cute Lydia was being. The cute lady was THRILLED with the picture. Her son told us that he was getting a lot of pressure from her to make her a grandma, and that we weren't helping the situation. Haha. We had so much fun meeting them.

We left Lydia's hat in the car, so she was our little Israeli baby with the blanket on her head. 

Here is Dave explaining our Israeli baby with a little dance as well. Haha!

The Jennifer license plate at Jenny Lake. We thought that was cool. :)

This picture summed up Lydia's feelings about having to get her diaper changed in the car all the time. Haha.

Before we headed home, we made one more stop at this barn, which is supposedly the world's most photographed barn. It is pretty amazing actually, in the middle of this big open valley with the Tetons in the background. We found out that this barn is part of a little settlement called "Mormon Row". The Mormons had come to settle this little area of Wyoming, and they had a little tiny settlement there in the valley. So, the world's most photographed barn was owned by a Mormon. That made us feel proud. :)

Some of the houses on Mormon Row. Pretty sweet landscape in the background, don't you think??

Our trip was much too short for our liking, but we had a GREAT time in Jackson! We are glad that it is so close since we are already anxious about going back there. It was just so laid back, calm, and beautiful. Our ideal trip!! Next time we will stay for longer and do all the things we didn't have time to do. Until next time, Jackson! :)