#showmeyourtetons

Since, Elizabeth moved to Jackson, Wyoming in 2015, she has been subtly (and sometimes not so subtly) hinting that we might want to come visit her. Finally, in 2017, Abbie and I committed to the adventure and booked our flights into the small, but very welcoming and stylized Jackson Hole airport. I landed on Thursday around noon and was greeted, not only by my dear friend Liz (friends in Jackson Hole call her Liz), but an adorable little mimosa offered by the airport staff...I think I'm gonna like it here!

Liz took me to lunch at one of, what I soon discovered would be many, Thai food restaurants in town. I got a delicious little veggie stir fry dish and sampled her green curry meal, as well. Liz had to pop back to work before we picked up Abbie that evening, so I took the opportunity to roam around the quaint and very manageable downtown. I popped into a couple of cute, local shops and admired crafty cards, Indian American inspired jewelry and everything cowboy. I looped around the little park/ice skating rink in the middle of town, which is corned by these very cool antler arches. 

Photo is from later in the week, but I didn't have any other great ones from the downtown area.

While roaming, we received news that Abbie's delayed flight from Bentonville caused her to miss her Denver layover flight. So she wouldn't be getting in until later that night. Liz and I headed back to the house she is house-sitting this winter--a 60s style, wood-paneled, cabin-esque place with the greatest view of the Grand Tetons!

Then we headed out to meet Liz's friend at a win bar called Bin 22. We bought a bottle of red wine and made a new friend who later joined us at a local broomball game. Finally, we picked up Abbie at the airport and came back to the house to rest up. By "rest up," I mean that Liz and I both passed out by the cozy little stove and Ab shuffled off to bed.

The next morning, we took our time waking up and were greeted to windows blurred with snow flurries. At about 1:00 p.m., we headed out to rent skinny (cross country) skis at a little place downtown called The Skinny Ski and made our way into the Grand Tetons National Park to hit up a cross country ski trail. Liz showed us the ropes and after a bit of practice, we were scootin' right along. After about a 1.5 miles, we decided to head back...but not before attempting a slope. It turned out to be an adventure...but ultimately a horrible idea :)

It was on this adventure that we discovered our trip hashtag: #showmeyourtetons. Liz explained that "grand tetons" translates to "large nipples," named by the French explorer who discovered them. The #showme... has always been a theme for our annual girl's trips, and in this particular instance...it just happened to work out particularly well :)

Straight from cross country skiing, we headed out the "hot springs." I'm not sure what I thought "hot springs" would be...but they were a surprise. Firstly, they stink like sulfur (should've seen that coming) and, secondly, the "hot" part is hit or miss. However, Liz's friends were there and some of their friends' friends, who were highly entertaining. It was a great experience--though, I'm not exactly dyyyying to do it again :)

On Friday night we had the most amazing girls night, complete with elaborate taco bar and game night. Liz has the sweetest friends in Jackson Hole and we quickly bonded over What Do You Meme? We finally went to sleep--another late night--and slept soundly until the next lazy morning when the only thing that finally stirred us was the required ski return time at 10:00 a.m. Liz and I went into town to return the skis and I treated myself to a Cowboy Coffee cappuccino.

After picking up Ab, we dressed in our warm gear and headed back into town. On the way, we encountered a traffic jam, the result of some bighorn sheep on the Elk Reserve.

Our next activity for the day was snow tubing :) It was a totally touristy thing to do, but Liz was a great sport about it and we had the best time: spinning down in a group of three, learning the best strategies to win when racing and carefully determining the best photo/video ops.  

After tubing, we took a horse-led wagon tour of the National Elk Reserve. It was pretty amazing how close we could get to the elk (apparently they think the wagon is some of kind of large, friendly creature that may be bearing food). The tour guide had all kinds of elk trivia and Liz even knew a couple of follow-up facts.

We returned home and cleaned up a bit in preparation for our night out. In Jackson Hole, a true night out starts at the local hockey rink. It was essentially like a Friday-night, high school football game--everyone there to socialize because everyone in town was there. The rest of the night was, unfortunately, not photographed...I don't know why...but we hit up the two, go-to bars in town: The Silver Dollar and the Cowboy Bar. They were a HOOT. Especially the Cowboy Bar, which has the most tacky, cowboy-style decor, a local cover band and expert dance partners, a DIY breathalyzer (that we determined to be broken) and a lot of that local beer I bragged about earlier. 

On Sunday, Liz took Abbie to the airport early and I slept in (erhm...fought a hangover). After church, Liz came back to pick me up and we went to the National Museum of Wildlife Art. We had lunch at a little cafe there and then explored all of the exhibits we could fit into our time before my flight that evening. It was an amazing museum, and I would highly recommend it to any future visitors!

Jackson Hole was just the most amazing experience. What I'm most excited about is coming back in the summer, because that is the #1 thing everyone said: come back in the summer! And I can tell, it's definitely worth the return trip!