Jackson

Last year Darin won a voucher for a 2 night stay at Spring Creek Ranch in Jackson Hole and we finally had a chance to use it. After church we dropped the kids off at my sister's house, then headed to Jackson for a little getaway.

This is the main building. We were in this 4-plex cabin on a little pond, forgot to take a picture of it.

Loved the stop signs at the ranch! Can see the gorgeous view in the background?

On Sunday we kept things pretty low-key. We got there in the evening and headed up to Teton National Park for a scenic drive then relaxed in the outdoor hot tub near our cabin. On Monday we went on a scenic float trip like we did last time. This trip didn't have as great of views, but it was still nice.

The Tetons

We saw lots of bald eagles.

These 2 babies can't fly and don't have their white feathers yet. The second one is in the nest, you can see it's wing and head left of the trunk.

Pelicans

We stopped on a little "island" for lunch that was provided by our river guides.

It was a nice trip, afterwards we took at nap at the hotel and walked around town square to kill time before we headed over to the Bar J Chuckwagon.. We got there early and wandered around until dinner. We checked out the gift shop, walked the paths, and bonded with the wildlife statues.

Dinner was held in this huge barn full of large picnic tables. We were seated with 5 couples from a church group in Boise, empty-nesters on a family retreat. They were super friendly and fun to share the experience with. The lady across from me asked if I was worried about my kids, and I could honestly say I wasn't.  I knew they were fine with my sister, and I was more worried about how crazy they were making her.
Dinner was amazing, we had crazy good BBQ beef and cowboy fare served on tin plates to add to the western atmosphere. After that the Bar J Wranglers took to the stage to entertain us with western music, jokes, and stories. Those are some talented men!

 

I have always wanted to go the Bar J. I wasn't sure what to expect, but it did not disappoint. We were either smiling or laughing the whole evening. We had such a great time and can't wait to take the kids.
On Tuesday we headed over to Teton Village to ride the Tram up the ski hill. Since we both still have Driggs drivers licenses we were able to get the local discount of 1/2 off. The view was amazing but we didn't get to hike around like we had hoped. There was a storm moving in and a mountain top is not the ideal place to be during a lightening storm. They made us head back down on the next tram before shutting down the lift altogether.

This is at the bottom of the tram looking up, it ends at the top of that mountain.

The view.

That's the top of the lift.

Going down! This is the view of Teton Village from the tram, but we were already part of the way down at this point.

We hadn't made any plans for after the tram ride. Yellowstone was out b/c of the storm, town was out b/c we've seen it enough, lunch was out b/c we were still stuffed from breakfast (compliments of the voucher that included breakfast both days at the ranch's restaurant). So we left Jackson and stopped in Idaho Falls to see a movie before picking up the kids. When we got to Missy's house my little nephew Ivan was more excited to see us than our own kids were. They ignored us and whined that they wanted to stay and watch TV. But Darin had scouts and Calin had soccer so we grabbed a pizza and headed for home.
It was a nice trip, so great to relax and enjoy each others company in such a beautiful atmosphere. I'm glad the kids don't mind us leaving, we might have to make a habit of it someday. We've explained to them how important it is for us to date and have time alone together, and they seem to respect that.
Thanks, Missy, for watching them! I would have worried about them if it was anyone else, but I knew they'd be happy there, and they were. In fact, Naiya cried all evening about how she wanted to go back. I guess it's my turn in August? Let me know the dates and I'll be there!