Cowboy State Memories

I have finally gotten the slide show together. If you have 10 minutes, enjoy. It has sound.

As a quick recap, we went to Jackson Hole, WY to enjoy the mountains. To hike, to breathe fresh air, to take in beautiful views, to see wondrous wildlife, to relax, to drive, for time and to do all things as a couple once again. Words, even pictures, cannot do this part of the world justice. You must go. You must experience. You must make judgments on your own accord, but I believe you too will fall in love and awe.

Jackson Hole is a place that you can travel by foot to most everywhere. I absolutely adore that and wish whole-heartedly that our Longhorn City was more pedestrian or even bike friendly. It just seems cleaner and safer. This is exactly what we did upon our arrival after checking in. A few hours later we ordered a take home pizza from Mountain High Pizza Pie - right across from our hotel, The Sundance Inn.

Up early on Sunday, we headed to the Grand Tetons National Park for a hike up to Paintbrush Canyon. Two hours into our nine hour (16.3 mile) hike, it began to rain, which was eventually followed by snow. The husband and I did not care; it was beautiful. It was clean. You could smell the pine, the grass, the rain and even the snow.

On Monday, we traveled to Yellowstone National Park. Three million visitors a year pass through this fantastic ecosystem and you need to be one of those in your lifetime. Summers are crazy busy, but fall and winter are slow, if even existent at all. The park has only one road open in the winter and if you want to stay at Yellowstone Lodge during that time, you have to take a snowcat to get there.

Tuesday was another 9.6 mile hike to Surprise Lake and Amphitheater Lake. Same altitude as Paintbrush Canyon, this time it took switchbacks straight up the mountain. Less time was needed, but as you will see the snow still hadn't melted. This is a hike that you will see either a grizzly or a black bear on almost every hike. We did. He was about 100 yards away and we were mighty fine with that. Though, without a telephoto lens, he makes some tough viewing in the photos. Amazing!

Wednesday was another day at Yellowstone.

Thursday was a day of shopping in Jackson Hole. Christmas is just around the corner.

Friday was a day of travel home in order for the husband to be in a wedding. A beautiful wedding it was. It reminded me exactly of ours with a couple of different twists.

I hope you are entertained by the slide show. I loved taking the pictures as much as sharing them. I cannot; however, take credit for all of them as the husband is pretty good with the camera as well! He took several that are in the slide show. We decided to make it a yearly anniversary gift to one another, so we'll be back. I'll leave you with this: go to Jackson Hole, Wyoming. You need to. You will not be disappointed.

To 2 Notes to Self:
1) A telephoto lens is a requirement. Next year, for sure. You would then be able to see the black bear.
2) Water resistant/proof pants are a must. Hypothermia is not welcomed. Neither is death.

Can't Win For Losing

The husband and I have been blessed with a decent sized backyard. As a result we have loads of wildlife. Nothing of the coyote or mountain lion sorts, but lots of birds and rats with fuzzy tails. This is a great enjoyment to us and we do much to encourage visits, more so, permanent move-ins. However, I'm having a heck of a time catching said creatures on film. I took over 30 pictures yesterday and these are the only winners:

I continuously miss the greatest shots-that-even-National-Geographic-will-hire-me-for of all time! Or it's that I move to get the picture and the 50 different sorts of wildlife take flight in one big lift off. Yesterday, I was even crawling on my hands and knees in my house just to get shots through a window/screen that you see posted here. I'm not so good at this camera thing. Or it's my camera. Or both, because in my little head, it can't just be operator error. Seriously. I need help. So, I'm going to look for a new bright shiny camera as well as hunt for camouflage outfits. And not the bright orange please-don't-shoot-me either. Maybe even something along the lines of dressing as true shrubbage? The husband will be so excited! A new camera!

By the way, these are my heroes. They are going to catch those fuzzy tailed rats one of these days, if I only open the door. . . .

Your thoughts? Suggestions?

A Precipitation in the Form of Ice Crystals

It's April 7 in this longhorn city. . . .

. . . and it's snowing right now.

Double-Jointed Barkology

When It Pours

Yesterday, I was playing with the digital camera in the rain. The pictures above are proof of that. I am not sure if that is recommended by the manufacturer unless the camera is made for water-play, but I tried to make sure it stayed dry in between me taking shots in the downpour and then immediately running for cover as if I was someones target practice. The complexity of my dodging raindrops ended up being fun for me though I think the husband had other thoughts. It was pouring out. But we think this was a good thing as the husband and I had just finished the laying of 300 pieces of sod in our front yard.

The husbands vacation is over at 3 o'clock this afternoon. Back to the daily grind of sick human body management for him. Me? I still have bushes, flowers and vines to plant. But most of the major back-breaking work is out of the way for now. Since I don't mind digging in the dirt and making things pretty; I'll be happy as a pig in mud.

Strike a Pose, Poser

I had to call my little sister, Sarah, this past Saturday morning.

I was out with the husband while he was pedaling away on his bicycle during another road race, when I noticed some pretty Texas flowers. I couldn't remember for the life of me how to take close up shots and it was the most important thing that I get a hold of my sister to tell me the deep dark secrets of my camera right then and there. This was an immediate attention matter of business.

You see, I had two buttons to chose from - one I called the MoFo button and the other was a picture of a flower. This choice may seem obvious, but in using both of them with equal amounts of shots and with none of these shots turning out, I became slightly befuddled. I needed the guidance of an expert. This is where the Saturday early morning phone call to the sister ensued.

I was promptly told by my younger sibling that the MF button does not stand for MoFo. It means "manual focus" which entirely makes sense. I was also told that I need to use the flower button if I am taking very close shots of something, but make sure I let the camera focus before pressing the shutter button . . . .

Sometimes I feel like a gorilla.

I seriously need to get more serious about taking a photography class as my sister isn't always available to pick up my immediately desperate phone calls on how to use my camera. Though, I have to say, her guidance is far easier and way faster than the 300+ page manual it came with and in all actuality an 8 week course. I may just stick to bugging her. It's payback for growing up together where I felt she was a serious pain to my popular quotient.