How Sweet it is!

We enjoyed a wonderful weekend of SWEET weather, LOVABLE friends and lots of HEART-healthy activities to celebrate or Valentine's weekend. We were thrilled to welcome Greg and Anita Owings as our first "official visitors" to our new home for Valentine's weekend! They enjoy winter sports, the outdoors, good wine and friendship as much as we do, so it was a really fun, non-stop weekend. They arrived on Friday afternoon, just in time to enjoy some lunch and shopping on the Town Square. We did the "locals' thing" and hung out at the Snake River Brewery that evening. We were proud to show off our hand-painted tiles that are now hanging in the restaurant (only mine & Derek's are up so far - Barry & Ashley's to come later):

 


We awoke Saturday to a "bluebird" day and warm temperatures - so we headed out to the JH Mountain Resort for a day of skiing. Greg had Barry going down moguls and more - now we call him the "mogul meister" HA!

Greg & Anita at the top of Sublette

A beautiful day, lots of downhill, no lunch break - we came home and started the real heart-healthy activity of drinking red wine and eating buffalo salami! We had a "walking happy hour" through the neighborhood with Bella and were treated to a beautiful "Alpenglow" as the sun set on our return home.

Wyoming Alpenglow Sunsets are absolutely beautiful!

After lots of  fabulous "grape juice," good food and laughs on Saturday night we (somehow) were ready to hit the Cross Country/Skate Ski trails at Cache Creek on Sunday morning. This is a beautiful trail that allows dogs to "ski" with you off-leash, so Bella was thrilled to join us. Another Bluebird day to enjoy the views! This was Barry's first time on Cross Country skis and he, of course, did awesome. I tried out my newly acquired skate ski skills and quickly realized that this trail was all uphill (elevation gain 850') and my "skills" were not ready for this type of terrain - ugh. I have never worked so hard in my life as I did to ski uphill two miles. And the weather was so warm that I was removing layers of clothing much more quickly than I was ascending up the hill. No worries, I did not bare all, although I was tempted to strip off my skate skis and poles and chuck them in the bubbling creek many times. The good news is that the return was downhill - yahoo! I started in another Skate Ski clinic this week, and we were told by the instructor to not attempt elevation gains like Cache Creek until we are "solid" skiers - usually after a season of flat terrain practice. So at least I felt a bit better about my experience, although it did not help how sore I was from the day.

Cross Country/Skate Skiing @ Cache Creek

After another fun-filled day of activity, it was time to replenish ourselves with some more good "grape juice," a nice Valentine's dinner out and some much needed R&R. No rest for the weary though, Sunday brought some sightseeing through the Valley, a bit of shopping, lunch at Dornan's overlooking the Grand Tetons and then Snowshoeing in Grand Teton National Park! We had never done this before - what a beautiful and easy (hooray) way to spend the afternoon. We snowshoed on shoes that were used in the 1940's for wartime training.

 

So much to do, so little time! We enjoyed a weekend packed with activities, but had to forgo many other events that were happening in and around the Valley. We will have to stick around for at least another year so that we can attend the "Sweathogs and Swinehearts Ball" at the Mangey Moose Saloon to raise money for the JH Ski Patrol. This weekend also boasted the 10th annual Coney Classic at the Nordic Center at the ski Mountain. Participants were allowed 0-3 dogs and could use skate, classic, tele, or alpine skis, or snowshoes. Dogs could pull the skier, or not (most don’t!). There were two courses: Coney’s Hot Pursuit - 3 K of cold-hearted smoke and Cedar’s Short Super Dash of Love - 1 K of fast and furry infatuation. So now we know what we have to train for next year!

The JH Coney Classic

Hope that you enjoyed a SWEET valentine's day too. I just returned from practicing skate skiing with Bella and am off to the Alonzo King's Lines Ballet (San Francisco) open rehearsal - they are in residence this week and have performances this weekend. We will see in the next blog if I am able to talk Barry into another ballet!

Unconditional Love
Many have asked how Bella is doing after her unexpected surgery (she wasn't spayed after all and went into heat...SURPRISE). She is recuperating beautifully and is now back to regular activity, much to her chagrin. She was quite concerned last week as to what had happened to her "good life" and also to Barry and I. She was not used to when we would put her on a leash for all of her walks and never throw a ball or a frisbee. Her exercise restrictions were just lifted this weekend and it has been non-stop thrills for her since then! We are thankful that we have a fabulous vet here and a terrific, healthy dog! When we were in the vet's office he had a picture with the following:
Dogs are Miracles with Paws
Dogs are a sure thing
Dogs invented unconditional love
God made dogs and then spelled his own name backwards to name them
Some little known dog secrets; dogs have no secrets
Dogs are made of love and fur
Dogs are like vanilla ice cream - reliably delicious
Apply dog logic to life: eat well, be loved, get petted, sleep alot and dream of a leash-free world

Bella enjoying life again as she knows it -  in the driver's seat of the Nelson Household!

 

Bella taking her buddy "Little Guy" for a ride!

Jackson Hole Interesting Fact: Over 15 feature films have been made on location in Jackson Hole including: "Shane", "Spencer's Mountain", "Any Which Way You Can", and "Rocky IV".