Almost all of these holiday photos come from New York or Wyoming, but we had to start with holidays in Washington. Here is Lester, the tuxedo cat, under our Charlie Brown tree. Don't forget that we have sweet Darwin, but I have no photos of the gray fluff under the tree.
Our holiday season started with a big drive from Anacortes to Jackson, WY, where Jay's dad lives. We planned to spend the Christmas day with him and his partner Charlotte, as well as many days on the mountain (Jackson Hole) skiing! And what snow we had! Yahoo! Powder! Jay knows that I don't last long in cars, so when he saw a sign for a state park with petrified trees, he knew he needed to pull over to let the dog (me) out of the car. I bounded up the hills, excited to see a petrified forest. This is what I got. Clearly, I was disappointed.
Ginkgo Petrified Forest, WA
Our first stop (after 11 hours of driving) was Bigfork, MT to see a friend of Jay's, Skilly, and his partner, Colleen. It was so exciting to finally meet Skilly after years and years of stories of the famed character! He was just as fantastic in real life! Colleen and I hit it off immediately as she understood how I felt after 11 hours in a car and poured me a massive glass of red wine. Ahhhh... Skilly lives in such a gorgeous spot in Montana! He had chickens - we enjoyed their eggs - and a pond stocked with rainbow trout. The Swan River was in his backyard and they lived so close to Glacier National Park you could practically smell the mountains. It was lovely.
The drive from Montana to Wyoming was GORGEOUS. We would have liked it a lot more if someone with a brain thought to post a sign that there would be no gas station in sight for hours along the Idaho/Wyoming border. Well, it felt like hours when our gas light came on and every exit yielded nothing to help us. Lucky for us, we finally made it to a station. Whew. Gotta love our dependence on oil and gas!
We made it to Wilson, WY late at night after stopping in Idaho for some spicy Thai food. We spent all three days before Christmas downhill skiing at Jackson Hole! Here is a view of the Grand Teton taken from the top of Rendezvous Mountain at the ski resort.
Jay and Julie on top of the world with no oxygen. Just kidding. No one notices the lack of this important gas but me.
We spent each of our three days skiing with someone from Jay's family! Our first day was with Charlotte. Here she is at the bottom of Rendezvous Bowl!
Our second day was spent on the mountain with Jay's dad, Buz. These two are both unbelievable skiers, so I always get my ass kicked but I have fun trying to keep up.
Here is Jay with his sister, Lee on the third day on the mountain
(Christmas Eve). We had something like 14 inches of fresh snow to play
with and boy it was FUN! Lee had not been on skis in 15 years and she
skied like she had been on skis every day since that time! She was
excellent and the two of us (Julie and Lee) in particular had a blast
together while Jay was off in the trees!
Jay and the powder
Tuffy the kitty has his own bowl on the kitchen counter in the Charlotte/Buz household.
Lee and I took a few hours on Christmas Day to go for a cross-country skiing adventure in Grand Teton National Park (Jay wasn't feeling too hot). Here I am with the Grand Teton in the background - whatta view!!
Grand Teton NP
Lee, Julie, and Jay on Christmas Day
Jay and I had to split up after Christmas Day, he needed to go back to work due to lack of vacation time (I wish we could be like Germany damn it) and I was flying on to New York to see my family (I get loads of comp time in the summer due to the nature of my clammy job). After dealing with a terrifying landing in Newark and then getting stuck there overnight due to cancelled flights, I was very happy to take a train up to Hudson and my parents. I never want to fly United again, they seriously sucked at everything involving the word "customer". I do appreciate, however, that I survived that landing. Having lived through the landing, I had a lot of fun with my family in Valatie! Here I am in the front yard with my mom and the Barber-Just pooch, Lily (Christina and Jackson in the background).
My nephew Henry was excited about the snow "ninja" we built - then he ate the nose.
We decided to have an "Indonesian" night so my family could experience the wonders of Indonesian cooking. My mom and dad hit up the local Asian market and got loads of ingredients and off we went! We had gado-gado and eggplant sambal followed by coconut pancakes for dessert. Yummy.
Christina and Sara
The twins! Henry and Jackson...they have no fun ever.
Jackson and Julie...learning the ways of the snowball fight!
Christina and Julie
While I was still in NY, Jay was back in WA playing with our friends Erik and Britton. They went to Orcas Island and paddled around Eastsound for a while and then hiked in Moran State Park. Erik sent us this photo of the three of them together.
I flew back on New Years Eve and joined our friends for a fun evening of tapas (too many but man they were good) and cocktails. We all behaved and didn't drink too much because we had big plans to go skiing on New Year's Day at Mt. Baker. So we stayed up until just past midnight and then we hit the hay!
Although we were not greeted with fresh snow, we were pretty damn happy with the view from Mt. Baker Ski Resort....crystal clear skies and the stunning Cascades!
The Baker crew! Kevin, Katie, Britton, Erik, Jay, Kevin, and Julie (missing Shawn!)
1 comment:
Lovely photos! Jay and Julie have no fun ever.
: ) Lee
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