Christmas Day

 Mark and I had a very relaxing Christmas. We hung out at the farm and gave the animals their presents. Larry came over in the afternoon and had a yummy dinner with us. This year we had brown sugar and balsamic glazed pork loin, sweet potatoes, corn bread, and carrots. We had brownies and peppermint ice cream for dessert. 

😋😋😋

I tried this new dill pickle cheese ball recipe. It was so good! Definitely my new favorite!

Sawyer and Amanda had a good Christmas. They spent it in Boise with Amanda's parents.

They went to the same Caldwell lights as we did!

Sawyer and Amanda stopped by our house on their way home from Boise and we exchanged gift.

Mason, Bailey, and Nora had such a fun Christmas! The whole month was magical with cute little Nora. She is at such a fun age for all the holiday celebrating. They stayed in Boise and had their own little family Christmas.

She is the cutest little Christmas girl!

Christmas Eve in the Tetons

Mark and I try to do something different and fun together the years we don't have our kids for Christmas. This year we spent Christmas Eve in Jackson and Grand Teton National Park. It was so fun! We started the day with a sleigh ride through the Elk Refuge. It was so cool; I would highly recommend! We haven't had a lot of snow yet this winter, so the elk haven't been there long, and plenty are still migrating toward the area. Our guide estimated about 800 elk in the refuge while we were there. We had a lot of tourists in our sleigh, so they were pretty fascinated by the elk, but I was more interested in hugging the big, giant horses. 😆

Our two horses were Lightening, and McQueen.

Next, we drove into the park along the Gros Ventre River to look for moose. We saw 17 of them! I knew all the good places to look from when I went with Joyce a couple weeks earlier. We also saw a guy at one of the pullouts watching a pack of wolves through his scope. He let us take a peak. So cool!

We saw 3 big bulls right by a campground. I'm sure there were more, but we didn't dare walk past this guy to look. He was hanging out right next to the path.

There are at least 5 moose in this picture. I'm sure there are plenty lying down that we can't see.

There are 7 more in this picture. This is where Joyce and I saw a bunch too. They just hang out farther away from the road than the first group. We watched them for a while through the binoculars.

I love the snowy Tetons.

😍😍😍

The little dots on the phone screen are the wolves.

I love these mountains!

After that we drove to the backside of the refuge to see the big horn sheep. We saw lots of them, but they were all up on the ridge, so no close encounters.

We had dinner in Jackson, but I don't remember the place where we ate. It was nothing exciting.

We stopped at DQ for blizzards for dessert. 😆

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Our last stop was to see Mama Mimi, a cool troll just outside of Teton Village. 

Mark and Mama Mimi.

You get a good perspective of how huge this troll is when you see us standing on it, looking like little specks.

That was it! We headed back over the pass and made it home an hour late to feed the animals dinner. I love adventuring together, and it sure beats sitting around wishing our kids were here. It was a great Christmas Eve!

Christmas Trip to Boise

It wasn't our year to have the kids for Christmas, so Mark and I took a quick trip to Boise the weekend before Christmas so we could celebrate with Nora. She makes Christmas so magical! We just adore her!

We got there on Friday afternoon just as Bailey was getting off work. We had dinner and then headed to see the lights at the 'Caldwell Winter Wonderland.' It was the coolest light display!

 

Everything is more fun with Nora around!

Nora got a high five from Santa while she was walking through a light tunnel.

I freaking love her so much! It's impossible not to be happy around her.

We found Santa again!

We woke up Saturday morning and had an early Christmas. Watching her open presents was the cutest thing ever!

Christmas with Grams and Pops was good practice for the real Christmas!

😊😊😊

Mark and I got a Cold Case to solve from Bailey, Mason, and Nora! We're excited to give it a try!

Yay for Bluey!

Bailey and Mason got a Skylight calendar from us. I didn't know these were a thing until Bailey said she wanted one. They are super cool!

We got Nora the cutest record player. It was a huge hit! She learned how to change the records, flip them over, and pick what song she wanted before the day was even over. My knee was super sore when we got back home from all the dancing I did with her. 😆 

Bailey was terribly sick during Thanksgiving when they were at the farm. She seemed a lot better while we were there, but definitely still had hard moments. This was one of them. I stood over her, told her to say cheese, took her picture, and she promptly flipped me off. 😂 Oh the joys of the first trimester!

Bailey wanted to do a 'Christmas dinner' while we were there, but she can hardly walk through the kitchen without wanting to throw up, so I quickly said no to that. We ended up having a nice dinner at the Cheesecake Factory instead. You can never go wrong there.

Waiting for a table at the Cheesecake Factory.
This picture melts my heart! 😊

It was a quick trip, but so worth the drive to experience a little Christmas magic with Nora.

Mark's Carpal Tunnel Surgery

 Mark had his first round of carpal tunnel surgery at the beginning of December. He had his right hand done first because that was the one giving him the most trouble. His recovery is going great, but it's hard to run a farm without being able to lift or grip for 8 weeks. If he gets the results he's hoping for from this surgery, he'll have his other hand done as well.

Grand Teton Park with Joyce

I spent a much needed day in Grand Teton National Park with Joyce. She showed me where the bachelor herd of moose hang out in the winter. It was amazing! We saw 26 moose!

We saw our first two farther away from the road. They had frosty bodies. The pictures Joyce got with her good camera are amazing. 

Our first two of the day.

They looked pretty standing out there with the sun coming up over the mountains.

At our second stop there were five of them, and we got up close and personal with these guys. There were tons of photographers there getting pictures with their nice cameras, and I'm wandering amongst them with my cell phone taking pictures. 😂

It's crazy how they lay down and just disappear in the sage brush. Makes me wonder how many I've run right past without noticing them.

Some of these guys were huge!

We continued down the road and saw a couple elk making their way to the refuge.

Then we spotted a mama moose with 3 babies!

We saw the big herd farther off the road. We were counting them with binoculars. There were so many! We spotted 15 of them, but we may have missed some who were lying down. 

We made a couple more stops looking for otters and foxes. Then we went to Colter Bay and did a 2.5 mile hike in the snow. The views across the lake were so good!

Someone made a cute snowman!

The ice hanging off the debris in the lake was crazy!

A day spent with Joyce is always a good day!

On our way out, we stopped to see the big horn sheep behind the elk refuge. So cool!

The rut wasn't quite in full swing yet, but the males were definitely following the females around being annoying and persistent. 😅

Such a great day! I told Mark we needed to go now that I know where everything is. We planned a trip that weekend with Steph, but the weather turned bad, so we didn't get to do it. Mark and I made a plan to hang out there for Christmas Eve.