Our Trip to Jackson Hole

Todd and I were very lucky to take a trip for a long weekend, thanks to the help of our parents!  We visited our friend Dan in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.  It was a wonderful weekend, and I am exhausted from our trip.

Some highlights of our trip:

The weather was in the 30's and sunny everyday!  Awesome weather for skiing/snowboarding!  And a big change from the overcast skies of Chicago.  The mountain was beautiful and we got some great pictures.

On Wednesday we went and spectated an event called Gelande Quaffing.  This is a crazy beer drinking event.  Basically they have teams of 4 people, who slide beer down a bar top, and the person on the other end chugs the beer. He then runs around and pushes a beer down the top to another teammate and so on. This event takes place outside in the snow.  It is quite entertaining to watch! 

We ate dinner at The Peak in Teton Village.  We had a special 5 course dinner with a beer pairing with each course.  The beer is brewed at the Snake River Brewery.  We got to talk to the brewmaster, and learn about how they brew the beer. The meal was excellent.  We even had venison which I have never eaten before.

Thursday, I was brave and took a snowboarding lesson, it was supposed to be a group lesson, but I ended up 1 on 1.  Which was awesome, and I actually learned how to get down the mountain!   I snowboarded for three days on our trip.  Todd skied, and had a great time as well.

We took a trip to the Snake River and walked along the river, again just beautiful scenery in the background.

On our last night in Jackson Hole we went to a ski jump party.  This was a true event for the locals of Jackson Hole!  I would estimate that over 500 people from Jackson Hole were at this party.  The highlight was the ski jumping!  Everyone was outside watching people climb up on the roof of the garage, ski down a ski jump and over a bonfire.  The tricks in the air were amazing, and it was quite fun to watch.  I of course thought to myself, that these guys are a little "crazy", for jumping over fire--but then I am not an expert skier.  At the end of the night they took the snowmobiles on the roof, and jumped the bonfire as well. 

We certainly enjoyed our time with our friends, but of course we were happy to come home to Nolan!  Thanks again to our parents who were so nice to let us get away!

Happy Valentine's Day!

We hope everyone had a very nice Valentine's Day!!! 

Nolan and his Buddy Wrigley enjoying Valentine's Day stickers!

I loved my Valentine's Day Elmo book!

Visit to the Lego Museum

Today we met Todd's cousin David's family who are visiting from Moutain Home, Arkansas for lunch at John Barleycorn, and then explored the Lego Museum in Schaumburg.   Nolan was in awe of the lego creations, and enjoyed playing with Claire and Camden. It is amazing to me what they can do with Legos!

As you enter the museum there is display of the City of Chicago, which is amazing!  It took over a million legos to create, and over 10,000 man hours.  This picture above is just a snippit of the city they created.

Nolan loved playing with the duplo legos!

And the big foam legos!

Fun in the Snow

I had bought Nolan a sled after Christmas. I thought it would be fun to pull him around in the snow.  We hadn't yet gotten a chance to use it, but this past week we got some new snow.  Today Nolan and I got an opportunity to try out his sled.

He was a little hesitant of sitting in the sled, but once we got going he just kept saying, "Oh, Oh, Wow!" He is still nervous to walk and get snow on his boots or gloves, but we played in it today and I think he actually enjoyed the time outside. Although he kept repeating, "Wrie, Rie," he wanted his furry friend to be out in the snow too. I didn't bring her along for our fun--maybe next time.

Children's Memorial Hospital AON center CLIMB

On Sunday, I climbed 80 flights of stairs to help support Children's Memorial Hospital children and family services.  I climbed with a team from work, Peyton's Pals.  10 of us climbed to raise money for the hospital.  It took about 19 minutes to climb the stairs, and was well worth it for our cause.

Why we climbed?  We climbed for Peyton!  One of my coworkers son Peyton who is 3, has cancer.  He has been battling Germ Cell Cancer, and just finished his treatment.  He is such a happy, vibrant and brave little boy!  Through the cancer treatments he called the port in his chest, his badge of honor.  The chemo he received was dragon juice.  How the mind of a three year old works!  And was a trooper through all his treatments and surgery.

The family just had his PET scan and he is doing great.  The nodules in his lungs are down to 1-2 mm(instead of 10 mm) and the doctors think it is just scar tissue, so he is getting another scan in 3 months to confirm.  But we are hopeful that Peyton is in remission.