Last Night

Tonight is my last night living at the mansion, 565 Vine Street. The land of king sized beds, flat screen tvs, 2000 square feet of luxury, and next door neighbor Bill Briggs-- the first man to ski the Grand. It was a great way to spend my first winter in Jackson. Not exactly the rough life of a ski bum. Thanks Jan!

I've been loving the summer weather in Jackson. It's been blue skies and sunny for the last week. Most days have been getting into the mid-sixties. I can't complain.

I finished the last assignment of my online Political Science class this evening. Feels good to have another class out of the way. One step closer to getting the diploma.

Early tomorrow morning I'm headed to Tahoe with the girls. It will be about a 12 hour drive. It should be a fun trip with some good skiing. I'll post some photos when I return to Jackson!

[ Packing the Benz ]

[ Last day at 565 Vine ]

[ Big and Strong- these things are growing too fast for me to keep up with ]

Learning to Skateboard

Jacki convinced me to buy a skateboard this weekend. I've been playing around the last few days trying to learn how to balance better and ollie. I think it will give me many hours of entertainment this summer. I kind of wish I had started when I was younger...I feel old now, haha.

Phil and I went to the skate park for a couple hours this evening. The Jackson skate park is pretty sick. It has a lot of ramps, some rails, and a couple of huge bowls.

[ Phil ]

[ Me ]

[ Jackson Skate Park ]

Sprouts!

My seeds started sprouting within a few days of planting. Today, after one week, some of the sprouts are three inches tall! Looks like it might be time to start transplanting them into pots. Everything is starting to grow except for the peppers...no sign of them yet.

[ Sprouts! ]

Building a Kicker in Phillips Canyon

Today a crew of us boot packed up Phillips Canyon to build a kicker. The snow was so wet and heavy that we had trouble navigating up the canyon. We spent about four hours hanging out in the sun and hitting the jump. Somehow I forgot my ski poles, so I played around on some "Big Mountain" Ski Blades instead of the skis. They were actually pretty fun.

[ Building the kicker ]

[ Adam ]

[ Hank ]

[ Phil ]

[ Adam watching from above ]

[ Jacki throwing some 360s ]

[ Headed up for another one ]

[ Brandon doing a huge spread eagle ]

[ Yeah...I'm on ski blades ]

[ Phil ]

Afterward, we all met up at Phil's house to barbecue. It was a solid day.

[ Grillin' ]

[ Phil works on his karate moves ]

[ I decided to join the fun ]

[ Adam on his skateboard ]

[ Jacki relaxing with the sunset ]

Skiing up Coal Creek

Jacki and I went for a skin up Coal Creek this morning. Originally we were thinking about skiing Mount Taylor, but we ended up doing a nice gentle ski instead. It was a beautiful morning with nice warm weather.

[ Coal Creek ]

[ Jacki ]

[ Extreme Skiing - we decided to make our own trail over the creek ]

[ Mount Taylor ]

[ Blue Skies ]

[ At the top ]

Keepin' Busy

Summer is right around the corner. Better get ready!

Earlier in the week I planted some seeds...hopefully I'll be harvesting in a couple months. I just checked on them and it looks like I've got my first spouts already!

[ Tomatos, Peppers, Green Beans, and Zucchinis ]

[ Dana helping me prepare the 72 seeds ]

Yesterday was Jake's birthday. We went out to Thai Me Up for dinner. Delicious.

Jake and I spent a few hours this morning working on Taunto. We got bored in the early afternoon and decided to kill some time in the sun. Finally some warm weather!

[ Skateboarding on Rancher Street ]

[ Jake ]

[ Sarah keeping an eye on things ]

We decided to migrate to a park and continued to throw the frisbee and hit golf balls.

[ Brandon ]

[ Jake ]

And back to Rancher for more skateboarding...

[ Jacki ]

[ Putting out the vibe ]

[ Jake posing with the Benz ]

Chicken Scratch Chutes

Yesterday was my final day doing inventory and clean-up work in the rental shop. Mike headed home to Massachusetts last week and Dana departed on her drive home to Vermont this morning. I'm in search of a new job and am the only person left in the apartment. I have a lot of time on my hands. I never think I like work while I'm doing it, but now that I don't have a job, I'm realizing how much I actually like working.

Today a crew of us did a ski in Teton Pass. It had been dumping snow all night and most of yesterday. There was talk of 12-16 inches of new snow in the pass. There were six of us total.

We hiked Glory and skied down the Chicken Scratch Chutes where we divided up into two groups of three to keep it safe. I was with Brandon and Phil. Neil, Adam, and Hank were in the second group. Each group took a different chute.

With the wet, heavy snow, we knew to be cautious and were expecting a good amount of slough. Neil had planned his line knowing how to avoid his slough, but ended up releasing a good sized slide. He didn't have any choice, but to ride it out. Neil was fine. We regrouped at the bottom and as we traversed out and around the corner, we realized that Neil's slide continued around. It was pretty big.

Yet again, I only brought my point-and-shoot so the quality isn't great...but here are some photos from the day.

[ Neil - safe and sound ]

[ Brandon checking out the debris pile...the debris split up and the other part continued probably a good 100 yards to the left ]

[ The three snowboarders on the traverse out ]

[ Neil and Brandon ]

[ Looking back ]

[ Final decent to the pass road ]

[ Making out way back to the parking lot ]

Huckleberry Hot Springs

Today was the first day since December that I didn't have any obligations. It was a real weekend...no work...no pressure to wake up early to go skiing. It was nice.

Dana and I made a delicious breakfast this morning for Sarah, Lisa, and Jacki. Breakfast included a potato, onion, & pepper mix, both chocolate chip and brown sugar & cinnamon pancakes, a fruit salad, and some thick peppered bacon.

[ Sarah, Lisa, Jacki ]

[ Our delicious breakfast ]

Later in the afternoon Sarah, Jacki, Dana, and I all decided to go to the Huckleberry Hot Springs in Grand Teton National Park. It was a fun adventure.

[ The summer wardrobe is out - Jorts and Flannel! ]

[ Hiking to the hot springs ]

[ Crossing streams ]

[ Action shot ]

[ Jacki fell into a mud hole past her knees ]

[ The hot springs ]

[ The beast on patrol ]

[ Sunset on the hike out ]