Cowboy Up

I left Salt Lake on Wednesday and headed up to Jackson for my work conference the rest of the week. I discovered the difference between "Jackson," refers to the whole area/valley, and "Jackson Hole," which refers to the city limits (I read it in a brochure). Michelle and I headed into town for dinner and to walk around. This sweet little old lady took this picture for us. When she found out we live in Boston, she told us that she was going through there on her way to Europe, and to tell 'em "Moose" was on her way. :)

We got to stay in the Four Seasons resort in Teton Village. It was very nice with a huge closet and bathroom. I was very spoiled. They cleaned the rooms in the morning, then in the evening... they turned down the bed, closed the blinds, played soft music on the tv, left earplugs and a pitcher of water near the bed.

The next night, we were treated to dinner at the Amangani resort with our Development team. The food was delicious and we tried these minty drinks. Apparently, Jackson is their only location in the U.S.

After a full day of conference on Friday, we had a party at the Diamond Cross Ranch where we had a horse whisperer demonstration. Grant completely "broke" a horse in a little over an hour. He had us help. He drew a circle in the dirt and when the horse was in it, we stayed quiet. When the horse left the circle, we whooped and hollered, until it realized and stayed in the circle. Horses don't like noise. Grant did things that the horse would be afraid of and helped it work through the fear until it wasn't afraid of it anymore. The horse only started bucking once and Grant was able to saddle and ride it at the end. One perk of the conferences is that Jeff is there and Delise and Christie will usually come. So good to get to see them!My bestest friends Joy and Amy came up that night for the weekend. I'm so glad that it was close enough to Salt Lake. These girls are just so fun and I love spending time with them. They even brought us matching pajamas. The next day we enjoyed a nice lunch in Jackson Hole and walked through the Elk Antler Auction. Since elk shed their antlers every year, the boy scouts round them up and sell them for a fundraiser. With our energy high, we went hiking in Grand Teton National Park. The only hike I've ever done was Jenny Lake, so we opted for a new one. We started from the Colter Bay Visitor Center and did the Heron Pond and Swan Lake loop. Everything about the day was beautiful. I love the mountains!
There was even a heron at Heron Pond.There was still quite a bit of snow... we had fun tromping across it and squealed when we fell through. One bad thing about snow, though, is that you can see tracks. A few years ago we had gone to a cabin in Idaho in the Spring and saw some cougar tracks when we got lost. Lost + Cougar Tracks = Scary! On this trip to Jackson, we heard this growling/scraping noise at one point. I heard it again when I was alone because we'd tried different paths to get through the snow. Yeah... I started running (like I could outrun a cougar!) through the knee-deep snow and ended up pretty wet. Luckily, nothing scary appeared, but we did see some tracks in the snow. I prefer this kind of wildlife when it's up close and personal:On Sunday, as I was getting ready and packing up, I received a picture text from my roommate Jan Marie that looked something like this:
My heart started racing when I just saw the flames and red brick, thinking that it might be our house. It was almost as bad, though. Our church in Cambridge was burning down. I got a few phone calls/e-mails from people that day. Here are more pictures and links about what happened:

http://myimaginaryblog.wordpress.com/2009/05/17/three-alarm-fire-at-cambridge-ma-lds-church-building/

http://picasaweb.google.com/Rhapsidiomite/TheLongfellowParksChapelFireOfMay17th2009#

Really sad, but I'm glad that everyone is safe.