nieces

makayla and addison are two of the most hilarious little girls i've ever known. they have such huge personalities - we love them so much! get ready for a serious overload of photos! i love my nieces so much!

Happiness Is...

getting to spend a little time in your favorite place on a whim. Grey's River has been a huge part of my life, and will continue to be. I am so glad that the yearly trips I've been taking to Grey's with my family since I was young can continue in mine and Devin's family! I so love that Devin has the same love for this place as I do. I don't think I would be able to explain it to anybody who didn't already know it. I don't think I'd be able to explain how much it means to me - but Devin already knows. It means the same thing to him. Both of us did a lot of growing up at Grey's, and that's something that we can give to our kids some day too! It still baffles my mind that BOTH of our families have been spending one week, every summer (even at right around the same time!) at this place, in the middle of nowhere, Wyoming. Meant to be, much?

Tetons

My Dad always says that he thinks God began the creation of the world with the Tetons, and then went around and did everything else, and left the rest of Wyoming with the leftovers.

drizzling

the entire time we were in Jackson, it was pretty drizzly. we definitely didn't mind. it made for shorter waits at restaurants and less crowded streets! regardless, we still spent a lot of time in our hotel room watching reruns of our favorite shows on the 50" TV at the foot of the bed. that's one of the best parts of vacations, though. not having plans. sure, we spend plenty of time at home vegging on the couch and watching tv in bed, but it seems to be more of a luxury when you do so on vacation. in a beautiful room that you don't have to clean, in an oversized bed with too many pillows. 

our room was also equipped with a fireplace and the coolest shower head I've ever seen. It came right out of the ceiling and basically rained on you. There was a normal shower head too. It spun. Any idea how great that feels after a 3 hour horseback ride? haha! i love that the city of Jackson has made some sort of official rule that i don't remember the name of that says all the buildings have to maintain that old-fashioned western charm. hotels, included. which mean antler chandeliers and a painting of a very intimidating indian man that stared at you (the kind where the eyes follow you!?)... right above the toilet.

like i said: charming.

on Saturday, we were downtown again, doing a little more shopping when we heard loud thunder outside. After we bought a really great print of the Tetons, we went out and sat on a bench under the covered boardwalk-style sidewalk to watch the storm come in. The thunder was so, so loud and the lightning was in every direction, and before long, it was DOWNPOUR. it was actually pretty romantic. we love a good rainstorm! it cleared up enough for us to move on and head to dinner (at an amazing mexican restaurant, by the way) and then head back to the hotel just in time to catch the last Celtics - Sixers game.

Shopping in Jackson

Jackson Hole, Wyoming is a pretty touristy town. Especially the down-town part of it. Most of the shops are packed with art of the Tetons and wildlife like moose and bears, and everything is plastered with the Wyoming Cowboy and phrases like "Dude, I think this whole town is high" (Wyoming has an elevation of 6-thousand-something or other. or something like that.)

I have to hand it to them, though. They're getting better at it. We actually both bought a few "Jackson Hole, Wyoming" articles of clothing, that are pretty stylish (matching t-shirts, too!). We found a few great things, but we came across even more crazy things.

 

real classy glasses

found these awesome bicycle glasses in my new favorite store. it was like a real-life etsy shop!

This old carousel horse was in an antique store, which I referred to as "Voo-doo Mama Juju's" as we were walking out. Cool... but mostly creepy.

i'm cursed.

let's go back to last summer: remember our spider problem? yeah. it was bad. then winter came, and we only saw, like 2. it was wonderful.

and then april came, and i got so excited for the warm weather.

until i remembered... spider season. and my excitement for summer went right out the window.

and since that spider problem, i've gotten into the habit of scanning all surfaces when i walk into any room in our house, especially the bathroom. tends to be the hot spot.

i do it every single time. without fail. no matter how long i'll be in the bathroom. even if i'm just grabbing some cotton balls or a squirt of lotion. i will scan.

so this morning, when i go to shower, my spidey senses are tingling. (it's a real thing. i've developed this ability over many many years of over-worrying about spiders being near me.) i knew there would be a spider, and sure enough, i giant, silver dollar sized, dark brown monster with really long legs is right in the tub.

like it was waiting for me.

devin is still asleep. i hate waking him up. so i don't.

i put on my big girl panties, grab the spectracide, and drown the thing. literally. in poison. i was coughing myself.

spiders are fast. especially when they're being chased by poison.

i hate that. so much.

i turn on the water and let him go down the drain.... for several minutes... (you never know when those things are faking their own deaths.. i've witnessed them crawl back up the drain before!)

and then shower. very, very quickly. while constantly scanning.

usually, the rule is, that you see one, and you're good for awhile. but i still feel nervous and curl up my toes and move faster than usual. always.

then i grab my towel and dry off and step on the bath mat. hang my towel back up, turn around (more scanning, out of habit.)

and there is an identical spider right in the tub behind me. where i was just standing.

so the question is... did the spider i drowned in poison and rinsed down the drain for several minutes come back from the dead? or did his twin brother just fall out of the towel i just wiped over my entire body?

it's freak-out time.

i'm officially done in the bathroom, and not stepping foot in there again. make up? nope. blowdryer? no way, jose. good thing i wasn't going to work, right? because there was no way i was going to be able to look decent and not go in the bathroom...

i drown that guy as well, but leave him in the tub as evidence for devin. because he usually doesn't take me seriously when i describe the watermelon sized spiders i'm seeing all the time. like he thinks i'm exaggerating or something...

head back into the bedroom, toes still curled up in fetal position, and start getting dressed while telling half-asleep devin what had just happened.

he doesn't care. which is good. because it's his job to kill them when he's awake anyway. i'm glad he doesn't freak out - because then we'd be in real trouble and i'd have to hire a spider squisher to follow me around at all times to kill every spider in sight (for instance, just a few nights ago, there was a huge, huge, huge spider (this one was like the palm of my hand - tiny body, just super long legs. like a black daddy long leg [why i feel the need to describe what they look like to you, i don't know] on the wall outside our house. not even near our door. not even on the same wall as our door. and i made devin kill it. even though he was carrying armfuls of stuff. what a trooper that man is, to be my husband!)

i climb in bed again and stare at the ceiling. wide awake. on full alert for more attacks.

20 minutes go by and devin asks if i'm okay.

"i can't stop thinking about those damn spiders" (which was funny, because we had moved far from spiders in our conversation...)

i think he's finally realizing that i am legitimately not okay when it comes to spiders. especially big ones. that come out of nowhere. and are in my personal space. and could have possibly been on me at one point just minutes ago.

needless to say, i drenched every window and door in our house with specrtacide this morning, have been scanning the house all day, and have been jumping at the smallest things: my hair tickling my neck, a piece of lint falling out the laundry i'm folding, a dark-ish spot on our multi-colored carpet...

i'm such a baby.

i'm starting to think it would be worth it to pay for someone to come out and spray our house inside and out. 

literally, the only bright side to this situation.

call your girlfriend

have you seen this yet? it's been circulating lately, and i think these little girls are AMAZING! seriously. both of them are so talented! i love their voices and their harmony. i love finding stuff like this!