A Grand Time

July 11, 2011Leave a comment

What’s up lambs?

About a week ago, Bryan and his two good pals Jeremy and Cody decided to make it their new tradition to go up the Grand Teton each 4th of July weekend. With the crazy amount of snow we got this winter (818 inches), they boys set out at 11 PM last Saturday night to climb the mountain on Sunday to avoid any avalanche dangers.

Elevation: 13,775 feet

Grand Teton is the high point of the Teton Range, and the second highest peak in the state of Wyoming. No big deal.

Climbers scale this mountain in various lengths of time, anywhere from 2 days to 3 hours and seven minutes (the newest record). In order to attain such fast times, climbers actually run up the mountain and free-climb (meaning no ropes) when the terrain gets technical.

Bryan’s PR? 5 hours, 55 minutes, car-to-car. UNREAL. Anything sub-six hours is considered expert.

Here is Bryan’s account of their climb, last Saturday. Enjoy kittens!

So this weekend we once again climbed the Upper Exum Ridge of the Grand Teton on the 4th of July weekend, a new tradition. We started off on a beautiful starry night/morning on Sunday, July 3rd. With the enormous amount of snow we received in Jackson Hole this winter we knew we were in for a long day of climbing on snow and ice but the temperature was perfect and before long we were watching the sunrise from the rocky, wind blown Lower Saddle. We filled water bottles, consumed energy bars, enjoyed the scenery, and prepared for the climb.

When we approached the Wall Street Ledge we noticed from the undisturbed snow that no one had climbed the Upper Exum anytime recently, perhaps not since last season. With the sun now warming our faces we began the climb.

My new La Sportiva Boulder X shoes made for great climbing on the grippy granite rock. The climbing was easy yet exhilarating as we made our way toward the summit. There was quite a bit of snow and ice but we were able to avoid most of it and stay on rock, sometimes doing fun split-like moves between the rock.

A few hours later we were on the summit ridge and eager to rest and take in the view.

At 1:00pm we had reached the summit, basking sunlight we were elated and marveled at our surroundings. The sky was indescribably clear and the snow-capped mountain ranges of Western Wyoming glistened in sunlight.

Before long we started to make our way back down the mountain, through the snow, to the Lower Saddle where we had stashed some beers in the snow earlier in the morning. We glissaded (slid on our butts) down the snow fields and were soon on dry ground at another location where yes, we had stashed a couple more beers. By 5 we were approaching the parking lot and looking forward to seeing our girlfriends and enjoying the warm early evening on the deck at Dornan’s. It was a long but deeply satisfying day with good friends on one of America’s most iconic peaks, The Grand Teton.

Good Times Had by All

July 8, 20112 Comments

What a week!

There is just SO much that I could tell you. Unfortunately, only about 10% of it might be of interest. The rest would leave you scared, annoyed and maybe a little bit hostile.

Cutting to the chase:

1.) Bryan’s brother Corbin arrived Monday morning!

Bryan and Corbin in Hawaii

Since it was the 4th of July, naturally we had made some plans including raftin and q-in. I had procured three spots for us on Matt’s boat and it was a BLAST. Our group included 5 boats, at least 2 cases of brews, tons of food, a platypus full a wine (pictured below) and of course, Holly brought her flask. I knew I was friends with her for a reason!

We Call it "The Platty"

After a thrilling day on the Hoback River, we came home and fired up the Q.

Bryan also prepared his delicious guacamole.

The candy dishes and glow sticks were courtesy of yours truly :-).

We grilled kabobs and hamburgers, had plenty of chips and dip, drank beers and OF COURSE ended the night with s’mores.

P.S Glow sticks from the Dollar Store suck.

Other haps of the week (unpictured unfortunately) were:

Floating Flat Creek with Bryan and Corbin intertube-style, mine popping on a rusty nail and being dragged downstream until I realized that I could stand up. #blondemoment.
Dinner at Trio. I had:

Enjoying Bryan’s delicious homemade pizza while watching “Due Date”. BTW, Robert Downey Jr. is getting cuter and cuter with age.
Drinks + Dinner at the Caddy and Nikai. So. Effing. Good.
Making this awesome girl’s Cake Batter Pizzert. Vegan, using spelt flour. How granola-ey of me huh?

Today is my day off! So I celebrated by making this for breakfast:

Bluebs, Organic Cinnamon Toast Cruch, Puffed Wheat and Almond Milk

Then I went up Snow King!

For all you who don’t live in Jackson Hole (most of you), Snow King is a ski resort but also the name of the mountain it sits on. It is located about 1 mile from town and makes for an excellent workout in the summer. The mountain starts at 6,237 feet and the summit is at 7,808. This means that hikers gain 1,571 feet of elevation in anywhere from 25-75 minutes. it takes me about 38-45 minutes to hike up (longer if I forget my ipod).

Today was so beautiful outside that I smartly remembered to grab my camera to show y’all what it looks like out there.

View from the bottom

Harses, harses, harses, harses…Anyone?

Heading Up

Wildflowers, 1/3 of the way up

Breaking a Sweat

Awesome Wyoming Fanny Pack

Taking the chair lift down

Purty

Wind on My Face

This hike always rocks my world a little bit. It’s short, but intense on the stems. To power through, I listened to hits from Glee and Mamma Mia! On the way down, I slowed things down a bit with Phoebe Snow (look her up) and also this song.

I’m such a Ringie.

Now, I am relaxing with a delicious Life Water, graham crackers and an Amanda Bynes movie (obv), while I mentally prepare for our kickball game at 6:30. Perhaps I shall bring along the camera tonight and capture the Kicking Mules (our team name) striving for victory? I vote yes.

You Got me Feelin Em-o-tion

July 2, 20111 Comment

Sing it Mare Care!

I’d like to begin by sharing, group therapy-style. Even though it’s just me, this computer, a vodka + soda and a hoard of Asian tourists outside, stepping off a tour bus (no joke) I’m going to pretend you’re all sitting around me in a circle, indian style and many of you are wearing Birkenstocks.

As of late, I’ve been feeling some thangs and one of the reasons I love blogs is the ability to write thoughts down, hit publish and maybe, hopefully, someone will sympathize with you or even (dare I say it?) leave a comment!

Well, here it goes.

I’m just gonna say it. I sometimes feel inadequate. Cases in point:

I used to be able to run double digits no problem and now I can barely run 5 miles.
I consistently let my grow-out go beyond 2 inches (what I call the white-trash halo).
I am not an expert skier, snowboarder, mountain biker, climber or rodeo queen and I never will be.
I am currently not holding a “career”-type position.
I eat too much cereal.

Mind you, these feelings of inadequacy come and go, as most things do. Someone once taught me the importance of identifying your emotions and confronting them, head-on. As humans, we shouldn’t be scared of what we are feeling. We should embrace them. Feel them. Then, it’s easier to determine the root of the feeling and why it is present. For example, to overcome feelings of inadequacy, perhaps I should use positive self-talk?

Whew! Feelin’ better already! Any other ideas?

However, I happen to be a fairly positive gal so let’s move on to shinier, happier things, shall we?

We can start with the fact that I’ve seen two babies in one week. FYI – I call chihuahuas babies ;-).

My Sister's Chihuahua, Chloe Joey

Secondly, I went rafting on Monday!

Holly’s boyfriend Matt has his own raft and awesomely, lets me ride in it (might have something to do with the fact that he is dating my best friend).

Matt Loading up the Raft

Rafting in Jackson Hole is always a bit of a production, i.e loading boats, people, life jackets, coolers etc. into cars, driving to the put-in, arranging gear, situating people and taking off. We always make sure to pack a bunch of sandwiches and beer in the coolers and usually stop once or twice to feast. Here’s what I brought:

Turkey + swiss, a BANDIT and Pop Chips. Yum! The Bandit basically rocks my world and is the equivalent to 1 and 1/3 bottles of wine. Holls Balls and I finished this bad boy off by the end of the trip no problem.

Loving the Bandit

We rafted along the Hoback River and it was unexpectedly a little more white water than we had bargained for. We set out with 2 boats and after going over one pretty big rapid, we discovered the other boat had two people fallen out, along with BOTH oars, their cooler and pump! Serious stuff man.Luckily, we were able to pick up one oar, the cooler and pump since we were upstream from them and they had a back-up oar as well.

However, in the process of retrieving the pump, I fell halfway out of our boat and Holly was laughing at me so hard, she could barely help me back in! Luckily, Matt came to the rescue and yanked me back in using my PFD. Twas pure Jackson-Hole awesomeness.

I think I should be on Deadliest Catch.

When the Weather is Fine

June 27, 2011June 27, 20112 Comments

What up BB’s?!

I know I have been a bit MIA this week but I promise you I have a good excuse. You see….

IT TURNED INTO SUMMER!!!!!!!!!!

You know me and m’love for the sun so obviously I am a happy camper. B and I kicked off the season with a hike/picnic in Grand Teton National Park and ’twas perfection. Well, except for the fact that I got stung by a mini-bee. Nobody believes that mini-bees exist, but they DO.

We drove into the park and decided to hike into Death Canyon. What a name, right? We are SO core.

I love wearing pink while hiking. And also doing most other things.

A loaf of bread obv got suck to the side of my head

Trying to get an action shot of water splashing = Impossible

After the hike portion of our journey, it was finally time for the food portion! We hopped back into the car and drove to Jenny Lake, which is a really popular spot in GTNP and for good reason. There is a beautiful trail that winds all the way around the lake and they offer boat rides to and from each side as well. Bry and I laid some towels out in the sand/rocks and feasted upon the surprise contents of the cooler, which featured:

Pita chips
Salami
Triscuits
Laughing Cow Cheese
Watermelon
Apples + Oranges
Lemonade
GUSHERS
and of course, PBR

Duh

Where have these been all my life?

After the PBR was consumed…

Other haps of the week included a couple of runs (3 and 4 miles), an accidental donning of denim on denim aka the Canadian tuxedo and LOTS of crazy tourists asking for “6 pump hot chocolates”. Ew.

The most exciting of all?

Bryan’s promotion!

That’s right, in two weeks time Bryan will be moving locations and working on cooler and awesomer stuff like credit analysis and bigger consumer loans. Oooohh…Ahhhh. B is in banking, btw. What a great reason to celebrate, right?! So of course I enlisted the help of Holls Balls (or Holly) to accompany me to the dollar store where we made some purchases and then headed home to decorate.

We went with the “luau” theme and I think it worked quite nicely here, no? Since Holly had to take off, I was left in charge of the big surprise once Bryan got off. I think it tuned out ok…case in point…

I even got him a special “promotion” cup. Which was blue and featured a flamingo. Relevant, no. Awesome, yes. We then popped open the$8.99 bubbly and toasted.

After peering a bit closer at the bottle, we noticed that it was an award-winning bubbly! I told Bryan, “Obviously, I only buy the classiest champagne.”

Check out the actual award below…

The 2008 Dallas Morning News Wine Competition? Ah hells yes.

I know how to pick em.

Fun with Bug Bites

June 18, 20113 Comments

Cripes it’s Friday!

What a random week we’ve had. There are so many stories to tell that are completely mediocre, where do I begin?!

According to Miss Andrews, circa The Sound of Music, I suppose I shall start at the beginning, a very good place to start.

I should preface this with a question: Anyone out there working F&B ever feel like all the days just kindof blur together?

A normal 9-5 means putting in yer 40 hours and meticulously counting down the minutes on Friday until you can go home, change into your “after-work” clothes (ala Mr. Rodgers) and start downing gimlets while watching SATC and curling your hair MaryKate and Ashley style. Or was this just me?

Now, Saturday feels like Thursday and 11 am can feel like 6 pm.

What am I getting at? Oh yes. My point is that while I promise to start at the beginning, I’m a little unsure as to what that is. So in no certain order here are some awesome stories from this week.

I worked the afternoon shift at Elevated Grounds Coffeehouse and got off around 6:30 pm. I hadn’t worked out so I texted Bryan and asked him if he wanted to do a hike after work. One of the many perks of living in Jackson Hole is that there are a plethora of short, amazing hikes literally right outside our door. We decided to conquer Snow King for it’s increasing steepness and breathtaking views.

Top of Snow King

About half way up, Bryan paused. I looked over expecting him to say “Oh my gosh, there’s Harrison Ford!”. Instead he slapped the back of his leg, killing a mosquito and leaving a small streak of blood down his leg. Insert RFAN. Random fact about Natalie:

I HATE BUGS.

Actually, allow me to clarify. I could care less about bugs, but what I hate is what they leave behind. Bug bites. I consider myself a gal with a healthy amount of self-control, but when I get a bug bite, I scratch the bejesus out of it. I’m sorry I just do.

Here is a shot of my leg when I was traveling around Panama with friends and I got EATEN ALIVE by sand fleas.

So we proceeded to the top of Snow King, despite the air being thick with flying blood suckers and as we made our way down, I surveyed the damage. Three. Two on my arm, one on my leg. And yes, I have scratched them. I have scratched, have had troubles sleeping and am just irritated with these pesky little pumps.

Arm Bug Bites

Leg Bug Bite

I am happy to report that I got my hands on some Cortizone 10 and the stuff seems to do the trick for a while anyway.

The Chipped Purple HAS to Go

But enough with gross bug bites. On to better things with less inflammation. Some inflammation, just…less.

I made delicious caprese sandwiches this week.

Ingredients

Finished Prod

And we had a house party with Holly, Matt and Jess. More mojitos. Twas a good time.

We got a handle this time...

Matt and Holly Shenanigans

B Doing a Yidda Jig

Jess the Yogi

I Made Krispie Treats

That’s all I got.

BTW, I also hate the word “inflammation“.

A Spring in the Hole

May 26, 2011May 31, 201112 Comments

Is worth two in the bush! Am I right?!

Famous Pic of JH

The weather in Jackson is truly an anomaly. One day I find myself pulling out rainboots and a coat and the next I’m sparkling (because I DON’T sweat, I sparkle) at work in jeans and a tee. Then there are the days when it could go either way and I presumptuously opt for a more “springy” outfit and wind up walking around with snow in my ballet flats. My advice: Don’t force it people. If the weather looks sketch, sway towards practical instead of hopeful.

How do Jacksonites get through it?

1.) Drink. Whiskey.

Maybe out of a shotski, maybe not.

Shotski in Action

Carrie Underwood once said, “Right now, he’s prolly buyin her some fruity-little-drink cuz she can’t shoot the whiskey”. The girl she’s talking about? That’s me. I love m’gimmies. AND fruity-little-drinks.

*A shotski is basically an old ski that has shot glasses glued to it, allowing multiple people to take shots at the same time. The one pictured is made by Holly’s boyfriend Matt – this one is fold-able, has squishy cups AND a backstrap. Holla.

2.) Be active.

Me at a 5K in Richland, WA

People in Jackson are fit-beings. Of course, the occasional trailoricious person will sneak up on ya in the Browse n’ Buy (the thrift store I frequent), but they about as elusive as a college grad on Jersey Shore. By and large, a typical Saturday in the life of many Jacksonites reads something like this:

Wake up at 7 am.
Do not shower. Put on outfit consisting of Patagonia, Prana and Smart Wool.
If a man – trim beard. If a woman – trim beard. Hehe, jk.
Drink organic, sustainable, free trade coffee with steamed almond milk.
Purchase gourmet dog treats (also organic). Place treats in re-useable tote.
Consume Tram Bar. Fill Sigg.
Pack a modest bagged lunch purchased at Backcountry Provisions in Gregory backpack.
Be active WITH dog for 8 hours solid.
Meet friends for brews and re-live experiences of the day.
Shots of whiskey and subsequently consume a Billy’s Burger.
Pass out in your house with other 4 roommates and their dogs.

I don’t feel too bad about this one since I am an active gal myself. As Bryan once described it, my fantasy out-doors day would consist of “a long pancake hike (meaning no elevation gain) where we sleep in a quaint little cabin with a fireplace, hoards of candy, small dogs and a FULLY-stocked bar. The next day we make S-Bux Pike Place Roast and hike back out.” NAILED it honey. Sassafras for sheeez.

3.) Work y’ass off.

Since moving to Jackson, I’ve had more than my fair share of jobs. Cough-five-cough. In less than a year. What?! Gimme a break – None have involved flipping burgers, telemarketing or turning tricks – that’s the good news. However, I hate to inform you that I have partook in the following:

Re-filled enough iced teas to fill Oprah’s swimming pool.
Woke up at 5 am 5 out 7 days and worked for a horror of a human being (who shall remain nameless) and POOLED TIPS. I peaced the eff out of that hot mess after 1 month.
Tried to seat dozens of ravenous, horrible, snooty skiers who smelled like ham and cheese at a restaurant on a ski resort.

Holly and I Slaying Some Glassware

World's WORST uniforms - Hello Star Trek

And YES – Holly and I have worked at all the same places since we’ve moved here. Two peas in a pod, we are.

4.) Take a vaca.

Probably the smartest and most obvious way to avoid the Jackson-Spring-Blues is to travel. Most locals flee this town in the off-seasons and for good reason, taking trips all over the world. Between Bry and I – we’ve been to Costa Rica, Hawaii, Panama, Africa and Argentina during these off seasons. Traveling lends itself well to people who work F&B or hospitality jobs. Lots of people make oodles of dough during the busy tourist seasons and then live off those funds while abroad.

In Kroger National Park, South Africa

Bryan at Basecamp of Aconcagua

5.) HOPE

It’s a four letter word far more powerful than some of it’s relatives…well sometimes . Jacksonites hold out hope for summer for many reasons.

– Rafting on the Snake River. Cue whiskey and PBR.

White Wata

– Sitting on the balcony of the Town Square Tavern and making fun of tourists sporting cowboy hats and fanny packs watching the “shootout” on the town square.

So. Cheese.

– Targhee Bluegrass Fest, the Chicken Fry and THE FAIR.

Git It

– Climbing the Grand.

Bryan on the Summit of The Grand - Elevation 13,770 feet

– Hiking the many gorgeous trails.

Nice Face

– Watching Old Faithful shoot off in 60-70 minute increments (yes, that’s how often it goes off).

Mom and I with Yellowstone Park Rangers at Old Faithful

So there you have it. The perfect formula to persevere through the Jackson-Spring-Blues.

How do you get through gross Spring weather?

Eat, Run, Hike, LOVE

May 17, 2011May 31, 20112 Comments

What glorious times we had last weekend! Here’s the run-down boos-

Friday – GNO (Girl’s Night Out y’all) at the Bistro. All the usual suspects were in attendance: Holly, Jess, Blair, Mary and myself. We took full advantage of the crayons + white paper, drawing everything from horses to other things of a more phallic nature…ahem…

Saturday – I went for an epic yog (it’s a soft J). And then B and I attended the “Bras for a Cause” event at the Town Square Tavern. So. Much. Fun. I love me some money raisin to save them tittays. FYI vodka + soda + splash-o-cran = pink drink. Gotta represent.

Sunday – B and I ran (sprinted for me) 1 mile and then went up High School Butte. Then we drove into GTNP and ate pistachios. Raspberries!

But Monday was the most special day of all. Why? Because it marked 6 months of Bryan courting me. Courting is the same thing as dating. It’s a funny word. “It’s an oversized hat. It’s funny”. Oh how I love you Mr.Reynolds.

Why did it rock?

Bryan brought me flowers
We had vodka+sodas before we left
I wore a low-cut shirt with chicken cutlet bra inserts for maja CLEAV.
We ate delicious food at the Bistro
Had romantic conversation
Consumed Moo’s Ice Cream

I love you Bryan. I love you more than mascara, swedish fish and gimlets.