Melissa learns to ski

This was the weekend Jason took me to Grand Targhee in WY to learn to ski :-) Lets just say it is much different than snowboarding and cross country skiing (at least in my opinion) We got to the mountain at 9:00 and Jason took me to the bunny hill and tried to give me some pointers. I wasn't doing very well but at 10:00 I went to a lesson which helped a lot and Jason got to do some real skiing. The snow was great! They had a base of about 56 inches and it had just snowed another foot a day or two ago. My lesson was 2 hours and when I was done I had a pretty good idea of what I was supposed to be doing. We ate lunch outside and were ready to go again. Jason was very patient with me and went on the beginner slopes with me. I did pretty well. Jason did a couple last runs by himself before we headed back around 4pm. It was a long day but we both had a great time. It had been foggy all day on the top of the mountain, but when we were driving back the Tetons we finally visible so I got a couple pictures. Grand Targhee is the mountain range behind the Tetons and normally on a clear day you can see the Tetons on the lifts.
Today we are finally bottling our beer that we made two weeks ago. We will let it sit for another week to carbonate and then we will see how it tastes. Two more weeks until Jason's graduation in North Carolina and 2 1/2 weeks until we are in New York for Christmas. Lots of flying to do this month we hope the weather cooperates.

View as we were driving to Grand Targhee

Pretty trees on the road to the mountain

Me at the beginning of the day thinking I should have snowboarded.

Jason riding the ski lift.

Jason't self portait as he went up to the "real hills"

View from the top.

Taking a break for a photo

Me trying to remember all the things I am supposed to do.

Consentration face.

Taking a break. Jason was nice and didn't take any pictures of my falls.

It started snowing and the mountain was even more foggy.

View of the Tetons on the drive back to Idaho Falls

One more of the Tetons.

Heather's visit and Christmas decorating

Heather got here last Saturday. It had already snowed about 5in when she arrived which was good because she wanted to see snow. I thought we would have a great week of sight seeing; however we only made it to Jackson because of all the snow and very cold weather. We went to Jackson, WY on Sunday. Since the roads are closed in most of the national parks around the area due to the snow we wanted to cross country ski; however no one was renting skis yet :-( so we decided to go for a hike through the snow to see the Grand Tetons. We saw a little bit of them but it started to snow again and it was very foggy, but we enjoyed our time in the snow. We had a snow picnic and then drove around a little bit more to see Jackson lake and the Grand Teton visitors center. On our drive around we saw some buffalo wondering around and some elk. After driving around went into Jackson to sight see. The snow was coming down pretty hard and it was only about 18 degrees outside. We walked around the square and had dinner at a pizza place in town before we started back to Idaho Falls. It took us 3 hours to get back because we soon realized that in Idaho they really don't plow the roads. All the roads were completely snow covered and it was snowing the whole way back. It was pretty but we took our time.
Monday Jason had to work so Heather and I had a movie and puzzle day. It continued to snow and started getting colder. Tuesday the lab was closed because of a blizzard warning. It was snowing and blowing all day. Jason came home and we all went out to lunch. Wednesday we were hoping to go see the hot springs; but the high was 5 degrees with a windchill of -10 and the roads were not that great. Plus we probably wouldn't have been able to get to the hot springs :-( We did venture out and go sledding. We made it an hour before we felt like we were getting frostbite. It was fun. We spent the afternoon/evening enjoying hot chocolate and playing games. We bought Monopoly for Jason since he said it was his favorite game. Heather won though...poor Jason. Jason also had a final conversation with Dr. Hawari and submitted his final copy of his dissertation!!!
Thursday was of course Thanksgiving! Jason got up around 7 to put in our 20lb turkey! Everything came out wonderful. We didn't have any mishaps or any burnt/not done food so Jason and I consider our first thanksgiving fending for ourselves a true success :-) We also had help from Heather who brought some great recipes to share. We made enough food for about 15 people haha. Turkey, stuffing, corn casserole, spinach souffle, mashed potatoes, gravy, giblet gravy (jason's only. He enjoyed it I thought it looked grooosss hehe)apple pie and pumpkin pie. We have continued to eat thanksgiving food everyday. Jason said next year he wants to make more sides so he can eat them longer....I'm not sure about that because I'm pretty much thanksgivinged out.   :-p  We finished our Thanksgiving day watching football.... Go Aggies!!
Friday morning Heather went with us to get our Christmas tree. After the tree outing we had to take her to the airport to head back to Raleigh :-( She had a safe flight back!
Friday night we decorated the Christmas tree, now the apartment is all Christmas looking. We decided to get our tree early because we will have to take it down before we head to NY for Christmas day! The kitties are enjoying the tree. I am hoping it doesn't get knocked down during their chasing fits haha.
I did some Christmas shopping today. It feels good to have most of my shopping done already. We will try to keep you up to date each week. Work for both of us has been going well. No complaints from either of us   :-)

The bottom part of the Tetons as we
drove by.

All bundled up ready for our hike in the snow.



Our view as we hiked. It got really
foggy and snowy.



Some more of the view as we walked.

Buffalo tracks.

Heather and Jason before we started
walking.

We actually hiked along the road that
was full of snow...that's why there is a
stop sign. We stopped and ate lunch here
at the picnic area.

Yum sandwiches haha. It was so
chilly.

Here is a roaming buffalo.

Here is a large buffalo heard grazing.

The view as we drove around to do some
sight seeing around the Tetons.

Jackson Lake

Heather and I next to one of the antler
arches in Jackson, WY

Beautiful hotel in Jackson.

Our sledding adventure begins.
Temperature was 3 degrees and the wind
was blowing pretty hard.

we could not keep warm hehe.



The Idaho Falls froze.



Yum our pies!



The puzzle of the Grand Tetons that Heather
and I put together.



The turkey. It was very very good.



Happy and full from a great dinner!



Here is our decorated Christmas tree!

November Fun

It has been a couple weeks since the last post. We have been relaxing and spending some weekends at home. For Jason's birthday we went to a homebrew beer class. We learned how to make our own beer and I bought him some things to get started. So last Saturday we decided to try it out. We made a porter. It went pretty well. It has been fermenting for the past week. We are about to switch it into a different bucket for the second fermentation process. I think we will be able to bottle it in another week.

On Jason's birthday we went to dinner at Outback and had some yummy german chocolate cake :-) He enjoyed all the cards and birthday wishes from family and friends.



We started by boiling 1 1/2 gallons of water
and added the grains. You but them in this little
sack to boil them in the water.



Here was our set up on the stove.

Jason added the grains.

Then we boiled them for 30 minutes.



Then after you boil the grains you take
them out and add the liquid malt extract.

And the powder malt....

And the hops

Then boil for 30 more minutes.

Then you have to put it in a fermenting
bucket and cool it off to 70 degrees
as fast as possible. Lucky for us it
started to snow and we could use that to
help cool it off.

Add the yeast.



And shake for 5 minutes



Here is the beginning of the 4 days of
snow and cold.















After we were done making the beer we went to the airport to pick up Heather for her visit in Idaho :-)

Halloween Week

Jason got back from Raleigh last Saturday night after his defense. He spent the last week making some final revisions and he is now all done except for graduation in December!  Sunday we carved our pumpkins. Jason chose a wolf howling at the moon and I did bats. We cooked the pumpkin seeds, yum!

Jason said his only motivation
 was the cooked seeds...
but look how much fun he is having haha.

Final product. Mines on the right, Jason's on the left.

Thursday we went to the Ford dealer to see about buying a new truck for Jason. His old vehicle was having some issues that weren't worth fixing. He brought home his F-150 on Friday. He is very happy with his choice. We took it out today and it drives very well :-)




We were in the parking lot of EBR-I. There was
lots of space so a good place for pictures.



back seat

 

It has all the fancy sync technology :-)

Today we drove out to craters of the moon national park. It is the site of an extinct volcano so it is a huge lava field. It was really neat. On the way out I got to see where Jason works as well as EBR-I which is the site of the worlds first nuclear power plant. He showed me some reactors that were originally built for airplanes. They were tested but never used. We also drove through Arco which was the first town to be lit by nuclear power. I am learning more and more each day about nuclear stuff and what Jason actually does. Some day I will understand haha.

Airplane reactors

This is my attempt at a picture of where Jason
works. Those little white things are the buildings at MFC
where he works.

We then made it to Craters of the Moon, which is about 90 miles east of Idaho Falls.  We walked around for about 3 hours looking at all the different formations from the lava. 

Neat folded rocks.

We first walked around a short loop
that was full of lava formations.

Then we climbed inferno cone. It was
considered a vent from the larger volcano.

We made it to the top and there was one lonely tree.
Except it wasn't very hot today. It was about 45 and
very windy. Burrr

Jason making his way up inferno cone

Then we hiked the crater trail. This was one
of the larger craters.

This was the path we hiked around the craters.



Then we saw what they called spatter cone
and snow cone. There is always snow
at the bottom of "snow cone" it was a big
hole filled with snow.

This was at the top of inferno cone.
We did well with the self timer!

Jason found and interesting rock formation.

Next to spatter cone.

Then it was time for the "wild cave"
This was a little frightening for me, but
I made it into two of them.

This one was called Indian Tunnel. It had
the most light out of all of them. It has a couple of sky
lights and collapses that made it bareable hehe.

Jason crawled into this little hole for fun!

Me exiting Indian Tunnel .
I was happy to be out!

All we had were flashlights for light.
And of course Jason's awesome head light.

This was the second one. Beauty Cave.
It was so dark. Jason had to drag me in.

This is a picture of the exit of Beauty Cave.
It was so cold under there you can see our
breaths in the picture.

Just a picture of the lava rock around the caves.

We also purchased a National Parks pass today so anyone who wants to come exploring feel free!! We miss everyone and can't wait for some visitors. Heather comes in 3 weeks for Thanksgiving :-)