2nd Annual Great Snowfest

This weekend was the 2nd annual Great Snowfest for Teton Valley. It was obvious from the community support that it's definitely going to get bigger and better every year. The events were snowshoe racing, snow bike races, snowmobile motocross races, skijor races, old snow plane demos, ice skating, hockey games, figure skating, nordic races, a ski film festival and my favorite, the snow sculpting contest.

Snowboarding Wyoming!

Snowboarding is my favorite thing to do before work! On this particular day I got to experience my first "inversion," (while snowboarding) where it's cloudy in the valley and the chairlift brought me through and on top of the clouds where it's blue sky and sunny. It makes the surrounding mountain peaks look like islands piercing through the clouds. It was marvelous and absolutely stunning to experience.

Happy Holidays

They Need Us

Uniting To Make A Difference

This is sweet big lug is Cash. He loves to play and loves to snuggle. He's  still looking for a place to call his own.

The "Uniting To Make A Difference" link above will take you to the Facebook page created by my dear friend Bobbie and new friend Michelle, where the three of us post and share shelter pets who are within days or even hours of euthanasia.  We hope to inspire people to network for these animals and open their lives and homes to foster or adopt a pet in need. Please take a moment to stop by! These animals need us.

This petite skinny little love nugget is Sweet Pea who is looking for a safe and warm  forever home. 

This is Vincent rescued and pictured with his new owners and he is also wearing a sweater made for him by his new loving Mom and Dad. This poor boy was beaten, electrically shocked, cut and pumped full of steroids to become a fighter but he never fought back so they dumped him at the shelter.

Field Trip!

We took a little field trip up to West Yellowstone Montana and paid a visit to the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center. What a fun and highly informative place about these wild animals! We were able to get a close up look at several huge grizzlies, observe two separate wolf packs and even get personal with several birds of prey. Although these animals see humans they do not interact with the staff or visiting guests. They try to keep these animals as wild as they possibly can so that the behaviors observed are just like the wild animals that aren't in a contained environment.

Social Networking Saves Lives

I have a love/hate relationship with having a Facebook account. I love the ease of staying connected with friends and family and reconnecting with old friends that I had lost touch with over the years. I don't like the games, the negative posts, or anything political. But what really makes it worth it is being able to save shelter dogs who have "run out of time" and that are in danger of being euthanized.  By sharing pictures of these dogs (or cats!) with friends and networking for these animals, some of them are rescued. Most aren't so fortunate. Our nearby shelter has euthanized over 600 dogs and 1,000 cats over the last three years. Sickening numbers to say the least. This goes to show the importance of having your pets spayed and neutered to keep these grotesquely high numbers down. Last night I saw a pitiful picture of a sad sweet dog in a shelter in Georgia, who was scheduled to be put to sleep this morning. He's a 1-2 year old American Bulldog. One of the sweetest most mellow happy go lucky breeds out there. His shelter picture just broke my heart in two. Dumped at the shelter because his owners didn't want him anymore. I felt helpless living so far away and had very little hope in him getting rescued in such short notice but I shared his picture anyway. I shared it with an old friend who happens to live in Georgia just two hours away from the shelter where the dog was located. Not only was my friend awake late enough to get my late night last minute Facebook "share," in hopes to see if she knew anyone in the area who could foster him--but she, herself, offered to go pick him up in the morning (today) and foster him! From information passed on from Idaho to Georgia, we pulled together and saved this dogs life. I am elated that he has a shot at life and a shot at becoming the best friend to a family, adult or child. I am elated that he is going to know what it feels like to be loved by people who really care about him and to be a part of a loving family and household. I am elated that there are wonderful humans out there willing to take on the inconvenience to their daily lives by making the effort to save an animal. Here's Cash pictured with his two lovely rescuers. It warms my heart and fills my eyes with tears.

In The Desert

Two weeks ago we spent a week playing around in Moab, Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park. It was my first time to the area and I was blown away by the canyons, slick rock, the Green and Colorado rivers, gorgeous sunsets and sun rises, delicious food in Moab, the insane amount of mountain biking trails, as well as the hiking trails, and the many awesome places to camp. I felt like I was on the planet Mars with all of the red rock, arches and crazy rock formations. The weather was a perfect 65-70 degrees during the day and at night it was in the 30-40's. I couldn't imagine how miserably hot it would be during the summer months. A fall visit to the desert was just what I needed to better prepare myself for another long and cold winter in the Tetons.