the final Jackson adventure

We celebrated the full moon in style last night.
The greatest hosts ever, Chelsea and Trevor, one-upped what I thought had already been a ridiculously awesome trip with one final Jackson adventure: a moonlit trip to some natural hotsprings by snowmobile.
The natural hot pool was amazing.  The moon was amazing.  I was once again, in awe of their surroundings and senses of adventure.
The pics are blurry and weird and really don't portray how beautiful the bright night was, but they are still worth checking out!
Trevor and his toys.... our mode of transportation to the hot springs!

 As we began riding out to the hotsprings, the moon suddenly appeared in all of it's glory.  Big and bright, we barely needed our headlights in order to find our way.

 This is a confusing pic, but in order to get to the springs, we needed to cross a FREEZING river.  You can see the light of some friends who already made it into the natural hot pool.

 Pre-river-crossing enjoyment of the starry sky and super bright lit mountains.

 Our destination.

 ahhhhhhhh made it.

 yahoo!

 soaking it up

 underwater lighting fail.

 And just as we were leaving, the full moon almost poked over the cliffs.

Thanks again to Chelsea and Trevor for the greatest spring break ever and an all-around unforgettable trip!  May the full moon adventures continue!

Teton Pass at dawn

SPRING BREAK 2013 continues!
I am lucky enough to be spending my FIRST ever spring break with an amazing group of people.  Chelsea and Trevor welcomed me into their home, along with Liz, Megan, and many other great friends.  We've been rocking the spring break attitude all weekend long making the most of our time and skiing as much as possible.  Today started out with "dawn patrol" up Teton Pass.  Trevor took Megan and I on an EARLY morning sunrise hike - ski.  It was awesome.  Unforgettable and beautiful. I am so happy to be here making the most of each day.

Like I said, we were up before dawn.  The first 20 minutes or so were in the dark, led by our headlamps.

 Just before the sun came up, things were looking a little gloomy.

 yay. sunrise and pink snow!

 Trevor led the way.  He does this hike all the time and gave us an amazing tour.  Megan was in town for the same races I was doing and we convinced her to stay for the hike!!  Happy hikers!

Photo Cred: TREVOR http://www.jacksonfamilyrobinson.blogspot.com

As the sun shone brighter, the clouds melted away.

 into the SUN! Finally!!!

 Once we made it to the top, we went into the little fort out of the wind to add some layers and drink some coffee!

 The fort was crazy cool.

 As were the views.

 Teton range in the distance

 Above the clouds!

 SHREDDING THE POW.

 ohhhh yeahhhhh

 smiling the whole way down!!

 powder clouds

 And at the end, a cool sunrise beam.

Couldn't have started the day better!!

Catching up.

My blogging skills have been lagging lately but February has been an adventure-filled month with lots of great stories to share.  Skiing and school have been keeping me busy.  Discovering Snowbird has been amazing, especially skiing it with Marco and friends. My "off-piste" skiing skills are slowly improving and I've been loving skiing away from courses and groomers.

Morning at Snowbird, the sun is just peeking through the clouds.

Fresh snow!!

I've been travelling a bit this month as well.  From Salt Lake to Colorado...

 This was on the road....

 Colorado was awesome.  I got to catch up with lots of old friends including these two crazy ones! #IGOTSWAGG

 And the races went really well for me!

 With these two wins, I secured a world cup slalom spot for next season!  I've been skiing well and having fun, and these wins reinforced my decision to take a step back last season. The future is still unknown for me, but I know that I'm skiing fast, having fun trying to push myself, and still enjoying the sport.

 The travels continued... on to New Mexico!

 My teammate Tonje and I on the chair in Red River, NM.

 The college apres ski: TUNING.
This is something that I really think I've improved on this season!  Taking care of my equipment is an important part of the sport, and knowing how to do it is essential for all racers.  I'm lucky enough to have been taught by my dad at a really young age, I still remember all the nights of tuning after doing homework... funny how history repeats itself!!  Thanks to Marco and Dane for "lending" me all of their sweet tools!!!

All the tuning paid off!! I won a BOW AND ARROW! Yeah!

After some more successful races in New Mexico we headed back to SLC, into what looked like a huge storm.

 I made it home in time for Marcos week off and Valentines day!!
:)

 Sunny skiing at Snowbird on Valentines with my Valentine before school!

 And some more skiing at Alta on the weekend!

 Getting serious.

AND FINALLY.
this is for the Canadian ski team girls: some crafting blogging.
Every time I see them they ask me what crafts I have done, and I finally have an answer: I've become upholstery-addicted.
My first project started it all:  Jasmine and I went to the DI, the LDS thrift store where we found some sweet items.  What I got started out as an ugly dark brown, stained, and peeling table.  I unscrewed the top, upholstered some foam and fabric onto it, painted the legs LIME GREEn, and then re-attached it all.
Voila: an ottoman - side table - leg rester.

 Since I forgot to do a step-by-step photo blog with that one, I decided that more projects needed to be done.  Marco was home this time so I knew we could create something cool from scratch.
We went to Home Depot and bought a 12 inch 3/4inch thick circle of wood.
I used my new college math skills to figure out the triangle which would indicate where to screw in the three legs.

Once the math was done and the legs had been screwed in, I also asked marco to make a hole in the middle.  After that was just a matter of SPRAY PAINTING the whole thing (bottom mostly).  I chose ivory white.

 Once dried, we measured foam and fabric, cut it all, and then got aggressive with the staple gun.
The actual steps were: spray adhesive the foam to the wood.  Staple batting first, then fabric. trim.

 The final step was to use the hole in the middle to put a button.  I bought the cover-yourself buttons, threaded STRONG string through and then somehow found the hole and aggressively tied it underneath with a washer.

 Lovely!