We arrived at the Jackson Hole KOA kampground yesterday safe and sound despite the fact that the female TomTom tried to tell us the kampground was smack dab in the middle of the Snake River (good thing we had that backup Bing map :-) We got camp set up and took a tour of the grounds. I found the laundry room, camp store and playground. While the playground isn't much, the camp store has about everything you could ask for (except orange juice and fresh produce).
Today Elizabeth decided to let us all sleep in until around 8am (and we're on MST time so by my calculations that was like 9am CST!) I got in 2 loads of laundry and the girls checked out the playground. After lunch we walked across the street for our 4 hour horseback ride. (Did I that Mark signed us all up for this and volunteered to stay with the girls?)
Now some background on my horseback riding experience. I ride horses one time a year at family camp in Texas. It's pretty flat ground and the horses are well trained. These horses did look a lot smaller than our Texas horses and there weren't nearly as many "rules" to riding the WY horses. I rode a horse named Red. Mary Grace was on a pretty black horse named Slade. Ben was on another red looking horse named PJ and Matthew got to ride Sis (perfect :-) Doris, Mark's mom, rode a white horse named Jill.
Red and I were assigned the last spot in line so that we could watch for anyone sliding off their horse. Not sure who was looking out for us but that's okay. The problem with Red was that he did not like following too close to the horse in front of him. He'd stop and wait til there was sufficient room and then trot to catch up. Stop again and repeat the trot. After the first hour of the stop and trot I think I lost all feeling in my bottom (well, no actually it still hurt alot). I was really hoping that my couch to 5K training would have prepared me for this half marathon on a horse. Now I'm afraid my knees are going to be shot and I would be able to finish week 9 :-( I guess we'll see if I ever get back to running.
The ride was actually fun. We saw one elk and a couple of mule deer. We got to ride through a raging stream (well, maybe not really raging but it was moving). The landscape was just incredible -the snowcapped Tetons on one side and the hills and valleys all around us. I've decided that I probably have come to take the beauty of Tennessee for granted because its what I see every day. It's funny how much more I notice when I'm not distracted by my everyday routine.
Mark took the girls on a pony ride after we left on our ride. He took pictures with his mother's camera so I'll have to wait to post those pictures later. They road Little Brown Jug.
On a non-horse note - Anna lost another tooth. Mark actually notice this afternoon that she was missing a tooth that had been loose for a while. We weren't sure if it fell out during the night or what. It hit me later that when I went to crawl in my bed last night I swiped something off my sheets. (We put the girls to bed in our bed so the rest can watch tv and then move the girls to their bed when everyone is ready to go to bed.) Sure enough Matthew checked the floor by my side of the bed and there was her tooth! Sweet Anna had sad that the Tooth Fairy was probably going to leave her a surprise under her pillow at home because she wouldn't know where the RV was. I'm thinking the Tooth Fairy will go ahead and make a visit tonight so she won't forget when we get home in 10 days.
Tomorrow Mark and I are going rafting down the Snake River with the big kids. Mark and I did this 20 years ago and I remember being scared to death then. Still wondering why I agreed to do this again. I'm sure I'll have some stories to tell tomorrow.
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