Ms. Becky Comes to Town!

Ms. Becky Roberts (my second grade teacher) was in Jackson this morning and came by the house for coffee, pastries, to meet Oscar, and of course to see her most favorite, best student ever. Ms. Roberts is one of those great teachers that some children experience when they are young that changes them forever. Ms. Roberts really encouraged me to read and be creative, probably to keep my seven year old mouth from yapping away while she was trying to teach math. She is definitely one of the reasons I had a love to read early on and have continued to read my whole life. There is no doubt that teachers shape who we are going to be and lucky for me I had a very gifted, patient teacher who helped mold me into the person I am today. I am so grateful and happy that she got to spend time with me, Chris, Oscar, and George this morning.

jauberry Photo

I changed the photo that is on the top of jauberry. I think I will change it every month or more often from now on- we need to keep it interesting for our loyal readers.

Let me know if you like the new one.

Saturday with Parker

Parker came over on Saturday for a few hours to play with Oscar. They colored, played outside, and crawled/ran around the house. It is so much fun watching the two of them talk to each other and laugh over who knows what. They are both such sweet boys.

It was also a welcomed distraction for Oscar as he has been teething really badly this week. Having Parker over definitely helped him forget that he was suppose to be grumpy.

The ending is hilarious....

My Five Favorite Things at this Moment

My friend and fellow blog writer Kate, asked me to name my five favorite things right now. Well if there is anything that I am always in love with it is France, Jane Austen, coffee, and paper goods. It is too bad that Chris does not share my love of any of these things except coffee. In fact he gets completely bored with my references to Jane Austen, hates the money I always want to spend on paper goods, and routinely shuts down my idea of living in Paris for two years when Oscar is six. Well if I cannot be in France right now, or inherit Crane & Co, or talk about Jane Austen then maybe I can surround myself with these five favorite things of the moment:

1. Crystal Dangle Ring from J. Crew
2. Darcy Quote Mug from Brookish at Etsy

I love love love Pride & Prejudice and how full of himself Darcy is in the novel.

3. Frederic fabric from Dessin Fournir

Yes, it is French and would look great as pillows on a black leather sofa.
4. Holly Hunt Crystal Sphere Pendant by Alison Berger

This hand blown pendant is something that I desperately want.

If only I had lots of money.....

5. Firefly Sweet Tea Vodka

My sister just introduced this vodka to me this past week.

Thanks Tara'!

Daddy & Oscar

Sunday Lunch and the Miller House

For Sunday lunch I decided to do an old fashioned Sunday Southern Lunch: Fried Green Tomatoes, Fried Chicken, and Macaroni & Cheese. It was yummy, but made us all feel like we had a 10lb brick in our stomachs.
We decided to walk to the Miller House, which is a settlement from 1895 that is a little over a mile from our house on the Elk Refuge. Since Billy's last name is Miller, we were hoping to find that he is the rightful heir, and they could move in as soon as possible. If only!

Jellystone...Hey Where is Yogi or Boo Boo?

We went to Yellowstone on Saturday to see the geysers, the waterfalls, and of couse the animals! We saw Old Faithful erupt twice, waterfalls, the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, elk, chipmunks, and lots of bison. Saturday morning it was 42 degrees so you can understand why Tara' & I have scarves on in the morning. It was a great time and we got to see buffalo maybe a little to close.

Snow King: If You Cannot Hike It, RIde a Horse

We decided to hike Snow King on Friday before we picked Oscar up from school. Snow King is the ski hill that is a few blocks from our house. It has a trail that goes to the top where you can see Jackson, the Tetons, the Elk Refuge, and Sleeping Indian. Chris & I always take for granted that we have lived here four years and are acclimated to the lack of oxygen. We can never figure out why people move slower or cannot breathe when we are climbing altitude. Tara' & Billy did better than most southerners and were great sports.
As we were hiking, Tara' saw the horse stables and knew that she wanted to go horse back riding before she left Jackson. On Monday she and Billy went and had a great time riding horses up Snow King. I am sure it beats hiking.

Thursday with Aunt Tara'- all by herself!!

On Thursday Oscar stayed home from school to be with Aunt Tara' and Uncle Billy all by himself. If there are two things that Oscar loves it is stroller rides and attention, so Thursday must have been one of his favorite days ever. They took him on a long stroller ride all through Jackson where he laughed, flirted, and then passed out on the way home. It was a great day for everyone, if only Tara' would accept the nanny position and come live with us......

Bathtime with Aunt Tara'

Oscar was so happy to see his Aunt Tara' & Uncle Billy this past week. On her first night in Jackson, Tara' helped me by giving Oscar a bath. Oscar showed off his runway look later in his Tigger robe with Billy & Tara'.

Sun Valley & The Goicoecheas

This past weekend we went to Bellevue, Hailey, & Ketchum, Idaho better known as Sun Valley. We went to see our friend Cory, congratulate his brother Paul on his wedding, and visit with Cory's parents who are just wonderful. We were so happy to see Cory after a year and have him finally meet Oscar. Sun Valley is just like Jackson in that you have to drive through a lot of nothing to get to somewhere beautiful. I cannot tell you how fun it was to drive through sagebrush desert and towns of less than 200 people for four hours. Oscar was such a great sport for being in the car seat for a total of nine hours in two days.
We stayed in a very lovely, charming Bed & Breakfast- The Inn at Ellsworth Estate. The owner, Steve, we found out had lived in Louisiana as a child. He was a great host and we had a wonderful time, especially at breakfast where we got to visit with the other guest and enjoy the three course breakfast the B&B serves.
While driving home we took a look at the Craters of the Moon National Monument. It is the crazy looking field of lava flows from 200 years ago. It really looks like something that you would find in outer space. Maybe this is where they filmed the landing on the moon in 1969. (Just joking I know we landed on the moon.)

It was a great trip, especially seeing the whole Goicoechea family again, and we are now getting ready for Aunt Tara' and Billy's arrival tomorrow. Lots of pictures and stories to come on their stay.

Oscar at Parker's 1st Birhtday Party

Sunday we went to Parker Gotham's 1st birthday party at Mike Yokel Park. Pam took these great photos and I wanted to share them with you. Oscar wanted some cake & ice cream, but he will have to wait until December 19th......