My husband knows me well. Chalk it up to our 15 years together or his insight or my inability to hide anything. Three of the 465,000 things he knows about me are that I do not enjoy surprises, I do not enjoy cold weather, and being celebrated makes me extremely uncomfortable. So when he called me from work one day to tell me that he had planned a surprise trip to a place whose winter temps averaged around 10 degrees and oh by the way we’re gonna call this trip “The Celebration of Larami”, well…yeah. You know the scene in all the sci-fi movies where the security is breeched and all the doors start shutting and the red lights start glowing and spinning and sirens are wailing and it’s just total chaos? That was my brain. I recognized what a huge romantic gesture it was and I was very appreciative. But my brain went straight to questions of how I would “repay” him for said gesture or express enough gratitude and enjoyment during the trip and how I would ever survive temperatures below 40 and how to find snow boots for less than $100 (I did, by the way). I know it sounds ridiculous to most, but I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one who’s ever felt that way so I’m sharing this for fellow crazies. Luckily, he told me about 20 days before we would leave which gave me not enough time to implode from anticipation but just enough time to get used to the fact that this was happening.
So the trip. It was incredible. Snow is incredible. Mountains are incredible. The fact that being swept away on a romantic winter vacation with my husband is an actual thing that can happen in my life is incredible. .jpg)
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We stayed at Fireside Resort and it was the most adorable “cabin” I’ve ever seen. Probably because most cabins don’t have stainless steel appliances and look like page 12 of a Restoration Hardware catalog.
We did a half day snowmobile tour to Granite Hot Springs with Togwotee Snowmobile Adventures and I highly recommend it. It was super intimidating for the first 20 minutes or so, but by the end I was going a lightning fast 40 miles per hour (for about 3 seconds and then it started shaking like crazy and I was like nah…I’ma just chill here at 28). Swimming in a hot springs in 18 degree weather was definitely not something on my list of things I’m willing to do. But it was probably one of my favorite parts of the trip. The water was 104 degrees and heated completely by nature itself which will forever blow my mind. The walk from the springs to the changing room was the longest 6 seconds of my life but well worth the experience.
This was at the National Elk Refuge. I loved it, but husband was not all that impressed.
***UPDATE***
After several folks expressed their disappointment in the brevity of this post, I reread it and now realize that I did indeed end it pretty abruptly :). My bad. I promise, that’s all there is to show and tell! It was a pretty quick trip and the time that wasn’t spent in the cold snow as pictured above was spent in the warm cabin enjoying each other’s company. But it’s nice to know you all enjoy reading my words and viewing my photos :).
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