a delightfully snowy spring break

For the 4th year in a row, my brother and nieces made their way to the West for a spring break skiing vacation. My brother's friend, Kathy and her daughter, Maddie, joined them for the trip.

We basked in the spring sunshine while carving up the slopes of Wolf Creek for three glorious days!

I am so impressed with how good both of my nieces have become at their respective sports (Kailey - skiing, Ashley - snowboarding). It was awesome to see them enjoy the mountain, sun, powder, trees and challenge as much as I do.

Kailey had her first "bowl" experience, earned only after hiking 45 minutes to the top of Alberta Peak. I am so proud of her for doing it!

Only now, I'm a bit worried that it won't be too many

years of skiing/boarding until our roles reverse and my nieces are the ones running ME all over the mountain. Actually, come to think of it... I can't wait :o)

After searching for weeks online for cheap flights to somewhere warm and tropical to spend the second half of spring break, we ended up deciding on Jackson Hole, Wyoming. ... it's not warm... it's not tropical... and we most likely wouldn't even drink margaritas poolside.... but it still sounded good.

Our first day in town was rainy/snowy. We lounged around, watched a movie, took a walk downtown to do some window shopping, and actually enjoyed the weather as our excuse to be lazy. Little did we know until that evening that the mountain received 14 inches of fresh powder!! The next day we were up early to hit the slopes. Jackson Hole Mountain Resort is AMAZING!!!! It boasts a vertical drop of over 4,000 feet with 50% of trails marked as "expert". They received 538 inches of snow this season (and we thought Wolf Creek was the bomb with 360 inches!!). We have never rode anything like this place, and we are counting down the days until we can go back.

We spent a day checking out breathtaking views at Grand Teton National Park. We stuffed our faces with delicious food at Calico and Snake River Brewing, played bingo at the Elks, and just enjoyed the scene in Jackson. It might even have been better than the beach!

Curds!

Back-to-back weekends spent at home allowed me to finally make my first batch of mozzarella cheese and can some luscious lemon and lime curd!

Patricia and I were so amazed that the cheese making adventure actually produced stringy, delicious cheese, that we didn't even stop between mouth watering bites to take pictures (but next time I will...). We are already daydreaming of warm summer nights with fresh cheese, tomatoes and basil. YUM!

Something about this week's warmer weather tricked me into thinking spring (as it also tricked a few flower bulbs sending green sprouts up to greet us), and mouth puckering citrus fruits.

I decided to make lemon curd and lime curd, using the recipe in "Put 'em Up".

Each batch made 3 half pint jars plus another 1/2 jar extra (for immediate consumption of course).

The result - WOW!!!! I never knew how easy to make and amazingly, decadent and luscious lemon/lime curd could be! While making it, I found myself wondering what baked goods I could make to put the curd on... but now I know, it will probably all be eaten straight from the jar, with nothing but a spoon!!! Citrus heaven!

(the pictures aren't the best, but I thought I would post them anyway)