Must see Movies

As part of my work at the youth crisis center I work at, I get to mentor a kid for a little extra one-on-one time each week. When the weather is nice and there isn't any snow, we might shoot hoops, play soccer, or go for a bike ride. However, right now it has been weekly Thursday movies which is a big treat every week going to the theaters to catch a film.

Tonight Chels came with us to see, "Gran Torino". For the life of me I can't understand why this movie was not at the top of all Academy Award ballots for best picture and also best actor for Clint Eastwood. It is an extremely poignant movie that has a lot of important themes throughout. Perhaps the strongest being family, friends, and respect for elders. Be sure to catch it at the theaters if you haven't already.

We also watched Clint's other masterpiece a few nights ago via Netflix and we loved that one too. "Changeling" is a fascinating true crime story set in L.A. in the 1920's revolving around a child abduction and a mom's quest to find her son again.

Have awesome weekends and go watch some great movies!

Hello Oliver

Congrats to our friends Matt and Allison Reilly who welcomed a cute little boy into their lives on February 19th. Oliver Lincoln Reilly is officially a week old and loving life.

Welcome!!

Have you heard of rodeling?

It is insanely fun and all over Europe. Like extreme sledding with no rules or regulations! You rent the rodels (we got the "race" version, they were aluminum with edges and really really fast) in town and can go play around all day. You can take them on the tram, the trains, wherever....so fun, check it out.


Europe Part 4 - Rodel Madness! from Chelsea Robinson on Vimeo.

musical credit: Jump N' Shout by Basement Jaxx and None Shall Pass by Aesop Rock

30 Things I Want to Do in My 30th Year

Okay, so I love lists. I thought it might be fun for you all to see my list of 30 things to do before I turn 31 (on December 11th). Some items are big, some are small, but why not try for them all right?

1. Learn to use my camera manually

2. Score a sewing machine and learn to use it

3. Bake a pie from scratch

4. Learn how to fly fish

5. Volunteer

6. Go on a backpack trip

7. Surprise Trevor

8. Have a dinner party

9. Read 2 books a month, including 2 classics

10. Decide on a business name

11. Make myself a web page (in the works, yippy!)

12. Go rollerskating

13. Take a photography class

14. Try out bangs

15. Take photos in a photobooth

16. Write a list of my 100 favorite things

17. Watch a movie at a drive-in movie theater

18. Get inspired

19. Ride on a Ferris wheel

20. Perfect a "go-to" recipe to impress guests

21. Take a dance class

22. Write a letter to someone I admire

23. Laugh until I am out of breath

24. Sleep under the stars

25. Explore a new city (Denver & Seattle)

26. Floss every day

27. Watch a professional sporting event

28. Create a homemade recipe book full of favorites

29. Take a photo a day for one year
(I started this project on Valentine's Day and am calling it Project 365...if you want to check it out, there is a link to my new Flickr page on the right!)

30. Print out this list and hang it somewhere I can see it daily

Do any of you have a list??

xox
Chelsea

Broomball is over

We put up a fair fight but didn't get the win we needed tonight in our final broomball game of the season (actually it was a double-header for the championship title and we had a double loss) : ( Total bummer way to end the season, but a lot of fun (and bruises) had none-the-less.

For those of you wondering how the game is played, it is probably going to sound ridiculous. You run and slide around on the ice in your tennis shoes, your stick has a rubber triangle wedge on the end that you use to hit the mini soccer ball "puck". Five players and a goalie per side, and each team must have 2 girls out there. It is pretty funny to watch, everyone looks like they are running in slow motion, like those cartoons where their feet wind up forever before they can actually move! There is a lot of falling and bruises left and right, but man is it fun. Mandatory helmets and mandatory beers had after the game, win or lose.

It was a great season, but second place isn't good enough for our team. We will be back to take back our championship title next year...watch out!

Valentine's Weekend

This felt like a weekend that we wanted to put on repeat! Seems as though Valentines day is more than anything a good reminder to do something fun with the ones you love. We rented a Forest Service cabin up the Greys River Road near the town of Alpine about 45 minutes from Jackson. There are a myriad of old Forest Service cabins across the western states that anyone can rent out. They come highly recommended by us! This particular one was called the "Deer Creek Cabin" and it was a 14 mile snowmobile ride into it.

Once we got to the cabin I of course utilized the sled to gather firewood

Chels is currently working on a new photo project, so, don't mind all the pictures of me, she was going crazy with the shots! (More to come on her ongoing 2009 photo project)

The Deer Creek Cabin during a nice snowstorm on Valentines night.

The warm glow from inside. It was toasty once we finally got the propane heater all fired up.

Elegant V-day dinner for two!

Followed up by a few rounds of Champagne and Yahtzee

Woke up to sunshine and fresh snow

Wish this was our second home!

On our way home from the cabin trip, we stopped by the "Cutter Races" which are a yearly fundraiser for the hospital here in town. They are essentially a quarter of a mile long chariot races. There are 5,000 people that show up and revel in pure Wyoming fashion. That is, excessive boozing and also sanctioned betting.

Hauling ass

Just like I said, a chariot with mountain bike tires!

Great afternoon to watch this unique event. Most of the teams were from the Jackson valley, some from the Star Valley, and also some from Idaho and Montana.

Hope you all had a great Valentines/President's day weekend!

Non-stop sledding

Friday's are my day during the week that are devoted entirely to snowmobiling. I am lucky enough to have Friday's off from work and a lot of my buddies who also have sleds have managed to make this their go to day to rip around too. Yesterday we went for a pretty wild ride up Willow Creek, near Hoback Junction. It involved non-stop bushwacking, creek crossings, a whole lot of digging, and a ton of fun. It's kind of weird, but I honestly get more excited to go snowmobiling now days than I do to go skiing. It has to be the most addictive activity I have ever tried to get better at!

This weekend we are keeping the snowmobile theme alive and well. Chels and I are going to head south down to Alpine, WY and snowmobile up the Greys River road about 15 miles into a Forest Service cabin that we have rented. Going to stay the night there and ski a bit from the cabin. Should be awesome. Have a look for those shots early next week.

Happy Valentines day

Sled mission gone badly

Pretty interesting shots from last Sunday from a ride up Palmer Creek, near Hoback Junction, Wyoming.

A guy who we were riding with went to help another friend who was stuck on a steep hill. While rallying up the hill he hit a tree going really fast and ended up destroying the right end of his sled. It ended up being about $2,500 worth of damage to his machine.

The shots are of the sled after we used what equipment we had with us to patch it up and limp it back to the truck/trailers.

Never a dull moment when snowmobiling.

Europe Recap Part 3 - Wengen, then.... Innsbruck

Town of Wengen, yea, it's that beautiful!

Erin Korte aka "Fizzy-Drifter" deep in thought with the Wengen tram overhead

The Rodel crew. On the way down to the town of Grindelwald (10 kilometer sled run!) These are some seriously fun, fast, and really cool sleds complete with metal edges. Look for upcoming video posts to show the art of rodeling further.

Porc and the Fiz sampling yet another brat meal gassing up for more rodeling.

Wengen train station bound for Innsbruck

Innsbruck train station.

We spent a few days chilling in Innsbruck. Was a really cool small city.

Had a great powder day at Axum Lizum Ski Area out of Innsbruck. This was the sight for the 1964 and 1976 Olympic skiing events.

Porc and Fiz

Urban Ski Chic Chelsea (our hotel was the blue building)

Content after a powder day and yes, walking through Innsbruck in ski boots!

Even more content watching live from Austria as Barack Obama was sworn in as the new President!! Yahoo......

Europe Part 2 - Marco Podiums!

Europe Part 2 -Marco Podiums! from Chelsea Robinson on Vimeo.

musical credit: Yes I Will by Michael Franti & Spearhead

Back in the saddle again

The crew took a good 50 plus mile snowmobile tour up on Togwotee Pass today. It hasn't really snowed in a couple of weeks now, so it's been easier to get motivated to go snowmobiling rather than skiing. Found some good leftover powder hanging around up near Brooks Lake.

Europe Recap Part 2

More pics from our time in Wengen, Switzerland...

Top of the Eiger

Cool views everywhere in Wengen

Skiing down next to the downhill course with the town of Wengen sitting below.

We were able to check out the start house with the credentials we got from Marco...lot of respect for these guys!

The Swiss Army preparing the Lauberhorn downhill.

I have to say, the Swiss fans are INTO it!

Our friendly "neighbor" fans fed us fondue and wine as we all waited for the race to start!


Swiss Army jets did a huge half hour air show before the race started...buzzing the course, the Eiger and the crowd. This was where we watched the race from, along with 20,000 other fans.

And Marco got 3rd!!!!!

Hard to see but these guys were carrying huge cow bells between their legs (if you click on the photo, you can see it better)...heading to the awards ceremony in the center of town.

At the awards ceremony watching Marco take steps on to the podium!

The Swiss were going crazy as a Swiss skier (Diede Defago) won the downhill, with Bode Miller in 2nd and of course, Marco in 3rd.

The gauntlet for the podium skiers to walk down en route to the stage. It was cool when Marco walked down as he managed to spot Chels amongst the thousands of wild fans and stopped to give her a big hug!

Chels, Porc, Marco, Erin, and Trev in celebration mode after Marco's 3rd place finish while watching the US Ski Team vs. Canadian Ski Team play each other in a game of hockey. (Marco had only one celebratory beer!)