Up Up and Away

Every summer Cody hosts the annual Wild West Balloon Festival. It is typically the first weekend in August, but this year it was the last weekend in July. The festival takes place at the park just southeast of our house and is within walking distance. They lift off is at dusk so it is a bit early to get everyone up and at em'. The best part is that we can see it all from our front door. So we can sit on the porch in our PJ's and watch the show. Some years the balloons go directly over our house and we can actually say "hello" to the balloon master in the basket. One by one they lift off and away they float. It is pretty fast and over in a hurry, but I managed to get some pics that capture the scene. I think we have some of the best seats in the house for this event:)

Floating the River

This weekend we made a trip to Thermopolis to float down the Big Horn River. It is the one thing that Bailee really wanted to do this summer. The water around here has been too high and moving too fast this summer for it to be safe. It was a beautiful day for a float trip. We loaded up the raft with lunch and lots of sunscreen and had a lazy day in the sun. This is no white water trip, but it is just right for a nervous mom and 3 little ones:) Besides it made it easy to jump out of the raft several times for a swim to cool off (water was a bit frio). Bailee and Karsyn especially liked jumping out and getting in the current that they could just "ride out" for a while and then catch the raft. It was a perfect way to spend the day together as a family.
Bailee could not get enough of the jumping in to the river business. I think she definitely spent more time in the water than in the raft:)

Mucking the Stalls

This summer Karsyn has become infatuated with horses. She spends much of her computer time searching for a horse to buy (never mind where she would keep it:) She checks out every book filled with information about how to take care of horses at the Library and she wants her entire wardrobe to be transformed to plaid shirts and horse prints. Well, she has yet to ride one, but she likes to learn about them, brush them, feed them and see them whenever she gets a chance. One afternoon she was working with Mark and she met Corona who is used for pack trips. Well the 2 became fast friends and whenever she hears he is out there, she wants to go visit. She spent one afternoon at the Game and Fish "mucking the stalls" and she was in heaven!!

Being the resourceful gal that she is, she decided that she might turn this horse lovin' into a little business. She posted this cute little sign in the G&F break room. Mark did have a lot of inquiries from his colleagues, but the horse has not been back there in a while. Hopefully they need her services before she is back in school.

Oh well...in the mean time she has been busy meeting new friends like Bandit. When we went out to pick peas she spent the evening taking care of him. And one of these days she id going to ride into the sunset:)

Sweet Pea

Some friends of ours invited us out (they live out of town) to pick peas from their garden last Sunday. They were getting more than they knew what to do with. So since we are a pea loving family, we took them up on the offer. Unfortunately I was so busy picking away that I failed to get any pictures of our little activity.

But the next morning when I was shelling (and eating) these babies I thought the green scene made a beautiful little display. Look at all the GREEN!!! We have been enjoying the yummy little things and are about ready to go back for more. Nothing like fresh peas from the garden. Speaking of garden delicious, they also had some Strawberries that were just beginning to come on and I have NEVER tasted anything more sweet mmmmm!!

Pioneer Day Cody Style

Since Wyoming doesn't celebrate Pioneer Day like Utah, our church usually holds it own little celebration. It is tradition to have a dinner and parade at our building every year. Now, I am indifferent about the little parade but the kids sure LOVE it. The lines get blurred about what PIONEER means, but that's okay the kids just like getting on their bikes, scooters, wagons...what have you and riding (or racing in Karsyn's case) around the church. Oh and they did have pony rides before the parade...

Emmrey and her little buddy Jane cruised around on their bikes. Bailee had helped Emm construct this cute horse head for the front of her bike....so creative!

Bailee was more than willing to help our little friend Tad get his covered wagon going across the plains....

And Karsyn was seriously way too fast to even capture a picture. She thought this was a raceway and not a Pioneer Trail (so missed the point:)

After the parade and dinner, they had a Scripture Carnival for the kids complete with tickets, game booths, popcorn, prizes and Funnel Cakes (my favorite). All the booths/games were related to stories from the Scriptures.

David and Goliath


Nephi's Bow

Fisher's of Men


You get the idea. It turned out to be a fun night and it was nice to have the carnival to make it a little more interesting.

Read to a Dog

Our public Library is the best. I could spend all afternoon or evening there if I had that kind of time. We have participated in the summer reading program every year since we have been in Cody.

For the past couple of years they have included a "Read to a Therapy Dog" program where kids can sign up for a 15 minute session to read to a dog. This helps with reading practice as well as comfort with dogs. We finally gave it a try this year...Emmrey wanted to sign up, and I figured Karsyn could do it with her and lend some support in the reading arena. Well...Karsyn decided that morning that she was not interested and when she decides she doesn't want to do something, it is often NOT worth the fight (we have to pick our battles around here). So Bailee stepped in and helped Emmrey read to Kit. Not so sure Emmrey was crazy about this gnarly haired critter, but Kit seemed to settle right in and enjoy it.
Back to Summer Reading Program....the kids earn tickets for completing reading challenges and then place the tickets in a can (with several hundred others) for a chance to win the various prizes. Emmrey has not quite figured out the way the system works. She is pretty sure that if she puts enough of her tickets in for the prize she wants she will most certainly WIN it. Hmmm.. those Librarians are going to have some serious explaining to do come prize day:)

TREASURE SEEKERS

Whew!!! I survived another year at Girls Camp. After last year's Stake Camp, I thought I had this year in the bag. However, because they did a Trek this year as a Stake, it was decided that camp would be with individual wards. This meant that camp had to be planned from the ground up...so much extra work. I decide to go with a pirate theme and do Treasure Seekers (13th AoF). We had a great time and everything worked out so well....I was actually thinking about how it would be fun to go again next year (silly me) although I am so happy to not have it occupying all my time anymore:) I had 15 girls and 2 other leaders to help. We did some fun activities/games in Treasure Hunt fashion and we also did some crafts...the girls LOVED these little beaded wire rings we made...should have brought more wire:( We swam at a resort that was near us and took an easy hike (walk) and saw some beautiful wildflowers. The cabins were very rustic, but I wouldn't really consider them "roughing it". We have a really neat group of girls that made camp a lot of fun!

It was especially neat because my little Bug got to go this year. I am glad we shared her first year at camp together.

She was the only 1st year so she was a bit of a lone wolf. One of my Jr. Leaders took her under her wing and they became fast friends.

Bailee and Mie

Strong Wise One

On our trip to Yellowstone for Bailee's birthday, Emmrey had found these feathers. One had belonged to a Goose and the other an Owl. Mark told her that the Goose feather would make her strong and the Owl feather would make her very wise. She put those things in her hair and wore them the rest of the day and all the way home. She told me that she didn't think they were working yet because she wanted to know how trees grow and the feather didn't tell her (I did) and she also would like to be strong enough to carry the milk jug and that has not happened yet either.....SO FUNNY!!!

Perfect Weekend

The original plan was to have a pretty low key weekend over the 4th. Mark was planning to work and with our visitors just leaving and girls camp around the corner, I had PLENTY to do to keep busy. Well, Mark's work plans changed and I think we were all longing to be back in Yellowstone. So we loaded the van and headed up after church on Sunday. We were lucky enough to get a last minute reservation at Bridge Bay where we spent the night.

It's funny how the girls play in the tent like it's the first time they have been camping:)


We took a trip over to West Thumb to see the geysers and we ran into this guy. Right there with hundreds of other tourists, he comes right out of this patch of trees smack dab in the middle of the basin...unbelievable!! You would never expect to see a Grizzly at this location.

Once Mr. Grizz had made his way back down by the lake, we began to walk the boardwalk again. Only to be interrupted by this gal.

On the way back to camp we saw even more elk...it was our lucky day I tell ya!

Smore's around the fire that evening were mandatory:)

The following morning we headed to Old Faithful to check out the new visitor center which is also interactive for kids.

We had a picnic at one of our favorite spots and it was so warm the girls played in the water. Bailee spent a lot of time finding wildflowers in her book.

After lunch we ventured out for a hike to Monument Geyser Basin. This is an actual trail off the beaten path. However, our trail guide (Mr. Smith) assured us that it was maybe 1.5 miles...no problem. Well, initially you hike along the Gibbon River at a very gentle slope and then quite suddenly you are catapulted up a steep hill for a half a mile or so. Not so easy when you are towing 3 little ones and it is 85 degrees of direct sun. We made it to the top at last and after taking in the geyser we began our decent. Remember how steep it was coming up? Now we had to try and prevent the kiddos from rolling back down. Poor little Emmrey took fall after fall and was pretty beat up by the end. But hey we all made it (even if Emmrey had to be carried the last little bit) I am so proud of my little troopers!!

Mark decided they deserved a stop at the Geyser Grill at Old Faithful...boy did they ever!!
We made it back to Cody just in time for the Fireworks. We had a great view from the pullout we ended up at, but we only watched about half of them. Karsy still does not do well with Fireworks and she was in bad shape. Hope everyone had a wonderful 4th....we had the perfect weekend!!!

Around the World

Since I tend to go a bit overboard on the birthday parties, I decided that this year we would have a combined party for both Bailee and Karsyn's birthdays. The plan was to have it 2 weeks after Kars and 2 weeks before Bay....that did not happen!! So we had it while the Weaver's were here...yeah! I did an Around the World theme.

Invitations were sent as Boarding Passes with all the party info included for Flight 912 (the girl's ages:)




When the passengers arrived at Gate 701~
1. They checked in and received their Passport
2. Were boarded on the airplane
3. Captain Mark welcomed them aboard
4. Flight Attendants served H2O bottles and crackers

We visited 10 places around the world and with each stop they were greeted, passports were stamped and they had some type of game/activity to complete. We boarded the plane after each stop while Captain Mark shared some fascinating facts about where they would be visiting next, Jami assisted me in getting everything set up.

Egypt: mummy wrap
Hawaii: greeted with a Lei and Hula contest
Ireland: Leprechauns gold hunt
Australia: Kangaroo hop race

China: Paper dragon wrap up race, used chopsticks to pick up and transport skittles
Mexico: Tortilla Toss along with Pinata (don't be alarmed by the wood post, we had some pinata issues:)

Italy: PIZZA was served
Antarctica: Ice cube towers
England: Tied Up Tea Party
Kentucky: Derby Race (totally Karsyn's idea)

The winners in each event/game received little pins of different countries to put on their bags. After our last stop we flew back home and had cupcakes and ice cream. We also took some fun pics using this board I had.


It got too chaotic at the end and I failed to get any pictures. The passengers went to Baggage Claim and picked up a canvas tote filled with B&B Works travel size stuff and a little photo album we made to fill with photos of their travels. The party took a lot of time, but it was super fun and the kids seemed to love it...I think it was a hit!! I owe Jami and Scott a big Thank You for helping me get my madness together before the party (the airplane) and during (all the destinations) I could not have done it without you guys!!

Visitors

The last week in June we had visitors. Jami, Scott and their 3 boys came to town. The girls had been asking daily when they would be here so it was nice to finally be able to say....THEY'RE HERE!! We didn't get to do nearly all that we would have liked, but we filled the days with plenty of good times!

we swam

we ate ice cream

we fished

we climbed gravel mountains

we made art projects

we mini golfed

we shopped downtown

we fished some more (Kole had come to Cody on a mission to have uncle Mark take him fishing. Uncle Mark didn't mind one bit:)
we had sleepovers (and stayed up WAY too late:)

we spent lots of time lovin' on this little guy

we made new "buddies"

and we just tried to drink in the time we had to spend together. We loved having the Weaver's come and visit. It was a sad sad day when they had to head home (lots of tears at our house). Hope you come back soon!!