[Photo Shoot]

I went to upload pictures from my camera the other day and this is what I found.....lots and lots of photos of Emm's kids.  Apparently it was picture day for her family and she had set them up in various places around the house.  These are a just a few....How perceptive that she thought to use some of my scrapbook paper as backdrops on some of them:)  Oh...this girl and her babies!!

Field Trip Friday: Historic Governors Mansion

Last Friday we walked over to the Historic Governors Mansion.  It was built in 1904 for around $33,000 {gasp} and used as a residence until 1976. 

  I just love looking through old homes like this and imagining how it would be to live there. The girls love it too and were quickly claiming what rooms they liked best.  

Beautiful Grand Piano in the drawing room

Mmmm ...fresh baked pies;)

Loved this cute little kitchen

Breakfast nook (we really "Did Not Touch")

 Little girls room ...Emm's favorite

Staff apartment in the basement

Emergency shelter in the basement

Sun porch that was added in 1955

 We learned some neat stories there too.  Like this one about Nellie Tayloe Ross, who was living in the mansion as first lady when her husband passed away suddenly and she was nominated to be his successor.

We also thought it was so interesting to learn that the last First Lady to live in the home had MS.  A chair lift was installed on the beautiful staircase so she could get around.

 They actually had the original stairlift on display.....quite the innovation for 1975

We all had a great time at the mansion and were ready to move in!!

I had originally planned to take them to the State Museum as well which is in walking distance.  However, we spent so much time in the mansion and when we came out it felt too hot for walking any further.  We decided a trip to Cold Stone was the perfect way to end our field trip:)

Fort Fun

Lately the girls room has looked like this.....

They have to be creative with their play since a lot of toys are still boxed up and we don't have much of a yard to speak of.   I love the creativity ...but the urge to clean up the blankets is a whole different monster!!  I remind myself to relax..some day I will miss times like this:)

On Ice

Karsyn has been begging to go ice skating.  She thinks she wants to play Hockey this year and is dying to get on the ice.  Cheyenne has a rink (and hockey) but they only have ice during the season.  Fort Collins (40 miles away) has ice year round.  So last Saturday we headed south for some ice skating. It has been a while since Kars skated, but she seemed to pick it right back up.

Her challenge is learning how to STOP without running into the wall!!  So she spent a fair amount of time trying to master that....still needs a little work:)

 

Emmrey has skated in Cody once, but they had these cool little walkers she liked.  They didn't have those, but offered her a plastic garbage can turned over.  She was not having that, so she stuck close to the wall.

 With a little help from her friend, she was making her way around the rink in no time:)

 Bailee wasn't feeling great so she sat this one out...although she was all smiles here!!  Next time she will have to try out their pool.

Field Trip Friday: State Capitol

This summer has been different to say the least. I think we are all missing our life in Cody and being where we are comfortable.  Some aspects of it I am really enjoying....like spending lots of family time together without any distractions (except for that big distraction of finding a new home;) I also am loving that we can just do our own thing every day.  I think the girls are loving that too....but after weeks of this I felt like maybe we needed a little more of a routine.  So I implemented a "summer schedule" that gives some structure, but isn't so rigid that it sucks to fun out of summer.  This gives us all some help in being more productive and it gives the girls a chance to earn some money with "jores" (chores). I also wanted to get out and see some things in our new town, so I decided Fridays would be our Field Trip day.  Last week we went on  a tour of the State Capitol.  

This statue in front is of Esther Hobart Morris.  She played a significant role in legislation that made Wyoming the first government in the world to grant women equal rights.  She later became the first female Justice of the Peace....go girls!!!

The famous gold dome(outside) is plated in 24 carat gold.  This is the interior of the dome.  The ceilings have gorgeous stained glass.

This one is the ceiling of the Senate chambers.

 

We took a picture of this door, because she is from Cody.  Bay was in the same class as her son Connor through  Elementary school.

This big boy is a permanent resident at  the Capitol building.  He is said to weigh in at 3,000 lbs and the 3rd largest bison/buffalo ever recorded (we thought we'd seen bigger in Yellowstone:)

This is a steel cross section from one of the box columns retrieved from the rubble from the World Trade Center.  The column was dedicated by students at a High School in Tennessee along with the US Army and plaques were given to capital cities around the nation to display.  I realized for the first time that Emmrey didn't know about what happened on 9-11...except that it's her birthday:)  She has not been old enough to really go into too much detail and we have always kept it such a positive day and not focused much on the tragedy.  It was good to have a simple discussion with her about it.

This is the Senate chambers.  The girls thought it was great that they could walk around and look at all the names at the desks (obviously they were not in session)  I thought it was cool to learn that there are seats above and to the right that the public can sit in and watch when they are in session....I guess I never knew that:)

Now aren't these the best looking Governors you ever saw...and smartest too:)  How fun that they got to sit in the official chair where the Gov sits during sessions.

I think it was a pretty good field trip....we had fun and hopefully the girls learned a little something too!!

Triple Date;)

Last weekend Bay had one of her best friends from Cody come to town to visit her grandparents.  Bailee was so excited to see Elisha:) They spent all afternoon and evening together...shopping, dinner and a movie!!

Mark came home early from work and decided to take Kars to find some Beaver ponds on Pole Mountain and do a little fishing..... they had a great time and caught a few little babies;)

That left Emm and myself.  We spent the evening scrapbooking and munching on treats:) She told Mark that "we had the time of our life"...so cute!!  I have been desperately trying to get scrapbooks organized/updated so I can switch to doing it all digitally.  The house is a mess right now.....but my hope is by the end of summer I will have it in a pretty manageable system....we'll see!!

Spray Park

We have been trying to find a pool where Bailee can swim laps.  We found the Municipal Pool the other day and decided to give it a try.  Man did we have it nice in Cody......this place doesn't even compare, but she was able to get a workout in:)

While she was swimming inside, I took Kars and Emm outside to the Spray Park.  It just so happened to be a cooler day...in the mid 70's, so it didn't quite hit the spot like it would on a hot day...but they still had fun!!

Ahhh...Yellowstone

The morning of the 4th, we were on our way to Yellowstone.  This has become a tradition for us the past few years.  It's a busy week in the park, but oh so fun!! We know from experience that if you don't book lodging early...you don't get any.  Since our move had us a bit disoriented, we failed to make a reservation early enough and could not find a thing in the park:(   We found a room in West Yellowstone and it turned out to be just as much fun as staying in the park....different ...but fun!!  We found a perfect spot by the lake to get a Fourth of July family photo:}

 We headed to Old Faithful and got there 15 minutes prior to the expected eruption....just enough time to walk around the awesome Visitor Center:)

 We then walked and walked around the entire Geyser Hill Loop.  It was HOT that day and there was threat of some whining among our group.  So....Mark did what any good Dad would do.  He offered ice cream for all those who made it all the way around without any complaining!!

 I am happy to say we ALL were rewarded with yummy ice cream (although it was pretty close with one some;)

We spent all day in the park and then headed back to West Yellowstone for dinner and fireworks at the city park.  I love those small town celebrations.  I have yet to master getting a good pic of fireworks (even worse with my phone).....but they were pretty darn good.  I was so proud of Karsy, she sat through the entire show this year and didn't so much as whimper.  I think that was a first!!

We got an early start the next morning and headed back into the park...with a "few" fellow travelers.

This time our destination was Mary Mountain.  Mark likes to pick the "back country trails" where few have traveled.  I prefer to stay on trails where there is more activity .....and thus less chance of a bear encounter.  Although it is a well known trail, we set out from the trail head with not another soul or vehicle in sight.

We came across all sorts of little geysers popping up all over.

 We also explored a part of the trail that appeared to be some sort of abandoned quarry.

Emmrey wanted a challenge of naming some of the trees and flowers we saw.  When she became frustrated because she didn't know any of them by name, Mark suggested she use the bird guide from Karsyn's Camelbak to try and spot some birds.  She looked like this nearly all the way back:)

 Now, the "bear signs" are posted everywhere in Yellowstone and this trail head was no different.  Mark always has to give me a little reassurance ...we had our bear spray...we made plenty of noise....but when we came across this fresh bear scat.......I was pretty much done.  Mark suggested that we see what it had been eating, so Kars got right to work breaking it up.  Gross...I know...but at least she used a stick/rock:)  We never saw a bear, nor have we ever run into one on a trail in Yellowstone (we did see one moving along a very crowded boardwalk once), but still it made me nervous.  I LOVE to see them from a safe distance, I just don't want to run into one out in the forest.

 After our hike we were hungry, so we made our way to our favorite picnic spot (Nez Perce)

 It was another hot afternoon...perfect for a dip in the Firehole River.   This popular swimming hole is warmed by the runoff from hot springs and geysers.

 

I am not sure it was as warm as the Boiling River in Mammoth where we usually go, but it seemed to hit the spot and the setting was gorgeous!!

 Bailee went up a little farther to where you can jump in and let the current carry you down the river.

 As we were leaving, we realized you could go up even farther....maybe next time??

As we were swimming, a dark cloud was making its way across the sky.  We left just in time for a crazy rain storm to hit.  We headed back to West Yellowstone to get dinner and walk around.  It continued to pour and we got trapped in stores waiting for it to let up enough to walk around some more.  The silver lining was that when it finally cleared up, we had view of a couple of beautiful rainbows. 

 

 We had such a great trip and were tempted to extend it "just one more day".  I just love this place and we decided we need to get a second home somewhere in the area so we can visit Yellowstone often....ahhh... maybe when were rich;)  They have these painted trash receptacles all over town.  This one was the coolest ...of course!!

On our way out of the park our last day, these two decided they wanted to direct passing tourists to some wildlife viewing ahead.  I thought a Grizzly Bear might be more plausible, but they opted for the Mountain Lion.  I wonder how many car loads were frantically searching after they saw this little sign hanging out our window;)...silly girls!!