Fort Collins!

This last weekend, the kids and I drove to Fort Collins to see Joe. His new job requires him to work there for a couple weeks at a time, and then he gets to come home for a few days before going back. SO- I decided I didn’t want to be away from him for that long and away we went! Five hours later, we were there! And Fort Collins is AMAZING! I love it there. I could totally live there… except for the fact that it’s 20 hours away from my family.
Anyway, we met Joe at his apartment and then we all drove downtown to people watch and eat dinner. We found this cool restaurant called The Beach House Grill and it was YUMMY! We got to eat up on the rooftop patio and the kids LOVED it. They even had a little kid area where Haylie and Connor spent the majority of their time before our food came. Maggie was not impressed that she had to sit still, again, after being in the car for 5 hours…

(See that bump on Maggie’s tummy? Yes, that would be her extremely LARGE “outie.”)

Afterwards, we walked down to this little bakery/ice cream shop called Mary’s Mountain Cookies where they take homemade GIANT cookies and slap some ice cream in the middle (multiple flavors of both, I might add).
Maggie liked it.

Haylie and Connor weren’t in to trying new things, so they just got ice cream cones.

Joe wanted to take us on a carriage ride around downtown. I’d never been on one before this, and I probably won’t do it again until all of my children are moved out. ;) It really wasn’t that bad, except Connor wanted to sit on the step and ride (as in where you step UP into the carriage). And Maggie didn’t want to sit at all. But, they all loved the horsie and we were all together, which is what really counts!

These are all of the pictures I got. On Father’s Day, we drove South of Fort Collins to Horsetooth Reservoir. We drove around and did some sight seeing about half the time and then parked the other half at the reservoir so the kids could swim. They did some wading and some splashing, but no swimming. It was WAY too cold! The snow just melted, like yesterday, for goodness sakes (OK not really. But not that long ago). I would have taken pictures, except I forgot my camera (but not really. It was in my purse the whole time. Grrr). Great weekend! Great family! Can’t wait to go back. 

Big Brothers

Big brothers are the best. I always wished I’d had a big brother... Connor and Maggie have this special bond and they’ve had it since the day she was born; her face always lights up when he walks in the room. She ADORES him and he loves her right back.

I just thought this was so sweet- he was so patient with Mags as she waddled her way over to the big kid splash pad.

He stopped and waited and encouraged.

 

She finally crossed “the line” and stepped out into the unknown. And Connor couldn’t have been more pleased.

And then there was a big eruption of water and he was off, without a second glance at his poor baby sister. Oh well. :)

Maggie didn’t really like the whole water-spraying-in-her-face thing (if you couldn’t tell).

Sharing

Isn’t she so nice to share? :)

(My niece Naomi and our Beagle, Lady)

B-O-Y

Working.

Concentrating.

Scraping.

Piling.

Picking.

Inspecting.

Raking.

Working.

Boys….

The Old Wyoming State Penitentiary

On Monday, Joe and I and the kids moved back to Green River, and so we thought we better see some of what Rawlins had to offer, before we left. So we went and toured the old Wyoming State Penitentiary, which happened to be just a few blocks from where we lived. I took quite a few pictures, including one of my brother-in-law Sam, in the gas chamber, but those’ll have to wait for another post.

This picture and story really stuck out to me though…

 

I mean, can you imagine? She’s crazy!

Like literally…

Sunday Drive…

Today we took a drive South of Rawlins to a place called Bridger Pass. It’s basically just a bunch of wild land, out in the middle of nowhere. But it was SO pretty!

All over Wyoming are Antelope. There are actually more Antelope in the state of Wyoming, than people (563,626). Or so I’ve been told. These two were right on the side of the road when we drove by and we got some really good, close-up pictures.

We also saw about 15 deer. They are still shedding their winter coat, so they look pretty scraggly. But again, they were RIGHT there! And they’re all over town as well; we see them eating grass and bushes and plants out of peoples’ yards. I was just telling Joe the other day that I hope I don’t ever get tired of seeing deer… They really are majestic.

We pulled over to this little spot where there was still a bunch of snow so Haylie, Connor and the dogs could get out and run around. Haylie had been BEGGING us to stop at some snow so she could play in it. When we got out, Maggie had a bit of a soggy bottom, so we stripped her (hence the diaper and pants in hand). She was happy as a clam to be airing out!

See? There really is life in Wyoming!

I really love my Lady. She makes me so happy. I love to see her so happy. The last couple of times we’ve taken her out to explore new territory, for a few minutes she has become a puppy again. I made her sit right here for a picture because the sky was incredible today. It was so blue and the combination of the blue and the clouds was just breathtaking… I just couldn’t stop.

You can just barely see the look of pure joy on Haylie’s face. Lady got excited all of a sudden and took off on a dead sprint (notice the muddy “pootfrints”) and Haylie just stood there and laughed. I love it.

Now, how can you not like this face? Doesn’t he look grown up? I don’t know why, but I just don’t see a little boy in this picture…

Another picture of my favorites of the day: Lady and the blue sky.

This is about all I got of Lucy for the day. She took off as son as we got there and only showed her face (briefly) once or twice. She had much more important things to do like chase birds.

Too funny! Haylie was throwing rocks in the little reservoir there. I just happened to look over as she was throwing this gigantic, circular rock out into the water. I didn’t think much of it until it floated back up to the top. And then I knew… I said, “Um, Haylie? That’s cow poop.” In the first picture she’s looking at her hands for any sign of poop. The second, she’s looking at the floating pie in the water and the third she got a little embarrassed. (Oh and for the record… I did not dress her today. Personally, I wouldn’t have put hiking boots with stretch pants, but that’s just me. ;)

The only other time we saw Lucy, was while the kids were throwing rocks in the water. She was off about a half a mile away when, I’m guessing, she heard the rocks hitting the water. All of a sudden, we saw her at the top of a hill, sprinting full blast towards the water. She jumped in, swam clear across the reservoir, and fetched a piece of wood that Connor had just thrown in.

This gives a better idea of where we stopped. All of the brown stuff to the left of the snow is mud. And not just a little mud… It was like pasty, orange-brown, deep, THICK mud. And all of the melt off from the snow on the mountains was flowing right to it.
Haylie has always been our explorer. She loves it. And I love watching her love it. It makes my heart happy. :)

My favorite picture of the day.

Isn’t he beautiful?! Someday, I will have a million of these on a gigantic ranch… OK, maybe not a million.

This beauty walked right up to my window and let me pet him. It seriously made my day… He loves me, I’m sure. I would have taken him home, but he wouldn’t fit in the suburban.

What a wonderful day. So relaxing. :)

~1~

Little Maggie turned ONE on Thursday! I really cannot believe it’s been a year since we brought her home… sounds so cheesy, but it’s true. So much has happened this past year; all for the best and hopefully helping us head in the right direction.

With everything going on these past couple of weeks, Maggie’s birthday sort of snuck up on us. So we decided that we would celebrate her birthday the day after when Joe’s mom and dad were going to be here. Unfortunately, Joe and I were headed to Green River on Friday to meet with his uncle/counselor at the college. My wonderfully, amazing, talented, patient, beautiful, awesome sister-in-law planned a HUGE party for everyone while we were gone. I seriously don’t know what I would do without her… (she better go on a date with her hubby soon, so I can at least feel like I’ve paid her back a little). There were streamers, delicious food and drinks, TONS of presents and LOTS of people! We roasted hot dogs and “smarmeshlows” on our little fire pit and had our first watermelon of the year, potato salad, green salad and chips and salsa.  Everything looked so wonderful! OH, and did I mention that my SIL, Rachel, watched Haylie and Connor AND her two girls all day long while planning this party? She deserves a huge reward!!

 

Joe and I got Maggie this fun car! My brother had one when he was little and he called it, “My Cah.” They make ‘em WAY better these days… there’s a handle on the back so that we can push her around, AND a little tray that goes under her feet so she won’t slide out.  She LOVES it (And so do Haylie, Connor, Lucy and especially Naomi)!

I promised my mom I’d post the video of Maggie eating her cupcake. It took me a while to figure out how to download it, but my amazing SIL, ONCE AGAIN, saved the day and showed me how. I think Maggie likes frosting.

After cake, Maggie had a bath (trust me, she needed it). Then we opened presents! (Side note: Rachel and Steve have these awesome little kid chairs from IKEA and Maggie is constantly throwing little fits if she wants to get in one and there’s already someone in it.) Gramma Tami got Maggie her very own little chair. It has Tinker Bell on it and she LOVES it! When she saw it, she got up and practically ran to it, hugged it and then buried her little face in it, saying, “Ohhhhhh,” over and over. Once she got up into it, she just kicked back. She had this little smile on her face the entire time and kicked her little legs like she didn’t have a single care in the world!

Maggie was screaming in this picture because Naomi made a bee line for the chair when Maggie stood up for a split second. I am always SO surprised at Maggie’s feisty personality. I just don’t remember Haylie or Connor “knowing” what they wanted at such a young age. Let me tell you though- if Maggie wants it, she is not afraid to make a little noise!

Auntie Rachel got this little dolly for Maggie.. It wasn’t even out of the package yet and she was rubbing kisses all over it. Notice how she is still in the chair?

Haylie, Connor and Lucy each got her a little toy as well. She will like those a little more once things die down a little bit. It was already 9:00 by the time we opened presents and Maggie had had it. What a wonderful 1st birthday party!!! We are so grateful for our wonderful family!

[Funny story: Rachel told me that she took the kids to the little store here in town and told them to each pick out a toy to give Maggie for her birthday. The girls, of course picked out dolls and stuffed animals. Connor picked up a sword and some trains. When Rachel told him that he should probably look for something a little more girly, that Maggie would like better, he simply told her, “I KNOW Maggie will LOVE these.” Rachel’s such a softy… Connor came home with the trains.]

Thank you, thank you, thank you Rachel and Steve for such a wonderful, stress free (for us) birthday party! It was perfect and we are so thankful for you guys. We love you!