Highlights From Our Trip To Wyoming

We just (yesterday night) arrived home from our family vacation to Wyoming. Everyone had such a wonderful time, but I'm glad to be home! The one thing I HATED about Wyoming was the wind. I've always hate the wind, but can you blame me? We had a fire place in the basement that clanked every time the wind blew when I was really little, and we had a trampoline come through our window too...

 With that said, the drive there was not fun for me. With the interstate running North and South and the wind blowing from west to east, it made for some challenging driving conditions. Not long after Perry gave me the driver seat in Casper, the winds picked up a lot and we kept our eyes on this cloud formation for quite a while. Very unsettling. So was the semi-truck in the ditch. I was driving battling wind gusts at 65mph+. Perry offered to pull over and take over driving again, but there was no way I was getting out. And to think the first few tumble weeds I saw made me nostalgic for the Hi-Line...

 Isn't she so sweet?! We finally moved the car seats around so all three of them were in the middle row. So nice to be able to reach all them from the front seat!

When we arrived Saturday afternoon, the boys had fun bonding with little Stevie. Hunter is so good with babies! You can read about our Sunday adventure on the Polar Express here. And about the birthday cake Erin and I created for Hunter here all day on Monday. 

One of the gifts we gave to Hunter was a baseball glove and baseballs. Perry made good of the promise of playing catch in the morning. They both had a lot of fun! I'm sure everyone enjoyed watching them.

I know Stevie did! But I think he wanted to be out there more than he wanted to be inside...

 Later Tuesday morning we headed to Denver to see the zoo, which I blogged about here. After leaving the zoo on our way to a suburb of Denver to visit one of Perry's uncles, I was able to catch this picture of the sun setting over Denver. So pretty!

 On our way through Wyoming, we spotted a few of these landmarks along the way. One was a dinosaur, one was a cowboy on a horse, and then this one of a buffalo. There may have been more. I pointed this one out to the boys. They got excited until we drove past...JP explained in disappointment, "That's not a buffalo! That's just a sign buffalo!" Other memorable phrases:

M - Jim, you need to calm yourself down.

H - Yeah Jim, calm down!

J - NE-VA!! Hahaha!

For some reason "ne-va" was said a lot on this trip by both kids, but mostly JP, and it cracked me up every time! 

After leaving Uncle Bob and Aunt Joyce's house, Hunter barely made it out of town before passing out. He hardly ever sleeps in the car, but we he does, Perry and I rejoice!

 The roads became really iffy on the way back from the zoo Tuesday night, so by morning the kids had enough snow for a sledding. Stevie LOVED it! I'm sure Charlotte would have enjoyed it too...if she hadn't napped for 4 hours! With no real nap the day before, she was EXHAUSTED!

Perry and Cameron built the kids a little hill to go sledding on. It was almost gone by Thursday... 

 After sledding, the boys came in to warm their toes by the fire. We forgot to bring snow boots and snow pants for them, so they were a little chilly. But troopers none-the-less!

 How I wish we had a fire place!

 

 They later decided to warm their bums by the fire when shortly after Sissy sat down. I cannot tell you how much I LOVE this picture of the three of them. LOVE LOVE LOVE!

 While the turkey was cooking on Wednesday, (Yes, Wednesday, we celebrated a day early so we could have an extra day to eat the left overs before we left) Erin and I went to JoAnn's to buy her fabric and a sewing machine. On Thursday I taught her the basics of sewing and she left with a bag. The real test will her be doing another one on her own. ;)

Charlotte in her Thanksgiving dress. I love her shoes! But I loved watching her danced in her dress more! We left Cameron and Erin's house Friday morning after breakfast. Perry drove first and was pulled over 2 hours into our trip back while the boys were playing Roadside Bingo. Even though he came away with nothing but a verbal warning, the boys were excited because "YES! We we get to mark off the police car!!" We planned on staying in Billings at the Big Horn Resort, which had a HUGE water park, but after checking the weather a hundred times, I decided we need to just drive the whole way home. It took us a total of 12 hours. Way too long to do in a day with kids, but we did it. It became a little challenging once it got dark out because Charli hates the dark...But we made it before the snow storm today!