and speaking of Trapper Creek Lodge

What a fun night. Our good friends we met at church, the Jensens, told us about this amazing place. You can't just call it a restaurant because the journey and its surroundings make it an experience. It is off the beaten path in the middle of some ranches, snuggled up to those amazing Red Rocks. We chose to go there Friday night because Erica Jensen, who told us about it, was filling in for a waitress and we wanted to surprise her. The food was AMAZING. We had a really good time and I can't wait to go back.

...............And speaking of the Jensens, they are this fun little family we have clicked with. They are so fun and have made us feel so welcome. And let us borrow all sort of handy things my favorite being a high chair! Anyway the other night they invited us over for BBQ pizza and after dinner took us to the outskirts of town, sight seeing. There are a couple really cool, lake/ponds, and these really beautiful, crazy sandy stone rock formations full of reds and purples and tans and grays called the Devil's kitchen. and me without my camera.

...............and speaking of no camera. We have seen so many neat animals out here. I was so proud of my self because I saw my first deer, on my own, usually people have to point them out to me. but this one was right along the river by where Rowdy and I were going for a morning run. It was actually really close, and hung out for a while as we spied on her. There are Lots of antelope too! Whenever we drive to Cody who ever sees the first antelope wins. I always try to count but then loose track. I think they are soo beautiful and sort of..exotic. It seems like they should be in Africa. and if you pay really close attention you can see prairie dogs. There are lots of pheasants and other cool birds around here too. The guys have seen lots more animals from the trains.

.................and speaking of Africa, my Dad took off for Mt. Kilimanjaro on Sunday! I am so excited for him. I know he will do fine on the hike but I am really excited for him to get to know some people (as in natives, most likely his Sherpas.) The Africans I have met have been so neat. Just genuinely humble and good. Hopefully he has some neat experiences.

.................and speaking of humble and good. I have been feeling thankful again and again for the people Heavenly Father puts in my life. We have been blessed with such a great family. All of them have such dynamic and fun personalities, are so eager to share and to love, and who are such good examples to me. And if that wasn't enough he has also placed genuine friends in our paths, who have made life so much more enjoyable. My heart is full of thanks.

Yay for Cody!

The bulls in Cody are a little Rowdy!

Watch out!

This is a picture from the road to Cody.

I just loved the wide open space and the passing storm

Cody is an awesome little city, with lots of personality(just like my Cody). Cody loves Cody so much he keeps buying Rowdy and I all this Cody parafanalia. He says its so everyone knows who we belong to.

With all this time in the car Rowdy has had to be creative to entertain himself

Cody has herds of plastic animals. The bears are actually an art project, painted by various artists.

.... and Cody has the closest Wal-Mart! Something we didn't realize how much we appreciated.

Traffic jams everywhere we go

Barns, Barn Windows, and Barn doors

This sweet barn is at grandma and grandpas house in Idaho Falls.

and this sweet and sometimes sour barn door is in greybull wyoming.

Yellowstone Through The Generations

Yellowstone is such an awesome park. Here Rowdy is showing off three of his favorite things. Piggyback tours with Grandpa.
Spoils from Grandma and Grandpa. Rowdy was so sad to see them go.
And drinking buffalo milk. Or whatever formula is made from.

Home (for the summer) Again

My grandparents drove Rowdy and I back to Greybull on Monday. We got to drive through yellowstone. It was really pretty. My grandma said sometimes it is good to see cars stopped along the side of the road because they have probably seen some sort of wild life and you get a hint as to where to look. Except for the summer all of her kids needed a potty stop and they were no where near a restroom! Look out for the bares!
We had a really good time with them. We did get to see a lot of buffalo (pictures will come later) elk and antelope, a big waterfall, and some steamy geysers.
And we were... reunited (w/ Cody) and it feels so good (if you dn't know the song I'm not singing it for you)

Umm.. We are in Idaho!

Rowdy and I caught a ride to Idaho to visit the great grandparents and other Great family members there! The drive was beautiful! but I think Rowdy now has car seat-a-phobia! So he was super excited when I held him when we drove off road to go fishing up at our cousin's reservoir where I caught this big honkin' fish! That's my uncle Lance who helped to pull him out of the water!

My grandma has these amazing oriental poppies in front of her house they are huge!

and I love them!

Peek-a-boo! We helped Great Grandma in her garden before we went fishin'

Rowdy's Idaho Stroller

The reservoir on our cousin's land. (they raise cattle) (and windmills)

The fight, and my grandpa coaching me

Eeeeww! Can you believe this thing! He was actually sooo pretty (we let him go)

My Grandma is Grrreat

Rowdy helping to weed

Love you Dad!

Explorin' Wyomin'

My mom dared me to cross the creek by where we were having lunch. So I did and checked out some rocks while I was at it
I do love rocks and mountains

They have nice otter pops in Wyoming

and good friends! This is Taggie who lives in Cody. We had some grubalicious sandwiches with her on Monday.

Oh! and they have nice Pops too!

Happy Father's Day!

We made it! To the first annual Cody Bowler Father's day. We totally surprised him in WY. Pops came out to meet us then casually strolled in with Rowdy, while my mom and I spied thorugh the screen door. Cody was totally confused. It was funny. It was a sweet reunion. and I love watching Cody with Rowdy. What a good man.
Dam!

Its nice here.

We went to church on Sunday and all agreed it was one of the friendliest wards we have ever been to. Then we drove up the canyon behind Greybull. IT is GORGEOUS! We stopped at a little creek and explored. Rowdy played in the water with the rocks for at least 20 minutes.

hee hee the 9:00 Greybull kerfue siren just went off! How funny is that?

We also owe a shout out and thank you to my Mom who drove up here with us. She is headed to Idaho to visit family, and we have had so much fun hanging out with her.

Happy Father's Day!

We made it! We surprised Cody in WY for father's day! Pops came out and got Rowdy while my mom and I spied through the screen door. He was so confused (Cody) (well actually Rowdy was too because Cody hadn't shaved since he left!) We had a nice reunion, and I am positive it was Cody's best Father's day ever, mostly because it was his first.

We do owe a huge shoutout to my Mom, who we drove up with.

We found a moose

THE GREYBULL DAILY

Associated Press - Two knuckleheads from Southern California showed their lack of wildlife

experience as they attempted to pet a full grown bull moose in our Bighorn Mtn. Range just east of Greybull. A witness was on the scene and said the larger one who was wearing the brown sweatshirt and can't even spell America right told the younger handsome, buff, model-physiqued, perfect example of a human specimen to, "go jump on the back of that moose, it will make an awesome picture for the blog." or somthing like that. This is where the details get a little sketchy. The younger hot one, we'll call him Cody, told the father figure one, we'll call him Darian, to go jump in the lake in not so many words. But it was too late, the moose caught wind of their scheme and decided to teach the city boys a little lesson in Wyoming etiquette. He chased them both and had them trapped upon the edge of a very life threatening cliff when both of the men started yelling and doing some version of a cali hip-hop dance. I didn't know that Darian's human hips could move like that, he must be part mule deer, thought the moose. After the hip display of Darian, Cody decided to show off his mastery of the Tango. Who would have thought that Greybull would be the homebase of these two dance masters. "I'd pay money to see those two have a dance off at the nickel arcade with dance dance revolution," said the eyewitness. We may never see that but we can say that the moose was so impressed that he let the two men off with just a warning. "Don't wear shorts to the mountains and bring a saddle if you'd like to ride a moose."

First quilt!

I tried to make a few quilts for humanitarian aid but only got to give one away. Cody insisted we keep my first quilt. I was flattered. I will just have to make some more. It felt so good to see it appear out of nothing, and it felt even better to give it away to a good cause.

Happy Vente Ocho Querido Codito!!!

Have a great day Cody! We love you down here!

The Podium!

We had our ward Olympics on Saturday. It was so much fun! The best part was the baby race. It was pretty funny. Rowdy won the silver, because he got distracted by a girl!

the race

The biter

Of course as soon as Cody left for WY, Rowdy's bottom teeth have popped through.
Good luck seeing them in these pictures.
His front two teeth are big now and the teeth next to those are practically there but they haven't broken through yet. He has been pretty good, a little needy but he's a trooper.

The Range

Cody's gone to Wyomin' with his Dad and brother in law to do some railroadin'. His company was offering a little summer transfer and they all got accepted to go. We thought it would be a neat little summer away. Of course it will be better when Rowdy and I finally make it up there to be with him. Whish we are planning to do in the next two weeks or so.

He is in Greybull. Its about 30 min from Cody (hmm!) Wyoming , an hour and a half from Yellowstone and Billings, MO. And our so great friend Taggie lives in Cody, WY and we are suuuuuuper excited to spend time with her. and soon be home (together) on the range and see some antelope and hopefully moose (from far away) (I've heard moose bites can be very very dangerous)!

He is learning