more fun in wyoming.

just a few more photos from our amazing trip to wyoming where we spent almost all of it outdoors.

our friend's backyard was basically a kids dream.  lots of grass to run and play in, a jungle gym playground to slide, swing, and hang upside on until your heart's content, a bridge with a stream under it where plenty of rocks where thrown into it and next door neighbors with an inground trampoline that had a slide that took down under the tramp.  wow.  it was no wonder the kids never wanted to come inside.  they also played hide and go seek at least a hundred times.  this is how summer should be spent.

to top off our wyoming trip, my friend, summer, who was a week away from opening up her own ice cream shop, invited us in for a sneak peek. her little shop is so darling and can we talk about the ice cream? it is seriously the best i've ever tasted.  she had the most delicious flavors and my kids thought they had died and gone to heaven with all their scoops of ice cream. (which they had several days in a row)  i still have dreams about this one particular flavor called graham slam.  i am salivating just writing those words.  i so wish we had this ice cream in arizona.  i guess it gives me an excuse to head back to wyoming again soon.

thank you lofgrans for an unforgettable time and for spoiling us rotten with your outdoors and tubs of ice cream for breakfast.  you made it really hard for us to pack up and leave your wonderful town and state.

exploring cody, wyoming.

one of our days in wyoming we took a drive to the nearby town of cody, which was really 45 minutes away, but in byron that's nearby.  oh small town living.  cody is actually a big town because they have a walmart!  that's a big deal when your own town doesn't even have a grocery store or gas station.  in cody, they also have this massive old west museum where the kids did some exploring.  they had these giant tee pees that i wish i could take home with me and put up in my backyard.  they were so rad.  then, there was this old west guy who had his own wagon where he was cooking homemade old west grub.  he was giving out samples of bread and beans and our kids kept inviting themselves to seconds, thirds, and fourths.  it was a little embarrassing but the old man was kind and didn't seem to mind thankgoodness.

we walked the grounds and took lots of pictures of statues of people and figures from the old west.  my friend summer grew up in this town, so she was being our little tour guide and was giving us the inside scoop on many of the sites.  we finished off our little adventure by the horses.  the kids were very interested in the miniature horse.  he was just their size and i'm pretty sure eden asked a few if we could get one just like him for our house.  of course the answer was no.  i'm such a mean mom.

we had so much fun in this old west town and i remember the weather was so nice.  the kids had to ask for their sweaters a couple of times.  what?  you are asking for a sweater in july?  that's unheard of when you live in arizona.

byron, wyoming.

we may have spent two day straight in car to get to this place, but it was well worth it.  our friends, the lofgrans, moved to this little town of byron, wyoming a little over a year ago and now, i can see why.  check out these wide open spaces.  their yard was something like out of the movies.  grass for days and a view to kill for.  now my friend, summer, did assure me that the summers are great but the winters are long, cold and dreadful.  i'm starting to think those winters might be worth these summers but it's easy for me to say since we visited during the best time of the year.

the first day we were there, my kids ran loose all over.  sometimes dressed and sometimes in their swimsuits with a hose in their hand.  there was lots of exploring going on and some water fights in between.  it was just what we needed after sitting in the car for two long days.  plus, it was a nice sight to see my kids outdoors playing in the summer.  we don't get to do that very often in our neck of the woods unless you want to burn your face off. (no thanks.)  byron, you made quite the impression on us.

pit stop at the olympic training center.

we made it to colorado springs (from my sister-in-law's in dallas) in one piece.  i was actually pleasantly surprised at how beautiful the northeast part of new mexico was.  there were these green rolling hills with cute little farm or ranch houses.  it was one my favorite parts of our drive.  anyway, we stayed in a very interesting howard johnson inn for the night and in the morning we made an unscheduled visit to the olympic training center.  it happened to be on a sunday and so their tours were closed for the day which we were very bummed about.  jack was hoping he was going to get to see a real olympian.

the kids had loads of fun posing with the olympic rings.  i think we took at least a hundred pictures with them in a variety of different ways.  we looked around their little museum and walked the grounds hoping we would run into an olympian in training but no luck.  although, i think jack got very inspired.  he left there with idea that he was going to be in the olympics one day as a soccer player.  in fact he talked about it almost the whole next leg of our trip.

we left the olympic training center headed for our next stop which was a small town in wyoming called byron.  some of our good friends moved their a year ago and we were excited to go visit them and to explore another state.  we had about another 10-11 hour drive ahead of us but we stayed busy by jamming out to some tunes, watching a few movies and my favorite, taking some naps.