Dear Daddy:

Laramie

At Mitch's and Julie's, Quinn slept on the bed all us kids used to sleep on at my grandparents (they gave it to Mitch when he was in college).  She also got to sleep on a quilt made by my Grandma Jan, and I recognize all the fabrics in it from her stash.  She taught me to sew and as a kid would let me go through her fabric and pick pieces to make stuff with.  Quinn loved the quilt while she was there and that made my heart happy!!  

A little more Madi!

Of course I have so much fun playing with this girl!!  

Book time:

 Her little "kitchen"--a box full of kitcheny items for her to explore...playing away while I got some work done in the office.  Win-win!

Vedawoo, the rest of em!

I haven't uploaded any of the photos on my phone yet, but this is the rest of the Vedawoo pictures from my camera and a few Mitch and Julie sent, as well!!

We got to see this beautiful beaver pond, and when we walked up to it, Beck and I spotted the beaver swimming around, but it quickly disappeared when it heard people and a dog.

He had to see how cold the water was.

Jackson was all about the beaver pond and fetching sticks in it!!

Silly Jackson!!

Mitch, giving Beck a little science lesson on how the beavers chew off the trees to build their homes.

 The weather was very "changey" this day.  Cool and cloudy then hot and sunny....I put my sweatshirt off and on about a half dozen times!!  You can tell from the lighting in my photos that it was changing a whole lot.

 He mostly wanted to walk and hold Mitch's hand...though I did get a few minutes.  But he made sure I knew we were just holding hands because we love each other, not because he had to stay with me.

 At some point on our hike, well away from restrooms, Quinn needs to pee.  So we go off in the woods and I explain to her how to squat against a rock and pee.  Except that her pee comes out at super high pressure and shoots about 5 feet in distance.  And of course soaks her pants and shoes.  Lovely.  Meanwhile, Beck was with Julie and Mitch and tells them that he will be right back because he has a surprise.  I return from the Quinn pee incident in time to see him standing behind some rocks, britches dropped and poop exiting his body....while standing.  He didn't quite have the logistics on that figured out.  Oh my....these kids!!

 Loading up just as it starts to rain!!

 Julie sweetly send me some pictures, too!!

 Can you spot us in this one?

 And these are from Mitch:

My favorite picture as of late....

So many things I love about this one.  Quinn, singing away, likely with a twang, making up her own song.  Legs twisted.  Wearing a random apron.  Beck's train whistle on the hearth.  Alie-girl on baby-guard.  Madi riveted on everything Quinn is doing......

Soaking in some Madi!

We are loving lots of Madi time around here lately.  She loves her cousins and they can make her laugh more than anything else.  And they are both enamored by her.  So sweet!

Some family news!

Megan and Matt are expecting #2 and Madi got to share the news!!  I couldn't resist posting these pics of the adorable big sister!!  Baby #2 will arrive at the end of December and they don't yet know the gender but will find out in the next month or so.  We're all excited for another little one to love on!!

This was my view on our hike at Vedawoo.  Rough, eh?!

The first of the Vedawoo Pics

On Saturday morning we woke up, took a stroll over to the little alpine meadow next to Mitch's house, the kids played at the playground near his house a bit, and then Julie made us a pancake breakfast.  She even had the right kind of syrup--"Mama's syrup" for Beck (real maple), which he loved, and lots of berries for Quinn!  She had asked their preferences in advance.  Such a sweet hostess.  She also made us all custom sandwiches to take on our picnic.  We are gonna keep that girl in the family for sure!!

We loaded up and drove to Ames' Monument (pics to come) and then Vedawoo, which is a rock climbing area Mitch and I went to with my parents growing up.  We would camp nearby and climb during the days.  Fun to go back with my kids!  It is just gorgeous there, which I apparently overlooked somehow as a kid. I never knew there were aspens there, or all those varieties of wildflowers, or such amazing lichens on the rocks....guess I am more of a nature appreciator these days!

I have also been out of Wyoming too long, apparently.  I brought our raingear on the journey to Vedawoo....but decided to leave it in the car because it was perfectly sunshiney.  And yep, a thunderstorm definitely came in on our hike.  It just drizzled until later in the day, so we didn't get too wet, thankfully.  I forgot about those wild Wyoming weather changes.

Mitch was a great rockclimbing instructor/assistant with the kiddos, who wanted to climb everywhere!  Q was a goat and Beck was excited but a bit more timid and even scared at some points when he was up high.  He hasn't gotten too many chances to be on big rocks, so we've got to get that boy more used to it!

 Quinn was super excited and super talkative and energetic on this day.  Yikes.

 Look at my girl amongst the aspens!!!  Sigh!!!

 There was some neat mosses, too.

 Vedawoo has some awesome rock formations.  This rock had what looked like a spinal cord on it!  The rock is really sharp, too, so you definitely leave with cut up knuckles, fingers, knees and elbows, which both my kids learned about.

 So I talked everyone into taking a picture by the park sign.  I always do this when we go hiking/climbing somewhere.  I set my camera on timer and went running back to join the picture.  I went to jump up on the edge of the rock platform and somehow got my feet tangled and fell off it and flat on my face.  Knocked the wind out of me and skinned myself up pretty well.  You can see Julie and Beck are concerned and Quinn and Mitch are laughing.  Mmmmm-hmmmmmm.

 The next try went a bit smoother and Mitch pushed the trigger, so no running or jumping for me.

 You can see the storm moving in on the edge of this pic.  It's so beautiful to be up high in wide open space and see a storm travel across the sky.  I got this treat several times on our trip!!

Lots more Vedawoo stories and pics to post....to come soon!!!  Just trying hard to stick to my plan of moving through and posting my pictures a bit at a time at a steady pace.  :)