A Short Cut...

Hello!

Kindrid has been thinking on having her hair cut shorter for a while now. She mainly dislikes having it combed out in the mornings as it gets so tangled. It's been cut a time or two before, but it's been quite some time. So, here she is before.... And here she is today, first having her hair braided. She had enough to donate to Locks Of Love.

Here is the braid before...

Snip, snip and then, snip, snip, snip and then some more! Kindrid's hair is thick!!

Ta Daa!!

When given the choice to have it washed or not, she went for the works! I love this part best too!

After the cut, she had it styled. Her face pretty much says how she feels about blow dryers!

All done!

And one last good-bye to the braid that will, hopefully, help make some little girl very happy! Please see the link if you aren't familiar with this neat charity: www.locksoflove.org

Have a great week-ending!!

Christy

PS Boohoohoohoohoo! My baby's hair....wahahahawaaaa!! She looks so grown up.....sob, sob!! (Just so you didn't think I was cold about this!!)

Six Days, Five Nights...

Dear Ones,


We spent this last Friday through Wednesday in the Big Horn Mountains in north-central Wyoming. This continues to be our favorite mountain range. We spent the first two nights at Dead Swede campground and the last three at Tie Flume.


Day One: We left around 1:00 and headed north to Sheridan and then west into the mountains. We found an awesome site at Dead Swede in the pines overlooking a river. The kids played "harvesting," an activity that involves digging shallow trenches and loading them with things like pine cones, stones and various size sticks. We walked the campground, explored around the river and came within a short stones throw of several deer. The mosquitoes are relentless and abundant!


Day Two: Looking for a lake for the kids to fish brings us to Park Reservoir on the east side of the range. Brennen caught this funny looking fish....some kind of sucker fish. He was pretty impressed with himself!


The life!!Todd sneaking in a few moments of his own fishing between helping the kids with theirs.


His big catch...good thing we'd packed sandwiches!!
Brennen learned to cast today. He's a natural!Kindrid fished some and enjoyed playing among the rocks and driftwood. This was her "paddle" for her rock boat. Note the orange-drink mustache!The view we enjoyed across the water.Day Three: We enjoyed Sunday buffet at Bear Lodge, especially Big Mike's biscuits and made-to-order omelets. If you ever visit the Big Horns, be sure to do this buffet they have on the weekends in summer and every day in winter (snowmobiling is HUGE here). We switched campgrounds as the one we were at had tree removal and some construction commencing the next day. In search of another lake to try fishing, we sought out Adelaide Lake in the center of the range. Um, you know what they say about getting there being half the fun? Well, it was. The roads were really rough! We (Todd) persevered and were rewarded with a gorgeous mountain lake and LOTS of mosquitoes. Kindrid found some flowers...

The water near shore was very shallow and begged for little feet to come wading. Which led to wet pants. Which led to wet underwear. :O)Kindrid (with some help from Daddy) caught this fish. Yep, Brennen is in his skivvies...trying to dry out. He was able to wade out quite a ways and then cast this way. His little legs got very numb from cold mountain lake water which was a good thing as it helped dull the pain from all the mosquito bites he got!

Day Four: We took a drive through the high country hoping to find places cold enough that mosquitoes would shun them. We did! Although I have no pictures, we enjoyed a romp with the dogs in a high field full of wildflowers, a picnic in a valley near a river, Brennen learning to "drive" some more and so on.

Day Five: We spent most of the day in camp. The kids played in the woods near our site and were in the woods on their "adventure" most of the day! They had Starbursts and some sugar wafer cookies that we found they were rationing at the rate of one half cookie every hour. They made beds, houses and rock walls. We came to "visit" them and they were thrilled when we left them a back pack to use. In the evening we took a drive and were rewarded with sights of much wildlife. Here is my effort at a moose when it was almost dark. We also found ourselves in a herd of sheep, viewing elk and deer and walking into the sunset on a high meadow surrounded by flowers. It was a lovely evening!!
Please forgive the dirty windshield!!

Day Six: The last day of a wonderful trip like this is always so sad. :O( We could have stayed much longer but real life calls. We did try one adventure this morning in trying to cross "Woodchuck Pass" but ended turning back as the road became fit for only four-wheelers. On the way out of our campground, the kids insisted we pull over and take Daddy's picture laying in a field of flowers that PROVES God loves the Vikings best (note the color of the flowers). (These pictures are for J.O.'s benefit...I know she will print them off and hang them all over her house!)

Todd's going to be so happy I put these on the blog. I could hardly get him to pose and he jumped up very quickly when a car drove by!! I love you, Babe!!!

And that's our trip. Hope you have a great weekend! Love,

Christy

Trip to the Tetons...

Hi!

We travelled to the Grand Teton National Park, Jackson, Jackson Hole, South Yellowstone, Dubois and Wind River Range part of Wyoming over the weekend. We stayed in a camper cabin near Lava Mountain on the Togwotee Pass but weren't "home" much. We did a lot of driving and poking around. I tried to do better about taking pictures this trip. Blogger isn't letting me move my pictures around as easily as it used to (likely my error but can't figure out what it is.) I'll try to put them in order, hopefully it will work:

The Grand Tetons were shrouded in storm clouds that made them even more stunning and mysterious than usual.

These little birds were so lovely and this one in particular actually posed for me (ask the family...he came hopping right up and stood still as if to say, "Mountains are all fine and well, but I am just as amazing." :O)

The wildflowers were as pretty as I've ever seen. The whole area looked as though it was a never-ending Eden. I couldn't resist taking some pictures - well, OK, a LOT of pictures - of them.



Buffalo! We also saw a mama moose and her calf and some elk. Deer and antelope are almost a given on any trip in Wyoming. We also got to see a REAL cowboy on his horse moving a herd with the help of his two dogs. Todd tried some more fly-fishing but still no luck. On our way through the western end of the Wind River Range, we found several places we'd enjoy re-visiting to camp and fish. I have to say again that words just can not describe how vast and gorgeous these wilderness areas are. I encourage you to come see for yourselves someday.
Kindrid skipping up the trail...
I love my family....

We ended the Fourth with fireworks in Dubois. We followed some locals up to a ridge, parked where they parked and waited to see what would happen. The whole of this small town was spread before us. Let me tell you....these folks LOVE their fireworks. It turned out they were setting off the official ones just a few hundred yards from us while the townsfolk gave their best to compete with one another and the official fireworks by sending off MANY of their own. It was a WILD experience and one we will likely try to repeat next year. Kindrid just couldn't get enough. She repeatedly declared this to be "the best day of her life" and being "unable to wait for next year's!" Of course, showing you in a picture how this looks was really hard but we tried.

We dove a lot. Todd got tired after a while so Brennen helped out.

Hope you have a wonderful week! Thanks for reading and especially for leaving comments as they encourage me to keep on blogging. Blessings...
Christy