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