4th and more

I remembered on the 4th that it was exactly a year ago that we were starting our trip to Pittsburgh.  I had gotten in the car wreck on the 28th and we were in Cheyenne for the 4th of July.  We had a picnic with my Mom and Grandma and Quinn got her first sunburn.  What a year it has been!

I had to forgo my usual 4th of july homemade attire but I threw together some cute festive outfits the day before with the help of Walmart.  We were by far the most red white and blue people around that day.

We headed out to Terry Bison Ranch so the girls could go on a pony ride and we picked up some fireworks afterwards.

They were in little girl pony heaven.

We also decided to take the Bison train tour again, because it was so fun 2 years ago.

Quinn was hot and bothered and was letting everyone know it.  Alex and Heidi were having fun but wouldn't feed the buffalo, and I hand fed a few bison and had my entire hand inside one's mouth, kind of creepy.

The weather was perfect until it wasn't.  Story of Cheyenne.  About 5 minutes after the tour ended it started to rain cold rain.

We were up on the scaffolding at the time and ran to the car.

The girls wanted poppers and sparklers and smoke bombs, so that's what we got.

These two are just adorable together.

Quinn was super interested in everything and wanted to touch and eat everything.

Alex is my right hand.  Don't know what I would do without her but I'm pretty sure Quinn was the 3rd born because it takes 4 of us to handle her.

Heidi informed me that she wanted to be a baker but it's to bad because she is going  to be a cowgirl when she grows up.

I have such a wonderful family.  The other day Alex said "Wouldn't it be CRAZY if we had ANOTHER girl in our family!"  It really would.

Quinn fell off the curb and scabbed up her eye, again.  Daddy ran her around the block to cheer her up and then gave her a sparkler.

This one has spunk.

She get's it from this one.
Friday night we had a picnic and then went to a field to watch the fireworks.  Once they started, Quinn clapped her hands and smiled and walked in front of us all to sit down and watch.  It was priceless.

Because Friday wasn't exhausting enough, Saturday we took Tyler to Vedauwoo and had another awesome and completely different experience.

We decided to try and hike UP this time and ran across a mother moose and her baby.  This sent us farther UP to avoid them and we got to see that our kids are actually really good hikers!

We also discovered that when you pay $20 for a baby bjorn knock off, you get your money's worth.  Tyler ended up carrying her in his arms the last 3/4 of the trek.

Tyler saved us from a rolling boulder.

And then Heidi totally upped him by lifting it with one finger.

Quinn is pretty well entertained by anything as long as we leave her alone.  She probably would have walked off, joined a pack of wolves and been entirely happy if we had let her.

In our pathless wanderings we found a path and some people and discovered that there was a great lookout and a fun path to follow.

So we did, and it was so cool, except we were suddenly afraid the girls were going to fall off a cliff and die.

Heidi loves her father.

And he teaches her crazy things.

It wouldn't be a family outing if all the children weren't begging to be carried back to the car.

All except the one who actually needs to be carried.  She ate cherries, it's not blood.

There may have been a melt down when it was discovered Daddy wouldn't be carrying a certain child ALL the way down the mountain.

Quinn was ok to walk.

We returned to the car and the girls disappeared to chase chipmunks while Tyler and I bet how long it would take him to climb that mountain.  I bet 45 minutes, it took him 6.  It's further away and larger than it looks in this picture.  I was impressed.

Our last week in Cheyenne was spent trying to slow time down and enjoy every minute.  This of course included parks and treats and movies and fun.

The girls spent hours in the secret garden.

Quinn especially.

We even ran into a cousin!  What a treat to discover great friends in cousins, and also a sadness to say goodbye!

Quinn loves to be wet. Just soaking wet all the time.

The girls finally got to go swimming in the lake and they loved it.

We took those puddle jumper floaty things which are heaven sent, that way I don't have to go in the water.

Quinn was content to eat pretzels and be photographed.

We had a read a book about Esther Morris and her CAN DO attitude. Then we discovered this statue and I began brain washing the girls into loving Esther more than Cinderella.  We aren't quite there yet.

we said goodbye to Daddy and Grandma Friday morning and there were lots of tears.  He headed to Montana and we started West.

The girls were so excited to get to Utah that they never wanted to get out of the car!  We stopped ONCE to go to the bathroom.

My body was not quite as resilient and we had to stop once again so I could stretch my body.

They would have stayed in Echo canyon all evening chasing prairie dogs and climbing hills if I would have let them.
This is where I discovered that marshmallow rat's nest in Quinn's hair.