Cheyenne week 3+

So I'm back!  To blogging!  Let's see if I can remember everything I was going to write!

Our time in Cheyenne really flew by.  We started out with a huge list of things to do for fun and left with plenty still waiting on our list.  We did make it to a Gunslingers show which was super corny, and then we walked around downtown and Tyler surprised the girls with rhinestone necklaces from an antique store.  It was an awesome day that included face painting and balloon animals from the Historic Governor's mansion for Wyoming's birthday.

Quinn NEVER falls asleep on me and she's done it on Grandma twice!  These two became such good friends, I think Quinn likes grandma more than me!

Quinn's had her fill of being followed around by the paparazzi.

A few weeks in to our stay, my awesome Aunt and 2 cousins came to visit!  We had a blast and visited Vedauwoo- one of my top 5 favorite places on earth.

The kids spent the day climbing and running and hiding and laughing and didn't want to leave.

We stumbled upon this awesome hidden picnic area next to a cave while we were exploring and decided it was perfect for some smores.

Cheyenne has amazing clouds.  I stared at them everyday.  They made me want to learn more about clouds.  Especially since we randomly had a tornado warning and actually seeing the funnel clouds was terrifying.

We may have fed the chipmunks.

This is one hilarious group of individuals.  So much fun.

These two acted invincible and were in little adventurer girl heaven the whole day.

We decided that this is not the way to cook smores, as no one wants a solid marshmallow, dripping chocolate and toasted graham crackers- save yourself $5 and don't buy it.

We hung out in our little village for a few hours and even had a weather a rainstorm inside the cave!  How cool is that!

Of course Gnomee came along.

Quinn had a personal body guard and escort for a week while cousin Greir was here.  These two were connected by the hip and It was so fun watching them play.

Then there were the hail/rain storms that tried to ruin our fun.

My kids got completely spoiled by all the attention.  Pretty sure Alyson is their favorite person in the world.

And Alsyon with Aunt Lisa- non stop laughter!

We were lucky enough to get in on Super Saturday in Cheyenne.  Its a day full of free activities for kids!  The girls waited in line for over an hour to play in these balls for 5 minutes.

And i'm sort of wishing that i'd gotten in one as well after all that wait.

My kids were trapped inside giant beach balls in a pool of water and it was the happiest moment of their lives.

Of course no trip to Cheyenne would be complete without many visits to the Children's botanical garden.

And a day in the sun knocked us all out.

My mom even came up to visit that week and so my little darling were surrounded by so much love.  It was fantastic.

Sometimes Quinn steals my camera and leaves me creepy selfies.

Our last day of fun was spent at the historic train depot.

We went on a horse drawn carriage ride around downtown.

My beautiful cousin. love her!

I'm pretty blessed in the family department, having so many people willing to take us in and love my kids.  We loved Cheyenne and our time there!

Mcdonalds

I wrote this during our second week in Cheyenne and never posted it.  Things calmed down and life became normal shortly after- put I post it so I will remember- and not judge in the future.......

Here are some lessons I've learned from our month stay in Cheyenne.......

1.You end up paying a lot more attention to sidewalks when you have an umbrella stroller.  Those cheap little wheels don't cut it on more than a skating rink.

3. You can only eat fastfood so many times before you HATE fastfood.

 2. Don't Judge.

 There I was, we bought a yogurt parfet that sat uneaten because it was the only item I thought I could stomach after weeks of fast food.  I wasn't hungry, but I had to buy something so the kids could play on the play place.  Quinn was strapped in the stroller with a bag of chips and cookies, anything she wanted as long as she would sit still and I could check mail, pay bills, and mindlessly surf the internet.  I ignored the girls climbing up the slide, and zoned out.  I looked like a perfectly awful mother. If I had seen myself and my brood, l'd have judged.
Baby eating cookies for lunch, tisk.
Ignoring children to play on the computer, completely detached.  Those poor children,  how are they going to turn out?
No one would ever have guessed that for the past 3.5 weeks I've spent every waking moment with my kids.  Reading, drawing, teaching, cooking for them, cleaning them, feeding them.  There is an occasional break when Quinn is napping and they are engulfed in fairyland for a few minutes.  I may get a solid 15 minutes without someone crying for me, or yelling at a sister.  So when I escape to Mcdonalds, and can feed the baby cookies while the big girls disappear into big plastic tunnels, and I stare at my ipad mindlessly for 30 minutes, I hope not too many people are judging me too harshly.

       Maybe I'm being dramatic, or putting to much pressure on myself.  We have certain rules at our house to keep the peace and a vague level of cleanliness.  I try to let the kids work out their own fights if they can, and learn from natural consequences on things like shoes worn outside (one bee sting on the bare foot for Alex is all it took to learn that one last year.)
      On the road, certain rules lax, but when visiting and staying with people, suddenly the rules multiply 10 fold.  The old standard of cleanliness can't cut it, neither can I let them scream at each other for 10 minutes while working out a dress up wardrobe issue.  The expensive landscaping can't be picked for salads, and we shouldn't strip the tree branches of leaves.  Suddenly we are are feeling stifled, parents are putting on pretenses and kids are suffocating for freedom, their own space.  They are trying (or not) to stand up to an impossible standard of childhood, and I to one of parenting.
    So here is the hope that I get this figured out, that the kids learn the rules and start to obey and I can calm down and shake off the stares from the other mom's while my baby plays in that mud puddle and the older girls play daredevil on the playground.  I'm all helicoptered out- if these kids are going to survive their childhood it's going to be God's will, because I can't chase all 3 of them around everywhere and keep them all out of everything.  So I'm sorry in advance if my kid teaches your kid to climb up the outside of the tube slide, or walk on the outside rails of the bridge.  We may end up with a few more doctor visits, but our house is already a lot happier.
   

Rotations. Week 2.5

Blogging has become a huge challenge, and I've been terrible with pictures.  Here are my disjointed thoughts on the past week, via ipad, via mcdonalds wifi.  Don't judge.

Life in Cheyenne is interesting.  There are so many good things and we really can’t complain about much, but having children just throws a wrench into everything.

But we do love them.

Alex and Heidi were playing with a scarf, a sort of tug of war game where Alex put the scarf in her mouth and Heidi tugged it.  Her loose tooth suddenly became VERY loose!  She was pretty excited about it until the next morning when she decided eating was painful.  Low blood sugar mixed with excitement and anxiety over the tooth coming out and hurting led to a pretty emotional day.  At one point she had me tie a string to her tooth and she actually tied it to a doorknob and shut the door!  Unfortunately the tooth didn’t come out and she cried and cried and was tied to the door and it was pretty dramatic for a few minutes there.  It's still in and I've decided I hate teeth. Coming in, going out.  Good thing they are so usefull!

Grandma let’s Tyler take her car to work a few days a week so the girls and I can escape the house, go to parks and visit the library.  It’s been a life saver.  It’s hard going out everyday, but it’s hard staying home everyday.  There has been some lawn work going on, mixed with some disobedience on the girls part with rocks and water, so they are grounded from the yard for a bit.  There is a school a few blocks away that we had been walking to and playing on the equipment, but they just tore down the playground.  

Today it all hit the fan with Quinn’s screaming, Alex’s tooth drama and a general “stuck in the house” feeling.  There were hours of screaming and crying about boredom and not enough toys and “worst day ever”.  We purposely only brought a few toys with us because we didn’t have room, and it was summer so they could just “go outside”.  I was happy that we could leave the Barbie’s and dress up and princessness behind for a few months, the girls do NOT agree.  Aparently they are through with our pioneer themed lives and I’m hearing more and more about “goodol’ Pittsburgh.”

A week ago I established a summer allowance so they could have some freedom to save and spend and buy things.  They decided to buy princess shoes, crowns and wands.  I put my foot down at barbies.  And still it’s not enough.  I think we need more child time, but there aren’t any we have found in the neighborhood, and our  park time has been limited.  They are sick of me, they are sick of the toys we brought, and they are sick of all the new rules.  It’s been 2.5 weeks and the past couple of days have really tried my patience.  In part because Quinn just SCREAMS and SCREAMS and SCREAMS.  I think she is hungry all the time, but she won’t EAT!  When she finally does get a belly full she is such a  pleasant child.  Heidi taught her this hilarious sign for ‘stinky’ that is holding her nose and blowing it.  Quinn also does this fantasic angry face pouty lip angry eyebrows.

She is walking everywhere wonderfully.  She fell into the coffee table twice and cut her teeth through her lip.  It was so sad.  She has mastered stairs, and playing in the toilet and just discovered you can unroll toilet paper.

She will cry “mamama” and has learned “more” which sounds more like “mo, mo, mo, mo”  in the same pitch and frequency as the seagulls on “Finding Nemo.”

Overall I’ve enjoyed our simple life.  No tv to distract, no internet.  It makes focusing on the kids easy.  We read a lot of library books and doing school isn’t a chore.    I’m turning into a proper house wife and even get dinner on the table just in time for Tyler to walk in the door from work and sit down for a family meal.  I’ve made pancakes for breakfast 2 days in a row, and I actually look forwards to the kids waking up in the morning because them it means there will be something to do!  I need to check out something for myself at the library next time.  The kids are learning a lot about technology through our sudden lack of it.  I’ve had a heck of a time trying to explain the “internet” to young minds and why things like Netflix and watching movies on the ipad and computer don’t work anymore.  Or why Mom pulls up in front of Taco Johns every time we get in the car (because I can get free wifi from the benches out front and can download my email and do a quick 30 second scroll through of facebook and instagram.  We’ve done of fair share of eating there as well, don’t you worry.)  

Church is still difficult.  Quinn cries the whole time, and now Heidi has become our afraid of primary child who clings and cries and throws a fit when it’s time to go to class.  I haven’t enjoyed the second or third hours of church in ages.  Tyler and I take turns with angry Quinn face and every now and then one has to sit in on Primary.  The ward seems nice though and we are generally impressed with Wyoming.

​ I think my favorite part is that I think there are less people in the entire state of Wyoming than would fit in Ft. Pitt tunnel when I’m trying to get through during rush hour.  Traffic is non existent and I can get all the way across the state capital of Wyoming in the same time it would take me to get to the grocery store in Pittsburgh.  The roads are wide, the speed limit is high and there are hardly any cars around. Love it.  

2 other awesome Wyoming things.  We were driving through town when we say a giant herd of probably 100 goats fenced in with a temporary fence next to Great Harvest bread, in town.  Apparently you can rent out this herd of goats to clear your lawn, or field, or hard to mow places!  It made me so happy.  I can’t believe I didn’t get a picture, they have moved on now.  Second thing.  I was walking through the park with the girls on a nice day and I glanced at the parking lot and saw a pickup truck with 4 or 5 highschool aged guys.  They were sitting in the back with their levi jeans and cowboy hats and no shirts.  It just struck me as so hilariously odd and yet not necessarily out of place.  Just not something you would see in Pittsburgh. Probably ever.

The big girls share a bed here at Grandma’s house and I wonder to myself every night how our ancestors did it.  We were very spoiled with our bunkbeds.  I also wonder to myself how, 4 and 6 years later we can still be fighting about bedtime, like it’s this strange new thing that needs to be fought against.  

Montana Mission Farewell

After a grand total of 3 days in Cheyenne, Grandma and I loaded the kids up into the car and drove the 7 hours to Billings to hang out with my awesome little brother and attend his LDS Mission farewell.  We discovered an awesome gas station area in Casper Wyoming with odd statues ranging from big to gigantic.  It was amazing.  The girls did pretty well in the car and we only stopped twice!  The first time the girls broke into tears when I denied them a McDonalds play place.  This devolved into tears over missing friends and wanting to go back to Pittsburgh "Right NOW!"

The second stop I gave Quinn some free diaper time which resulted in diarrhea on the drivers seat as she was "driving the car."

 I'm sure I mentioned before that Mom got remarried and moved into town, selling most of the farm.  I guess I wasn't really clear on this fact when I spoke to the kids because Alex was pretty mad when we went to visit the "farm" and none of the great farm stuff was there besides the horses.

 We waded through the grass and did some exploring and identifying so it turned out ok.

 Having David around was great for many reasons.  Quinn decided to push out 3 molars during our Montana side trip and so there was LOTS of screaming and biting and yelling and anger.  She seems to generally hate me, but she would totally obey David!  He saved me, and the TV, and the DVD player, and all the statues and Quinn 100 times over.

 David also introduced the girls to snake grass, which captured their attention for a good 30 minutes.

 We are pretty sad that David will be leaving us to preach the gospel in Frankfurt, Germany for the next 2 years.  He is going to do a great job and have an amazing time, but he will really be missed.

 It was a beautiful day to visit the farm, and we drove around Billings to see all the change and growth in the past 10 years. It's sad and exciting to see things change so much, and all the places I'd enjoyed as a kid disappearing.

 Heidi and I both got haircuts while we were in town.  Heidi's turned out great, mine was sort of an act of desperation.  I went in and threw out words like.... short, thing, undercut, A-line?, and ended up with something i'm not quite sure how to deal with.  I love how it feels though, and I've fingered out one way to do it that makes it look nice.  It may be the only way I do it until it grows back.

 Thursday was a cloudy day and so we visited the new library.  David and I even got to spend the afternoon without kids and went to our favorite Antique store and scored hime some sweet tie pins.  We got Mongolian grill and ate it on the rims and then went out to the farm for fire wood for a hotdog roast at Mom's.  Quinn just screams instead of talking.

 Nomee roasts a mean marshmallow, although David perfectly toasted one after another and let me eat them all.

 It was a fun way to spend the evening.

 Saturday was a farm and park day for those of us who weren't sick at home.

 Quinn will sometimes say "hi" when I point the camera at her and pose, but most of the time she just attacks it.

 We visited the school I attend first grade at which brought back a lot of memories.  The girls played and played and watched some boys put a guinea pig down a slide.

 Something must have been happening off to the right.  The only thing better than having 1 grandma around would be having 2!  We've missed family so much the past year and have been soaking it up the past week!  The best part is looking forward to 5 months of Grandma's, Grandpa's and all the rest!

 Swings are always popular with this one, although she seems to have convinced herself that she can't pump anymore.

 Here is an attempt at a Quinn and Kristen picture.  Starting to love my time delay.  You can sort of see the hair here, short bangs again, twisted pack into a ponytail.

 I haven't worn a jacket in a month, but Montana is a bit more chilly than Pittsburgh has been and so I had to run out and buy a jacket.  I fought habit and bought pink instead of grey.  Alex cried for 2 days because she wanted a pink jacket like me.

 Quinn thought being buried by rocks was hilarious.

 David gave an amazing talk to our congregation at church on Sunday.  I was one proud sister.

 Alex found one of my old dolls in storage and it's been a constant companion since.  David and I agree it's pretty creepy, and I had to laugh that "Violet" made it into the pictures.

 It was worth the journey to hang out with this guy for a week.  We are a LOT alike and it's fun to hang out with someone so similar to how you think and act.

 I'm pretty sure we are just going to take Grandma everywhere we go all summer, it's been wonderful having her around.  Quinn really started to walk this past week and will chase me down the hall as I try and hide the iPad from her.  It's so fun to see her developing.  She will sign "please" when she wants something and tonight Alex taught her the sign for "thank you", she is really opinionated.  She mostly eats blueberries.

 We drove back to Cheyenne on Monday and the girls were ecstatic to see Daddy again.  Tuesday night Dad took us to Lions park in Cheyenne for a bike ride.  Earlier that day we had gotten the kids outside shoes so they would stop wearing their church shoes.  I had packed sandals and boots, but they have outgrown the tennis shoes I brought along (grumble grumble grumble.)  Heidi's perfectly matched her dress that day.

 The worst of teething may be over, as Quinn is screaming a bit less and sleeping more at night.

 I'm falling more and more in love with Cheyenne.  This device may have clinched my undying love for the city.  While it seems most towns  are getting rid of the dangerous playground equipment, Cheyenne laughs in all their faces and then builds a Merry-go-round that is 2 levels and offers of option of climbing up while spinning around.  I'm in love.  I must say this town has a lot going for it.

Today Quinn dressed herself up in a crown and cape and walked around the house yelling at everyone.  We walked down the road to a school they are taking apart and played on the playground.  Alex chased Heidi around the backyard with scissors and was grounded.  She then sorted, folded and put the laundry away for $1.  I may outsource from now on.
    Tyler is working at a clinic on the edge of town and seeing patients already.  He goes in, questions and comes up with a diagnosis and then reports to the doctor.  They then go back together and the doctor does it on his own and teaches Tyler a thing or two and might let me do, or help with a procedure.  It sounds cool on my end- except the story about a lady who had a moth removed from her ear.  There are a lot of moths and ants here and now I'm afraid to go to sleep.
     7 days down, and plenty left to go, but so far I'm really liking rotations.  Tyler eats dinner with us, plays with the kids and talks to me at night.  I'm happy.