One Lucky Lady

Well here I am home alone, at 2:30 in the afternoon. I am sick with my third cold this month, and I am a little irritable. Where is Rick and Katie you ask?? Well my awesome hubby and adorable 3 year old, even the mutt, are out on the prairie looking for wild horses. I am here in my jammies, sipping a cup of coffee, with the perfect amount of cream in it, getting ready to watch a sappy Nora Roberts movie I taped from Lifetime.
Just thought you'd want to know!


PS- This is Boar's Tusk near Rock Springs and Katie and I went out to check it out while Amy stayed and vegged out at home! It is a pretty cool drive and looks like a decent spot to check out deer and elk in the morning or evening. -RWC

Laramie

We went to Laramie last weekend, just because. A friend of mine owns a hotel there and the room she got us was one of the fanciest rooms we have ever been in. Katie especially loved the jacuzzi bath in the room. I meant to take a picture of it, but forgot. In fact we forgot our camera on much of our tour through this college town.
Laramie is a very pretty place. The town is old, as are all towns in Wyoming, and it reminded us of the valley as you drive on the interstate. There are a lot of ranches, and farms. We drove up to the Medicine Bow National Forest, but could only drive so far as the snow covers the road. We saw a couple of herds of wild horses, I never get tired of seeing them. These herds had been spooked by something and they were RUNNING. What a sight.
We were sure to visit Katie's future alma mater, and possibly mine. The state of Wyoming gives students a discount on tuition depending on their grades. Katie told me she will get her degree in agriculture and have a big ranch, and I can come live on it. She will build me a house but "it will be hard." She also told me I could ride one of her future horses, but I will need a cowboy hat. "I don't have one," I told her, to which she replied, "you can use Daddy's." She will be a great cowgirl.
I may be attending U-Dub, as the locals call it, and getting certified to teach grammar school. I never thought I'd go back to school, but when an opportunity presents itself I have to try.

The University has an amazing, small, but amazing, museum of dinosaurs. They have an paleontology department here, and you can see what they have found, and what they are working on. I should have been a paleontologist. It looks like a pretty fun job. The little dinosaur above, I say little but it was bigger than me, is a prehistoric ostrich. The tall legs behind him belong to an apatosaurus. The Apatosaurus is the new name for what we used to call a brontosaurus. I don't know why they changed the name.

This guy looks like a velociraptor. Do you see those claws. YIKES!! I don't remember what it really is though.
The museum is two floors, with the second floor being a wrap around the first floor. That's how they fit the apatosaurus in. Katie and Rick were up on the second floor and Katie saw this head. "Look Daddy, a Triceratops." Rick looked appropriately amazed that Katie would know such a huge word. Indeed this is the skull of a Triceratops.

This bird dinosaur is a Pterodactyl. It was surprisingly small compared to the picture I had in my head. It was probably a little bigger than an Eagle. With a bigger head of course.

Katie really enjoyed the museum, but the squares outside of it were more her style. She stopped often at a set of squares so she could jump from square to square and count them.

It is a very pretty campus, surrounded by trees, and in the central green area there is a lot of sculptures.

This one was fun. It looks like a nest, and is a tangle branches that have intertwined, and it has been groomed to look like rooms.

Katie was able to run through it and go from "room" to room through the doorways.

We really enjoyed our trip, and can't wait to go back to see a football game, tour the territorial prison, and see more of Medicine Bow.

Out for a drive

Out here in Wyoming, going for a "drive" could take hours. It can also take you to a lot of neat places. Rick decided to go on one of those drives two weeks ago, and this is where it took us. South Pass City was a mining town a hundred years ago, and now it's a ghost town. The state took it over and is refurbishing the buildings. I assume the 7 people who live here are caretakers. The town is open in the summer for tours. I can't wait to see it all. To get to it you drive down one highway for about 45 minutes, then another highway for 1.5 hours, and then 2 miles on a dirt road. You would miss the dirt road if you didn't see the sign. Leave it to Rick to find some out of the way piece of history.

Some of the buildings have been historically refurbished, and some, such as this one are waiting their turn. I was told that some of the buildings you can walk in, and some have barriers, to keep you out, but you can look inside and see what it would have looked like.

I am guessing this was the ice house. It is built in the side of the hill. I will let you know for sure when I go back. I don't know about you but I can't imagine a town where everyone lives for years, and then when the jobs run out, it becomes a ghost town. It is something I had only read about in books. There is an area I am curious about with houses from the 70's, only houses, that is now a ghost looking town. It is next to 80 near Rawlins, and it creeps me out. Why were the houses there in the first place? Why doesn't anyone live there anymore. If you know where I'm talking about please comment, or email me. I want answers. It may not even be a ghost town. I'm not brave enough to get a closer look.

This is the Carissa Mine. It was a coal mine, that helped support the town. Rick is able to look at it and think of how those miners had to get the coal out. Pick axes, shovels, and sticks of dynamite. Not to mention how they moved the extracted coal. They would be amazed to see how it's done today.

The tall building is the mine shaft. This is a huge elevator that takes the men, supplies, etc down and up into the mine. Except for it being wood the shaft Rick used for work isn't much different, at least not in my eyes. Ask him, or any other miner, and they will probably notice a lot of discrepancies.

Yup road trips out here are an adventure. There are dirt roads galore to explore. I wonder where we'll head to next!!

Everyone has one.

Everyone has one. Whether you live out in the country, and your neighbor has to walk through the woods to see, or you live in town and your neighbor can simply look through a hole in the fence. In fact you have probably done it yourself. It's the old look in the medicine cabinet at some one's house. We all want to know what everyone has, or what their up to.

We have two nosy neighbors at our house. They are shameless. Not only will Katie look through the fence to see what the neighbors are up to, but she will then proceed to yell out, loudly, what they are doing. Then you hear the chuckle from the homeowners. I am going to work on her subtlety.

Been Awhile!!

Well between a few computer virus' and cold virus', and general busy-ness I have not been able to take the time. But that doesn't mean I haven't been snapping away with the camera. We have been busy.

The weather has been awesome, and I mean that by Wyoming standards. NOT, I repeat, NOT by California standards. The temperature has been in the 50's which here means t-shirts and shorts. Not for me, but I have seen a lot of t-shirts and shorts on people. I think they're a little crazy. But warm it has been.

We have been playing football. Katie is learning how to be a wide receiver. She shouldn't look so giggly. I doubt Jerry Rice did.

I doubt Joe Montana ever helped Jerry pick up a football like this either. But Katie does.

Molly isn't much for football. Since the ball is almost as big as she is she prefers just to move out of it's way.

Molly, however, loves a rousing game of chase. Daddy and Katie are always willing to indulge her.

But football and chase weren't the only games played that day. They also got some hide and seek in. Katie typically "chases" Daddy around the tree saying "I'm gonna get you" and he runs around faster until he is behind her and then... Well the giggles are addicting.

Katie and her Dad also put together Katie's swing set. She got to learn a few new things about tools.
Katie: "What's this Daddy?"
Daddy: "It's a wrench Katie."
Katie: "What's a wrench Daddy?"
Daddy: "It's what you're holding Katie."
Katie: "Oh."
Yup Katie got a "Katie" wrench to help. And what a helper she was.

They lifted, tightened, and used teamwork to get the job done.

Not to mention a little crack. But what is construction without a little crack?

Katie is now old enough to help Daddy. As for me? Me you ask, well lets just hope they don't notice me standing in the backyard. I have to keep looking busy so I don't get asked to help. I am the camera person, yup. I am also the person who is the main swing pusher so I should get to just watch the construction of said swing set.

Molly and I like to relax on these sunny days. Get a little tan, sip a cool drink. We are the ladies who know how to do it.

Unfortunately, Katie was interrupted in her work and had to take a phone call.

She was just too tired after talking to help her Daddy finish.

So there is poor Rick. All of his ladies watching him work. He really needs a son. Although, as you can see, Katie is more than willing to do boy and girl things.

In the end, though, Katie has her swing set. She is a happy girl. Can you tell?

And we have a tired Daddy. Katie is always willing to help him relax on his hammock. We are enjoying the sunshine. We never know how long warm weather will last in this state.