Winter Activities

Barbecuing in the winter? When it is 5 degrees outside? No problem. Here's what you do...

Shovel all the snow away from the 'que so you don't slip with all that yummy meat on the plate.

Get the snow off the cover so you can take it off, and get cooking. Rick is not afraid to get out there and do his share to get dinner ready. Thank you dear!!!

Other chores in the snow involve shoveling. Rick has a bad knee, and I am pregnant, who does that leave? Katie. I mean who says one is too young to help out around the house, right?!?! Actually that's probably all she did, I had to do the rest with the help of Aunt Carrie who graciously came over to lend a hand. Rick has a really bad knee and will be having surgery in two weeks to hopefully make it good as new! But for now he has to save his workouts for work.

We still manage to have a lot of fun in the snow. Katie loves and I mean LOVES to make snow angels. She makes them all over the yard. We don't get a lot of snow in our town so we take advantage when it gets deep.

She tried her luck at sledding at the school up the street. She is pretty good.

She doesn't love bringing the sled back up the hill, but if she wanted to sled she had to bring the sled and herself back up the hill, which by the way, was only about 7 feet.

We are enjoying winter while we have it, which is a long LONG time!!! Happy New Year everyone. I hope 2010 will be your best year yet!

Christmas Fun

Who goes outside at night when the temperature is 17, with a windchill of -7 to watch a parade? The people of our town that's who. We bundled up and headed downtown for the annual Christmas parade.

The floats in the summer parade deck out in lights, and brave the cold themselves to entertain us.

We get everything from floats, to emergency vehicles, to antique tractors.

Santa always comes down from the North Pole to join us in this parade. He doesn't mind the weather. People even throw candy during the parade, which is great, except for the fact that we are all wearing really thick gloves and we have a hard time picking it up. Maybe next year they can hand us the candy. In the end we made it through 4 floats, and we had to leave. Katie's toes began to ache from the cold.

I on the other hand, was the warmest of all. Pregnancy does that to a person. Baby Copsey likely wasn't too happy about the temperature. I am sure he/she is wishing we would move some place warmer before arrival. I am just hoping the weather warms up before he/she arrives in May '10. You never know about the weather here in Wyoming!

Happy Halloween!!!

I just noticed my last blog was August 25th and I am ashamed. I have been consumed by work, school, Katie, and the newest addition to our family arriving May '10. No excuse I realize, but one just the same. I will try to get on more and post all the updates to our lives, but for now I hope you all have a safe and Happy Halloween!!!
Love
Amy

No I'm not advertising Katie's new favorite show. The Fresh Beat Band is Katie's first live action show that she likes. Makes me a little nostalgic for the days when she loved Baby Einstein. This show is about a group of teens who have a band and love to dance and sing. Think High School Musical for children.

This is how I caught Katie watching her show. Her favorite character is Marina the one with red curly hair because she does funny things. But she likes Kiki best (the girl with straight brown hair), because she does cool things.
But I think she really thinks Twist is the funniest (the blond guy), because he does goofy things like get stuck in garbage cans, or buckets.

Ooohhwhoo Hahahaha, that Twist.

Jack and Jessie

This week we were privileged to watch a couple of wiener dogs, dachshunds if you must call them by their proper name. Jessie (above) and Jack (below) have been exceptionally good guests. They keep all the squirrels out of the yard, which is good for the birds who want to eat out of the bird feeder. The only problem is Jack has a bone to pick with any and all birds. When talking with his mom the other day I was horrified and slightly amazed to watch him chase and kill a bird. In keeping the squirrels at bay I noticed them climbing our big tree. At this moment they are exhausted from all the running around the yard they have done. It is a chore to get them in the house!

Molly, on the other hand, is always in a state of exhaustion. Squirrels are only to be chased if they come into the yard, and even then only if she feels up to it. She has never once considered climbing a tree, and the birds are ignored, unless of course they drop bird seed which Molly happily gobbles up.

Becca, Jack and Jessie's mom, informed me that her dogs do not jump on the couch. But she didn't mention them begging and us being complete suckers. Jessie gives excellent poor me looks, and Jack just waits until you try to pet him and they he uses your hand as leverage to climb up. We have been completely suckered by these two.

We were afraid they would be nervous, or shy around us. Nope they made themselves right at home. Jessie is, by the way, napping on my decorative bed pillow. Mi Casa es Su Casa!

The Great Flower Race of 2009 and a Sunday Picnic

Early in the year, the girls and I decided to plant some flowers and race to see whose flowers bloomed first. I planted California Poppies, Amy planted Oriental Poppies and Katie chose Painted Daises which took longer to sprout, but grew more flowers than mine or Amy's.


However, my California Poppies sprouted and bloomed first! Having said that, I should note that I had a total of about 5 flowers that survived to bloom. I guess they don't like Wyoming too well.


Amy had bad luck with her Oriental Poppies because she put all of the seeds in the packet into her little 10 inch flower pot. I kept teasing her that it looked like she was growing lettuce. However, the poppies did begin to shoot up after mine and Katie's bloomed, but in the interest of full disclosure, Katie picked all of the petals off Amy's flower as soon as they opened so that she would not win the race! What a little cheater. Oh well, all I can say is like father like daughter! Amy did get some of her flowers to bloom and they turned out very nice.



Moving on to a nice Sunday picnic...


This is a spot I had heard about at work, so we decided to pack up some food and have a nice Sunday picnic. It was a beautiful day for a drive and the scenery was magnificent. We had a good time exploring a place we had never been before and eating junk food along the way! It was only a short drive away from our house, so if anyone wants to see this scenic loop, then we can take you when you visit. We accept reservations anytime!!!


Katie's fingers were itching to catch some fish in this creek!


Amy reminded her that we did not bring any fishing poles, so there would be no fishing on this day. I kept looking on the mountain for deer and elk, but never did see any. After lunch we continued to drive and enjoy the scenic mountains.

The end of the loop brought us to a place where we could look and see the Flaming Gorge and it sure was magnificent! Now that we have scoped this place out, anyone who wants to see it for themselves, come on out! We have a place for you to stay.

Take care- Rick

Thunder's Just the Noise...

Last night we had a wicked lightning storm. I don't usually think I'm cool enough to say "wicked" but last night was amazing. We stood at our bedroom window and just watched. The power went out throughout the evening, and around 8:00 it went out for good.

With no lights we were able to get some cool shots!!!

Earlier in the evening I went to a meeting and it was not only raining cats and dogs, but the lightning was a little too close for comfort. As I walked toward the building a flash went off and seemed like it was down the street. I screamed like the wimpy girl I am, and received a chuckle from the man behind me.

The power outage lasted until around 1:30 am. It took me a minute to figure out what was going on as the tv was on and I couldn't figure out why Katie was watching Little Bill at 1:30 in the morning.

Today we woke up to a large branches that have broken off, and landed in our yard, and the sun. I am currently watching three children plus Katie, plus two wiener dogs (more about them later) and yesterday was "interesting" being stuck in this house ALL DAY!!! The sun was a glorious sight!