Wyoming Trip: Lander

The first part of vacation was with my parents. We stayed with them for a week. Considering it had only reached 80 about 4 times the entire year here in Oregon, the Wyoming 90+ temperatures were rough on us. Even though it is dry heat, it was still hot. To stay cool the kids played in the swimming pool a lot.

I thought this was a cute picture of the boys reading together. Papa Darrell and Grandma Nancy like to buy books and boys definitely like reading them.

We went to City Park and played a couple of times. The park has a nice play structure. They even have a toddler play area. Here is Jaron going down the slide.

Josiah and Papa Darrell playing in the creek.

Earlier this year, my high school friend Sarah almost died due to an appendix rupturing. By God's grace, I was able to get together and talk with her. We met at the park and the boys played with her daughter Katie.

Auntie Kate came up from Laramie to visit for a few days. Here is Jaron stealing ice cream from Katie.

This is what sugar does to Josiah. :)

Toward the end of the week, we hiked to the Sinks Canyon falls. We found a little pool that was safe for the boys to play in.

Josiah and I hanging out on the log.

The family at the falls. Josiah once again was a real trooper. It is a 3 mile round trip hike. He ran a lot of it because we had 2 little dogs with us and Josiah liked to run up with them. The last hundred yards he was really tired and hot, so I carried him.

I realized after going through my pictures that I didn't take any pictures of the kids with my parents. Sorry mom and dad. I think it was because when the boys were with my parents, I was off enjoying my free time. :) The next post will be on our time in Worland with Jason's parents.

Wyoming Trip 2011: Part 1

Every year we make our annual trip to Wyoming to visit family. This year we left on a Saturday and drove to Boise and stayed with the campus minister for Boise State. We went to church with him on Sunday and drove a short 4 hours to Idaho Falls and stayed at a KOA campground.

The next morning we got up and drove to Jackson Hole, WY. Below is a picture of Jason and the boys with the Tetons in the background.

We stopped at the visitors center and Jason asked about a hike we could do. I was thinking a short 1/2 mile hike and then get back into the van to head to Lander. Jason was thinking he wanted to see something cool. Against my better judgment we hiked the Hidden Falls Creek trail. It is a 3 mile hike in, making it 6 miles round trip with two kids and one pack. Jason reassured me it would be okay and we headed down the trail.

Here are the boys about 2 miles into the hike. The lake is Jenny Lake.

At the falls. Josiah walked/ran the whole 3 miles and it was not a leisurely stroll. There were some rocky parts and the end was a steep uphill. Josiah did run a lot of it. We kept getting weird looks from other hikers heading back from the parking lot. I know what they were thinking, "Your taking your 4 year old on this hike!" I was thinking we were crazy, too, but we made.

While I was glad to see the falls, I was grumpy because we had an exhausted 4 year old and 3 miles back to the van. That was when Jason decided to tell me we were 200 yards from a boat that would take us across the lake back to the van. I was relieved and Josiah was so excited. Josiah's smile tells it all.

Here is Josiah at the trail head before we got in the van. We had to document Josiah's first 3 mile hike at 6,000 feet elevation.

That night we made it to Lander and spent a week there. Pictures of our time in Lander will be in the next post.

Celebrating Josiah

This year Josiah turned 4 years old. We have never done anything big for his birthday. We are usually traveling to Wyoming and Josiah doesn't have any friends his age so I feel kind of weird inviting a bunch of boys that are 4 and 5 year older to his birthday party. But this year, he really understands his birthday and I wanted to do something special. After much thinking I decided we would do a day dedicated to him. Everything we did would be show him we love and him and that we are so grateful that God gave him to us.

So on July 9th we got up in the morning and had donuts (something we rarely do) and headed out for a day of fun. First we went miniature golfing. The picture below shows that Josiah actually parred a hole. He got the ball in the hole with 2 shots. Watch out Grandpa Chuck in a few years he might be beating you on the golf course!:)

Then we drove up to Salem. He chose to have pizza for lunch. We order some and headed to a park to play. We also took time at lunch to share why we loved him. He would just smile and give us hugs saying, "I love you, too."

For his birthday present we took Josiah to Toys R Us and he got to pick out a new bike. Jason laid out a few options for him and without much thought he knew he wanted the Lightning McQueen bike.

Here he is enjoying his new bike. We go for bike rides all the time.

We love you Josiah and we are truly blessed that God has given us 4 wonderful years with you!