Star Valley, Wyoming

While Josh was away on a boys-only canoe trip to Minnesota, me and the girls spent a week with our good friend Shauna at her ranch in Wyoming. My mom joined us for the 3 day journey, and my dad came up with Chelsea and Madison later in the week. In a word it was: refreshing.

The temperatures were cooler, the atmosphere beautiful, and the pace of life just perfect. We were in no hurry to get anywhere, but still managed to do a lot in the week. We rode horses, went to a parade, a rodeo, and a kids carnival, we went four-wheeling up in the mountains about every other day, we visited a fishery, we played in the creek, we collected eggs and chased chickens at the farm, and the girls rode the swather across the field to cut the hay.



On a "hot" day, it was in the 80's.

At dusk we'd drive up into the hills to look for deer and elk.

The little girls loved picking on Matt during the week, always wanting to wrestle him, and asking hundreds of questions, and he was a good sport about it. One morning he saddled up a horse with a kids saddle and took all the little ones on a short ride around the field.

And, being a real cowboy, he also taught Lydia how to lasso. So when she wasn't on the horse, she was trying to rope Madison :)

We spent some time at Uncle Bob's beautiful home up in the hills, where their favorite thing to do was search all around the hen house to collect eggs.
 
 

Everyone's favorite thing to do was ride the fourwheelers. Scarlett was especially excited, and would always scream "the ride! the ride!" when we were getting ready to go. Shauna, as the most experienced driver, always had Scarlett in her lap and Lydia & Madison behind her.

One of our stops on our fourwheelin journey was to visit the "work horses". The picture doesn't do it justice, but these horses were so strong, big and beautiful.

...But Claire was ready to get moving again :)

We all had dirty faces after fourwheelin... but these girls got it the worst!

I still have more to post about this trip, but we were so grateful to our friends for being the best hosts, and to all the cousins and aunts and uncles and grandparents who were so accomodating. Shauna was somehow related to everyone in her small town, but they were all so welcoming to a bunch of Texans who were just wanting to escape the heat, relax, and have a good time experiencing Star Valley.