Cowley Corn Cookout

Now for those of you not from Cowley, the Cowley Corn Cookout is a FUN event! There are all kinds of free things for the kids to do (Jumpy toys, slides, water slides, obstacle coarse, free cotton candy (as much as they want), bottled water to drink) and then after they've played all day long there is a wonderful dinner consisting of super yummy pulled pork sandwiches, or bbq beef sandwiches, corn on the cob (of coarse), and tables full of salads and desserts (pot-luck-style).  So the kids just play all day and the adults can hang out and chat. It was great! I didn't get many pictures of Trace because I hardly saw him. He was having a blast hanging out with all his friends...each time I saw him he was with someone new!

This is a picture of MacKelle and I with our friends: Shayla and her beautiful kids (minus 2 of them, who were probably running around like Trace and having a blast)

This is MacKelle's new good friend her name is Rylee. She is a cutie. In fact, she has glasses too, and when they are together (especially if they both have their glasses on) they look quite a bit alike. MacKelle LOVES Rylee. They are in the same grade and will hopefully be friends for a long time!

This is the only picture I got of Trace, he was hard to get to hold still long enough. Here he is with Remmington having a snack break. Remmington is in Trace's grade too.

Summer fun in Montana

Since we were moving during the beginning of the summer, we made our annual summer trip up to Montana a couple of weeks ago. Here are LOTS of pictures of all the fun!

 

 

Happy Birthday MacKelle

 

I Can't believe she is FIVE!! It is crazy how fast time spirals quicker and quicker.  For MacKelle's birthday, we went to Billings on Monday to Chucky Cheese's (since Justin couldn't go on Tuesday). The kids had fun, and we got to see Tia Francis (from the college days) and her son, who we met for the first time. It was fun and great to catch up a little. On her Birthday we had  a few friends over for cake and ice cream. MacKelle wanted a Topsy turvy cake (that wanted to fall down! But we got it to last through to the cutting). She was VERY specific and knew just what she wanted. Ü I worry that every year they will want more and more detailed cakes...pretty soon, I won't be able to meet their expectations. But we had fun making it together. She put some of the flowers on, and cut out a bunch of extra ones with Trace.

And of coarse there were presents... We did a little remodel on her bike as a gift, so she put as many gifts as she could in the basket, in the back, hanging off it...She told me she was "organizing"

 

The Family at Chucky Cheese's

Our good friend Tia!

Exploring the Big Horns

This week has been really fun, our next door neighbors from Idaho came to visit their family and us in Wyoming. Tobee grew up here in Cowley, so they have been showing us the sites. Yesterday was so fun, we went on this crazy STEEP road up the mountain (this picture is towards the top of the road). It was BEAUTIFUL!!

 

One of the first things that Trace and Tyson had to do was throw rocks off the edge...I don't blame them, I kinda wanted to try it too. Ü

 

Here is Jenny and I (and Justin and Mason-notice them in the background)

 

After we got to the top, we went to Bald Mountain for a picnic. The girls were SO excited to see all the beautiful dandelions and worked hard to pick some bouquets for us.

Tyson and Keylee's grandma and grandpa Monk were the planners of this excursion. They found some stuff so we could pan for gold in this little creek. The kids loved it,and after about 15 min or so, all the adults had taken over and the kids were off exploring. It was pretty fascinating. We found some pretty sparkly specks of something (we'll say its gold).

 

Mason had a blast, he played in the creek, climbed into an old fire pit, drank some water out of someones panning-for-gold pan...nothing like the great out doors. 

It was a great day and we all had a lot of fun. Thanks Christiansens and Monks!!