Learning to ride her bike

Riley Jo finally decided that she wanted to learn how to ride her bike, but she insisted on getting a helmet and knee pads, so once we got those, we were off.


She did GREAT!!! Although she doesn't think so. It seems like the more encouraging I do, the less she wants to do it. Can you say STUBBORN?!?!



Here's a short clip of her riding her bike. She rode for about 30 minutes, doing a really good job, although hasn't been back on her bike since.....

More adventures..

There's a small creek that is right next to the house and it didn't take long for the kids to find it. There are 4 other kids out here, 3 of which are middle school and high school age (aka babysitters:) and then there's 1 little boy who is starting kindergarten this year. So these three have had fun the last 2 weeks...


A little cold?

The bank of the creek consists of sand. Nice soft sand. So naturally, my daughter had to bathe in the sand. It's nice because there isn't a sandbox in the yard so the kids load up the dump trucks and road equipment, in the wagon and down to the creek they go...

It Figures.....

This year my garden is doing GREAT!!! The kids planted it this year from seeds so I am pleasantly surprised that it has done this well. We already have some plants producing, like the beets, peas, zucchini, onions, and we have the cutest tiny little green beans and cucumbers starting to grow:) Now the kicker... we are only here for another 2 weeks! That bites!!! I'm gonna have to leave my garden!!! I am truly heart broken over this. This is coming from the girl who, 8 years ago, could kill a fake plant! The garden is a huge accomplishment for me and I really enjoy it.

Tater wanted to plant a lot of cucumbers this year because we were going to make pickles. Here he is next to a few of our 2 dozen cucumber plants.

I guess I'll have a challenge ahead of me next summer. The elevation outside of Cody is 6,000ft., so needless to say, the growing season is short. I'm thinking I'll test out Matt's woodworking skills and see if he can build me a doghouse-size greenhouse.

Camping Trip

Last weekend we loaded up our tent, sleeping bags, fishing poles and marshmallows and headed down to the Beartooth mountains. On the way down there, Dustin was getting more and more excited asking me what all we were going to do. To this I responded.... "we've been camping before, you know what to expect." Then it hit me....I've NEVER taken him camping before. I lost major mom points for that :(




Overall. we had a blast. We found a nice little spot to set up camp that was right by the river and the lake we went fishing at was a 2 mile hike through some very pretty country.

There was a rainbow all the way around the sun. It's called a sun dog and it's said that it means there is going to be a change in the weather. It proved true for us, We saw this on Saturday, a beautiful, warm, sunny day. On Sunday a big storm cloud full of rain rolled in and set the temperature at the mid 50's. Still.... a really enjoyable weekend:)

Like Father Like Son

Dustin shaved his head "shiny bald" before school was out, and to my surprise, he hasn't grown it back out yet. He says he likes the way it feels. He dared Matthew to shave his head and Matt told him when he starts haying that he would. I think it was in hope that by now, Dustin would of forgotten about it. He didn't. Here is a picture of the TWO bald guys in my life.....

Newest Neighbors

I was putting in my time pulling weeds in the "community" garden this weekend, when I noticed 2 killdeer birds who didn't seem to happy to have me there. Every time I stood up, 1 of the birds would charge at me, not totally coming up to me. It was sure to keep at least 2 rows between us. Upon further investigation, I discovered this nest tucked in under the radishes.

Simple Pleasure

The other day Matt took the kids fishing while I was busy in town. I got home about 9pm to find my house quite and empty, so... fishing I went! It was such a nice night and we were all having a blast, we decided to build a small campfire and do a little fishing in the dark. The kids were in heaven. They thought that was SO cool. The only thing we needed were the marshmallows. Here's a picture of Matthew with his catch.... a catfish that weighed about 9-10lbs! This was the big one of the night, although there were quite a few big catfish in the spot we found. We even caught a leatherback turtle!