Thermopolis, WY

One day we decided to take a day trip to Thermopolis, WY.  We had heard that there was a really cool dinosaur museum, so since Tean loves dinosaurs, we went over there and took some of Julie's kids.

 Tean loved seeing all of the dinosaur fossils.

 He wasn't too thrilled about getting his picture taken all the time.

 They had a cool supersaurus.

 Jake decided to try and get eaten by a dinosaur.

 Ziah even had a fun time.

 Ziah loved riding on this mini triceratops.

 While at the dinosaur museum, there was a toy truck there.  Tean, Evie and Noah played for about 30 minutes acting like they were paleontologists and going out to find dinosaur bones and bringing them back.  It was pretty fun to watch.  We were told that the dinosaur museum was the best in the nation, but I wasn't too impressed.  It had a lot of dinosaur bones, but it was really small.

After the museum we decided to go see some petroglyphs while everyone else was on their way to Thermopolis.  There was a lot of construction so we decided to find a different way over there than what the forest service worker told us.  We decided to follow our GPS, and this is where it took us:

 There was water on the other side.  On the other side of the water we could see a road and a gate, but there wasn't a way over to it, so we headed back and went swimming at some hot pools in Thermopolis.

 There was a kiddie water slide that Tean was scared to go down.  Finally he went down with Jake and with his Uncle Joe.

 Ziah even joined in the fun and went down the slide with his daddy.

 He barely even got wet.

 We finally got Tean to go down alone as long as Jake was at the bottom to catch him.

We had a great time at the hot pools.  Tean loved swimming and playing around with his cousins.  After we went out to eat and then headed back to Cody.

Buffalo Bill Museum

The second day of our trip we went to the Buffalo Bill Museum that was in Cody.  It was a really big museum.  Tean loved playing in the picture of Buffalo Bill.  It was smoke that was blowing out and then the picture was projected onto the smoke.  Tean acted like he was "fighting" Buffalo Bill.

 Soon after we got there they started a free tour of the museum, so we jumped in on it.  They had some pretty cool animals.  Tean did not want his picture taken.

 Ziah was a good sport about being in the stroller and just chilled there.

 There was a huge replica of an Indian Teepee and their surroundings.

 Some cool Indian head dresses.  Jake decided he needed to try one on.

 There was a bird show where they showed different type of raptor birds that they had at the museum.  During the show, Tean and his cousin decided that Ziah needed some grass on his head.  Luckily Ziah thought it was funny and liked it for a while.

 For lunch we headed to a park across the street and ate our lunch.  After all the kids ate they started doing different kinds of races.  The older kids helped the younger kids compete against each other.  They tried wheel barrow races, but they had a difficult time staying up and going very far.

 They had fun dragging the littler kids across the lawn.

 After lunch we headed back to the museum.  They had one part of the museum dedicated to guns.  On the first floor they had 1200 guns on display and then if you hadn't had your fill after that, there were 1500 more on display in the basement.  There was a place where you could pay to shoot guns at a target.  Tean had fun just pretending to shoot the guns.

 He concentrated very hard on trying to get the targets.

 Grandpa put some money in and let all the grand kids take a shot.

 Part of the museum was dedicated to Buffalo Bill.  Jake decided to pose while on the saddle.

 Tean's attempt at doing the same pose as his daddy.

 Tean had fun playing with the horns of different animals.

We had a great time at the museum and learned a lot about Buffalo Bill and the area surrounding Cody, Wyoming.  That evening we hung out and had a great time together at the house.

Yellowstone Day 1 of Cody WY trip

Since we had to drive through Yellowstone to get to Cody Wyoming, we stopped at some places in Yellowstone.  While driving through the park we saw some Elk grazing on the side of the road.

 We stopped at a really pretty waterfall.  I can't remember the name of the falls, but it was pretty.

 Of course we had to see a buffalo while driving through Yellowstone.

 We stopped at Old Faithful.  While we were waiting for the geyser to erupt, we decided to walk around and see the cool things on the path.  This was a really pretty hot pool that we saw.

 Getu decided to hitch a ride on Jake and Jake's dad's shoulders.

 After waiting and waiting, Old Faithful finally erupted.

 It was cool to watch.

 Tean was excited to see a geyser and was talking about it the whole time until we saw Old Faithful erupt.

It was neat to drive through Yellowstone and see the beautiful country that is there.  It was nice to get to the house where we were staying with everyone and get settled in so we could have a fun filled week.

Rigby Lake

On the 17th of August we went to Rigby Lake.  First we went up to Josh and Tami's house and had lunch, then we headed to Rigby Lake.  The kids had a great time.  Ziah loved playing in the sand.

 Tean had fun walking around in the water

 and trying to scoop sand up in the shovel.

 Ziah loved eating the sand and the rocks.

 He had fun exploring in the sand and the water.

 I just love his face in this picture.  When he gets really excited he makes this face and does a funny breathing sound.  It is so cute!

 Tean liked looking for cool rocks in the sand.

 Ziah even got in the water and enjoyed splashing around in it a bit.

 I think Noah's goggles are awesome!

 Tean had fun building mini sand castles and then smashing them.

 I was taking rocks out of Ziah's mouth about every 30 seconds.  I finally found him some big rocks that he could play with and not eat.

Somehow Ziah got sand splashed all over on his face.  Being the awesome mom that I am, I couldn't wipe it off right away.  I had to first go grab my phone, take several pictures, and then wipe off the sand.

We had a great time with cousins at the lake.  When we got home Jake was home from hiking with his dad and brothers, zonked out on the couch.  He had a great time and was exhausted.  Later that night, some of Jake's family came over and we watched a movie in our backyard.  We had a fun time!

Museum of Clean

On the 16th we went to the Museum of Clean with Jake's sister and kids, mom, and sister-in-laws and kids.  Tean had a great time with his cousins.  I wasn't very excited about going to the Museum of Clean, but it was actually pretty cool.  Tean and Noah had fun running around in Noah's ark and seeing the animals that were made out of different kinds of cleaning tools.

 There was a big huge ball that had different things to do in it, like squiggie a window, sweep up some marbles, see old typewriters,

 play with blocks,

 play with firemen and policemen in a house,

 play in "pipes" and tents,

 and make a bed.  The kids loved playing in this area of the museum.

 After playing in their for a while, the owner of the museum, Don Aslet, took us around on a tour of the museum.  We saw a cool dinosaur made out of different parts of a vacuum.

 There was a cool weigh station.  I loved the sign that was above it.

 There was an area that talked about chimney sweepers and the kids got to dress up like a chimney sweeper.

 They even got a dot of coal on the tip of their nose.  Some of the kids still had it on their noses after lunch.

We had a great time at The Museum of Clean.  There were lots of fun things for the kids to see and play with.  We could have easily spent a lot more time there.  After everyone came over to my house and we had lunch and the kids got to play together.  Tean had a great time playing with cousins and exploring the Museum of Clean.