Hole in the Wall

Yesterday we took a trip to Hole in the Wall Wyoming with my friend Carol and one of her friends. Carol is my go to girl for everything WYOMING! She has been everywhere and knows so many interesting things about Wyoming. A lot of the places she's been are historic sites that not many people know about or go to because you do have to drive a ways to them.

Hole-in-the-Wall is a remote pass in the Big Horn Mountains of Johnson County, Wyoming. In the late 19th century the Hole in the Wall Gang and Butch Cassidy's Wild Bunch gang met at the log cabin which is now preserved at the Old Trail Town museum in Cody, Wyoming. 
The area was remote and secluded, easily defended because of its narrow passes, and impossible for lawmen to approach without alerting the outlaws. From the late 1860s to around 1910, the pass was used frequently by numerous outlaw gangs. Eventually it faded into history, with gangs using it less frequently. At its height it featured several cabins that gangs used to lie up during the harsh Wyoming winters, and it had a livery stable, a corral, livestock, and supplies, with each gang contributing to the upkeep of the site.(wikipedia)

We got back from our "daycation" around 6 pm and decided to tackle our crazy yard! Keith decided to pull out the lawn mower and go at it! I can't believe our lawn mower conquered the crazy yard!

Before

After...!!!

Today after church we decided to take a scenic drive to castle gardens, we had to bring Carol along with us again, of course, because she is the best tour guide!

The Castle Gardens Petroglyph Site is located in central Wyoming approximately 45 miles east of Riverton. The name of the area comes from the outcropping of sandstone which the wind has eroded into fanciful shapes resembling the turrets and towers of castle. This unusual formation has been luring visitors for thousands of years, and many of them left their mark in the soft sandstone--the area holds a treasure of Native American rock art, or petroglyphs. The most famous petroglyphs were done in the Castle Gardens Shield Style, the oldest recognizable example of the shield-bearing warrior figure type. It is described as "elaborate and carefully made figures," and it "combines several different manufacturing techniques that serve to distinguish the style as unique in the Bighorn and Wind River Basins. The style is also unique in that it depicts shields alone as well as shield-bearing warriors" (Francis & Loendorf 2002:136).(wikipedia)

Some of the shield petroglyphs 

What a fun weekend! Now onto prepping for visitors (Keith's parents) on Wednesday!

Reunion Fun!

Two weeks ago (Aug. 6th) we packed up the car and headed to Idaho for a week! On our way Carson and I spent a day with my sister Misti in Idaho Falls helping her set up her 2nd grade classroom, while Keith spent a day with his brother in Rexburg. I can't believe Misti is going to be a teacher! Whoo! So excited for her, man it's a lot of work getting everything ready.

When we got to Boise on Saturday the 8th, I dropped Keith off at the airport and he spent the whole week in Alaska hunting caribou and fishing with my brother and nephew, meanwhile, Carson and I spent time with my family, enjoying many sleepovers, splash pads and time with cousins. Part of our trip was spent in Nyssa, Oregon at the LDS church Camp Hycliff for my mom's family (Brown) reunion. We had a blast going down the water slide till we were sore, playing night games, eating yummy food, swimming at Owhyee Reservoir, skits, a pinata, and just enjoying time with my mom's family that we really only see like once a year.

Some exciting news we learned at the reunion is....my parents announced that they will be putting their papers in within the next month or two to serve another mission! We are so excited and happy for them! I think this calls for another trip to Boise to see them before they leave :)

We had lots of sleepovers with cousins--cuz they're just the best.
Saturday night- Cousins-- Brielle and Malia's house
Sunday night- Cousins-- Hailey, Katy, Aiden & Abby's house
Monday night- Cousins--Alexa, Tristan, Brecka, Brynlee & Tyson's house
Tuesday night-- Cousin- Emma's house!
We gotta fit as many in a week as we can.

Monday night sleepover

Tuesday night sleepover

Meanwhile.....in Alaska

They got 2 caribou

Meanwhile in Oregon....

It was more smooth of a ride with a tube for sure, but it was definitely more thrilling going down without one!

Not sure if they tipped but they sure had fun.

Love that Carson has 36 cousins on my side alone. (shaving cream and a tarp = pure fun)

Squeezing in the back of my brother Kirk's truck to go to Owhyee Reservoir. Oh this reminds me of the 90s.


Meanwhile....when we got back to Casper...
I got in full house mode for visitors coming next month (Keith's parents and sister)

A little sneak peak....my house is finally coming along, decor wise. I still have a lot of hanging of pictures etc., but slowing it's coming along. We finally have all the furniture we need!

The start of Carson's room...more to come.

All new furniture--rug, couch, and curtains. More pics to come...

One Year Already?!!!

One year ago today, (July 26th, 2014) on a Saturday afternoon we pulled into Casper, Wyoming for the first time. I was born and raised in the Boise area and went to school in Rexburg, ID for four years then we moved back to Boise for three years so Idaho is all I've ever known. I'm not gonna lie, Wyoming wasn't the first place I would have chosen to move to, but Keith got an amazing job here that we were pretty excited about, we feel this is where the Lord wants us right now, and I have actually really come to love Wyoming and the people here. We've taken some pretty fun trips around the state, lived in three different wards already with the ward changes (really love and miss the 3rd ward), made some amazing new friends, had an incredible amount of fun girls nights out, bought a home and just enjoyed this beautiful state.

Here's my loves about Wyoming and things I miss about Boise

Loves:

Church members and friends- the church members here are AMAZING! I have never been surrounded by such incredible people. They are so outgoing, friendly and everyone is literally friends with everyone. They get together all the time and really make you fall in love with living here. And my friends I've come to meet here (Athena and Jasmine) are incredible. I can talk for hours with these girls and it's so nice for Carson to be buddies with their kids. Love those girls.

No state income tax--Yippee!!

Keith's job--it's incredible and we feel truly blessed for Keith to have this career. He loves all his co-workers, boss and everything about his job and what he does.

Wyoming has the best schools in the West--Sorry Idaho but you are lacking in the education department. Every article I've read has Wyoming consistently in the top 10 ten states for the best schools! All the other top performing states are on the East Coast, woot woot for Wyoming representing the West!! Oh and p.s. in Casper it's open enrollment so you can choose what school you want your kids to go to, luckily the school I want Carson to go to happens to be the one right down the street from our new home!

The Summers--I've found I'm not a heat girl so the Summers are PERFECT!

Eggingtons- Seriously though, best breakfast place I've ever been to!! Come visit and I'll take ya there!

Everything is so close-- If I needed to go somewhere in Boise it could take between 15-45 min depending on where and traffic etc....here I can get EVERYWHERE I need to go within 15 minutes MAX!! There is no traffic here, at least I've never experienced any--HALLELUJAH!

Least populated state- Keith and I really have come to love that there aren't a lot of people here, less issues.

Alcova--Gorgeous lake just down the road from us! Hello Summer!

My house--I love it! Hoping to make many memories in our first home.

All the cowboy boots and big trucks-- Keith sure loves his truck (there are so many white trucks in Casper, and Carson will always get compliments on his cowboy boots when he wears them around.) Love the Wyoming spirit!

Trick or Treating on Stafford St.--Helloooo king size candy bars!!

Wild West--Antelope roaming the parks and streets,where else do you see that? Ok besides maybe Alaska, I didn't even see wildlife as much in Montana as I do here.

Miss

Family-  11 of my 14 siblings are in Idaho and that means most of Carson's cousins are there, it's a little sad missing out on everything but it's been fun making memories together just the three of us.

Temple- Once the Meridian temple is completed the Boise area will have two temples. Wyoming is just now getting their first temple but it's almost 6 hours from us in Star Valley, so.....we drive to either Billings or Denver (4 hours away to go to the temple). Don't take the temple for granted if you live near one, just don't, or the Lord will send you to Wyoming. j/k.

Winco--Ummmm I don't need to say much other than this store is heaven!

A major airport close---yeah....driving to Denver or paying more to fly out of Casper are our options.

Now come visit!!

Homeowners!!

As of July 9th we officially became homeowners! Woo hoo! After  7 1/2 years of marriage you can bet we were pretty excited to finally purchase our first home. We were always traveling a lot or in school before, but since life is now settled in WY and Keith has an amazing job, we figure we'll be here a good while so it was the perfect time for us to buy.

Ours is quite the story, back around the 22nd of May the home we bought was on the market, we got outbid though and so we didn't get the home, a week later we put in another offer on a different home and got outbid again. Needless to say we were pretty frustrated but kept on looking, a home came on the market on a Saturday that I really wanted to look at since it was in a neighborhood that I loved, I called our realtor and she said the earliest we could see it was the next day (Sunday) and that we probably wanted to jump on this one so she set up the time for Sunday afternoon to look at the house, we weren't too sure since we knew it was Sunday and didn't want to be looking at homes on the Sabbath but agreed to it anyway. That night was stake conference and the theme was keeping the Sabbath day holy. Keith came home from the Priesthood meeting and said he felt strongly that we needed to reschedule for Monday, that we shouldn't look at homes on the Lord's day but that day should be dedicated to him, how can the Lord bless us if we aren't showing him obedience and following his commandments? I agreed and we rescheduled for Monday. We went and looked at the house but it didn't have much of a backyard so we decided not to go for it.

Monday evening we went and looked at another home we loved but it was A LOT higher than we wanted to go (still within budget, just top of budget), we decided to sleep on it. So Wednesday we decided yeah, ok maybe we should just go for this higher one, we prayed and prayed, didn't feel much either way but then Keith got a call from his boss saying the position in Star Valley will most likely be opening up because his co-worker is moving. We had previously talked about moving to Star Valley because it's only 5 1/2 hrs from Boise instead of 11, they're getting Wyoming's first temple, the schools are fantastic and it's an amazing LDS community to raise our family in. There are some downfalls with not having much commercially there or big grocery stores like Winco and Walmart (the nearest would be almost 2 hrs in Idaho Falls). So we thought about it, slept on it and were seriously considering it but Keith was talking to his boss about where he would prefer Keith to be and his boss said Casper because there is more opportunity to get recognized here and be promoted. So that threw us for a loop and we didn't know what to do, after Keith told me that I started looking at homes again online in Casper, I immediately spotted the first home we put an offer on, it was back on the market!! I didn't know if it was a flook or what, but they had previously taken the listing down, so I immediately called the listing agent and she said it had been back on the market for 2 hours! We called our realtor and put in another offer right away! The previous people who put in an offer lost their job and so the loan fell through. The rest is history! We got the house!!

Funny thing is, is that Sunday after our offer was accepted we were sitting in Stake Conference in Kansas City, MO (we were on our Church History trip) and the speaker was Kim B. Clark (former pres. of BYU-IDAHO) and he was talking about keeping the Sabbath day holy and promised blessings that will come from obeying and trying to be better about following this commandment. It was in that moment that Keith and I realized, that us getting that home was a direct blessing from keeping the Sabbath holy and deciding not to go look at homes on the Sabbath but dedicating that day to the Lord. The Lord knew it wasn't just any home but THE HOME that we wanted, out of all the ones we looked at, this was the one we loved the most. I will forever treasure that experience and try to do better about enriching my Sabbath days with spiritual things.

Wow...that was a lot but I mostly wanted to write it down for my sake. So here's some more from the rest of July....

Our first Sunday in our new house!

Fruit pizza for the 4th of July

Keith smoked ribs all day, we ate a wonderful BBQ then went swimming for the 4th

The day before the 4th we roasted hot dogs on Casper Mtn. I love that the mountain is only 15 min from our house!

These next two were in late June but hey--water and shaving cream fun for the kids at Athena's.

Father's Day Celebration (on a Saturday) at Washington Park in Casper.

Keith got two awards--Employee of the Month-not sure why they didn't give it to him till almost July when it was for April but whatev, and the Above and Beyond award! Congrats Babe! Already doing great things!

Keith took Carson to the fair so I could unpack things at our new home.

Moving madness

Carson was so excited to ride his first bike! It's yellow too--his favorite color!

Hope you all are staying cool this July!

Church History Trip!

Saturday, June 13th - Friday, June 19th we spent the week traveling to Kansas City/Independence, MO and Nauvoo, IL for a church history tour to see all the sites from the early saints. It was surreal to think about how they traveled from Kirtland, OH to Independence, MO to Nauvoo, IL and then finally made the trek by walking all the way to SLC, UT (and going through our beloved Wyoming on the way). So much sacrifice was required of these early church members, all they had was given of them and more. It made me really think if I'd be that obedient to the Lord, that willing to go and do.

It was an amazing experience to sit in the very room that Joseph Smith was martyred by mobs, to see the actual bullet hole in the door, to ponder what it must have been like for him, but I could only imagine. I have a testimony that he is a true prophet of God, it would have been so easy for him to give up and let go of everything, and not continue the Lord's work, that was a man of many, many trials, but he pressed on and was eventually killed because of it. He sealed his testimony with his blood, I gained an even greater testimony of him that day spent in Carthage, and I can't deny it because the spirit of the Lord was so strong in that room.
It was so interesting to hear the stories at Carthage, one was that Joseph told Willard Richards who was in the jail with him that night along with Hyrum (Joseph's brother) and John Taylor, anyway, he knew they were going to be attacked and he told Richards that he would be the only one in the room unharmed when there were bullets flying around them everywhere, Taylor was badly injured and both Hyrum and Joseph died, Richards was the only one unharmed.
 Joseph also told Dan Jones to use his arm as a pillow and Joseph asked Dan if he was afraid to die, Dan replied, "Engaged in such a cause, I don't think death would have many terrors." Joseph replied to Dan, "You will yet see Wales and serve a mission appointed you before you die. Dan ended up serving a mission to Wales after Joseph's death.

My favorite parts of the trip (besides being able to see my family that came) was Carthage Jail, the Nauvoo temple, and Adam-ondi-ahman.

Liberty Jail in Liberty, MO where Joseph was held for five months on false charges

Lunch at Steak'n'shake after a long day in Independence

Sunset on the Mississippi--a program all the missionaries at Nauvoo put on every night M-Sat

The Smith homestead in Nauvoo

The mansion house where Joseph and Emma lived for sometime

Joseph's mothers home

Scovil Bakery

The graves of Hyrum, Emma and Joseph

We found our greatX4? grandmother in the Nauvoo cemetery

On the wagon ride around Nauvoo

Outside Liberty Jail

Kansas City, MO temple--doesn't get better then heaven on earth

Inside the Independence Visitors Center. The group--Dad, Alexa (niece), Keith, Me, Carson, Misti (sister), Mary & Jared (brother and sis-in-law) and their two kids Aiden and Abby. 

Swimmming!

The spot Joseph dedicated for the Jackson County temple site, it was never built because the saints were driven out of MO by mobs, but can't wait for that day when it's announced again.

Loved this place! Where it's all going to be :)

LOVE THIS TEMPLE!! NAUVOO 

The window Joseph was shot and fell from

Carthage Jail

I feel like I already posted so many pictures so I won't post all the stuff we did in Nauvoo but we packed it all in. In two days we did the visitors center, sunset on the Mississippi program, temple, wagon ride around to the sites, Brigham Young Home, Joseph Smith properties, Blacksmith Shop, Print shop, Post office, Old Pioneer games, Brick shop, Old Nauvoo Cemetery, Scovil Bakery, and a few more that I just can't think of right now cuz it's too late. All the shops and homes were like they would have been in the 1830s, some of them are still original, it's definitely so fun to tour and see how they made bread or candles back then. It was definitely a memorable trip that I will never forget!