Riding in Bear River National Park.

After waking up at 3:30 on Monday morning for Girl's Camp (here) and running full tilt for the entire week on only 4 or 5 hours of sleep each night, I was exhausted by Friday.

But come Friday The Man was ready to go riding in Wyoming with Uncle Tim and Aunt Shirsten.  And me being the glutton for punishment that I am, didn't want to miss out on the fun.

So I came home from camp, unloaded the girls' stuff from the trailer, took some girls home, unloaded my stuff and my girls' stuff at our house, and with two hours to spare I showered, repacked, and loaded up the girls to meet their dad in Wyoming and we'd meet up with Uncle Tim and Aunt Shirsten.

Running away with The Man is one of my very favorite things to do.  Even if it is just to Evanston.

We bummed around Evanston by our twosome for the evening, doing nothing in particular but enjoying the conversation and being out together.  I'd missed him while I was at camp.

The next morning dawned and we headed over to where Uncle Tim and Aunt Shirsten were staying with friends, and then we headed to Bear River National Park for some riding.

This is honestly what I think of when I think of Wyoming, and it cracked me up when it happened on our way to find the trails.

We found the spot we wanted to ride in and Shirsten mentions that as they had been riding yesterday it was cold and threatened rain all day, but it didn't ever storm.

Which opened up joking about Joe's Valley (here) and knocking on wood that we wouldn't get caught in another storm.

And the gray clouds hovered, and it was a bit cold.  But then the sun would come out in a glorious burst and warm us up, only to cycle back to gray clouds and cold.

We stopped at a creek for a picnic lunch (Shirsten always packs the best food) and we watched a shepherd trying to round up some stray lambs near us.

And then it hit.

The gray clouds burst open in a quick rain and then a hard hail.

And we scrambled to pack up the food in the weather.

And we started racing back to the trucks while being pelted by marble sized hail.

 

I'm hoping this doesn't become a habit while riding with Tim and Shirst, but looking at the budding track record, I think I need to stuff some rain ponchos in the glove box.

Snake River Rapids

On an evening that threatened big rain drops and loud thunder coupled with bright lightening (one can only hope), we stood in the driveway with our neighbors and loaded up gear and bags of clothes, and coolers of food.

We checked our cell phones for weather reports, not for our city, but for the neighboring state of Wyoming, and with high hopes of the simple partly cloudy skies we were being promised, we piled into the Navi and hit the road.

The heavy rain started and followed us up the canyon and around the lake and through the state border.

And when the sun began to set we saw a show that only God can put on.

We made hotel reservations in Alpine, Wyoming and let them know that we wouldn't be getting there until 11:30 at night.  Details like this are important when dealing with two-horse towns.  There isn't a Holiday Inn Express where the lobby is open 24/7 and the waffle maker is heated up for you in the morning.

It's a bit more simple and quiet than that.

It also means that even though you called and told them you'd be there at 11:30, and even though you pulled in at 11:27, the lobby is still going to be locked.

We didn't worry yet though, we had been told our room numbers and had been told that the doors would be left open with the keys inside for us.  There are no card readers in two-horse towns, just good old fashioned regular keys.

And trusting folk.

Until we go into the hotel and find our room numbers and find the doors tightly locked with no way for us to go in and put our exhausted heads on soft pillows.

The looks of tired women who are ready to just lie down in the hallway for the night:

The Man saw a key hanging out of  the door knob in the room next to ours and wondering if perhaps we had the wrong room number began knocking on the door and jiggling the door handle.

I can only hope that no one was in that room.

We weren't confident enough to enter even with the key in the knob, and I hope that no one inside was given nightmares from us trying to get in their door at midnight.

Our men went down to the lobby one more time and began banging on the lobby door.

What do you know, someone was hiding in there and opened up for them.

We got our soft pillows after all.

The next morning we ate breakfast at the only restaurant in town and headed up to the Snake River.

The day could not have been more perfect.

Brandon's favorite game:

 And it was kind of cold...

The Lunch Counter was pretty big, we felt the raft start to buckle and fold in half and we stalled for a quick second... and then we lunged through it.

We saw an Eagle soaring through the air.

Brian tried a few tricks...

But ended up in the water more often than not.

The Man had his turn "riding the bull" through the Lunch Counter:

Let it be known that I risked my life to let go of my hold to take that picture of him.

We rubbed elbows with greasy food and shakes at Rulon's Burger Barn, oh the cheese fires!

And though West's GPS search told us the drive would take seven hours ("If we have to drive seven hours we had better be in Disneyland!") we were happy to find out that it would only take us four.

If we get to try it again, maybe I'll take my chance riding the bull, but for now I'm just happy to say that I didn't get sunburned.

A HUGE thank you to our friends for inviting us along!  One of the greatest treasures in life is when you can be surrounded by good people doing good things.

volunteering at a 5k, wyoming bound, cali's program, and a mom date

I try very hard to avoid any event or activity that requires me to use an alarm clock on Saturday.  Saturday is that one blissful morning when I can just let my body be on its own. 

It would seem though, that running has my number.  I have a love/hate relationship with running.  For whatever reason I seem to crave it.  I want to go.  Enough that I slide dinner, work, and even sleep, around to get a run in.

I can't seem to wrap my head around it while I'm out pounding the pavement and this is where the hate part comes in.  I wonder why do I do this to myself?  I'm not going to do this again.  I'm done with this hobby, let's find a new one. 

When I'm finished I'm on cloud 9 and already devising how I'm going to beat my own time, or go a longer distance on the next round.

I can't get away from it.

Our neighborhood put on a 5k on a bright, sunny Saturday morning.

I groaned as my alarm clock rang. 

Why do I do this?

I wasn't even running.  I had volunteered to help "run" the 5k with my friend Suzy, who looked a little wild eyed and desperate as she walked around with the sign up sheet, looking for names of people to help her. 

To be honest, if I'd not signed up to help Suzy, I'm sure my craving would have kicked in and I would have been there with my running shoes anyway.  Why not?  It was a free event.

Instead I drug Cas out of bed and walked around the corner to the local church parking lot where we met up with friends and cut fruit for the finish line.

To Suzy's credit, she had it mostly done already.

We had the fruit finished before the run started and it half crossed my mind to go home and change and join in, but on this particular weekend our schedule was a little skiwampus.  Instead of driving the circus part way to Vernal on Friday, I was taking them to Wyoming (again... here) on Saturday morning.  I'm not a fan of when these drives cut into my Saturday, but I suppose that sometimes it's just the nature of the beast.

After cutting up the fruit I had just enough time to walk home with Cas and whip the circus into a frenzy to get dressed (they were all awake by the time we got home), brush your hair and teeth, get your chore done, and get packed.  We're leaving in a half hour.

Do you want to know how amazing my kids are?  The got it all done in a half hour.

After we hit the road I received a text from my ex saying he was running behind because of some ordeal with the pilot car not being ready.  Again, nature of the beast.  Sadly I'm well acquainted with a trucker's life, so I had empathy in knowing he really couldn't do anything with a situation like that.  But this gave the circus and I some extra time on the road.  We drove around Park City but couldn't find anything fun to see.  I really need to brush up on how to get around Park City, there should have been a ton to see.

I think before the next drive I'm going to have to google Park City so I can at least find historic Main Street.

We did find a McD's for drinks...

Since Park City was  a bust due to my lack of knowledge of the area we decided to see what we could see in Evanston.  We ate lunch and then drove around looking for a park to untrap ourselves from the car.

Evanston is quite the sleepy little town. 

We never did find a park, but we found a cute stone church with a flowering tree so we stopped for a few pictures.

Luckily by that point my ex arrived and we headed to the truck stop.

At this rate I'm going to know every truck stop in Wyoming.

Cali had her 1st grade program on Friday.  To say she was excited about it would be an understatement.  She mentioned her program to me everyday for two weeks.

The night before she asked me five times to please put an alarm on my phone for noon so I wouldn't forget.

Does she know me or what.  I reassured her five times that I already had the reminder alarm in place.

My favorite part about these programs is when the kids are filing in, and they stand there in the noise and search the crowd in hopeful anticipation.  Did my mom make it?

And you sit there, stretching your back as straight as it will go and craning your neck to make you as tall as you can get so they'll see you, even though you took a seat in the front on the edge of the middle aisle so you'd be easy to see.

And then they see you and their face lights up.

I love that.

I also love the giant flower sitting front and center on Cali's head. *sigh*  The things that happen after you've left for work in the morning...

After the singing program we went into the classroom and the kids put on a reading presentation.  It was actually really entertaining.

This momma was busting with pride every time Cali read her parts.  I couldn't wipe the silly grin off my face.

The 1st grade teachers had sent a note home asking that you either check your child out after the program or sign up to eat school lunch with them.

I opted to check Cali out and take her to lunch.  Her choice.  I was thinking she was going to pick Taco Bell or Subway.

Imagine my surprise when she dropped "Olive Garden" on me.

I'm trying to do that more often.  Take the circus out for one on one time. 

Maybe even for no reason at all.