Fort Laramie

Last Sunday, we abandoned our chores and played hooky from church and headed a few hours northeast to visit some friends and visit Fort Laramie.  We've talked about taking the kids to the Fort for a few years now but it finally took some good friends moving nearby for us to hop in the car.  It was a hot Sunday but we slathered on the sunscreen and had a great afternoon at one of Wyoming's neatest historical places. 

Our first stop was the visitor's center so we could get our bearings and get a map and enjoy a few minutes of AC.  The clerk at the welcome desk offered the kids a chance to earn a Junior Ranger badge by filling out a workbook.  Reina enthusiastically agreed, Will took a little longer but decided to do it. 

Glistening but eager to fill out workbook pages.  Will was psyched to learn that the fort was first called Fort William.  Who knew? 

After the visitor's center, oh look we found some cannons.  Whilst trying to look tough, Will bonked his head on the cannon.  Yep, we'd been there about 30 minutes and someone got hurt.  That's not even close to a record for us. 

Mom, do we have any icepacks? 

All recovered.

Fort Laramie has a few original buildings on site and others that have been brought back over time.  We are a family of old house afficionados so we spent a lot of time wandering in and out of buildings. 

This is usally my view on trips like this.  Boys in the front. 

Hey look at that old wagon, let's go take some pictures by that. 

Mommmmmmmm its so hot.

"I'm literally sweating." 

We found the Officer's saloon which serves a mean sasparilla or root beer these days. 

Luckily, you can also drink it from ice cold bottles. 

Yep, this one should probably saved for the Christmas Card. 

Fort Laramie is the site of Wyoming's oldest standing building.  Built in 1849, "Old Bedlam" was originally built as the bachelor officers' quarters and got the name "Old Bedlam" because well, it was the bachelor officers' quarters.  It's restored beautifully and you can peak into rooms on both levels.  It was also a great place for some pictures.  1849 is really something for Wyoming.  Fort Laramie today is still fairly isolated and I can't imagine what it must've seemed like back then.  Without a doubt, this was my favorite part of the trip. 

That little dot on the lower right staircases is my girl. 

We visited a few more buildings and completed the lap around the parade grounds to end up back at the visitors' center.  The kiddos (with some help from moi) finished their workbooks and earned the Junior Ranger badge.  Reina's still wearing her's. 

By the end of the afternoon, we were all sweaty and tired and maybe just a tiny bit grumpy, but 3 out of the four of us took a nap on the way home, so all's well that end's well and we got a neat little history lesson to go along with our summer.   


Oh Reina. 

Summer fun

Is anyone else alarmed that next week is the Fourth of July? Just me?  Well I guess I'm not necessarily alarmed but wow, the summer is almost 1/3 over and what do we have to show for it?  The last few weeks have been another blur of baseball, swimming lessons and tball with a little daddy/daughter camping trip, movie watching, gardening and jogging thrown in for good measure.  

Last Sunday was the warmest day of the year and while we had a bunch of chores and gardening to do, I had to stop and set up the sprinkler for a couple of kiddos.  I couldn't get very many pictures that didn't look like wet blurs running around the yard but I did capture a moment when everyone was still. 

Stop drinking out of the sprinkler! 

Part of the reason this month has sped by is that I've had a few short work trips.  While I enjoy seeing different parts of my beautiful state, I miss the kids and Glenn. 

A moose! 

Devil's Tower - pretty awesome sight. 

I'm headed home tomorrow and then we have another weekend full of baseball, tball, movies and more.  What a great June! 

An overload of baseball pictures

Reina's t-ball game was rained out tonight so for the first time in a few weeks, we had a night without (hardly) anything going on.  It's lovely.  In between loads of laundry and dishes making a certain 8-yr old do a few math worksheets (more on that later), I thought I'd take advantage of all of this free time and blog about baseball.  I took my big camera to the game last night and took a few pictures.  Okay, so I actually took like 30 pictures but here are the best of the batch.  

 

Reina and her BFF whose brother was playing on another field.  These two wily negotiators managed to buy a giant batch of cotton candy without either mothers noticing until it was too late. I do believe this picture is post-candy, notice that gleam in Reina's eye? 

Will's team has had some great games and a few tough ones.  Last night was definitely in the tough column but Will played hard and didn't give up.  I have so much fun watching this kid play ball.  

Warming up, not sure if that's a squint or a smile. 

Still warming up but definitely not looking at the lady with the camera.

Dancing in the outfield, I can only assume this is when his team made a good play.  Will generally has a strict "no dancing in public" policy.

#12 up to bat. I couldn't get any pictures of him making contact because the photographer usually jerked the camera too hard when she stood up to watch the ball.  Because she's a little too invested in 8-yr old baseball at this point. 

Up to bat again. 

This is Glenn's game face.  Glenn has turned into Mr. Baseball, which in itself is probably a whole separate blog post.  In last night's game, he was the warm-up coach and the dugout manager.  When I showed him this picture, I said, "you look mad."  He replied that he's found a mad face and voice get more accomplished in the dugout.  I guess you can't kill anyone with kindness in baseball.  Or at least baseball with 7 and 8-yr olds.

No wait, this is Glenn's game face. 

Okay, I think this is definitely his game face. 

No idea what's going on here... but I don't think he needed a bathroom break. 

So to wrap-up, Will's playing baseball.  Mom and Dad are emotionally invested in baseball.  Reina likes to cheer on her Bobo and also get snacks.  Will is smacking the ball and learning more and more about the game every day.  Go Indians! 

Ballerina

In my last May post, I promised to include fancier pictures from Reina's ballet recital and here they are.  Thanks to my fancy lens, these are a little better than last year's light blue blobs floating on the stage.  Reina's class danced to the theme song from "How to Train Your Dragon 2" and they were in fact baby dragons.  It was adorable and I could have watched her skip around the stage for hours.  Next year, she'll be old enough to try Ballet 1 and tap, I think.  It sure is fun to watch her dance. 

Daddy, the ballerina and a brother who was ready to go get dinner.

Almost summer

Baseball, swimming, sunburns, hail, gardening, dogs undoing a good chunk of the gardening, end of school parties, thank you notes to teachers, baby antelope sightings wait nope just a large rabbit, shorts, flip flops and summer is almost here.  Friday was the last day of school and we have a third grader and a first grader on our hands.  Wowzer.

Last day of kindergarten and second grade! 

Both kids had wonderful teachers this year and there were more than a few of us shedding tears on the last day.  Our school is in transition - a new school will open in the fall a few miles from us so our school is downsizing a bit as students and teachers move to the new one.  We'll stay at our school but it will probably feel a little different in the fall. 

Both kids also had great years and their report cards were a delight to read.  Reina is reading and drawing and telling us about 'inferring' and 'assessments' and she spends her free time teaching her stuffed animals important kindergarten concepts.  Will finished the year working on advanced math and I find myself having to google examples every once in a while so I can figure out what a polysomethingsomething is and how to draw it.  He's also a great reader.  We are working our way through some really fun books right now and I find myself having to resist the temptation to read ahead after he goes to sleep. 

For the last few weeks, our nights have been a whirlwind of kid activities.  Will's baseball season is in full swing, when the games aren't being rained out and that's probably it's very own blog post.  Both kids are taking swimming lessons and Reina starts t-ball this week.  Both Glenn and I are busy at work but that's not breaking news.  But we are getting caught up, the gardens have all been planted and the yard is probably in the best shape it's going to be in all summer.  The weather is warming up and we are ready to do some camping and fishing and all of those great summertime activities.  Let Summer 2015 begin!