Time Flies

Wow, Time flies when you are having fun...and more importantly, when you are going to school and raising a family. excuses, excuses, yes, I know :) I'm gonna attempt to start blogging a bit more regularly again, but don't get too used to it too much.. cuz once the fall semester starts, I won't be doing much of anything except school and taking care of the family.
That being said...


Spring has come in the big horn basin...or, has it? We were lucky, but many across the state got completely hammered by a spring snow storm that dumped up to about 3 feet of snow in places. South Pass for instance got 39 inches of snow during the two day storm! This is MAY!! I want warm weather darn it! Okay, I won't complain too much, today was nice. The kids and I spent 2 hours running errands around the college campus and the weather was wonderful. The next few days will be nice as well. Good thing since we have baseball games to attend.

We've managed to go to Yellowstone twice since it opened already this spring. IT's a bit of a tradition to go the opening weekend. Just like last year we stayed at the Best Western in Gardiner. That won't be happening EVER AGAIN. We got the exact same room as the year before, and just like last year, it was dirty...gross dirty! The front desk girl cleaned it up, but 2 years in a row.. nope, sorry.. game over, do not pass go. ...by the way...thanks for offering something to try to keep my business, to show you actually cared. It's okay.. It wouldn't have helped anyway.
In the park, we saw a lot of buffalo and elk and a few pronghorn. The highlight was a female moose and her two yearlings. We got plenty of pictures!! I even had one publiched in the paper! yay me!
The second trip was for Randal's birthday. It was a much shorter trip since the East Entrance was open, but the road to Old Faithful wasn't. Interesting story.. We talked about going in friday as well and I'm glad we didn't. Apparently, we missed an avalanche at the pass...it's apretty scary looking area...although I must admit, it didn't look all that formidable this year. Last year it was incredibly intimidating. We didn't see a birthday bear for Randal this time.. but we did see a wolf and an otter (in 2 different locations) very cool! Happy birthday baby!

The north Fork road has been prime with critters again this year as well. We are seeing huge herds of mountain goats, elk and mule deer. Still no bears, and no moose along the north fork either. We also haven't saw the neighborhood fox yet. He's pretty darn tame, you can tell people feed him a lot. He lives under the porch of one of the cabins next to the Pahaska TeePee. We have also saw several eagles already. I love seeing those!

One of the more exciting adventures of the year so far was going to the dinotrack site. We got to go for a hike that led us to some decently preserved dino tracks in two different sizes. It was pretty cool. You could see them really well from the platform, and then when you walk around where you could touch them, it's so hard to make them out.. crazy! While we were there, we decided to follow the road and see what else there was to see. This was a bit crazy on our part as there was a large sign warning that the road wasn't maintained and 4 wheel drive vehicles are advised. We made it...obviously...in one piece even lol. Scraped bottom 5 times, had a few spots I thought were particularly scary, and decided we are never going through that patch of road beyond the 5 miles to get to teh dino site again! The other thing we decided...we need a 4x4 lol.

We went to the Big Horn REc area once already too. We were a bit disappointed that we didn't see any wild horses this time. It was the first time we havent ever saw any. I'm a little concerned, since the BLM did a horse roundup there, and I'm worried they took a bunch of horses from teh pack that roamed that area. It would be quite sad indeed if they did. I hate the horse round up...but, thats not a rant for this blog.

I think thats about all the cool things from teh spring so far. I guess I should do a short entry about winter.

Our first winter in Wyoming was really mild. I think we got all of about 4-6 inches of snow all winter long. The temperatre hit the negative teens a few times for a few days to a week, but it wasn't bad, even when the wind was whipping around. Funny how staring at beautiful mountains all day can make the coldest temps not feel so bad. We didn't get to do much traveling this winter and early spring because of me being pregnant. We did go to the regional volleyball tournament and cheered our college onto a victory, which was really awesome. I was crying right along with the team. I'm blaming prego hormones! Two of the girls on the team were really close with Si, and I'm gonna miss them but wish them the best of luck in their next step. Basketball was fun, the mens team was really enjoyable to watch. The ladies team could be.. but not all the time. Kinda frustrating to watch, knowing they had so much potential. The local junior hockey team was fun to watch as well. They lost a heart breaker, and just missed out on the final round of the playoffs. I was really hoping they could have made it, but...I wouldn't have been able to travel to Boston anyway...so, Maybe it's just as well. The wrestling teams (high school and college) were fun to watch this year as well. The high school team lost by 1 point as a team for state... 1 measly point..maybe even just half a point.. but yeah, it was close. We crowned a 4 time state champion wrestler, which was pretty awesome. He's a great kid.

I'm actually excited for baseball, and am looking forward to tomorrow. It should be another great year of baseball!

...with that, it's late, and the kids are finally both asleep.