The Real Vacation

Home again. It has been too long since I was home. I miss my parents greatly and have a plot of land behind their house that we hope to put a house on some day. They say you can never go home, but as long as this house is here, I can. We went to Cowley for Pioneer Day and to just visit. Amy and I were here for over a week but Colett's family and Wayne and Wes left a few days later. These are the things I love about coming home. Most of the pictures will need to be enlarged to see.

Aunt Roma is the matriarch of the Marchant family, is in her 90's and is an example to us all. She has been like a mother to all her siblings and has been like a hen with her wings out to all the family including her nieces and nephews. She was here to visit for Pioneer Day too.


Mom, Dad, Amy, E and I went for a walk.
"E" is walking the dog. I'm not sure who is more confused about what to do next.

My Mommy and Daddy with Amy and Emerson. We walked the town and looked at all the new houses being built. My little population 500 town has grown by about 60 new homes.

The Pioneer Day Parade
This is one staple of every parade in northern Wyoming. The girls change from year to year but the costumes are the same. They are the can-can girls called the Mustang Dollies.

Emerson is crazy for bulldozers and diggers. My home town street was being completely redone and this nice gentlemen let Emerson hop in and pretend like he was operating this mini backhoe. It was a bright moment in his day for sure.

My Uncle Kenneth and Aunt Gaye were the Grand Marshals of the day for Pioneer Day.

What a handsome couple especially for being in their 80's.

What parade would be complete without candy? This one had more than any child could even eat..... bags and bags full and enough to share.

No parade is complete without horses..... with their muscular lines, the teamwork and the smell of horse manure.

My grandkids are watching these horsemen who are dressed as Custer's soldiers. They participated in the reenactment of Custer's Last Stand in Montana.

There is always a talent showcase in the evening and this was my high school music teacher. He was newly graduated when he came to teach at my high school. I learned more from him than from any other teacher I can remember. I love you George Welch. My love of music was always there but you enhanced it a million times over.

This is my old high school. It was built by Mormon pioneers and the rock was quarried locally.
It was called the Big Horn Academy and was built in 1916. It became Cowley High School and we were known as the Jaguars. We were fierce, proud, smart and talented and our colors were maroon and white. The school is set to be remodeled and turned into school offices soon so I took a tour. I hadn't been in there for 40 years. Oh, the memories!

The next day we went to the Big Horn Mountains and were greeted by this fellow. He was close to our trailers so we had to keep an eye out.

This was the view from the water spring. It is looking into the valley where the little towns of our youth are located.

These are the Big Horn Mountains. I love them so much!! They are unusual mountains in that they are tall, but once you get on top you can drive all over them, and you can pull over and camp without being in a campground. The fishing is great, the hunting great and you may not encounter another person for a long time. There is nothing like looking at the stars while you camp because there are no lights interfering with the view and and you can make a campfire every night unless the fire danger rating is up. This year it was not.

Millie had never been to these mountains and she made sure Fozzie was safe.

The moose disappeared for a while and when he came back, he had his wife with him. I didn't get her picture however.

The man in the know. Wayne has been coming to the mountains for 50 some years and has a lot of knowledge of the area. He knows the best fishing holes and hunting spots, the historic areas and the places to go and not to go. He has spent weeks up here with the cattle drives, the friends, and family activities and just camping out. We also had many dates up here before we were married. These mountains are a part of both of us. My kids have some of the same feelings for them too, as we camped a lot with them as they were growing up.

Wes driving the ATV's and little E was just lulled into sleep. AH!!

Jill, Colett, Amy, Wes and E watch as Millie gets reacquainted with her distant cousin Marissa.

I say reacquainted but they just went swimming together yesterday.

Everyone getting a drink of pure, cold spring water. The pipe comes right out of the mountain.

Isabelle is filling her water bottle.

Some of the flora at the spring. I almost picked it the blew the seeds around but I resisted.

These flowers were right in our camp site. I felt like I was filming Brigadoon.

We decided to hike the Bucking Mule trail. I was hesitant since my knee and ankle really don't work well together since my accident a few years ago, but everyone, even the little kids and dog were going so I willed myself to go along as far as I could manage. The trail was in good shape
most of the way and except for a few places, not a bad hike. It was supposed to be 2 miles long as the crow flies so I figured maybe I could do the 4 miles. It ended up being a lot longer but instead of turning back....I DID IT!!!! Wayne fashioned me a walking stick which helped a lot. When we got to the scenic look out, I didn't think I could do it. It was quite a little climb on rough rocks. Wayne kept encouraging me and saying, I can do it, so I kept trying. This picture is the result. It was beautiful and worth the effort. The next day I had a cankle the size of my thigh but the pain was minimal. Yahoo! I was so proud of all the little kids that made it too.

This is looking into Devil's Canyon. The sky was overcast so I didn't get the photo of choice but you can see how majestic the mountains are.

This is a flat section of the trail and we stopped to look at the tree tops and could see how some of the trees have gotten old and are falling down.

Ditto

Millie poses on the perfect model rock.

This photo shows how some of the trees have fallen and formed a canopy

above our heads. We tried not to get too close.

E actually walked a long part of the way by himself, but Amy and Wes had to take turns giving him rides.

After we came down the mountain, we stopped in Wolf and Sheridan, Wyoming. This is Wayne's sister's home. It is darling and she has remodeled it to be as charming as it can be. Colett and family stayed the night here.

This is Ronnie, Wayne's brother, and his woman Peggy. Wayne and I and Amy and Wes stayed here for the night. Ron works and lives on this ranch. It has a bunk house that Amy, E and Wes stayed in and we stayed in the house.

This is the bunk house behind Ron's house.

This is an amazing barn that was built in the early 1900's. It has the old stanchion parlor for cows in it and the hitching post in front. I hesitate to go in it as it smells like a 1900's structure.

We got up the next day and drove home with lots of memories and tender feelings for this part of the country. Oh yes, we will be back!!

Vacation

We just returned from a vacation to Montana and Wyoming. As I have stated before, I like to look for quirky things where ever I go. You really never have to look too far.

This is Wayne's 6 year old niece. She drew a face on a paper plate and stuck it over her face and into her hood. Clever child that she is, it tickled my funny bone. Enlarge to see the face.

This is an owl (I think) that was made from the rear end of a white tailed deer. It was for sale at the miniature museum in Cody, Wyoming. Why, oh why would you make it and why, oh why would you sell it?? I don't remember the price, but a nickle would be too much.

This was a little bear that was hit by a car, so the enterprising businessman stuffed him up for view.

We went and viewed the Cody Dam and looking waaaay down in the water on top of the drift wood was a child's flip flop. I hope there is no meaning in it whatsoever.

As we walked around my home town in Wyoming, we spotted this little guy that was part of the water pipes for the sprinkler system.

This is my son-in-law Matt standing by one of the entrants in the pioneer parade.
Can you believe the outfit that lady is wearing? Me either. Enlarge to see the whole effect.

Have you ever seen a bank this tiny? It is the actual bank of Deaver, Wyoming from many years ago. Here is an article about it.
MyFamily.com - Cowley, Wyoming - View Taggart and Johnson Foil 1927 Bank Robbe

A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes

About once a year, I have a dream where when I am asleep, I think that something I dream is brilliant and when I wake up I realize that it was not all that brilliant but was, in fact, rather silly. Take for instance this dream that I blogged about last year. Click on My Pansy Dream. Well I had one of those dreams the other night. For some reason Wayne and I were staying at the Struther's home. Now they are our neighbors and they are fantastic people, but we have no earthy reason to stay with them and they only live a few houses away so I don't know why we were there. Anyway, as I was drifting off to sleep in my dream, I noticed the ceiling. Apparently Becky had lots of afghans, quilts and small blankets that she needed to store but didn't have the room. Sooooo, she just used push pins and tacked them all to the ceiling. It was like one giant pieced quilt above your head. I thought it was a genius idea and so beautiful. I was thinking I would run home and do the same thing to my bedroom ceiling because I have similar blankets and throws and I could copy it almost exactly. She had beauty and storage all in one "great idea". Oh that clever, clever Becky. I woke up and thought about the ceiling in my dream, which in reality was really pretty tacky looking and full of dust. Well, maybe my next dream will be the idea that makes me millions. "They"say a dream is a wish your heart makes. Now that I think about it though, "they" is Disney and although he makes wishes come true, dreams.... maybe not so much.

Freedom Festival

It's the 4th of July, and we headed to the Freedom Festival in Provo. We had not been before and really didn't know what to expect. It was larger than I had imagined and the crowds made it hard to navigate the sidewalks. Wayne had to be persuaded to go this time, (but he did go) and was a good baby sitter for Emerson as Amy and I went from booth to booth to look at the crafts, art, and "for sale" goodies. A stage was set up for the musical acts that played throughout the day, and since there were lots of food booths, Wayne could feel at home.

Glad we had the stroller and E's backpack leash.

On the way in there was a contraption that you could go on to simulate a trapeze. We never did see anyone that was able to do it. They all fell.


The times that I was at the stage, the musicians were not there. Instead there was a mime.
Not terribly impressive.....but are they ever? They try to get out of an imaginary box and do a sort of moonwalk. Ho hum!


There was a puppet show and E was interested for 10 minutes because of the blue Elmo look-alike, but that didn't last long either.

I liked the Colonial section of the park where people were dressed as, and were doing the chores
as the colonials did at the time. This was the candle maker. It takes 25 dippings to make a candle this size from beeswax.

In the women's tent, this wig was set up. I thought they had big hair in the 80's but this beats all. Can you imagine the heat, dirt and bugs that this hair-do would attract? I am quite sure it was a long time from wash to wash.

This was an ordinary soldier's tent.

One of the soldier's with his canon.

Now here is something I could have used when the kids were teenagers.

Why, oh why did they get rid of stocks?

A colonial lady

The wooden spoon maker must have needed a potty break as I never did see him, but his spoons were wonderful. You could see how he started out with just a block of wood and had to carve each one into a work of art. Now we can run into the dollar store for a set of 3.

The broom maker's outfit and glasses were so authentic that I felt like I had been in a time warp back to the 1700's. He makes his brooms the way they did back then with sorghum straw that he weaves together. It takes skill and an artistic knack to get a strong and handsome broom.

The finished products

Here was the blacksmith making some wrought iron pieces. It was a hot day and his booth was even more so. I'm sure he was glad to quit at the end of the day. It gave me a better appreciation of the real working conditions for those men at that time.

I am also very grateful that I wasn't there with them. Thank you God for allowing me to be born in the the 50's. No, not the 1750's or 1850's. The happy and carefree 1950's where my biggest worry was, "does the fork go on the left or the right?" Freedom....what a wonderful privilege.

This is What Happens

Enlarge to see better.

What happens when you get your entire family....parents, kids, grand kids and dog together for a family photo? Phil Struthers knows, since he was our photographer and neighbor. Luckily he was patient and gave it a few more tries. This is the one that didn't work. Notice
Wes and Amy have their eyes closed, Alex and Wayne got distracted and looked sideways,
Lissie is looking down, Toby is adjusting his hair, Millie is frowning, there is too big a gap between Joey and me and the dog ran away.