Chillin' In Wyoming

In the middle of July Alex, Ben, Jessica and I all got on the big airplane and flew out to Denver, CO. Then we drove to Cheyenne, WY to visit Maria, for a week. It was so much fun! We had a blast and the cousins loved playing together.

Maria and Tyler, TJ and Elizabeth have a little playground down the street from their house. It was walking distance. We went there one afternoon while Maria was at work. Of course, Alex and Ben love being "ou-side" and swinging on the "wheeeee." They also discovered that you can throw rocks and it's a whole load of fun to do around your 1 year old cousin!!!

One day we went to Ft. Collins and went to Jumpin'. It's a Monkey Joes/Pump It Up kind of place. It was a lot of fun. Before that we ate at Red Robinnnnnn, YUM! It's one of Maria's fave places and of course who can resist, bottomless french fries? Or, "hots" as the boys call them. I guess because whenever I give them french fries, I always say , "these are hot!"

The kids really enjoyed getting their wiggles out. And there was a day camp group there that just fell in love with the boys...all three of them. They kept calling them by their name and helping them down the slides and stuff. I guess that's one advantage/disadvantage to your kids wearing a t-shirt with their names embroidered on the front!!!

From the looks of some of these pictures it looks like not just the boys were having fun!!! Aunt Jessica is so great. She got up in those bouncy castles and jumped like a little kid. I took a turn on the slide, too. Where is Aunt Maria?

One afternoon we let the kids play in the backyard. Maria got out the water table. You know how kids love to splash, right? Well the boys went berserk for this toy. They were soaked when they came in! But the great thing is we just dumped them all in the tub together.

The next big event was going to the Thunderbirds landing at the Air Force Reserve base where Tyler works. We were there during Frontier Days which is a huge outdoor rodeo that they have in Cheyenne. It's turned into this enormous week long festival and there are all kinds of events, concerts, free breakfasts, and evidently and AIR SHOW! I love an air show!!! We got to see a sample of what was coming up in the air show when they landed. We even got to meet the Thunderbird team. There was a girl pilot and she was lovin' the boys. She jumped out of line to come up and shake their hand. It was so cute!

On our last afternoon there, we went outside and took some great pictures. It was a beautiful afternoon and we got some great shots.

Our anniversary in Savannah!

So, Stephen took me for a few days (kids stayed at Oma and Opa house) to Savannah Ga! I had never been, so was excited to explore some place new. We stayed a few blocks from the river - here is the view from our room! Here are the beautiful flowers I found waiting for me! The were so pretty and smelled so sweet! The room was blanketed in the heavenly scent the whole time we were there!

Off to explore - we took a great tour of Savannah! There was SO much Spanish moss everywhere! It was haunting and beautiful all at once! There are tons of old gorgeous houses, water fountains, statues, yummy restaurants, grave yards, and obviously a wonderful history with lots of cool and intriguing stories!

There is a HUGE British influence since it was settled by the Brits! Made me miss the old UK!

This place is a Savannah institution - it is a yummy restaurant, but once, it was a pirate hangout! They even have a rum cellar and ghost! We didn't get to see either!

But our kind server borrowed our camera to take a picture of the rum cellar - it was right beneath us - he gave the floor a good bang so we could tell it was LITERALLY right beneath us! Here is our self photo in front of the Pirates House! It was such a cool old place! The color of the shutters are supposed to keep evil spirits out! (Voodoo is still practiced in the area! - Didn't see any shrunken heads!) This is my favorite house! It had tons of iron works and the ivy covering it was too classic! The family that built this house out grow it and built an even bigger one across the square!

I thought this door was so cool! It lead to a courtyard and the house was for sale - for just under a million $$!

This is one of the graveyards in the area - not the most well known from the novel "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" - but a very old and historical one! It was beautiful!

So, after the war of northern aggression (AKA Civil War) Sherman hung out in Savannah for Christmas - hundreds of troops mostly teenage boys, camped in the cemetery. Needless to say they had no respect for those buried there! They broke headstones and even changed some headstones! This photo shows headstones that were vandalized, they didn't know where to put them back, so they mounted them on the wall!

Here is a headstone they changed - if you look carefully, you will see ages, and dates don't work! Darn Yankees! :)

Here is St Joseph's Cathedral. It totally was something from Europe!

Even with amazing stained glass!

Forsyth Park was wonderful! Look at that fountain!

Another beautiful house!

Self photo in the park!

Stephen (AKA Spanky) found HIS restaurant!

Being a goof-ball while reading the menu!

The next day we went to check out the Mighty Eight Museum! The Mighty 8 was one of the first flying units in World War Two! This place was very cool! Here is an old bomber they were restoring - man Stephen was itching to get his hands on this thing! He would have jumped up and started helping if we didn't have other plans!

Memorial garden at the Mighty 8 museum!

The Mighty 8 spent a lot of time in England - and so they built a little British-like church in the memorial gardens! The stain glass was so cool - each one had a plane in it somewhere!

Next we went to Tybee Island! They have a beautiful old lighthouse! I mean really old!

Yes, we did climb to the top! They also have the keepers house (not in this photo) and a museum!

This little tiny lighthouse it not possible to reach by land and is NOT open to the public! It is called Cockspur lighthouse! However, we got a great view on our dolphin boat cruise!

While searching for dolphins we crossed paths with a shrimp boat! Dolphins love shrimp boats! FREE FOOD!

Here is the Tybee Island lighthouse from our boat!

We did get to see some dolphins, but man these little suckers are hard to photograph! This was my best picture!

I LOVED Tybee island! I could have stayed there all day! I was happy to settle for half a day! That night we decided to eat at this cool place! What an awesome atmosphere! It is basically made up of lots of shacks on the marshlands! It even had a boat dock so folks can drive right up dock and eat. They even had a baby alligator pond where you could feed the gators! The food was yummy! I discovered snow crab - a lot of messy work, but yummy!

Here I am "feeding" a gator! :)

Our last night (well, pretty much EVERY NIGHT we were there) we went and walked around River Street! It runs along the river and has ballast stone streets, and lots of little gift shops and restaurants, and candy and ice cream places!

We had to wave goodbye (just like the waving girl - another Savannah story) to the beautiful city of Savannah! We didn't get to do everything - so shucks, we'll just have to come back again!