Saturday, September 22, 2007

You know you're in Wyoming when...

...you walk into the kids area at McDonald's and instead of chairs, they have saddles!

So cool! The weekend before last we went to visit our friends Brian and Becca Nate in Cokeville, Wyoming. Dan had gone up earlier in the week to tag along with Brian for some bow hunting and the girls and I went up on Friday. We stopped in Evanston to get some lunch and while we have been to this McD's several times, we always go through the drive-thru. But this time we were forbidden from eating in the Xterra (who Lily has affectionately named Punkin) because Dan had just spent three days completely detailing the truck so we can sell it. So we went inside to eat and you should have seen the delight on Lily's face when she saw the saddles! Amelia, who had to sit in a high chair anyway, was far more impressed by being able to double-fist it with some chicken strips while Biggie bounced around the room.

As cool as the saddles were, Lily spent more time wandering around the room than actually sitting on a saddle.

Cokeville, Wyoming is about 3 hours from American Fork right on the border of Idaho, Utah, and Wyoming.

We have been friends with the Nates for several years. Dan and Brian were mission companions in Virginia back in the day. For nearly 10 years we have enjoyed visiting Brian and Becca in Cokeville, a small ranching community of about 500 people. They have a little girl named Kamille that is the same age as Lily. The best part is that I like Becca as much as Dan likes Brian. It works out very well!

When the girls and I got into town we joined everyone else at the high school homecoming football game. Man, it is so much funner to go to a football game in a small town! Dan and I took the girls to an American Fork High School football game a few weeks ago and it was miserable. It was super crowded, we barely found a seat in the bleachers. The walkways were constantly jammed with teenagers scoping the crowd and there was nowhere for the kids to walk around or play. Now, in Cokeville, everyone pulled their vehicles right up to the football field and all the little kids played in the grass just outside the endzone.

Notice the guy watching the game from his front porch.

You could wander up and down the sideline along with the action. It was great for picture taking! Here's Lily and Kamille watching the game under the scoreboard. (Well, Lily's not really watching, but that's no surprise!)

Amelia is so funny when she sits in grass. She doesn't like grass touching her bare feet, so she always lifts one foot up, keeping the other down for balance. She'll put her foot down to rest after a few seconds, but then she always lifts it back up again. It's so amusing to watch!

(Katy- note that the girls are both wearing their reunion shirts. They have gotten a lot of mileage! Brian saw their shirts and was like, "where'd you get a shirt like that?" Dan told him my cousin had designed them for our family reunion and he was like, "Wow, those are nice. Reunion t-shirts are usually really ugly." Nice work, Kade!)

Here's Kamille and Amelia. Kamille loves babies. She has been waiting for a sibling for a very long time and will finally have a baby brother around Thanksgiving time. Yay!
They have a cool bell under the score board
and whenever the home team scores, all the kids ring the bell.
Dan loves having his picture taken.
Here's a little something for my artsy-fartsy side.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I knew it!!! I just knew that someday someone would be wearing thier reunion shirt and get a great comment about it and then all of the time and hard work would pay off, I feel so proud!

That is so funny that you guys went to Wyoming this last week, next week Chris and the Shrimp (baby Donnell) and Avy and me and my Dad, are all headed to Sheridan for our yearly Apple Run, and to visit my Grandma Pilch. There is a certain, nostalgic(spelling?) Feeling I think when we go any where in Wyoming, the smell of the smoke that floats over from the smoking section to the non- smoking section is enough to get me thinking about my Roots!

Becky in Wyo said...

I am so ashamed. Here I am blogging my little heart out, and I went three days without seeing your blog! I could have sworn I was checking everyone's blog and commenting right and left. You know, just sharing the love and everything!

That is the best McD's I've ever seen! I'm going to make Zen stop in there the next time we go to Star Valley! Dani will get a big kick out of it, and I bet I can talk Gil into sitting on the saddles, too... but only if it's deserted in there. Teenagers.

You've inspired me! If I can just get this eBay sale going, I'm going to go around my town and see what Wyoming-type things I can notice here, too.

Becky in Wyo said...

P.S. Ditto on the t-shirts. See, we all have artistic talent of some variety in this family!

Lizzy Lou said...

You know you are in Wyoming when......when some one says something nice about the bucking bronco on the shirt. Your friend probably thought you were supporting the University of Wyoming. Just like when I see a pretty blue shirt I think it is all about supporting those cougars. But it really is a great design. Nice clean lines. Easily read. And black and white. Too bad it is not Light blue......

Becky in Wyo said...

Hey, Liz has inspired another idea... and oh,oh,oh! I'm having another good idea! Let's combine the Year of the Cowboy theme and Katy's email idea for crafting Christmas gifts, and see what the artistic/crafty people in our family can come up with! Looks like I need to send out another email this morning.