Bikes, Hikes, and Falls

A friend mentioned that she takes her 4-year-old to the skate park frequently.  I hadn't thought of doing this with such youngsters, but it turns out the skate park is pretty empty before 10am (insert sleepy teenager joke here), there's a kid-friendly section, and I knew that it would be right up Owen's alley.  So, one morning we decided to check it out with some friends.  They all had a great time, and I was also surprised that Hadley enjoyed it so much, too.  No injuries either!

The kids had also received a free ride at Funland (our sad little seasonal amusement park) from the summer reading program at the library.  Funland is just down from the skate park, so we opted to do that when we were done with our bikes.  The kids loved it, but it made me a little depressed. :)

Hearing of a new, close place to hike, we played explorers that weekend at Wolverine Canyon, just a 40 minute drive south of our house.  It was exciting to go somewhere we hadn't been before, but we were following a friend's written directions and there were NO signs for trails, parking, etc.  We were in true wilderness and only saw a few other cars during our whole stay.

We may have had to do a u-turn or two to find the presumed trailhead to "40-horse cave" (again, no signs to confirm), but eventually we found a good place to park the car and some semblance of a trail to start on.

We had been warned that it was a steep trail up to the cave, and we found a trail that fit the bill.  Unfortunately, the trail sort of petered out halfway up, and we had no maps or signs to help decipher any direction other than up.

But during our snack break, we could see some caves across the way to head toward.  See that narrow doorway above H's head?

We made it to the cave!  It was even big enough to stand in and went all the way through the rock to the other side.  Pretty cool!  

The adults checked it out for safe passage while the kids rested, and we ultimately decided that it wasn't safe enough to get down the other side with two small children. We could see a first ledge, which would have required handing kids down, but no obvious next step after that, though we could see a very reasonable-looking trail approaching the cave from somewhere on that side.  Responsible adults said we had to go back the way we came.

I was holding H's hand to help her from sliding down the rocky slope back to the trail.  It was very slow going and arduous enough that I called for the backpack to wait up for her to hop in for the ride down.  As we were on our way to meet the backpack, she slipped and jerked me off-balance enough that I started down the mountain and couldn't stop! Luckily, I threw her hand down to stop her slide, but I stumbled/tumbled down about 20-30 feet before landing on my side in some brush.  Ouch!  It could have been so much worse, but I escaped with just scrapes and bruises thankfully!  Once we loaded her up in the backpack, we continued the trip down to the car and made it without any further incidents.

After a brief rest at the car, we opted to hike down the road to try to find the other, flatter trail on the far side of the cave for next time.  The scenery was variable and pretty along the way with imposing cliffs, picturesque trees, and a trickling stream.

I'm so glad we did not attempt to go through the cave with the kids!  We could see the backside of it from the road, but never found the trail to get there directly.  We assumed that the large dark spot was "40-horse cave", and our pass-through cave is the one just up and to the right of that.  It looked like we might have been stuck on that ledge!  So, we concluded that Wolverine Canyon might be worth another trip, but we'd have to come back with someone more familiar with the terrain than us!  Phew!

All that other July stuff

Now to recap the rest of July...  Let's start with the conclusion of swim lessons.  Both kids loved it and will be starting a new round of lessons next week.  Owen actually moved up to the next level, so I'm curious as to what that looks like.  I think they loved lessons because they got to do it with their friends.

And what's summer without baseball?  Snow cones, apparently.  We went to a Chukars baseball game, but the kids watch about half an inning of the game before questions of snacks/treats become pretty frequent.  Sharing a snow cone with a buddy is pretty awesome on a hot night!

We also learned that Owen's best buddy, Carson, and his family will be moving away at the end of the summer.  These two really adore each other, so it will be an interesting transition when they don't have each other close by anymore.  We are already planning some reunions!

We had an official birthday party for Hadley with her friend, Reagan (also moving away), because their birthdays are only 12 days apart.  

(And coincidentally their brothers' birthdays are only a month apart.)

Unfortunately, the weather didn't really cooperate, so the kids were only playing on the water bouncy house we borrowed for about 15 minutes before the chill set in.  Strangely though, Hadley did not want to change out of her swimsuit for the whole party! You could say that Owen enjoyed the slide...

And of course, there were lots of treats and eats to be had.

Uncle Ken, Aunt Chantelle, Katie, and Hannah made their day trip down to see our house and attend the birthday party, too.

The kids love having visitors and made sure they felt right at home, reading to them and playing games with them.

Let's see, what else...?  Oh yes, last week Owen attended VBS every morning and science camp at the local college every afternoon.  He enjoyed them both!  Although a week of no naps did wear on him, taking him straight to Crankytown.  Here's VBS with an Everest theme. (I didn't get pictures of science camp because I just dropped him off with his teacher outside the building, but they learned a lot about ocean creatures, and he had a good time with his friend Brady there, too.)

At VBS, they got to do bottle rockets and make their own bubble blowers; I think he liked his science block the best because of that.  His least favorite?  Probably the singing and dancing!  (He's in black blowing bubbles.  I volunteered all week and snuck some pictures while I could, like this one from the office upstairs.  Haha!)

They had a cute 'base camp' set up where the kids could eat their snacks in tents with a view of Mount Everest.

And they also had a chance to draw pictures of things they were thankful for.  This is Owen's drawing of our garden, which he must really enjoy!  I thought it was pretty cute.

July also saw the end of YMCA t-ball.  (Thank goodness! I say that because it complicates dinner and evening routines for six weeks, but it was fun to be on a team with kids and parents we all know.)

Some outgoing neighbors put together a neighborhood t-ball team of incoming kindergartners so the kids could get to know each other a little better before school starts.  Personally, I think they organized it better than the Y, with weekly practices and games at the local park. For the final 'party' they even set up a field in their backyard with pools for 1st, 3rd, and home plates.  Again the weather was a little cool for water, but the kids still had fun!

July has been cooler and wetter than June, which rules out most water activities normally at the critical point this time of year.  But the kids have enjoyed the parks without being too hot, as well as some fun on the driveway with Hadley's new presents.

Phew.  That's enough for now.  I wish I could tell you how many photos we had to attempt to get Hadley to look at the camera for this family selfie.  She is a master at avoiding eye contact with the lens!  Everyone else has moved on to their tired smiles by this point.  :)

Weatherford Comes to Wyoming

This month we got a special treat as Uncle Ken, Aunt Chantelle, Hannah and Katie all came up in an RV to Yellowstone.  We decided to try out a day trip to meet them at their Fishing Bridge campsite and hike around together a little.  Unfortunately, it took us about 5 hours to get to their campsite from our house (2 hours to West Yellowstone, road construction in WY, long entrance lines to the park, bison on the road just on the other side of the gate (below), looky-loos blocking the road at various points, 57 miles at 45 mph across the park, more road construction at the Fishing Bridge exit, potty-training emergency stop, rain, and a final hike in to the RV park when the entrance was unreachable by car in a reasonable amount of time). 

Finally, we arrived at their RV to find a note that we'd just missed them by half an hour! Neither of us had cell service in the park, so this was all done the old-fashioned way, and neither side received the messages which the other side had attempted all day. Sometimes technology ain't so bad!  According to the note, we had about 3 hours to burn before we'd see them back at the campsite, and I wasn't about to get back in the car again to try to track them down at spots in the park without a working phone.  The kids would have been perfectly happy playing with the loose logs they found just across from their RV...

(Someone even made this teepee structure, which we saw the park service take down later that day.) :(

...but we eventually opted to go for the hike that we had packed for.  First stop, Yellowstone Lake and the Fishing Bridge Visitor's Center.  The lake was still beautiful and serene, even with several fishermen along the beach.

Then it was on to the Fishing Bridge, which coincidentally, does not allow fishing.

Then on to our hike on the east side of the Yellowstone River, where we saw pelicans, squirrels, and elk wading into the river.

We chose this hike because of its proximity to the RV park, not because we knew much about it.  Parts were pretty, and we were the only hikers. But in keeping with our not-so-lucky-day, it paralleled closely to a service road, which ended at the "Poopy Plant", as we were informed by a working surveyor.  So scenic! :)

When the kids got tired, we turned around and headed back to the general store for some refreshments.  Root beer float and rocking chairs?  Yes, please.

Finally it was time to go back to the RV to meet up with Uncle Ken and co for dinner.  We were just discussing Plan B when a familiar Suburban pulled into the lot!  Yea!  Hugs and hamburgers were had, and just a little visiting before we had to head back home.  Their dog, Cooper, made the trip, too.  The kids loved playing with him and helped walk him with their cousins.

You may recall that Owen's future profession of choice is an electrical lineman. Uncle Ken knows that line of work well, and he brought Owen his own hard hat and heavy duty gloves for the job.  Owen loved it!

We had to leave sooner than we wanted, but with work the next day and the initial trip delays, we didn't know what to expect and wanted to get out of the park before it got dark.  The journey home was better at 3.5 hours, and we saw a bear and a bald eagle on the way! 

In conclusion, from this trip we learned that we'd probably only do day trips to visit people staying on the west side of the park, especially in July.  So glad that we did finally meet up though!