July 4, 2009

We had such a fun 4th of July weekend!! Jared and I had a few days off so we decided to drive to his sister Michelle's house in Riverton, WY. It's about 5 hours from Pocatello but it was such an amazing drive. We drove through Jackson Hole and saw some amazing wildlife and the mountains are breathtaking!! As we were driving through there were about six buffalo hanging out about 10 feet from the road, so we pulled over and got a few excellent pictures. It was cool to see something so huge that close. The rest of the drive was just as beautiful! Tall mountains, winding rivers, and green grass from all the rain we've had. We are so lucky to live around such gorgeous scenery! As we drove to Wyoming, I couldn't help but think of our Heavenly Father and how much he must love us to create such a beautiful place for us to live.

As we got closer to Riverton, we stopped in Dubois and posed for a few silly pictures on the jackalope and inside the large skull!! Who knows!!

We got to Michelle's house on Thursday night. We stayed up and visited for a few hours. They were so nice to let us come stay on such short notice. The next day we woke up and played around the house for a while. Around lunch time, we grabbed some picnic foods and went over to a baseball field. After lunch, we played a little ball. The Draper boys are quite the athletes. They can pretty much play any sport and so we had a ton of fun throwing around the baseball. This is a picture of Treyson and Dallon all decked out in their gear! Even at 6 and 4, they are good ball players. It was so fun to watch them!!

This is Dallon preparing to hit a homerun!!

Gavin is 1 and he is a good little ball player as well. He ran around the entire field trying to catch the ball and always had to have his helmet on and a bat in his hand. He was really good at smiling for all my pictures!! Jared spent a little time teaching Brayden and Jaren a few techniques he picked up while playing ball when he was younger. It was awesome to watch them really catch on to things and work so hard to improve their game. And then of course at the end we had to gather the boys for a picture!! Cute Dallon kept running to get the boys and saying to them "Guys it's team picture time!"


After lunch and a few ball games, we drove over to Rock Creek where part of the Martin and Willie handcart company came through. It was where Brayden was baptized a few years ago!! We walked around and saw this stone placed by President Hinckley in commemoration of the pioneers. We all posed for a picture and Gavin loved it. He kept climbing back up to the stone by himself and standing in front of it saying "Cheese, Cheese, Cheese" and waiting for us to take his picture. We also had wooden stick boat races in the creek. We started at the bridge and ran down to the end to see who won. I could never find mine....it must have gotten lost on its way down.

Gavin waiting for his glamour shot!

All the boys watching their boats.

The boys trying to make the trip home a little more interesting!

After leaving Rock Creek, we drove back to Lander where we ate dinner in the park and played tag. We then drove out to see the fireworks show. It was amazing!! The guy that put on the show makes all his own fireworks so there were some pretty cool ones. They had some narration during the show and really explained the reasoning behind July 4th. It was cool to get a little history lesson along with a great fireworks display!!

On Saturday we spent most of the day outside in their backyard. They have an awesome treehouse with a canal behind it. We watched the boys float down the canal and jump of the side of the ditch. It was a beautiful day until about 5pm. They had a huge wind/rain/hail storm so we were afraid that we might not get to even shoot off any of our own fireworks. But by dark the weather cleared up! We ate the perfect BBQ dinner that night. Michelle made so many great things!!! It was delicious! Then that night we lit some fireworks at their house and had a blast!! But poor Michelle got hit by a satellite firework that left a blister on her neck. We hope she's doing okay!!

Treyson and Dallon floating in the raft!
Brayden and Jaren splashing around

Sunday we woke up and went to church with the Drapers and came home to eat another delicious meal of BBQ chicken before we left for our long drive home. We had so much fun hanging out in Wyoming and we are so grateful they would let us come!! We love you guys!! Thanks for the great weekend!!