Workin' weekend

Luke and I have worked most of the weekend on the garage and basement, and there is still so much to do. We had some issues with the contractor not showing up on Friday night.....not very happy. But it should get done today. Meanwhile, we have cleaned everything that was being stored in the garage and moved it to the basement. We found that a few boxes were home to a couple mice this past winter. I am taking stock in mouse traps this fall. It feels really great to have a garage again and one that is clean and organized! Now to organize the basement....most of the stuff was put in the closets until after the fourth of July. I don't have time to go thru old photo albums and baby clothes and decorations. After windows get cleaned, floor gets mopped, beds get made, bathroom accessories get hung, furniture gets moved and rugs get placed we should be almost ready for guests. I almost forgot the most important task of all: Wine/beer fridge get filled!!!

We did get to have a little fun this weekend. Our friends the Anderson's, had a birthday party for their daughter Darby, she turned 2 on Sunday. We went over to their home on Saturday for a fun-filled afternoon. They had bought Darby a blow up water slide for her birthday. The kids loved it! Emmett did not like the slide so much, but loved to play in the catch pool at the end. Courtney and Derrick live in a neighborhood with lots of kids and everyone played so nicely together. They had BBQ'd and then came the cake. Darby loves the Wiggles, so they had an octopus cake made out of cupcakes. It was pretty cute...with purple and black frosting. I specifically picked Emmett out a cupcake that had yellow frosting so I would not have to deal with the stains. Darby had black smeared all over her body! She was finger painting her belly at one point. It made for a really great birthday picture! I have never seen so many kids with frosting all over their faces. I think it became a game after awhile. Emmett played his heart out and was asleep in the car seat before we drove out of their neighborhood.

Oh! I forgot to introduce you to my little friend.....Luke saw him in the window sill outside of the office area. We even saw him scurry back into his little hole that he had dug to access the area. Hopefully when we get things landscaped, this problem will start to go away. Wishful thinking?

Fun in the caboose

This is an old toy box that used to belong to my brother, Ken. Emmett has now discovered it's many fun uses: throwing things into it, banging the lid on the wall, chewing on the side(did I mention he has a few molars coming in?) and playing inside the toy box. He loved looking at me thru the windows! It used to make a really good hiding place when I was a kid. Memories, paint the corners of my mind......

Good news

Clint, part of the water association and our neighbor to the northwest, stopped by last night to see our "pool" in the back yard and agreed that they will take care of the problem. The association will bring someone and their equipment out the week after the holiday. The big hole is about to get bigger.......and we should have water access by the end of the month.

Our digging has ended!

During Emmett's nap this afternoon, I finally dug all the way down to our irrigation valve. I got smart and built a dam to stop all of the water from filling the entire hole which made things much easier to dig. What this has accomplished is finding out the water problem is not ours. The association will have to come out and dig up the main valve and figure out where the leak is coming from and fix it. Unfortunately this means we will have a enormous hole dug in our back yard. Like it's gonna mess up our grass! That's all for now!

Frog Pond

We headed to our neighboring town of Powell yesterday for a little outdoor action. They have a little wading pool at one of their parks, called the Frog Pond. It was a little cold and murky, but the kids had fun none the less. There wound up being four of us moms, all girls except Emmett(one day, he'll realize how fortunate he was!). There was Tanya(hat) and her daughter, Sunday to the left of the group. Courtney is sitting on the side of the pool with her daughters, Cooper and Darby. Standing in the wading pool is Amy(She is pregnant-due in August!) with her daughter Kelly and then there is Emmett running away from it all. I think he had just as much fun on the sidewalk as he did in the pool. We chatted over snacks and chased our children around. It was a good day to be in the sun! (Next time we will bring toys though!)

Attention Sara Bomar! Check out his great Hawaiian shirt! It is so cute for this summer!!!!! Thanks go out to you and Eric!

Meet the Andersons

We met a couple that just moved into town back in April. Derrick and Courtney Anderson and their two kids, Darby,2 years, and Cooper, 10 months. We had dinner with them on Saturday night at their home. It was a beautiful sunny day and the kids played pretty well. Emmett and Darby really liked to dance and take each others toys(the norm). We grilled out,had a few drinks and enjoyed the weather and conversation. They had a sand and water toy on their back deck that Emmett could not keep out of. He was soaking wet and ate so much sand, we might have to look into getting one of those for his own(check out the pic at the bottom. He is drinking out of one of the toys!). Happiness turned into tiredness and we headed for home. We had a great time and look forward to many nights on patios.

Sunday, Emmett woke in a panic. Sweating with a fever and would not settle down. Teething. I am not sure if we are just lucky, but his teeth sure take a long time to come in. We can't see anything, except swollen gums. They're coming.....

So not much this week. We are planning on going to MOPS playground group on Wednesday, maybe meeting at the frog pond on Tuesday, and hopefully cleaning the finished basement for moving in stuff this weekend.

Doesn't Cooper remind you of Ryleigh Williams when she was younger?! We miss you guys!

Busy summer days

This was the sunset from our back porch on the eve of Father's day. Kinda like the perfect ending to a perfect day. Father's day weekend was such a blast and I just had to put the

"generation photo" up for you all to see. This was right before a great walk around the "hood". Things are busy and active here for us in Cody. I have had a busy work life, being the association co-waterman and all(Luke calls me the water police). I basically have to check on our irrigation waterways and communicate with the ditchrunner to keep the water flowing. Today, for instance, the lower pumphouse was flooding. I have no idea what to do. I call the only guy I know in the association to help me figure this situation out. I have never had any formal training on how to make sure the water runs appropriately. I pretty much watch gauges and eyeballed things. Dave, a long-timer here in the neighborhood, walked me thru everything tonight and gave me the tutorial. Now I get it!!! Who knew?! Cisterns and priming motors- craziest stay-at-home-mom job I know, but we get a break on our water bill. Since the debacle, I've had a couple glasses of wine and decided to take a few pics of the neighborhood deer. They are starting to get their antlers. Not like they compare to the moose we saw last weekend. I am still blown away by the stature of these magnificent animals. Anyway.... Emmett and I met a few MOPS ladies at the park on Wednesday. We had a great time and look forward to many sun shiny days with the kids and moms. Emmett has a great time and I get to chat with other moms. It's a win-win situation. Luke and I have begun digging the 6 foot hole in the backyard to reach our irrigation valve. What a pain in the ars. I really thought this would be an easier task than everyone kept warning me about. I was really looking forward to bigger arm muscles and less calluses and blisters, but who says man hands aren't beautiful?! Yuck.

The basement is coming along wonderfully! I love the shower! It is much better than our master bedroom shower. You are welcome future guests! We still have a lot of trim painting to do along the windows and doors, but that is livable stuff. Soon, we will have a working shower and toilet in the basement, plus another large living space and two big bedrooms! I think they will be done by Monday or Tuesday. I will post a few pics or a video when it gets finished. We are getting very excited for our July 4th visitors! Can't wait to see you all! Don't forget your party hats!!!!

Also, a shout out to my fav "WS" Debbie! She earned a merit badge this past week for her outstanding ability to problem solve. Way to go!

This was from tonight prior to heavy wine drinking. Emmett loves going for rides in his hippo. What a contagious laugh!

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to all of you wonderful Dads! I am lucky enough to be with two great dads this morning, Luke and Mark. Emmett woke up his dad this morning with a card and a fist to the eyeball(not intentional of course!). Then we ate pancake puffs and sausage for breakfast and Emmett is now taking his a.m. nap. Yesterday, we decided to take the St. Joseph Scenic Highway up to the northeast entrance to Yellowstone. We drove this beautiful, curvy stretch of highway thru Cooke City and into YNP. This was Mark and Deb's first time in the park and what a treat we got! Not even a mile inside the park there was the most amazing moose, antlers and all, right next to the stream. Talk about picture perfect(I had my new camera out in a flash!). We then drove a bit farther and decided it was time to grab some lunch. We headed back into Cooke City and ate at the Prospector for lunch. Our meals were great but Emmett had a bit of a hard time being a good boy. I have never seen him act the way he did at lunch. We shoveled our food in and hit the road. He and Grandpa took naps on the way home. That did the trick for everyone. No grumpy's in the car anymore. We had a great game of cards and snacky dinner(my kinda night!) and are ready for more today. It is a gorgeous sunny day, great for the father's golf game this afternoon. Deb and I are going to play around town for a bit and get ready for a great steak dinner tonight.


Views from the Highway























Mountain behind Cooke City and our lunch spot











Seatbelt, check. Sunglasses, check. Let's go!

Windy!

It has been so windy here that past few days. Not too much fun to play outside. Good thing this weather blows out of here before Mark and Deb arrive! We should have great weather for the weekend. The boys are golfing for Father's Day so they need warm sunny weather for great golf, conversation and cold beers.
Doors and trim should be up in the basement on Friday or Saturday and then we should be able to start the cleaning process in the bedrooms. Everything needs a good vacuum and dusting before it's livable/usable. The bathroom gets completed next week. A work in progress....Can't wait til it's finished. Emmett loves to play in the basement, under a watchful eye of course. I think it will become his favorite area of the house when it gets done. I will get some updated photos of the basement after next week!

More Emmett Photos

Emmett is still napping so here are a few more pics since I've got time!

More pics and videos

Snowmass Chili and Brew Festival

Luke and I had such a fantastic weekend. Thank you Grammy and Poppy for watching the "tyrant", who was actually a very good boy for them this weekend. We left for Colorado and Emmett was taking a good nap, but not for long! It was a long car ride to the grandparents. A special thank you to Uncle Bobby, Aunt Donna, Aunt Allison and Uncle Chuck for the guitar you gave him at X-mas! That toy was a saving grace on our trip(video at bottom).

Chrissy met up with us at the folks' house and we then headed to Snowmass. We got there a little after 2pm and checked into our hotel and meet up with Tim Williams. Then off for a few beer tastings and maybe some chili. The chili was really hot this year, almost put Luke out of commission for about 20 mins. Needless to say, I did not try much chili. The music was great, lots of bands we didn't recognize, but got to hear Steven Marley, one of many sons of Bob. Chrissy and I may have danced a little. on a hill. with drink in hand.

The next morning our friends Sara and Eric, and Nina and Eric all meet up at our hotel for some Saturday fun. The boys went golfing and the girls went hangover hiking. Cures what ales ya! Girls Day Out was a blast. We wound up on a four wheeling trail that eventually led us to our hiking trail head. Unexpected fun. At one point Chrissy and Nina got out and had to move a tree out of the road so we could pass. We had wonderful views that got better as we progressed on our hike. Maroon Bells was the backdrop of our hike. We only hiked in part of the 7 mile trail due to time constraints, but would definitely come back for the entire trail someday. The boys had a great time golfing, so much so, that they missed most of the festival. They were a little late getting off the course and finally arrived in time for one last beer before the concert started. Dr. John played with the Neville Brothers opening. They were really great, but it got too cold for me. I wussed out and went back to the room. Where we all proceeded to play "cards" i.e. drinking games. We woke up the next morning to about an inch of snow on our cars! (Before we left the grandparents, Emmett had decided to play with the window scraper and we decided we wouldn't need it anyway and let him keep it.) Vail Pass had quite a bit of new snow for our drive home, but the roads were dry. Luke, Emmett and I finally made it home last night around 10 pm. Longest day ever. Worth every minute of our wonderful weekend with Friends. See you all next year for the 2009 Chili and Brew Festival!