We made our first trip out to the Children's Beach at Alcova at the beginning of June. I was worried it would still be too cold, but it was perfect! (The water is always cold, but kids seem to be oblivious to that fact.) This trip was just with Tanya/Jackson and Christina/Tyler. The boys loved it.
Pierscen has recently decided he hates taking selfies with me, so he will typically hold something in front of his face (water bottle) or just plain look away. If I get a smile out of him, there is some goofiness on my part going on - or just plain bribery.
Right before we left, we tried to get a picture of all three boys looking at the camera. It was hilarious. At one point Christina yelled out, "There's a monkey on my head!" to try and get the boys to look. It worked, but only for one boy at a time. It has since become the running joke and we now use it any time we are trying to get the boys to pay attention. :)
National Donut Day rolled around and we celebrated appropriately:
Ryan purchased an ice cream machine. The first night he tried it out I was at book club. Pierscen was super excited about helping. Ryan sent me the picture below explaining that after Pierscen got his bowl of ice cream, he announced, "Really neat trick!" Haha. Yes - making homemade ice cream is a really neat trick!
One of the coolest adventures of June was going to visit Martin's Cove. I have never been there before. We live only about 50 minutes away and we pass it every time we go to Utah. I know the history, of course, but there was still so much I learned - probably the biggest thing being that the "cove" you pass on the drive by the visitor center near Devil's Gate is not Martin's Cove. I always assumed it was! The actual cove is tucked back around the corner to the East after a decent walk.
Pictured below on the left: the place I always thought was "the cove". On the right: standing over the Sweetwater River with Devil's Gate in the background.
The area is beautiful - but it's very humbling to imagine this same view in the middle of a Wyoming winter with nothing but snow and that horrible wind as far as the eye can see. It's no wonder so many fell to their knees thinking about trying to cross the river again. It was a death sentence!
From the picture above, the cove where the pioneers actually stayed is up and to the right near the mountains. There is much more protection up there, though conditions would have been horrible. It was nothing short of a miracle that rescue teams found them before they reaching this area and helped give them enough courage to keep moving and find shelter - limited though it may be.
We actually had the cove to ourselves while we were up there. We did our best not to talk to much, and if we did, we kept it on topic. It is a powerful place. Hallowed ground. 
I really liked the memorial to the boys/men who helped to carry the handcart members across the river. I can't even imagine the act of faith it took to boldly put their own lives at risk to help those in need.
It was a really great experience and I would love to go back. I'll admit that I was a little whiny about going that morning - mostly because it had been raining all night and I was imagining having to trudge through cold and mud. (How incredibly selfish considering how many died here facing much worse circumstances!) But of course it was worth every step. We are blessed to live in an area with such amazing history and faith!
Other June adventures included more fishing - naturally. I had to include this trip because I caught a whopper! And it smashed all the other catches that day - including Ryan's. Yes, I'm a brat and am still rubbing that one in. ;)
We had lots of play dates including our first trip to Pizza Ranch (yum!) and another bread making party at Tanya's with Christina and Vivi.
We also ventured out to Edness Kimball with a much larger play group (biggest turn out I have seen yet.) Lots of kids. Lots of fun.
There are tons of little fish in this pond that the kids chum using bread, popcorn, or whatever. Then they scoop them up, plop them in the bucket, and hold them for a little bit. Then they dump the bucket and start again. Poor fish. Fortunately/unfortunately, I think the fish are used to this as pretty much every kid group that comes out does the same thing.
June was also annual ward temple trip. Much like last time, this was mostly just a youth trip. More families were planning on coming, but there was something going on in Billings and there were literally no hotels available. When you have kids, the only way to really do the trip is to go the day before and stay overnight somewhere where the parents can take turns. Without that option, we didn't see many other people come. However, we had a great turn out for the youth. It was awesome! It was also nice because the youth got an earlier time slot for baptisms, so by the time they got out, the bishop and his wife, as well as a few youth, volunteered to watch Pierscen and some other kids while we went and did a session. It was awesome!
After the temple, we were sufficiently starving, so we decided to head to Cabelas. Their elk sandwich and fries are our favorite. However, the Billings Cabelas is a fraction of the size of the Utah one. They did have an elk sandwich, but it was premade, not the best, and their fries were normal boring fries. And it was all much more expensive. Kind of a sad experience, but at least Pierscen got to see some fish. Haha.
I think there is an unspoken rule that when we do this trip, we have to drive through a crazy rain storm. This time, we saw this amazing view:
It's hard to explain, and it was even harder to capture decently, but there was this section where it was down pouring. It was almost like the clouds had parted and a river was being dumped from the sky. But instead of being darker, like it normally is, it was super bright. That whole section was being illuminated from the sun above. It was awesome!
I regret to say I didn't do anything super cool for Ryan for Father's Day - except that I stepped way outside of my comfort zone and attempted for the first time ever a lemon meringue pie, which I just recently learned is Ryan's favorite. I've never made a "real" pie of any kind, so this was really something for me.
I am actually pretty proud of how it turned out. I didn't whip the meringue nearly long enough, so it didn't turn out as fluffy as it should have, but it still tasted good. Ryan was very impressed and very happy. Go me! Love you Ry! You are the best husband and father in the world!
We took advantage of the side burner on our grill and had some great s'mores. P loves it when they catch on fire. Ha!
He was a sweet helper and attempted to help me mow the lawn. We waited way too long to mow it and I just about died trying to do it with the push reel, but we finally got it done.
We went to toddler swim time for the last time (for the summer). They haven't stopped doing it - but P only lasted 20 minutes and it's way too much fun to play outdoors rather than swim inside. We can go in the winter. I was the only one in the locker room when I took these pictures - so no one freak out. But I think it is funny/sad that he can fit so well inside them.
One morning we heard sirens really close to our house. We looked out the window and the firetruck was parked just down the street. So we went out for a closer look. There was a truck on the corner that was on fire. I still don't know what happened, but later that day when we drove by, the truck was gone. Only a small pile of burnt stuff remained.
One of our play dates with Logan. I included these pictures because I thought it was hilarious that P felt the need to eat his gold fish crackers like a bowl of cereal.
We made our first fishing trip to the river. We only caught a couple tiny guys, but at least we weren't totally skunked. P spent most of the time running back and forth across the bridge, throwing rocks with dad, and snatching bites of pizza in between. Good outing.
"Help me... Help me..." like the fly caught in the spider web in Emperor's New Groove. He had slid up and off his pillow and was wedged between my pillow and his own. I pulled him out and he muttered a thank you before falling back asleep. It was pretty funny.
Another time he woke up when he heard a train whistle. "What's that?" he asked in a daze.
"Just a train saying goodnight."
"Oh. Goodnight train. Zzzzz." It was pretty entertaining.
Believe it or not, P loved it. He thought it was awesome breathing into the mask. When it was done, he actually asked to do it again. What a trooper. The doctor prescribed him a one time use steroid to help open things up, as well as wrote for a nebulizer of our own. The breathing treatment did help, though not a 100% but it was enough we were able to get to church which was a great thing because P was really upset about missing it! I was able to sing and P got to play in nursery. By the time I picked him up though (1 1/2 hrs later) he was wheezing just as bad. Our pharmacy didn't have the steroid the doc wrote for, so they sent it to a different one. I called our pharmacy to make sure they at least had the nebulizer ready. They said they had the medication for the nebulizer, but didn't actually carry the nebulizer itself. What?! They tried calling Lincare (a respiratory company) but ironically, they didn't have any in stock either. The only place that had one was Walgreens but I couldn't get there before they closed. The miracle of it all was that I was talking to the primary president about our instacare experience and she said she had a nebulizer if we needed one.
Well, after a lot of run around, a lot of screaming from P because he was miserable and gasping for air, we were able to borrow the nebulizer and give him a breathing treatment at home. He thought it was awesome and for some reason, this time, thought he needed to keep his mouth gaping open like a fish out of water. Who knows? Maybe it helped him get more medicine? ;) The fact that my friend had a nebulizer seriously saved us. It made a huge difference!
The next day I was able to call the instacare and have the script for the nebulizer transferred to Walgreens and I went to pick it up. We were planning on giving our friends the mask that came with it in exchange for the one they gave us, but when we opened it and discovered it was made it look like a duck - well, there was no giving it up. Haha.
P made a speedy and full recovery and we are very thankful we have a box of medication and the nebulizer in case this happens again. (Which PS, writing this post so far afterwards - it has happened again and having our own nebulizer probably saved us a trip to the ER).
We took another trip to Alcova with more friends. We love that place. Worth the 40 min drive:
We had a great play date at Vivi's house too. P has never been on a teeter-totter before, but apparently, it's a pretty natural thing to figure out!
The kids all enjoyed their delicious brownies and played very well together. We are lucky to have such great friends!
And more Logan and Pierscen time:
One weekend while Ryan was at scout camp, I decided to tackle the kitchen wall. It used to be red. We mudded it and primed it a while ago, but Mrs. Indecisive here couldn't decide on a color. So, I guess I like a challenge because I picked out a color and got everything prepped and ready to paint while Ryan was gone as a surprise.
The only delay I had was due to a HUGE storm that came rolling through. (The storms here don't last long - but they are TORRENTIAL!) This was one of those. Pierscen and I were out on the deck watching the clouds and it was like watching a nature show with the time elapse camera they came rolling in so fast. So we ran inside. Good thing because it came down in sheets! We watched for a while and then I put Pierscen to bed (even after the warning sirens in the city went off warning of flash floods). Then I put on my winter coat and boots and ran outside to start bailing water. We still don't have a pump in our sump pump, so unless we do it by hand, our basement will flood. (I learned later that Ryan has a portable one that plugs in... that would have been nice considering I bailed 70-90 gallons of water on my own that night. Oh well.
Exhausted as I was, I got to work. The lighting never works very well, but it is a gorgeous taupe color. I made very good work of it, leaving one coat for the morning.
Ryan was super impressed when he got home and he loves the color. Go me!
June was also the NIC Fest. As much as we would love to buy stuff - we usually just go for food. Oh, I think this was actually the next day. Yeah it was. Ryan was still at camp so we went on our own. Our purchase this year was strawberry and grape popcorn. It was delicious.
P had his first successful sprinkler adventure in the backyard. Normally he runs by the water, but doesn't actually get wet. (Can't blame him. Cold water!) But this time he actually jumped through it and had a great time.
And lastly, we took a hike up and around Garden Creek Falls. I have never done the hike before. It's not super hard - but it's a decent work out. And Pierscen wanted to do most of it himself. (Except for some of the tough up hill stuff, which of course, he only wanted MOM to carry him. I almost died.) But he loved running along the trail - especially down hill which is TERRIFYING! Thankfully there were guardian angels that kept him on the path. That boy!
Wyoming has it's own beauty - but late spring/early summer is really gorgeous when everything is green and then you can see forever when you get up on that "mountain." It really is a beautiful view.
See, he hates taking selfies with mom. And I missed Ryan. Sorry!
The falls are beautiful. And if you don't want to do the hike, there is a short trail that takes you right there in less than 10 minutes. The falls are seasonal though, so it's worth going early on to make sure there is still water flowing. :)
I did have a few more picture of P and Ry on the bridge that were really cute, but some little two-year-old erased them from my phone. Blast it all! Not that anyone needed more pictures!
In conclusion, it was a really great month! Winter is long here - so we have to take advantage of the summer months. Pack it all in!
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