Wyoming Trip Part One

We visited Wyoming end of June--timing our stay to match with John's sister and her family's visit. Due to the amount of activity and having twice as many cute children (meaning more pictures to sort through), I will split the entries into two.

The boys travelled very well--driving down to Santa Ana, flying to Denver, then driving up to Laramie. We flew Horizon, which turns out to have cookies instead of pretzels and little TVs on the back of each seat. So Trevor was pretty dang impressed. Ryan lasted through the take off and a little bit in the air before falling asleep (it was about two hours past his nap time). During take off he cautioned "hold on tight".

First stop was the train tracks. No actual trains went by while we were up above the tracks. Fortunately we are pretty easy to please--just being up high and seeing the trains that were not moving was still pretty interesting.



Aaron was able to come up to visit the first weekend. As suggested, we hyped him up. Trev was looking forward to seeing him and really wanted him to sit in the back next to him. So he got to partake in deep discussions like 'who's your favorite princess?'



We went to walk around campus to see all the changes and some of the things that were still the same. The kids climbed rocks and we found that the Geological Museum was open. Dinosaurs are cool.



























Gracie signing the visitor book

Turns out that there's a really cute and yummy coffee place/cafe right next to where we used to live. So we stopped for drinks. The kids were getting tired of smiling for pictures at this point. John and Aaron were still game.



Bedtime was the trickiest thing to work out during the stay. Here's the cute part where they are all gathered around daddy/uncle Johnny in their jammies.



Ryan was pretty thrilled to be a cowboy. He brought his 'horsie boots' with him and Grammy Jackie and Bapa Bill had a Ryan sized cowboy hat waiting for him to wear.



We met up with Aaron again to go out to Veedawou late afternoon the next day. The boys were very impressed with all the big rocks. Trev took off with Aaron and John and Ryan and I maybe went about half as far as they did. Ryan was very diligent in identifying what animal the different rocks were--lots of shark rocks, dinosaur rocks, bear rocks...

Seemed like these two pictures could be in some sort of story book:





Aaron trying to get Ryan to smile for the camera next to him


John trying to 'hold up the rock'--Trev opted not to help because it wasn't really going to fall





Ryan found the little bridge to be very entertaining. We marched back and forth on it for a while. Then he became the bridge troll, giving orders to when others can cross.






Ryan watching the bigger boys coming down

Bird Day

So late last week Trevor asked me "Can we have a bird day?". Initially I thought he was saying he wanted more birthday-ness. Then he explained that he was saying "bird" not "birth" by flapping his arms. I asked what bird day was (in case I was missing out on some cartoon or preschool reference). He explained that 'you know--we make pictures of birds and feed birds and do fun bird activities'. So it seemed like a pretty valid request. And hence bird day this week.

Making bird feeders--pine cones with peanut butter and bird seed, and stringing cheerios on pipe cleaners







Ryan liked stringing the cheerios but then declared that "not bird food. Food for Ryan" and started eating them. He also tried to eat the pine cone when I explained it was part of the bird food. Not as tastie.



Ta-da! Unfortunately the birds did not swarm into the yard to eat our bird food and give us instant gratification. However, we did spy a couple later in the day nibbling on our creations.



Cutting out bird pictures from magazines to paste on their bird books.



Okay. This has nothing to do with birds. But he was sitting playing with his Mickey Mouse toys while having a basket on his head.



We measured out the wingspans of the birds in their bird books. Trevor is now pretty impressed by bald eagles. The top two are Trev and Ry's wingspans.



This is Trevor pretending to be a hummingbird. We spent a bit of time listening to different bird calls on the Cornell bird site. He was trying to remember and mimic them.



Mmm... Bird...


And of course when you think 'bird' you have to think 'angry birds'. So we played our own version.



Trev showing an angry bird




The pigs and structure




Trev is very familiar with the game app. Ryan not so much. It took a bit of explaining that this time we want to knock down the thing we just built up.

Dress Up

Some random pictures of dressing up in the past couple months:

Ryan compiled this one together--his crown, a bucket, his treasure map (japanese restaurant calendar), a tiny lego man sword, and heels. He managed walking on the wood beams with the heels pretty well. It was a very serious matter.





Trev in his superman robe and cowboy hat























Dinosaur and superhero--no epic battles. They seem to have learned to live peacefully together.



Ryasaurus



Super Trev has some pretty cool moves























"I superhero"























Go all the way cool or go home. Aaarg!

Beach Trip

We beat the wind for two days by heading to the beach. This time we were only half way experimental--we went to Venice Beach but stayed near the Marina to try out their lagoon area. This is our first trip to somewhere beachy this year. Trevor seemed to thoroughly love it. Ryan thought it was mostly okay... for a little bit and then preferred the playground or blanket.


Let the digging begin!






Trev chasing the birds


Picture of happy John with a fish and a shrimp taco--especially for his mother

After lunch we headed over to the hotel for a pretty solid nap. Trev was pretty sure he didn't nap because he doesn't do that anymore. But he 'rested' for quite a while. We checked out the lagoon across the street and then headed down to the Santa Monica Pier.


Ryan liked making castles and 'happy octopus' from the molds we had


Trev was working bringing water back to his canals and giving us updates about the tide



Trev wanted a picture with the big cannon we passed. Neither one of the boys seemed to find it worth mentioning the guy sleeping on the ground next to it (strategically not pictured).

























Ryan really wanted to ride the "choo choo train" (aka the roller coaster) and each time it passed above would point and say "Choo choo!" Unfortunately he only got to go on the gondola wheel.


I'm not sure when you have to actually start putting quarters in for entertainment... works for us though

It's quite a walk from the Pier back to the promenade area. Ryan was pretty motivated though because I told him we were going to go see dinosaurs. Then when we got to the dinosaur fountains. He stopped and looked and said "no mommy. These not dinosaurs. This water." A little less than impressed I guess. Luckily there were still escalators to go on next.























Ryan discovered the day before that our beach mat had little handles he could hold and a pocket he could fit his legs into. So this became his horsie. The second day he discovered he could turn a bucket into a hat. Lots of yee haws! at the beach.



Trev was very excited to get to play in the water and sand again. He wants to surf now. Or at least do the laying on the board and paddling part. We told him he should probably learn to swim first.