Wyoming

Crow Creek Ranch. Thank you to my wonderful Aunt and Uncle and their willingness to share this special place with our family. I have been here every year since I was a toddler. It truly is heaven on earth. You are in the mountains away from the business of the world. Here you have family time, hiking, fishing, shooting, and horse back riding at you finger tips. I hope we can make it back here still. It will be worth the drive from Lamar. This trip was special because the whole Jared Cox family was together. I have the best family. Yup that is what you call bragging. 

Cow boy (Travis) and Daniel Boone (Jackson) were buddies this trip. 

Fishing. This little missy caught a rainbow and then the line broke. Go Abby!

Despite pole complications, Chloe kept trying to catch a fish. Go Chloe! P.S. fishing line is hard to untangle.

Jackson had a little red fish attached to the end of his fishing pole. He was genuinely excited each time he reeled in the line, "I got a fish!"

Ah my heart is a puddle right now. 

Need I say anything about my heart now. 

The fishing gang. Note the jacket in around Pearly's waist. It was a bit colder this trip, so jackets were needed at all times because you never knew when a cloud would cover the sun or a breeze would blow through. Us humans are never satisfied with the temperature we are given. 

Here ground squirrelies squirrleies. 

The hunting crew. This brother of mine has raised his girls to be tough. Probably even tougher than me. They had no problem getting rid of the hole digging squirrels. 

Growing up is a strange thing. I used to be these girl's ages following my brother around (their dad) and now they follow me around. I love every minute of it. 

Doing the manly thing. Knowing how to gut a fish is an essential life skill. 

View from the plateau. 

After much trail blazing we made it to the top! There was much trail blazing done on the way down too. We got to the head of the trail and then realized their were multiple ways up. We each thought the other knew where they were going. In the end we made it up, we just had to walk through a few patches of this brush. 

Brother time. Philip lives in Afton, so he came up for an evening to play hunter man too. 

Love and adventures make life good, real good. 

Jackson Hole.

We took a jaunt up here with Rachel and Amberly. We were holding down the fort up at the ranch after everyone left. After a couple of days we decided to grab some Thai food in Jackson. We didn't get to run the river:( but it was nice to visit. 

Horse back riding with Uncle Matt and Travis.

After our stay at the ranch we visited in Afton for the rest of the week. Uncle Matt was nice enough to take us on a ride and share his favorite trail. I believe I will only want to ride a Roan after this trip. They are great horses. 

Come on Hoss, it is time to swim. I will share more about this pup in a later post. 

It's nice when you have family that has friends who have back yards like this. Such a fun hike. 

Annual Afton Ranch Rodeo. I have never been to such a fun rodeo. It wasn't all about bucking broncos and bulls. They had local ranchers join up in teams and compete in various ranch tasks. Ranch life is hard work, doing it in 3 minutes is even harder. I commend those ranchers. 

The caterpillar. This little guy hitched a ride on my shoulder. I didn't realize he was there until we were 45 minutes into our drive home. How did I notice? Well, I turned my head to check on Hoss in the back seat and this guy was starring right at me. I may have squealed just a bit. I made Travis pull over so I could set the hitch hicker free on a branch. Travis thought it was a bit ceremonial and asked if I would just throw it out the window next time. I don't think so buddy. 

Aren't they wonderful. Family is the most important thing in the world to me. And we are about to have two new additions to the family threw the Nicholas Cox and Christian Cox families. This trip was just what I needed before we made our move out to Colorado. 

California Trip

Travis and I packed it in this Summer. Here is a little run down of our California trip. We pretty much covered all of Northern California: Stockton (Valley Springs), Sacramento, Chico (Willows), San Francisco, Monterey, and Oakland. All in all we covered about 1,961 miles. There is nothing better than a good road trip with your spouse. We saw LOTS of family and had LOTS of fun.

The map. June 12-21.

Welcome to Tahoe.

Lake Tahoe. It is feed by tons of streams that never reach the ocean. We took the long way to our first destination, Valley Springs, so we could see this pretty place.  

We played with the Reese crew for a few days and helped them move to a new place. Between moving boxes and cleaning we found time to make some cream puffs.

Cream puffs! It only took consistent begging for a month.

Sacramento.

We stopped for the afternoon on our way up to visit cousins in Willows. We spent most of our time in Old Sacs. I am not one for shopping, but it was fun exploring some of the un-seens and a very cool record store. 

The boys.

The girls.
These are my cousins Missy and Willie. They are wonderful and it was worth the drive up North to spend some time with them. They treated us to amazing Chinese and Frozen Yogurt with original granola.  I also learned how to play a mean game of bad-mitten up there. 

Muir Woods.

We decided to stop here on our way into San Fran. These trees always astound me.

He's astounded too. The park was a bit crowded with people, but we found some quiet spots to take in the beauty. 

I can check San Fran off the bucket list. I can't believe how different every street is and how steep they can be.  You for sure stand out if you are wearing heals and huffing up a hill. 

Too bad we missed the sea lions. Pier 49 will still fun to check out.

Stood in line down at the pier, so we could ride one of these. It gets pretty cold at night near the ocean. It's a good thing I read a quote by Mark Twain before we traveled,
 “The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco.”

Stood in line for an hour to eat here. I knew we would because people have raved about this place. It was delicious, but worth the wait....that is up to who eats there. I think it would have been better if people hadn't been watching me eat (see person standing by the door). Eat the Mote Cristo if you go.

The fog rolled in and I got worried we wouldn't be able to see the bridge, but then the fog cleared out. 

We walked up to and across most of the bridge. We didn't do much in San Fran, we relaxed and took in the sights. This was my favorite part. 

After San Fran,we drove down to visit some more cousins. It was a short trip but worth the drive. They inspired us to finally take the leap and get a puppy! Cousins are he best. 

Thanks for letting us play with your family while you worked Matthew. Such a good trip!

Oakland Temple.

This is sister Hill and she is another cousin. She is serving in the Oakland Temple Visitor Center. Travis and I stopped in just to see if she might be there. She was the first person we saw when we came through the door. She gave us a tour through the visitor center in Spanish. She is such a good missionary because she taught me something new through the spirit that I felt. The temple has a true power here on the earth today. 

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