RODEO!

We couldn't go to Wyoming, home of the legendary Chris Ledoux, inspiration for the sweeping song Stampede and NOT go see a Rodeo! ESP...since my son has been all about "cowboys" for a while (he sings "Shoulda Been a Cowboy, by Toby Keith daily), and my husband considers himself a Scottish Cowboy.  In the way that he's Scottish, and likes to wear Cowboy hats...he couldn't resist buying ANOTHER one in Wyoming either. I've yet to coax him up onto the back of a horse though... 

Anyway, Cody makes it easy...It is The Rodeo Capital of the WORLD, so they claim (and really Who'd disputing it?) ANYWAY, they have NIGHTLY rodeos from June 1-August 31st so no matter when you're there, you won't miss out! 

The Rodeo had an odd effect on my son...or maybe not so odd...he now has requested to move to Cody   so he can be a Cowboy and "Learn to Rope and Riiiiiide" (totally singing the song in my head now)...of course, being a country girl at heart this is pretty OK to me... 

I wasn't able to take many shots that night. While her BROTHER was sitting still (well as still as required for a rodeo when you're hootin' 'n hollerin' for the cowboy down in the arena...) KAYLEIGH however, was having none of it...I mean it was 9pm and past her bed time and she couldn't see really over everyone in front of her, and frankly she just wanted to run around. Which is not easily done on metal bleachers. So I took a few shots, but mostly just sat back and enjoyed the evening. 

Of all the places we went on vacation, Cody was the one place I would have stayed longer just because of the town. It was quaint, but not too quaint (there was at least a Walmart and soon a STARBUCKS!...come on, I'm from Seattle give me a break.) But it also had a TON to do. We got to most everything in the 3 days we were around Cody, but could have easily stretched it out, and it's close proximity to Yellowstone is a HUGE plus. :) I'd totally go back. 

So here are the Rodeo pictures...Next up will be the Old Trail Town... Where we walked the boards that Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid once trod...pretty cool huh? Stay tuned! (I promise it won't be so long this time...really!) 

This is one of my favorite shots from the entire vacation, the dust, and the lights and the cowboys sitting blurry on the rail in the distance... I just love it...

Yellowstone: Part Deux : On to CODY!

Sooo after our time in yellowstone our next stop was Cody Wyoming. Let me jus say, we all fell in love with this little town. For a small town, it had a LOT going for it. But for us, it was the slower pace, the down home, real ness that it oozed.

Cody is also the Rodeo Capital of the US...they have NIGHTLY rodeos in June July and August. We didn't go to the rodeo our first night in town, and I regret that, we had that much fun. But we DID go our last night. Which caused Liam to BEG (and still is begging) for us to move to Cody so he could be a cowboy. He loved it, Allan loved it...Bug finally calmed down from the altitude (Cody is only about 4500 feet above sea Level...under her apparent 5000ft cap..)  And I well I've always been a cowgirl at heart..and my excursion into Wyoming made me re-think my "if we ever move it has to be near seawater" stance....I think as long as I'm near any water I may just be able to cope...Wyoming was indeed THAT beautiful.

On our way to Cody we had to go through yellowstone again...and came across this Valley of Buffalo...it's just such a clean view that I could imagine myself 150 years ago seeing this exact same thing. 

Horses that were housed next to our campsite in Cody...they ran trail rides from our campground. 

Our first Cody Sunset

Bug eating a crayon...I gave up trying to keep her from munching on them....esp when we were trying to set up the tent and get dinner going...if she'd sit happily and color, (i.e. eat crayons) Then we were good. Her other favorite past times were filling a bucket with dirt...and ingesting it as well. 

Night time Sparklers for a fun treat!

Now, in Washington, we have JUST started selling hard alcohol in non-state stores. 

So MAYBE I'm a little behind...but this seems a bit counter active on the whole 

"Drinking and Driving" front

So aside from the rodeo...our other favorite stop was the Old Trail Town . The cool thing about this is that the buildings are ORIGINAL from their time periods. They are cabins and buildings that were brought from all around the area and placed on and old "street". The coolest was that the ACTUAL "hole in the wall" cabin that was the hide out for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid...as well as the Saloon they frequented.

Next  up? The RODEO!

YELLOWSTONE: Part one

Yes, we just braved the great unknown...okay so maybe not unknown..but definitely Great.  It's been in the works a while, and finally a couple weeks ago we packed up our XTerra (poorly), plunked our 18 month old and 7 year old in the back seat at 6am and set off for the longest road trip we'd ever done.

The trip took us through Yellowstone, to Mt. Rushmore and back via the Grand Tetons. It would take us through 7 states, and over I think 5 mountain passes.

We learned a few things...

The wind and rain of the Wyoming prairie was too much for our first tent so we had to purchase one mid way.

Apparently  the largest Harley rally there is takes place in Sturgis SD the first week of August. so we saw people from as far away as Australia riding in from every direction in PACKS I've never seen so many bikers...and we camped along side them every night...nice guys/gals all.

Our Little Miss Bug does NOT (and I can NOT stress that enough...NOT) like high altitudes... Anytime we were over 5000 feet for any length of time she would FREAK OUT...and since MOST of Wyoming is 5000+ feet it seems you can only imagine our joy. Nights were the worst...If anyone from West Yellowstone KOA who were there when she was having night terrors all night I apologize for waking you up.

We also learned that Liam is quite the photographer. (He took over 800 shots...the best of which I will feature in one of the Yellowstone posts)

And that Bug, loves to get DIRTY...I couldn't keep that girl clean for more than two seconds..I swear.

Oh, and that AC is not optional on a trip like this....we had to have the windows down the ENTIRE TIME...and were STILL dying most of it. We went through 3 cases of water.

So...that's it for now..I have a WHOLE TON of photos... (between Allan and I we took over 4000!) I won't be posting all of them though... that would be excessive.

On the road through Montana....I'm sure parts of MT are LOVELY...but all we saw was pretty dull Until....

We started coming into West Yellowstone MT. 

Shopping in West Yellowstone....and wearing Daddy's favorite color. 

This was a happy accident...Allan was obviously to the right initially(as seen by his shadow there) then he went and turned on the light not knowing I was still exposing my shot...But all told I LOVE how it turned out! 

This was our first "stop I have to take a picture" moment. 

And it paid off...as we were about to get back in the car, this eagle took off and I RUSHED to get my camera...and Voila! Eagle in flight

Our first hot spring...and our first introduction to the smell that is yellowstone. 

This was the Artist Paint Pots...

Yes, it was a stinky walk that day..

We dubbed this the Vanilla Bean Frapacchino spring

Buffalo!

This final bunch were all taken in the Norris Geyser Basin.

Steamboat Geyser....not as regular as Old Faithful, but when it DOES go off it's higher....we saw a few smaller eruptions...and it was quite interesting.