Cheyenne- Part 1

This will be the first post of many about Cheyenne because we really like it so far!  Dave is really enjoying his job and my guess is that we will buy in to the practice and live here forever ever.  We have spent a lot of our time looking at houses and discussing all the options.  We usually buy fixer-uppers and love to find the potential in houses, but are not sure if we're up for that amount of work at this point.  We are also not really up for spending 400k on a mostly-updated house or renting forever so we should probably just get on board with more work haha.

Aside from the whole housing thing, we have been busy making some great friends, hanging with old ones, playing in the mountains, watching summer movies, meeting the neighbors, spending lots of time at the library, deciding that free lunch is NOT for us, and going for family walks.  I have not really been taking any pictures this past month.  I'm not sure why, but that's about to change!  I have a lot of favorites from this week, mostly of Indie because I have been chasing her around most of the time.  

These are from the Children's Village, but Indie has the same obsession with street drains and our realtor's pedicured toes.  This seemed like the best photo op though.

 Finally, an appropriate thing to hit. 

"Dress like a cow day" at Chick Fil A

Camping with the Redds!  Exhausting and a ton of work, but totally worth it in my book!

 Made it up a mountain with 8 kids so we're pretty awesome.  It was mostly the dads, but I'm claiming credit for not letting Indie fall into the waterfall. 

 Run, run, run.  Crash!

 We don't take a ton of baths in the actual bathtub so this one had to be documented.  

Jackson

Our final leg was Jackson so that Dave could take his ethics test, meet with the dental board, and become an official dentist!  We had planned on camping along the Gray's River again, but there was a mudslide so we found a little spot a few miles down the road.  We didn't have river access, which might have been good thing because it looked high and fast, but we did have wildflowers and empty hiking trails.  After camping through lots of crowded national parks, I loved our family hike around our campsite!

Speaking of crowded hikes, we did hike around Lily Lake at Grand Teton National Park and found the perfect spot to chill and throw rocks.  

The road to our camp site had fields of yellow flowers so I talked everyone into pulling over for a few pictures.  It was a few days before Father's Day so it was the perfect opportunity to capture Dave with the girls.  (Of course, there was a meltdown, because that's part of the dad job.)  We are so grateful for Dave's commitment to our family, example of hard work, integrity, and the way he makes us laugh.  This camping trip was my favorite one yet and there's no way we could have done without Dave!  

Salt Lake City

When we went through Utah, we got to stay with our good friends, the Martins for a couple of days!  The girls had a great time running around and we loved catching up!  Mich and Patty were wonderful hosts and we were sad to say goodbye.

Our last day there was also Milan's birthday so she got to wake up to decorations and share some Cowboy Donuts for breakfast.  Patty graciously got Milan a super cute hat, which she still loves!  We got Milan a bow, which wasn't ideal with a broken arm, but she was still excited.  (We spent a month asking her what she wanted and she couldn't even think of anything so it was perfect that she got excited about Oaklee's pink bow when she saw it.)  

We let Milan decide how she wanted to spend her birthday and she picked a trip to Temple Square.  We had a fun time seeing the sights (and trying to swim in the fountain) and finished the day with Cafe Rio for dinner. 

Milan is a spectacular young woman!  A wonderful helper, great example to her sisters, funny, loving, smart, and beautiful!  Each year with Milan in our family is a blessing and I hope she truly felt celebrated during her road trip birthday.  

Telluride

Our day in Telluride was AMAZING!  The best part about the expensive little mountain town was the free Gondola and all the beautiful views all around.  The drive to Telluride had some beautiful spots and then the Million Dollar Highway was just breathtaking.  Part of the highway was closed because of a fire so we considered turning around, but decided to take a chance on Ophir Pass, a rocky little 4x4 trail.  It was not quick, at all, but it was beautiful and exhilarating.  Since we were the only  people around, we got to stop in the middle of the road for some pictures.  My self-timer really came through for us, and I love these pictures and the memories from that day.