Wyoming!

Having survived our weekend of Ohio camping, we are now well into the first of our family traveling adventures.  We arrived in Guernsey on Tuesday evening after the smoothest day of travel we could have asked for:  on-time flight, no lines anywhere, easy driving, two good-traveling kiddos.

Turns out that our arrival was a bit of a surprise to Grampa and Vovo, who'd written Wednesday as our arrival day. Thankfully they did not turn us away! :)

We've jumped right in to the easy pace of Guernsey life.  With the exception of Thursday, when all-day, Cleveland-style rain got in the way, we've spent every afternoon at the pool.  We've also spent two nights in a camper and two nights in a yurt.  The children are expanding their camping expertise by the moment...

Picture review of the trip so far:

Traveling...

These two were great little seat-mates on the flight.  Ivy got a little twitchy for the last hour but you wouldn't have known Jack was on the plane, what with the playing Minecraft on the Kindle...

We're here!  Ivy was thrilled to receive her birthday gift (a new princess dress!)

Evening walk in Wyoming light..

We've been trying to make ourselves useful.  Here is the Morehouse landscaping crew, helping to get Anna's vegetable garden started...

But we're never too busy to go and spend 3 hours hanging out at the sweetest little pool ever.  Sadly the waterslide is out of commission right now, but the kids have made up for it with the diving board.  Guess which little 5 year old girl now jumps off the diving board sans life jacket and swims herself to the ladder?  She is suddenly an independent little fish.  Jack has shocked and awed us by the ease with which he has made friends at the pool, happily playing Monkey-in-the-middle and a complex version of catch with groups of friendly Guernsey kids.  Ivy has preferred to have our 1-1 attention, thank you much, and sadly has been less than gracious in response to the many overtures of friendship she has received. The kids here are the sweetest, ready to chat and play with anyone who will hold still.  The pool is THE place to be in this town, for sure..

Snuggle time with Grandpa and Vovo... What we're here for, after all.

The much anticipated stay in a yurt! We've been driving past the "Yurt Area" in Guernsey State Park for several years now, and we've made empty promises each year about staying there.  2015 being the  "year of action" and all, this trip we actually did it.

We are now in love with yurts.

Took some serious doing to get this photo as the first attempt was derailed by Ivy's dramatic response to a splinter.
 But we persevered.  

Our kids sure do love campfires.  And let me tell you about Ivy's ghost stories.  Hilarious as everything else about this girl.  I wish I'd recorded them.  Shining that flashlight up on her face, "Once upon a time.  There was a little girl.  Named Ivyjane.  And she was the most efficient girl because she could see FOUR ghosts.  True story...! "

So peaceful, thin piney air and clear skies and crickets and birds.  A lovely place to sleep until the artillery test-firing started. That's what you get for camping across the range from an active duty Army base.

A quiet day back at the homefront today.  Pool time, of course, baking in ninety degree sunshine, then we taught the kids to whittle and they spent pretty much the rest of the day covering the deck with little bits of wood.  Nothing like a knife to keep kids entertained, right?  Photos to come soon!