In lieu of a stay in the mountains, we had a wonderful 4 days in Guernsey! We all soaked up the small town relaxation, and the time with our one and only "Vovo"! Happily, Anna has been on the mend all week and by the end of our visit was feeling almost back to herself. None of us minded the chance to slow down a bit! We always have a great time here...
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| Morning walk with Vovo-- all the way to the end of town! (about 8 blocks...) |
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| The view from the top of the hill... |
Our kids simply adore the Guernsey pool! At $1 per person to get it, it is the best deal going. We spent every single afternoon there, and one evening too. Milestones of note: Ivy got her "green band" meaning she can swim without a parent in all areas of the pool. She had to swim across the pool and back without touching down and she did great. She is an independent little fish of a girl now! She can jump off the diving board and swim to the ladder, and go down the big waterslide, all on her own! Of course, she prefers having one of us in the water to play mermaid-cat with her!
This big boy can now do a pretty nice dive off a diving board! He is unstoppable in that diving well, cannonballing and high jumping and diving over and over. He has come home from each day's swim with red eyes (he no longer uses goggles) and a sun-and-waterburned face, tan and tired and happy as can be.
On Wednesday we took a little trip up to the castle to check out the reservoir before it was drained for the annual silt run.
The best view!
Our annual game of hide and seek!
Climber boy. He spent a good deal of the visit up on the roof.
Actually, they both did.
This photo was Jack's pose idea and required strapping Nat's camera to a tree. Not bad!
There was quite a bit of water being released through the dam...
Sunset...
On our way out of the park around 8:00, we were treated to a fantastic lightning show (Apparently there were some major storms in Cheyenne). We sat in the car for a good 15 minutes so Nat could get this shot:
Thursday: Goshen County Fair in Torrington! This sweet little parade and fair are becoming a bit of a tradition! We are OK with that. We love Torrington, despite the fact that Guernsey residents call it "boring-ton". It is such an authentic, adorable western town.
Complete with tumbleweed.
And, this parade? It officially wins the prize for the most candy thrown per child, of any parade on earth. I think we came home with about 5 pounds. I was physically hit with flying candy twice. Our children were in heaven.
A quick visit to the fair....
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| These kids were so very excited to have us pet their sheep. Don't you just love the sheep jackets? |
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| We were there for the cow judging and got to see the cows being groomed. I have never seen a cow being groomed before. They were so fluffy! Who knew! |
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| Hay bale art, of course! |
Home from the fair in time to swim for a bit in the afternoon, then we took a trip down the road to a lovely little farm belonging to a friend of Anna's, who had graciously offered to let our kids ride her horses...
We got the bonus prize of time with this awesome dog.
And our boy, compliments of the camo hat swag from the Ford booth at the fair, morphed into a bit of a farm boy....
Time to ride!
Both kids loved it. Ivy asked when her next lesson would be...
Friday: Annual visit to the Oregon Trail Ruts. As always, the kids enjoyed climbing the unearthly terrain.
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| That "noir" filter! Epic, I tell you! |
We also spent a lot of time letting kids drive golf carts. That was probably their single favorite event of the trip so far, the golf cart driving. Especially when we paired it with a trip to the city park, where wifi allowed them to feed their Pokemon Go addiction.
Pretty much the rest of the day was spent at the pool. I got a lot of reading done on this trip!
Saturday (Aka, fitting it all in before we go!!):
Morning trip and picnic at the reservoir-- now a good 6 feet lower than it was before...
We enjoyed a picnic in the secluded "Dead Man's Gulch" camping area, and after lunch the kids discovered the mud. You can't see it in this picture, but they are covered in mud to their shins. They had SO much fun. Luckily we found them a mud-free path to the water so they could get clean enough to be transported home.
A stop at the CCC Museum. Such a wonderful space, hidden away at the top of the bluff. I feel like it is our secret-- we are always the only ones there. If I lived in the mountains I would want my house to be patterned off of this building...
A few hours at the pool, then off to dinner at Lira's and our annual visit to Fort Laramie.
This time they had tipis, which were Ivy's favorite thing by far. If there is a Connestoga wagon or a tipi around, Ivy is going to go in it and pretend it is her home.
The light was amazing. I have never visited at sunset before.
Now, time to pack our tired, tanned, chlorinated little ones up into the car again, starting our slow journey home with a stop-off in Cheyenne and then a few days with family and friends in Denver.
Storing up the love, hugs, conversation, and peaceful surroundings until our next visit...
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