The Tower

As promised, I am posting photos from our trip to Devil's Tower yesterday.

First, though, you must educate yourself by reading this.

We stopped to take a photo as we neared the tower. It is pretty impressive even from a distance.

There is a nice path circling the tower so I took a LOT of photos.  Well, it looks different from different angles.

There were some climbers on the Tower.

Ok, that is Mike. Isn't he funny? 

But there were some real climbers.

They are in some of these photos, I think, but they are just specks.

Jennifer and I asked each other many times, "Why? ". It just didn't seem like a good idea to me to climb on something so big and slippery looking.

It was a perfect day!

We had a delightful guest.

One thing we were aware of was that many tribes consider that area to be a holy place.  

These things tied in trees represent someone's prayers. Although that isn't part of my faith tradition, I kind of liked it.

When we left the Tower, we stopped by a little gopher colony. That was when we learned Jennifer is a gifted gopher whisperer. I think she was maybe surprised to learn that as well! 

I missed the photo but that little guy came right up to her shoe! 

It was a good day, a very good day.

Bison on the Wyoming Prairie

Today was a good day!. Mike and I spent it with Jennifer, our favorite little Aussie/American.

Jennifer's parents were very special friends to us during the early years of our marriage.  Her Dad, a Montana Native, married Anne, an Australian Native. They both taught in Turner, MT where we lived. 

One day when Anne and I were talking, we discovered they had gotten married one week before us. They had gone to Calgary for their honeymoon, one week before we did the same!  We became great friends and a few years later, discovered we were expecting babies, our's due one week after their's, of course! 

Sadly, for us, Jennifer's family moved to Australia when the girls were about 2 1/2 years old. Honestly, I remember breaking down and crying in our car after we said goodbye to them. It was a rotten day.  It was not so easy to keep in touch them as it is now, either.

Years later, Maria and Jennifer reconnected.  One year Jennifer decided to come visit us here in Wyoming. We were so impressed with her courage! She really didn't have much of a memory of Maria, yet she came. Anyway, this is now her 3rd trip to Wyoming and we are always so happy to see her.

Maria and Eric has several responsibilities today so Mike and I asked Jennifer if she would like to go to Devil's Tower with us.  Although it meant another 6 hours of travel, she was willing. Off we went! 

Occasionally when driving the route we were to go today, we have seen a few buffalo so I mentioned to Jennifer that she may see some if we were lucky. As it turned out, we were very lucky! We came upon a giant herd, more than I have ever seen, and they were right by the road!

So many! 

And so close! 

We were happy for the fence and stayed near our vehicle but the buffalo (bison, actually) were not much interested in us anyway. Still, we knew to keep our distance.

For those of you who may not know it, those docile looking creatures are not pets and should NEVER be approached for photo ops.  Like I said, we stayed by the road, behind the fence, near our vehicle.

Fine animals to look at, not to pet.

So, from there we moved on to see Devil's Tower. Since it was 3 hours one way, we enjoyed a really nice visit with Jennifer. We really love that girl! 

Tomorrow I will upload some great photos from Devil's Tower! 

Time With Jennifer

Last night we all went for a picnic near the river. It was Jennifer's last evening in Wyoming and we wanted to spend a bit more time with her.

We watched a kayaker playing in the river.

It made me rather nervous when he purposefully flipped upside down.

Elise wasn't interested in our picnic but she

loved being outside.

She was happiest when we were walking and exploring.

Grandpa let her get her toes wet.

Sam got some text messages...lots of them I think.

I'm not certain he even knew we were on a walk.

Cordelia got to get her feet wet as well.

Jennifer may have been thinking about the 30 hours of travel 

she had ahead of her. Australia is a long way from Wyoming.

Eric told her tales of the Old West.

Sam did more texting.

I love seeing these two together...

It makes me remember a sweet 

time in our lives, just starting our family

and enjoying the gift of friendship.

Jennifer and her parents were our guests for Maria's

first birthday, over 31 years ago.

We had some really fun times together.

But look at these girls, friends from birth!

Here they are at age one.

They absolutely loved being together!

I think this photo was taken by Jennifer's Dad, Jim.

They formed a bond that withstood 

both years and distance.

This photo was for sure taken by Jim.

Safe travels, Jennifer!

Simple Joys

First of all, please click here to read Maria's blog from yesterday. She tells about the special visitor from Australia that we are all enjoying.

Technically Jennifer is not a relative, but she feels like one. We love her and we love when she visits here! We are enjoying her easy going, sweet self. When I look at her, especially her eyes, I also think of her beautiful mother, one of the most gentle people I ever knew. It enjoy remembering her. We hope sometime her parents can come here as well..or maybe we will make a trip to Australia! That would be a dream come true!

But for now...

Wednesday night we were all at an outdoor concert. Almost immediately Cordelia saw a couple of little girls up front. She did not hesitate to go up and introduce herself. There is nothing shy about that little girl anymore! She didn't mind that it was in front of good crowd. In fact, I think she rather enjoyed performing.

We all enjoyed the beauty of watching little girls just dance for the joy of dancing. I am still trying to learn how to use my new camera so my photos aren't great. Still, I think you can feel a bit of their fun little spirits as they whirled and twirled to the music. Please enjoy.

Maria said she noticed Cordy kind of pause the first time the crowd starting clapping for the musicians, wondering if maybe they were clapping for the dancers.  She did, however, graciously turn and also clap for the musicians.

And not to be left out, little Miss Elise had a few moves of her own.

It was a simple evening, loaded with simple pleasures.