Last but not Least... Laramie!

Laramie! My home away from home! The place that two of my children were born! I love you!

I was, of course, very excited to go to Laramie and see our good friends, the Bades. As I sit here trying to remember everything we did while we were there I'm having a tough time coming up with details. I didn't take pictures of everything we did, and it has all sort of blended into one mass of enjoyable fun and talking.

The kids were excited to see their friends, and they had a LOT of play time while we were there. They played outside in the little pool (sometimes with swimming suits, sometime without [and I don't mean naked, I mean in regular clothes]), they played house and all sorts of imagination games. They played a little Wii (not nearly as much as they played at Grandma's house). Many balls were thrown and hit, and everyone survived in one piece. Success!

Sarah and I did a lot of fun things, like talk, laugh, chat, gab, confide, confer, discuss, talk, talk, talk... I think you get the idea. Oh, we also played cards, dominated Just Dance on the Wii, tried out some delicious recipes, watched movies, and had more fun than is strictly legal.

On Saturday evening Chad was nice enough to keep all of our kids and Sarah and I got to go on a girl date. Here is the traditional "about to leave, we're looking cute" picture.

We stuck with tradition and went to Sweet Melissa's for dinner. I love that place. And we had a great server: Bob. :) Oh, have I mentioned that my friend is a model? Well she is. Let me present to you, exhibit A:
She's definitely selling something high class, like mascara or lip gloss. Me, on the other hand? I just sell sugar. :)
After dinner we decided to try and see a show at UW that Sarah had heard was pretty good. We didn't buy tickets in advance, and when we got to the box office an hour before the show they said they were sold out. We put our names on the waiting list and crossed our fingers. Shortly before the show the guy behind the counter (who looked disturbingly like Robert Pattinson) called us up and gave us two tickets. Even better, they were free! Unfortunately I didn't snap a sneaky picture of our Rob look-alike. I'm so fired!

The show, A... My Name is Alice, was quite good! I'll admit to laughing really hard multiple times. It's a great show to go to with a girl friend. I know Sarah appreciated it a lot more than Joel would have. :)


After the show we went to Coal Creek for some hot snow and a brownie. It was kind of chilly and rainy that evening, so we were totally justified.
The hot snow was delicious, and we were enjoying our conversation, but we decided to leave a little earlier than we normally would have because there was a creepy guy that was acting strange and we both decided to get the heck out of there. But we had a great time!!!

On Sunday we went to church in our old ward. It was fun to see so many people that we knew!

On Monday we went up to Veedawoo for a picnic and to make s'mores. The weather was lovely when we got there, but a cloud (yes, just one cloud. I'm serious) rolled in and rained on us for a little bit. Luckily it never got too heavy and we still had a great time.



The kids found a little cave-like thing made between a tree and a rock with some pine boughs. They were cute, peeking out of it.

I went to take Adam's picture, and he focused on the branched right in front of his face. Hence the crossed eyes.
After I snapped it he said, "I'll fix it, Mom!" And indeed he did. What a guy.

After lunch and s'mores we decided to hike around for just a bit. It was great to stretch our legs a little in the mountains.





Monday night we stayed up way too late talking (we had been fairly reasonable about bedtimes up until then, not staying up past 12:30 or so). I'm pretty there was a point where we were talking with our eyes closed and slurring our words, but we did not give in! Those late-night talks are always the most interesting.

On Tuesday we took the kids to the new splash pad in one of the parks in town. The water was a little cold and Jenna was apparently in a bad mood. She played for a few minutes then took to her towel.
But the boys had a great time!


Jenna saw me taking a picture of her and wasn't going to take that lying down. So she did this...
She's a silly girl. :)

That night after the kids went to bed Sarah and I ate some delicious fried banana bread (with ice cream) from Sweet Melissa's while watching a tear-jerker of a movie. It was a great last night in Laramie.

Unfortunately, we had to leave the next morning. We got up bright and early and hit the road a little after 6. I managed to drive all the way to Mesa in one day. I thought about stopping, but it just made more sense to keep going. With the smallest of cat naps outside of Gallup, NM, the kids and I made it home to Mesa around 9:30 local time (approx. 16.5 hours of drive time).

It was great to see Joel again! We missed him so much, and I know he missed us, too. He had a special surprise waiting for the kids when they got home: a pillow pet for each of them! It has been nice to be home and get back into the swing of things here. We did our school supply shopping today and will need to do school clothes shopping in the next few days. School starts in less than two weeks! Summer has flown by!