Crumpled Home

We sadly left Wyoming and flew to the East Coast where we were greeted by warm, humid weather… We definitely weren’t in Perth anymore. We arrived at the house to find a pool AND our cousins all ready and waiting for us. Time to have some fun!

We had some great times splashing around in the pool, hunting frogs down by the pond, picking veggies in the garden. Grandma Wendy and Aunty Grace took us all to the lake one day, and Dad took the four kids for a huge play at the park while our new cousin arrived. The next day we went off to the hospital for our first visit!

Continue the Adventure!

We finally arrived in Shepherdstown to warm weather, cousins, and a swimming pool!

The hot springs, geysers and other exciting geological activity isn’t confined to Yellowstone. Thermopolis, a small town not far from Cody, WY is home to numerous hot springs (it’s actually located in the creatively named “Hot Springs County”). We enjoyed a relaxing morning there, splashing around and having a great time.

No trip to Wyoming would be complete without going to see cowboys in their natural habitat — a rodeo. The events were pretty exciting and did a good job of convicing us that the competitors were all quite insane.

We had such a great time in Wyoming — it was pretty much non-stop activities and entertainment — most of which wouldn’t have been possible without the hospitality of our friends DD. and C. Thank you so much guys. It’s just amazing how much we got done; it really was terrific.

Read the Adventure

RJ takes to the warm, hot-springs fed pools at Thermopolis!

Cody, Wyoming is home to the Buffalo Bill Historical Center, a marvelous set of museums which we spent a while exploring. Out front, a blacksmith worked a historically accurate forge and anvil making nails by hand (a job that I do not envy), while someone cooked up some buffalo stew over a campfire. The smells were delicious!

We also had a great time watching the Fourth of July Parade, complete with cowboys, horses, skiiers, cowboys, hamburgers, horses, cowgirls, poodles, horses, Shriners in little zoomy cars, cowboys, marching bands and horses!

Continue the Adventure!

We visited the Buffalo Bill Historical Center. It houses several museums in the same building.

With both our children being dinosaur obsessed and planning to become future palaeontologists, one of the big attractions to the Cody, Wyoming area was the dinosaurs.

Eighty million years ago, this place must have been absolutely infested with the creatures, because the area was littered with fossils, both above and below the ground. The place is still crawling with dinosaurs though, as shops and museums dedicated to the extinct creatures have sprung up everywhere.

Continue the adventure here!

The dino shop had a full sized T. Rex skeleton on display. It took up most of the room!

Just days after we arrived, we set off on our Yellowstone expedition. After driving about an hour, we entered the foothills and were treated to stunning mountain views, rock walls and cliff faces — but there was no time to stop! We pressed on and entered the park.

Yellowstone was teeming with bizarre and wonderful wildlife of all sorts. We delighted in spotting something new around each corner: bison/buffalo, elk, pronghorn antelope (SPEEDGOAT!), coyotes, foxes, rabbits, marmots, beavers, eagles, black bears and even one grizzly bear (suspiciously, dad was the only one who saw this).

Read the next stage of the adventure!

"Got Bear Spray?" -- Mum makes sure we're totally ready for our Yellowstone adventure.

In July of 2010, we went for a massive adventure to the USA. Four weeks and several thousand photos later, we returned with an incredible number of experiences under our belt. Our first stop was in Cody, Wyoming, where we spent a week with our incredibly gracious hosts. We cannot thank them enough for the sheer number of amazing things we got to see and do while we were there (not to mention letting our unruly mob stay with them in their beautiful house). It is really an amazing part of the country and we only got more jealous with each day we got to stay with them.

Here are the first few days of our adventure… Airports, travelling, and then adventures near our temporary home in Wyoming!

RJ enjoys the view at Denver airport. We're almost there!

We’ve been a bit busy at home unpacking and setting up the new house, so I haven’t had time to get pictures of the new place sorted out. In the meantime, here are some things we missed back in March.

March Round-Up

LR soars through the air!

Have a great Australia day everyone!

Happy Australia Day!!!!

We’ll throw an extra snag on the barbie and sink a few tinnies for ya.

Ozzy ozzy ozzy!

I’ve posted some pictures from our Fourth of July party that we had last month.

You can find them here: Fourth of July, 2009