Adventures in Sheridan

After five wonderful days, we're approaching the end of our visit in Wyoming, and anxiously getting ready for the second half of our trip! I'm writing this post with one eye on Jared's nephew, Parker, who just may be producing something stinky for us to tackle. Jared and I are doing a little babysitting this afternoon while his brother, Brandon (Parker's dad) picks up his wife Alycia from the airport two hours away. So far it's been a little more weepy than we had hoped, but we're trying every means of distraction we have up our sleeves to keep the tears off his cheeks. Right now...he may be winning, but we're still giving it our best shot :)

We've had a great time in Wyoming so far. I must say, Sheridan has been nothing like what I expected it to be. Jared and I are slowly learning that each time we visit a new place, we're surprised. Each time we travel we have this picture of what it's going to look like, of what we'll do there, and every time we're wrong. Whenever Sheridan was described to me in the past, I pictured this tiny little town with one coffee shop, two good restaurants and a Walmart. Naturally, when we pulled up to the exit last Wednesday, I just knew we were in the wrong spot. There were too many lights! But as it turns out, Sheridan is just bigger than I expected. As everyone here points out, it is the third biggest city in the state. 

Jared's brother has kept busy caring for Parker and trying to entertain us while we've been here. And fortunately the weather has been cooperative for some of the things he had planned.  On Thursday we took a hike through Tongue River Canyon. The trail we were on followed a really cool ice covered river, and fortunately our boots held up pretty well against the slush covered ground. Here's some photos from the hike...

That Friday, Jared and I were on our own to explore town. We checked out some buffalo kept in a wildlife preserve in town. It seemed fitting, in a state where statues and pictures of buffalo are everywhere, to actually see some in person--even if not in the wild :)

Our "Mascot" for the trip out west :)

Then on Saturday, we were able to take a trip up the mountains to do some snowshoeing. Neither of us had snowshoed before, and we had a great time!

We stuck to a packed trail most of the time, but naturally the boys couldn't resist off roading it into some deeper snow. 

And here's me looking on disapprovingly from a distance :) I did join in soon after that though, and it was a lot more fun tromping through thigh deep snow than walking down a packed path.

But possibly the best part of our trip has been meeting our nephew, Parker. He's nearly six months old, and it had been killing us the whole time that we hadn't met him yet. He's such an awesome little guy! We soon learned he can guzzle down a bottle faster than we thought possible. 

Here we're cautiously feeding him his first bites of real baby food--peas. He wolfed that down pretty quick too.

It takes two to feed him with a spoon--otherwise he grabs for the spoon with his chubby little hands, and then gets mad that he isn't being fed fast enough. 

Tomorrow we're heading up to Spokane, WA.  We're both so excited for the next part of our trip!