Cattle Drive Part 2...and then some

Wednesday of this week, we made our way back into Dry Head to finish taking the cows to pasture. It was a beautiful evening, in that it wasn't blazing hot...in fact, when we were eating dinner it was a little chilly. We managed to finish moving cows before dark this time and were even able to enjoy some burgers over the grill when we were done. Carson rode the entire time by himself again and is getting pretty good at manipulating the horse to go where he wants it to go. Travis rode off and on through out the evening with different people. It was such a good trip with most of the family and we look forward to September when we get to go back in and round up cows and bring them home.

Christian brought our 4-wheeler in to help speed up the round up of the cows.

Grandma Asay with Stetson, Kandace and Travis. They were quite the trio!

Christian and grandma Asay cooking up some yummy burgers. They always taste so good up in the mountains!

Stetson and Carson both wanted to bring the cooler over closer to the fire where everyone was but were just canceling eachother out by pulling different directions. Travis thought it was a great place to get a ride.

Most of the gang hanging out by the campfire.

In other news...

This area had record amounts of snow this winter and rain this spring making for some major flooding issues once it warmed up and melted everything. Big Horn Reserviour is the highest I have ever seen it and is pretty amazing! This Friday, Christian and I drove up the Big Horn mountains to have dinner at Bear Lodge and when we went to cross the Causeway, the wind was blowing just enough that there were waves coming up over the guardrail and onto the road. When we returned a few hours later to cross back over it and head home, we were met by the highway department who was then piloting cars across because of all the water and debris (there were tons of good sized logs and shrubs) that was now on the road. There was so much that they were using a snowplow to clear out all the trash. It was pretty crazy and kind of scary to see. We were just glad that they were piloting car across and hadn't closed the road down because then we would have had to go back up the mountain and around to get home!

On Saturday, we went to Cowley, a small town near Lovell, and participated in their little town celebration. We watched the parade in the morning, hung out at the park, and then went to Christian's aunt's house for lunch. It was a fun day to spend together as a family.

Watching the parade and getting lots of candy!

Travis threw a huge fit while we were at the park because he wanted his shoes on (after he asked me to take them off). Uncle Daniel tried to make him better by picking him up but it didn't really work!

They boys ran in some leg races at the park that afternoon. Carson really didn't want to do it until his uncle Daniel bribed him with a dollar to race. He raced twice and then was done. Travis, who was all about the racing, biffed it in the first race and was totally done with them after that. They both decided that eating snow cones was a much better idea. We even got to watch uncle Daniel race in the big kid's race and win!! If you notice the huge grin on his face, it was because the elbowed a girl in the head while racing and just figured out what he had done!

Moonlight Cattle Drive

Monday late afternoon, we helped grandpa Asay take his cows to their summer pasture in Dryhead. Usually, the cows get trucked one day and then the following day, the crew trails them all the way to their pasture. It's a long day that begins early and ends late, but is lots of fun. This year, things were done a little different due to truck schedules for the cows, work schedules and some other things. This year's trip started early in the morning with trucking all the cows to some corrals. About five in the evening, we took off and headed up the mountain. We made up the mountain and started moving the cows down the trail about 6:00 and ended the night a little more than half way to the final destination at 11:30 (and getting home about 12:30), hence the Moonlight cattle drive! It was a long evening, but things went pretty well. We enjoyed some fried chicken for dinner and Carson rode all by himself for the first time this trip. He has ridden by himself with either his dad or grandpa holding a lead rope, but this time he was on his own. Grandpa Asay showed him what to do and everyone was good about picking up his reins when his horse would bend down to eat and Carson wasn't be able to hold on to them. He was such a dude! Carson rode until about 11 that night after only taking a short break to eat dinner with everyone and to sit in the car for a bit...he was such a trooper! Today we get to go back in and finish taking the cows to their summer home, but it hopefully won't be another cattle drive by moonlight! :)

ER visit

Well, our good luck streak came to an end this last week when we had to make our first trip to the emergency room. Last Tuesday, Travis slammed his finer in the sliding glass door at my mom's and sliced open his pinky finger on his right hand. Normally, we probably wouldn't have gone to the ER, but it looked like the nail had been pushed into his finger and it looked a little deformed. When we got to the ER, the doctor said he woud just remove the nail and we would be able to go, but after he removed the nail he discovered that he had disrupted the nail bed pretty good and decided to give Travis two little stitches so that the nail would have a better chance of growing back nicer. Travis was quite the trooper. He cried, initially when it happened, but after we him calmed down, he didn't cry again...not even when the doctor gave him the two shots to numb his finger! They were so impressed by his toughness (as were his parents)! Now, the finger is on the mend and we get to take the stitches this week. Way to be tough, Travis!

At the ER after the doctor was all done with putting the stitches in

Travis' stitches or " blue floss" as he called them when we was telling his aunt Charlene waht happened. Sorry about the nasty finger nails...we didn't get our weekly nail grooming done yesturday, I guess!

We went swimming the other day to a break from helping my mom get her garage sale ready and we didn't want his finger to get wet so we cut the finger off a rubber glove and taped it up tight so he could get in the water!

Independence Day!

First, I just want to say how grateful we are to be able to live in this great country where we get to enjoy so many freedoms, and how thankful we are for those that have fought to protect those freedoms and this country! We spent our holiday celebrating with lots of family. We headed to the lake late morning with my parents to enjoy some waterskiing. We still are in the process of getting our boat registered and such in Wyoming, so my parents we nice enough to allow us to go with them. Later in the afternoon, we dropped my parents off at the dock so they could head home and we picked up a group of Christian's family and went back out for a couple of hours. After we were done at the lake, we headed to Christian's family's house for a bbq and then shot off some fireworks. It was a great day spent doing to of our favorite things: being with our families and being on the lake!

Carson was quite the ham in the tube this time. He would stand flex and do all sorts of funny poses!

I think Christian was enjoying his taquito a little too much!

When we told the boys that we were going to go to the lake, the first thing Carson asked is if we were going to have chicken legs for lunch out there. I guess he associates going to the lake with having chicken...and they ate it up!!

We saw a bunch of mountain sheep. They were fun to watch as they walked along the canyon walls.

The little kids had a blast with all the bigger kids around to light smoke bombs and snakes with them before we ate and got to the the "bigger" fireworks!