Lots 'o flowers!

As I mentioned, while we were driving up in the mountains, there were LOTS of flowers along the way.  We started off looking for wildlife and this was "dutiful Jessica," doing her part to help out.  Cute pic, eh? :)  (Again, click on them one time to make the picture larger!)

Take a look at all of the beautiful pictures of flowers that the girls captured.  There are SO MANY beautiful flowers in the mountains near-by!

Aren't the flowers just beautiful?  I thought so, too.  And this is what my friends looked like ALL day long...just picture snappin' gals! :)

Fun times continued!

When my friends from WI arrived, we headed downtown to the local farmer's market.  We bought some homemade kettle corn and Jessica and I were quite excited about it! :)  (Again, if you click ONCE on the picture, it will make it MUCH bigger and easier to see.)



Next, we headed to the local sushi restaurant.  Jessica was NOT excited about this, but we managed to talk her into trying it out.  It was delicious!  Jessica thought it was so-so, but she still was okay with some of it. :)  Beth and I...

The spread....

Jessica getting ready for her first big bite!  And, no, that's not fear you're seeing...she's just trying to remain positive!  :)

In the meantime, I'm shocked at what Beth was brave enough to try.  Can you tell? :)

All-in-all, it was a nice evening.  The next day, we decided to head to the Cheyenne Frontier Days.  Those rodeos are about four hours long and when it's your first time there, it's kind of overwhelming because there is SO much going on.  Seriously, it's a non-stop four hours of activity and things going on.  It's fun, but definitely sensory overload.

A mass of cowboys during the wild horse race...

Crazy buckin' bronc!!

Even crazier bull!! :)

This part of the show was pretty impressive.  This BEAUTIFUL team of six horses was able to turn this wagon rig around and around in circles, over and over.  VERY impressive!  Here's a series of photos of the event...

Look at the front wheels in this one (below)!  Impressive!!!

As always, there's a rodeo clown.  This guy was SO funny!  Here he is playing his fake electric guitar.  HILARIOUS!

Next, he wanted to be sure that the steers in the steer roping weren't running too fast, so he tried to "clock" the steer.

Here he is, announcing how FAST the steer went...91 mph!!!  Isn't that crazy-fast?  Oh, wait, what's that?  Oh...the clown had the clock turned upside down.  The steer was actually running 16 mph.  hahahaha!!!! : )

There were all kinds of eventful things that happened that day...this guy face planted...

...this guy didn't look like he was gonna be able to hang on a second longer...

...and THIS guy about lost his hat!  Whoo-whee!! :)

Beth & I at the CFD (Cheyenne Frontier Days)

Beth & Jessica at CFD

Oh, and one of the best things about CFD...the fair rides!!  Here's a cool shot that Beth took through the fence...

When I asked Jessica & Beth if I could go on one of the rides, they said NO and that we had to head home.  This was my reaction...yes, that's right...I was NOT impressed.

We had a great day at the CFD, from the parades to the buckin' broncs to the steer wrestling, it was a grand 'ol time and we had SO much fun! :)

Fun times!

Way back a "long" time ago (about two months), two lovely ladies came to visit me from Wisconsin!  They were here for a crazy-short three day visit, but we had a lot of fun (or so I felt...I didn't ask them!)! :)  Here's a bit about their visit.  These pics were selected out of 600, so there's LOTS more that happened during their visit and I'll show those pics later. :)

Oh, and don't forget...if you click ONCE on each picture, it will open up the picture to a bigger view! :)

Beth is one of the girls that came to visit.  This pic was taken while we were all hiking around one day:

Jessica was the other girl that was out here for the visit.  This pic was taken on the same hike as the pic that was taken of Beth & I.  Yes...there were still large patches of snow up in the mountains that we were able to hike around on:

This was ONE of the many beautiful flower pictures that were taken that day.  It was cold and rainy on our first day out there, so we ended up taking a second day trip out there and that was much better weather.  It just opened up opportunity for LOTS more flower pics! :)  It was great!

On the first rainy day of our adventure, we decided to head back for home because it was just too rainy.  On the way back, though, I was sure I had seen some elk, so we swung around to drive back and look.  We couldn't find them, but we noticed a car had stopped in the road, so we slowed down to see what they were looking at and we saw this gigantic MOOSE!  I've lived out here for nine years and this was the FIRST time that I saw a moose up in these mountains.  It was awesome! :)

We never did see any elk that day or the next and I was kind of bummed about that, but on the way to go rock climbing, we got to see a TRUE Wyoming experience...cowboys moving cattle! :)  I was excited for my friends to actually see this because it's just a neat experience.

We finished the day hiking and climbing and it was then time for the girls to head back to WI and for me to head back home.  So, we said our goodbyes and off we went in our separate directions.  Wouldn't you know, less than three miles away, I saw this massive heard of elk on the side of the road!  I was SO bummed that the girls missed it, but SO glad I was able to catch some photos of them.  They're such beautiful animals.

And that's that!  We also went to the Cheyenne Frontier Days Rodeo and out for sushi, so I'll show some of those photos later on.  For now, though, take care and have a great day!!  Bye! :)