Since living in Cheyenne the past two years I have wanted to go visit the state capital. Starting this fall they want to start doing an extensive renovation on it and a neighboring building, which will close the capital down until 2018 (long after we are gone). So this past week I decided I had better go now or I would not get a second chance. I invited some friends and away we went. Cheyenne is the smallest capital city in the US and by far the easiest capital city to navigate (that I have ever been in anyway). Getting to the State capital building is not hard at all, and parking is a cinch, most of the time trying to get to ones state capital that is the daunting part that keeps people away. Lucky that for me that was the easy part of our adventure since I don’t like stuffy driving conditions.

Our tour of the capital was fun, we got to show the kids and tell them a little about what goes on in the capital during legislative months and so forth. We had fun looking at the pictures depicting the history of the capital building and of the past representatives. There was also a large buffalo in one area, and other neat displays depicting many of the resources found in Wyoming. One thing I noticed was that the state seal was outside the front steps (sorry no picture) of the capital and not inside as part of the flooring like other capitals I have explored.  They did have a stained glass replica of it in the sealing of the room for the House of Representatives, and that was neat.

State Seal

A picture looking up at the capital dome from the inside 

Picture of our group from above

Picture sitting bellow a picture of Francis E. Warren one of Wyoming's early Governors 

Outside the capital building with one of the many rodeo statues

Another adventure Sophie and I took this week was a trip to the county fair. This fair is anti-climactic compared to CFD and takes place the week after CFD finishes. It is nothing like the county fairs I remember going to growing up and showing livestock myself while in 4-H. It was fun however to show Sophie the animals and tell her all about my experiences and what was going on. Like I said it was anti-climactic but we still had fun petting/looking at the animals, plus Sophie got to milk a goat. In the end it was an activity we don’t get to do every day which allowed us to get out of the house for a while, so I would say our outing was a success. 

Yesterday I was able to host a baby shower for a friend of mine, I have been planning it for about three months now and I think it all came together nicely. First off I don’t love going to and hosting traditional baby showers, so when she mentioned she wanted to do crafts at her shower I was on board 100%.

I sent out library card invites that I saw on Pinterest and re-created using my Photoshop elements program. I took the design I got off Pinterest and took it one step forward by making the library card sleeves for the invitations.  I think they turned out cute.

Since the invitation was a library card I decided to do the shower decorations with the library theme. I decorated the shower with books and toys, such as you would see in the children’s area of the library or a nursery. All the books and toys were either borrowed or found around my home. Simple and cute!

For refreshments I served 5 different kinds of quick breads, a simple yogurt bar, and juice or water. I used my canning jars as cups and added a chalkboard label to the lids so the guests could write their name with a chalk pen to keep track of their drink if they set it down. Everything tasted and looked so yummy :)  

  

I kept the crafts simple so even the craft challenged guests could do them. We ironed on pre-made appliqués on to onesies and made head band accessories for baby. As a guest book I printed out some free ABC coloring pages off the internet and asked all the guests to color a page and write a note to mom and baby. I then took the pages after the shower, scanned them onto the computer and had them printed into a keepsake photo book along with some of the photos I took at the shower. This was my gift to mom as well as the shower.

In the end I believe the baby shower was a success and I had a nice turn out with a lot of complements. The sad things is I forgot to take pictures of the finished onesies and the headbands before we packed them up in moms car, and the photo book is still at the printers... so that means I don’t have any pictures of our finished crafts for you to see, sorry. You will just have to take my word on it, they all looked cute and I can’t wait to see little miss all dolled up in our finished craft projects. 

Gift Table, this was taken at the start of the shower, but by the end there were several bows hanging up on the frame I made. So sad I did not get a picture of all of them. 

Coloring the guest book/keepsake

Ironing appliques on 

This is the best picture I have of where you can see some of the onesies we did. 

Cheyenne Frontier days is over! Yea haw!!! It is so nice to have our quiet neighborhood back again. CFD is always a fun experience but after 10 days of constant noise it is nice to have the quiet return again. This year for CFD we spent the days with friends at the park or with my family who all (but Ben) came to visit for the last three days of CFD. That said Sophie and I went practically every day to the park to see the Indian dancers, or the old west town alone or with friends or family. Stewart and I also decided to take Sophie to the carnival to ride the Ferris wheel and other rides she has been dreaming about doing since we moved here two years ago. All in all the last several days have been jam packed with good ol’ Cheyenne Frontier Day fun.  

The first of the week (July 20^th) my friend Kathryn Ditson scored 5 tickets to the Rodeo so she invited Sophie and me to go along with her and her two little ones. We had a lot of fun, but the kids got board about 1.5 hours into it so we left early. Because we had tickets to the rodeo it allowed us to get into the midway area without paying to get in, so we took advantage of that and looked at a lot of the booths set up around the area. We saw a lot of neat stuff but none we had money to buy :) 

That night for FHE Stewart and I took Sophie to the carnival so she could ride the Farris wheel and a few other rides. I think she had a lot of fun, because she left with a giant smile on her face. I did not take pictures at the rodeo with Kathryn but here are some pictures from the carnival.  

On Wednesday Stewart had the day off because it was Cheyenne Day. Every Cheyenne Day the Air Force Thunderbird group comes and puts on a show. We decided to skip the crowds and watch the air show from the solarium room at the hospital. It was really neat to see them do all their tricks and maneuvers, many times we were sure they were going to crash they were so close. It was a fun day!

Later that week some of my friends and their kids got together to go to the Indian Village and watch the dancers dance. Afterwards we went and explored the Old West town and let the kids ride a pony. We also put them in jail for not following the rules… it was a fun morning and a good way to spend our time. 

On Thursday evening my family arrived to spend a few days with us. Like I mentioned above everyone was here with us but my sister Emily’s husband Ben, who was missed. We started off our get together Friday Morning by going to the CFD Pancake breakfast at the train depot. They feed several hundreds of people three different mornings during CFD. Because it is such a large crowd they mix the pancake batter in a food grade cement mixer attachment. The line seems daunting but it moves quickly. Once you get to the front of the line they give you a plate put three or so pancakes on it someone puts butter on your pancakes if wanted and then someone else adds the syrup, next you get a slice of ham and then you find a seat and enjoy. It is always a fascinating experience. 

After the pancake breakfast we came home and got ready to go to the rodeo. I learned that this was Stewart’s first rodeo, I have no idea how I did not know that until half way thru the rodeo. It was a good rodeo and our seats were fantastic of course since I went to buy them clear back in January to make sure we got prime seating. 

Later that night we went back to the carnival where Grandma and Grandpa spoiled the grand kids and bought some tickets for them to go on a few rides. After we exhausted ourselves at the carnival we came home and had a hot dog roast in our back yard. We finished out the evening listening to one of the nightly concerts. It was a fun day, but we were all so tired I don’t think any one of us had a problem falling asleep that night. 

Ben called in and join all the fun via Phone

See I was there too.

On Saturday, we went to the last CFD Rodeo for the year. I will be honest CFD rodeos are B.O.R.I.N.G! There are a lot of rodeo queens, princesses, and other royalty, lots of wagons and cow folk. There were a few high school bands and clowns, but really that is about all there is. We had fun anyway and enjoyed the experience.

After the parade, we all came home and eventually made our way to the Indian Village to watch the Indian dancers perform, and explore the shops in the area. After that we then walked over to the Old West town where we again took pictures in the jail and let Sophie and Bridon ride the ponies. We tried to do all we wanted to do in this area since the following day was Sunday and the last day of CFD so we would not have this chance again. When we tired ourselves out we came home and relaxed. 

When Rupert got scared he would go under Sophie's bed. 
Sophie is under the bed with Rupert helping him feel safe. 

On Sunday we went to church. Sophie had to give a talk in primary so she invited her Gma and Gpa as well as her Aunts to come and watch her. She did a great job and it was fun to have so many on-lookers cheering her on, quietly of course :)  After church we came home had dinner, took a Sunday nap and then Sophie and I (Stewart had to work) invited everyone to join us on a walk to Lions Park. We took them to the Botanical Gardens and enjoyed showing everyone our beloved park and all there is to do in it. 

At the park.......

The next day everyone had to head back to Idaho so we helped them pack up and waved to them as they pulled away. It was sad to see them go, but we made a lot of fun memories while they were here. I think the best part of waving goodbye to them was knowing we did not have a 10 hour dive to make to get home. We know from experience that is one loooooong drive we hope not to have to make too many more times.

So what did we do while my family was traveling back to Idaho you ask? We loaded ourselves up with a picnic lunch and headed off to Vedauwoo for a day hike and time as a family to explore the area. It was nice just to be together as a trio, and we had fun climbing and exploring all around. It was a good end to a fun 10 days of crazy CFD fun!

This is Chip he joined us for lunch