Grateful for Family

Here in the West, we don't see much of our beloved families.

More often than not, there's quite a bit of distance between us and them!  We've been thinking of our families a lot lately, though, for many reasons. We recently sent wishes for happiness and health to Charlotte's Morfar on his 85th birthday...

...and bid farewell to Foster Kreiser, who always shared his generosity, kindness, and positive attitude with us.

With family so fresh in our minds, you can imagine how happy we were to learn that Charlotte's mom, Kirsten, would visit us over the 4th of July holiday.  We explored, celebrated Charlotte's birthday, and had a great time! 

 On the 4th of July, we learned a bit about the Lincoln Highway, the country's first transcontinental highway.  The highest point on its journey was just outside Laramie.

We next visited the Ames Monument, which is also not far from Laramie, and commemorates some rich guys who helped build some railroad that brought people through Laramie (I think it was called the "Transcontinental Railroad," or something like that).

After our little tour through history, it was time to do some exploring!  Among other highlights, we took a hike at Vedauwoo to see the wildflowers...

 ...and then attended Laramie's quaint 4th of July celebration, "Freedom Has a Birthday."

Quick note: stilt-walking didn't come so naturally to everyone, unfortunately.  I learned that I stilt-walk like a feeble pterodactyl (the kind that natural selection would've taken care of long before any asteroid).

At least I can walk on the ground, right?  That served us well the next day, when we took an amazing hike in the Snowies.  The air was thin, the wildflowers were phenomenal, and the view was awesome!

 

All in all, we had a great time enjoying family and scenery.  While we're back to reality out here after the nice holiday, we're doing our best to savor the summer weather, so stay tuned for more pictures!  Until then, our thoughts are with the Kreisers, Angstadts, and everyone else in our blog family.