Devil's Tower

It didn't take us long to make our first trip to Devil's Tower (the weekend of Feb. 14). It's only one hour and fifteen minutes away...you can't beat that! My Grandpa Andersen took a much needed vacation (he cares for my Grandma who has dementia) and came up to MT to visit my parents for a week. My poor Grandpa is from California and probably froze to death while he was here! They decided to come to WY for the weekend and see our new house. We were excited to have visitors!

None of us had ever been to Devil's Tower before, so it was an easy decision to go there. However, it was REALLY cold and all of the tourist stores were closed. But it was really pretty and it started snowing lightly too. I have to admit, I didn't know a single thing about Devil's Tower, except what it looked like in pictures. So, if you're like me...go HERE and learn about it!

Near the base. As I mentioned before Gillette pretty much has no trees. On our drive to Devil's tower Evan actually said,"Look mommy! TREES!" Poor kid gets excited when he sees trees! Sad,very sad.

Carter being his usual cute self.
Jordyn, Mark (my dad), Mirl (my grandpa), Evan, me, & Carter.

My cute Grandpa.

After my Grandpa posed for this photo, Evan marched over and stood there waiting for us to take his picture too.

Tom and I. We will definitely be going back in the spring or summer. I think it would be really pretty that time of year.

Snowball fight! Evan was chasing my Grandpa to throw snow at him!

Getting OLD!

Today Tom is turning the big "30"! Happy Birthday Tom! What can I say? He's still the best dad and husband ever!
This year he has decided to finally fulfill his greatest wish and get a ...... GUN! He works so hard for us, so he deserves it!

Up and Running!

We made the move and have been in our house for 2 weeks now! We really like it and are actually very happy with our decision. It feels so great to have our own home again and just be back in our family routine. Tom and I were just saying the other day that the best decision we ever made was to not be tempted to buy a house that was at the high end of our price range or more than we could handle. It feels good when you look back and realize you made a smart move!
We have survived almost two weeks with absolutely no TV (there are no TV stations here so you can't even pick up the basic channels) and Internet! We even forgot our DVD player at my parent's house so Evan has been watching the same video tapes over and over. And I can't believe I'm saying this, but I actually liked it most of the time. I got almost completely unpacked because I had lots of free time! We also had a lot of fun just playing with the kids at night before bed and Tom and I talked a lot... which I loved (not sure if he did)! And talk about a lot of e-mails and blogs to catch up on....I'm getting there!
I'm loving my day to day routine right now. Isn't it funny how after awhile you get so tired of doing the same thing day after day? Well, I missed it and love it now... at least for awhile. Jordyn has even been in school for two weeks now and is doing great! I've been really impressed with everyone at her school. It seems like a top notch program. Jordyn was really attached to Miss Andy at her school in Idaho and her new school tells me she is already attached to one of the aides in her class! They also said,"When she doesn't want to do something... she really tells us!" (by screaming) I had to laugh at that.
Next up...house pictures!

Kitchen. One of favorite features: computer area on the right. The door goes to a "mud room" and laundry room.

Living room area. Another one of our favorite things... the flat screen TV (free with the house) and the fireplace.

The kid's favorite thing: the horses! Directly behind our house is a large area of farmland. We should never have anything built behind us which is great. We live on the outskirts of town so it almost feels like living out in the country.

The horses come by about once a day to visit. You can see our deck and a small part of the backyard. The horses are standing right at the farm fence line. Our next task will be deciding what to do with the yard and when to put in grass. The front yard is quite a bit bigger then the back.