O Christmas Tree!

Last weekend we went to cut our tree down! It was very exciting mostly because we had no clue what we were doing. On the way there we took our Christmas card photo AND got John's truck stuck in the snow. It was not a dull trip! How did we get the truck out you may ask? Well, obviously you have one person steer, one person push and one pregnant woman sit in the back of the truck for extra weight. Anyways, crisis adverted and we moved to the tree phase.

Here's Mickey off to cut the tree down.

And here they are hauling it back! I realize I don't have pictures of them sawing the trees but I left the camera in the car and going back to get it involved another trek through deep snow so I passed.

The trees in the truck. (Notice the truck is not stuck in the snow...kudos to us!)

And here I am standing in the snow! It's pretty deep! Winter coats + pregnancy really do nothing good for a woman.

Driving back in we stopped to see some wildlife. We only spotted this guy because another truck was stopped and looking at him.

And here are the local deer that hang around Lake Street in town. The male was resting while his flock of women surrounded him.

Then we brought the tree inside, and that was the end of our escapade! Until we set it up and decorated it, but maybe I will show that in another post!

PS I feel its important to note that everytime I say "we" in regards to something involving the tree, I mean Mickey and John. Because I did nothing but stand there!

Winter

Here's a picture of the morning temperature in Bondurant, a town about a hour from us. -20!!!!!!!! I'll be staying inside today :)

p.s. For all who may be concerned and rethinking their planned trip (Michelle), it was only -8 in Pinedale this AM and the high today is 25.

Nature Calls

Last night as we came home we noticed there was a deer on our porch! That was pretty neat. Then this morning we saw she left us a little present.....

Here's the tracks she made through our yard after fleeing the scene.

We now own a Christmas tree permit! Stay tuned because we (and by we I mean Mickey) are going to cut down our own tree this weekend. This sucker only cost 10 dollars. Cheapest Christmas tree ever! 

Wildlife

We had one early snow at the beginning of October which drove all the geese down from the mountain (or Canada, who knows) and into our front yard. Okay, not literally our front yard, but we live across from the golf course and they made the golf course their new home. Let me tell you, those things honk ALOT!! Here's two of the pictures I got of them.

Those pictures don't even begin to capture how many of them there really are. You can tell in both pictures that they are walking away from me...geese are pretty skittish (and did I mention loud!!)

Recently, we have had more snow and I think the geese finally realized Pinedale is not south enough for them because they have left. Maybe they are heading to Texas?!

More snow and colder temperatures means more animals are coming down out of the mountains and into our town! Last week I was leaving the house around 5pm to go to the library and was startled to see 16 deer staring at me from across the street. Of course I had to run and get the camera.

I love the little one playing peek a boo on the left side of this picture.

I thought they were all does but on the way back from the library I spotted this guy!

Beautiful Views

Check out the views we get to wake up to every morning! These are taken from our kitchen window.

Things You Don't Have to Do in Texas!

We had a fair amount of snow on Friday night/Saturday so today it was time to shovel the sidewalk. Thankfully my husband is from Michigan and is no stranger to shoveling!
Action shot! (and yes, he is shoveling in cowboy boots!)

Posed shot. Please pretend with me that his eyes are not closed in this picture.

We also decided Saturday morning would be a good time to play in the snow since it was the weekend and the snow was fresh. Well, first of all, it was still snowing when we went outside and since the snow here is really dry the wind was picking it up and blowing it all in my face. I decided it would be best to go outside like this. (Sorry for the blurriness, I took this on my phone)

And yes I really did wear that outside. Its freezing, people! We tried to build a snowman but the snow was too dry to pack together so it was a major fail.  Then Mickey and John decided to try sledding down this small hill behind our houses. Although it is not recommended for pregnant ladies to go sledding we decided it would be okay for me to try once since it was such a small hill. I was pretty nervous because my first ever sledding experience in Michigan hurt really bad and was NOT fun at all. I'm happy to report that I did not fall on that tiny hill and the baby is fine BUT my pinky finger is not. It got smashed between a rock and the sled on the way down and now looks like this. Hopefully we don't have to amputate!

Welcome to winter!

25 weeks

Here is a picture of me looking pretty pregnant in Houston last weekend.

Now, I was under the impression that I only looked this pregnant in Houston and figured it was because of the heat, or the humidity, or the fact that I ate a whole bowl of Lupe Tortilla queso. I believed this so much that I wore that same dress to church today so that I could take a picture in it and write a blog post about how I look less pregnant in Wyoming and my bump is disappearing and yada yada yada. But then I had Mickey take a picture and I look exactly the same.

Oh well! 15 more weeks until we get to meet this little guy!

Wings

I bet you thought this was going to be a post about a delicious game-time food. Well, it's not. It's about something that is very important in Wyoming. Hunting. Besides the deer, antelope, and elk people hunt here, they also go after something called the Sage Grouse. It's a crazy bird that looks like this.

And when you kill one in Pinedale, they would like you to cut off a wing and put it in this box:

Power Outages

The power goes out all the time in Pinedale. I mean all the time. We've been here less than 2 months and it's gone out at least 5 times. And I'm not talking about just on our street...it's the whole town. Usually it doesn't last that long and is either during the day (when I can at least go outside and read or something) or in the middle of the night so it's not so bad.

Last Tuesday night it went out right as we were finishing dinner, and right when it was starting to get dark. I suggested to Mickey we just go to sleep like they used to do before there was electricity but he wasn't buying it. Instead we carried flashlights and candles over to John's house to see what we could find for entertainment. We started off with a putter, golf balls and a cup as a hole but then that got too easy. 

Yes, what you are looking at is a putt putt ramp made by a box and a shoe. Sorry for the bad quality of the photo--I took it with my phone while holding the flashlight to have enough light. 

About half an hour later the power came on, but we kept playing...I mean why not!

PS I was really good at this game. 

Homecoming

One of the best parts of living in a small town is there is ALWAYS something going on, and everyone knows about it. So far some of the things we've done around town are see the local rodeo, watch a charity rubber duck race down the creek through town, go to two performances at the high school and the topic of this post, the homecoming parade. Thankfully this happened on a Friday Mickey and John had off work so we got to go! The parade took place down Pine, the main street in Pinedale, and they shut down the whole road for it. I should also mention that going through town it's called Pine, but its other name is Highway 191. Anyone trying to get through Pinedale for that half hour was stuck behind a police blockade! 

First up was the Pinedale Wrangler marching band.

 

Each grade level from the elementary school made signs and dressed up for the parade. I thought the first graders were the cutest in their cowboy gear!

The King and Queen. Also notice the pretty leaves in the background. All the trees are starting to change colors and it's beautiful!

Then each high school grade level had a weird car or float go by. Notice the drummer girl in the second picture. She totally posed for me!

Here's a shot down Pine as the end of the parade passed us. It was quite the event with ambulances and fire trucks involved. 

And last but not least here are all the unsuspecting people who had to wait for this parade to be over to get on with their Wyoming travels. Their angry faces as they drove by at 2 MPH were priceless!

I also think it is very important to note that the Pinedale Wranglers did not win their homecoming game. In fact, at the time of their homecoming game they hadn't won a game all season....or last season either. However I am happy to inform you that last weekend we took a trip down to Big Piney (about 45 minutes away) to see the Big Piney Punchers take on the Pinedale Wranglers and the Wranglers WON! It was kind of a big deal because Big Piney is our biggest rival. The win was so important it was even mentioned in our Sunday sermon! 

Let it Snow!

Yesterday was the first snow of the season which was pretty exciting for this Texas girl. I got really happy when it looked like this outside:

So imagine my delight when I woke up to THIS!!!!

I will say though that I did not envy Mickey trying to get all the snow off his car before work.

Angie requested a snowman picture so last night I created this little guy.

Isn't he cute?! Well, sorry little guy, I tried to find you this morning and this was all I could find.

RIP. I will make your big brother later in the year.













If you need me I will be bundling up like Randy from A Christmas Story!

ATVs

Everyone here seems to have a toy. Whether its a huge RV, snowmobile, or ATV, if you take a walk around the neighborhood you are almost guaranteed to see one or more of these in everyone's driveway. Side note--recently at a Shell dinner this guy was talking about getting a sled for the winter. I was thinking how fun that would be in slide down a hill on a trash can lid or something. THEN he stated that it was going to cost 3500 dollars, used. Apparently in Pinedale "sled" means snowmobile. Anyways, lots of people here have ATVs and they like to drive them around town like cars. On Sunday I saw a guy drive up to church in one with his two little boys. THANKFULLY I had my camera on hand at the homecoming parade (more on that later) to catch a picture of this guy:

Please notice the gun in the backseat and his ponytail. I love this town.

Earthquake Drill

Today in Wyoming there is a statewide earthquake drill. First of all, I didn't even know earthquakes happened in Wyoming. I thought I was escaping scary hurricanes to the land of freedom but apparently we have other natural disasters to worry about here. In case anyone in Houston wants to participate, it's happening at 11:00am which is 12:00pm your time. There are 3 key elements to remember if you are visited by an earthquake....

My favorite part of this picture, which I got by going to Wyoming's earthquake drill website (by the way I encourage you to check out this website, it has a countdown to the drill and everything) is the picture of California on the poster.

Our House

Today I will take you on a tour of our little house here in Pinedale. Here's the front. Notice the Texas to the left of the front door. That's one of my favorite parts!

Here's one view of our living room. Yes, that is a moose antler on our coffee table. 

Here's the other side of our living room. Please notice the other antlers on our shelves. We have decided to embrace the Pinedale hunting atmosphere. (Thanks Dad for giving us all the antlers before we left!)

The breakfast/dining area.

STALKER PICTURE!!! This is looking out our back door. See the door across the way with the A&M flag in the window? That's John's house. 

Kitchen. I'm almost embarrassed to put this picture because it looks really messy but thats just life. 

The guest room/computer room. This room could be yours if you just come to visit! 

Future Baby Bohn's room, so far.

He's already got his own drum set in his bed room. Lucky kid!

A glimpse into our bedroom. Notice that humidifier on the floor. I am convinced that 95% of the humidity in the whole state of Wyoming comes out of that thing. 

AND, just in case you didn't notice the wallpaper border that is going on in our bedroom, here is a closer look:

That right there is the main reason we signed a lease in this place! 

And one last picture of our new license plates on the car. Check out the awesome cowboy!