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.