July 4-5, 2010

My brother and sister came to see me for the fourth and fifth of July. Usually our entire family goes on a weekend fishing trip to the Bighorns just before the the Fourth for a mini vacation. But this year my parents are gallivanting across Vienna, Austria and Germany. So Kyle, Holly and I gallivanted around Alcova and Casper.

First stop was Pathfinder reservoir. It's running over for the first time since the 1980s. I don't know all the specifics, but it was a lot of water and my brother loves seeing stuff like that so off we went. I will hopefully have a post dedicated to the photos I took on the two trips I've made to see it.

A very nice guy took a picture of the three of us so there is an actual photo of me from the day!

Usually off to the left of the photo are rocks you can walk on and there is nothing running under this "closed" walkway. We checked out the dam from all angles, literally. We drove to the other side, walked across the bridge visible in the first photo and hiked all over.


Then we had a picnic in my backyard for Holly. After traipsing all over the mountains she was worn out and promptly fell asleep on the couch following lunch. Kyle and I proceeded to rip all the problematic lilacs out of my front yard. Someone had planted them all across my little front step and they were one of my least favorite things about the house. Now they are gone and hopefully another post will show before, another during, and the pretty after flowers.


Some were a little tough and we pulled them instead of using the hydrobed. There were some staring neighbors, but this method was much easier than digging them out by hand or using a chainsaw.

Then we woke Holly up and took her swimming just up the street from my house. Kyle and I aren't much for swimming, but the pool was actually warm and we made it. Holly absolutely loves swimming and would have happily spent the entire afternoon, evening and night in the pool.

I didn't get a photo of the big, loopy slides. Kyle and Holly each went down one at the same time and I was at the bottom to catch Holly. She started out sitting up, facing forward and shot out the bottom on her stomach and backwards. I plucked her out of the 3-foot deep water and between bouts of laughter asked what happened.
As she wiped water from her face tartly replied "I drowned, Heather!"
I almost drowned her again I was laughing so hard.