Auntie's In Town!!

 To say that I was surprised is an understatement. Why? Because Amber surprised me by traveling here to Wyoming earlier than expected. I was in shock when I saw her walking through the door at 9:30 p.m. that I wasn't too sure on what to say. I was actually a bit confused because we had been texting and now she was standing right in front of me. 

But, the kids had an even better surprise that morning when they found Auntie sleeping on the couch. We had planned on making it a surprise that Auntie was going to be here for Christmas. The kids figured it was just going to be us for Christmas this year, so they were pretty clueless on the fact that Auntie was coming here again this year. 

The shock and happiness these kids had when they saw Auntie was great! The excitement they always have when they see her, always puts a huge smile on my face and happy tears in my eyes. The love they have for their Auntie is indescribable!

Now that we got all the surprises out of the way, it was time to get in the car and do some exploring. That's one thing we love doing while Amber is here, to get in the car and just go. We don't necessarily have an idea of where we are going, we just drive, then when we find an area we can get out, we get out and explore a bit!

It was a beautiful day to do just that. We found some great new areas to explore. And it's not always about hiking somewhere, it's about just getting out of the car and seeing new things. We literally stopped on the side of the road and walked out to the water. It was still half frozen, but that's what's cool about it. You can walk on the frozen parts, but you can also see the water flowing right through the ice. It's pretty amazing to see, hear and watch. 

It really is crazy what you can find when you just drive. The next area we drove by, we have driven by before, just never got out to explore the area and now it most likely going to be an area we will go by more often. It was a beautiful area. They had bunch of hiking trails (which we didn't go on because we wanted to drive to explore more) but I can't wait to do some hiking there someday soon! 

The kids really enjoyed this stop. Walking along side the water. Throwing rocks to try to break the ice (which didn't really happen because the ice was so thick, but they tried to throw those rocks as hard as they could to break it)

Our last and final stop of the day, we got out of the car and did a little bit of hiking. I think we would have hiked a little further, but it was starting to get very chilly with the sun going down, so we were only able to go about half the way. 

We did venture off the trail a bit, which was pretty awesome. We came across an old truck bed and what looked like foundation from an old house. Crazy to think about what had happened in this area way back when. 

It was a great first day with Auntie. Made some great memories, but also found some really great spots that we would like to explore more!!