day 1 bomber mountain 2012

ever since we moved to sheridan I wanted to make a backpacking trip to bomber mountain.

this required a 6 mile hike to the camping location and then another ~2 mile hike to the bomber…straight up a boulder field.

it took a little time to get hubby interested. but when we asked for backpacking packs for christmas one year and then got them for christmas…there was no excuse. we pretty much had all the equipment. except for light sleeping bags…but we’ve fixed that problem since.

so hubby and I planned the trip finally this past summer. 3 days. we were going to hike the 6 miles to the camping spot, mistymoon lake. hike to the bomber the next day and then hike out the 3rd day.

we had the house a mess. but once we loaded our packs the house was back semi clean. initially the packs felt “light.” they sure didn’t last long once we got to hiking.

we loaded up the car and drove the 90 minutes to the trailhead. but gave ourselves plenty of time to make our camp spot by dark.

of course the puppies wasted no time climbing in the car. they do a pretty good job keeping us entertained. they were excited.

loaded up and headed up the trail. the day was perfect. I couldn’t have asked for better weather.

yes. the dogs had packs. they carried their own food going in. but then carried some of our stuff coming out. they will be carrying more the next time!

signs are always nice to find. you know you’re going the right way. and yes. I hike in chacos. I love them. and I didn’t have to worry about rock hopping at creek crossings. I took a pair of shoes because I didn’t want to boulder hop with no ankle support.

at the top of this drainage in these pictures was our destination. we were halfway there when we hit this lake. the pups were ready for a cool off swim and we needed more water so it was perfect. this trip was our first trip using our water filter pump. its all in your mind, but sometimes you feel like the water is just tasting different. I didn’t mind…I’ve done it in the past. I think it took a little while for hubby to grasp the idea. but we are both still alive today so it didn’t kill us.

the last 3 miles went by quicker than the first 3 miles. there were lakes that we passed and we knew we had to be getting closer to Mistymoon.

I feel like hubby and I were never happier to see a body of water. we immediately dropped our packs and started looking for a campsite.

the grass patch in the left picture is where we decided to pitch our tent for the night. and you can also see the lakes we passed coming up. the farthest lake was the halfway point at 3 miles. it looked so much closer than when we were actually hiking it.

camp was set up and we decided to make some dinner and explore the lake.

I absolutely love this picture. you can see our tent and you can see down valley. perfect!

trying to keep the dogs out of the water before we went to bed that night was a fun task. they did fairly well and only fell in a couple times.

we tried to take a little family photo…but it’s a lot more difficult in a little boulder field than I thought. this was the best picture we managed to get.

we snuggled into bed that night and prepared for the next day….to summit bomber mountain.

come back to get the 411 on day 2 of our trip!

the bathroom remodel

I always had this grand plan of how I wanted to do my own bathroom once we owned our own house.

I left the bathroom be for a few weeks after we moved in before I decided it was time to up grade.

first it started only as a painting project. but then it turned into new vanity, medicine cabinet, new lights, and of course the new paint.

this is what it looked like when we moved in.

we took everything out…except the toilet. and taped for everything to be painted. went to home depot to try to match colors. then we went home to try to find something with the colors on it so they could match them. went BACK to home depot only to find out we didn’t need any of it. they had the exact colors we were looking for with the perfect names.

these pictures went on facebook long ago…so if you are my friend…you know where I am going with this.

I always seem to under estimate the amount of time it is going to take to complete a project. the paint ended up needing more than one coat and of course you can’t re-paint until its dry, and you can’t move anything in until the paint is all dry.

what I thought would take a night ended up being maybe a week until the bathroom was fully functional again.

we are getting closer to the finished product. the walls were Wyoming Gold and the ceiling was Wyoming Brown.

the pups were no help. until I started paint the trim and then they thought since I was down on their level they needed to come rub up against wet paint. they had a few brown spots on them.

so much better with the upgrade. the old vanity wasn’t even attached to the wall.

I made a bucking horse and rider stencil and put them around the edge. that was the fun part. they are all different and each have their own unique touch.

all finished and finally fully functional. it was a fun project. and adds our own little touch to our house. and just in case you happen to visit on game day….you know who not to root against.

the new abode

hubby and I have always talked about buying a house. but we didn’t want to make something so permanent until we were sure it was going to be home for at least a few years. we started looking at houses. got ahold of our realtor friend and started making the rounds looking at houses.

it was fun, but completely exhausting to look at houses.

I really liked walking into a house and knowing that there was no way this was our house. it made things so much easier.

we first started looking at houses in the lower price range. but they didn’t have a garage or a fenced yard. a fenced yard was kind of a must have with the two blondes. and we felt we really needed a garage or some sort of storage unit that came with the house. no sense in paying monthly for a storage unit somewhere else.

so we changed our price range and found some cute houses with the garage AND fenced yards.

most of them still needed some work to be a completed house….like unfinished basements. that I felt was not something I want to deal with as a first time home owner. sure I don’t have a problem with home repairs….but I didn’t want to walk into a house and have to finish a basement. I’m okay with painting…but sheet rocking….I haven’t the slightest clue.

all of the houses without finished basements were OUT!

we browsed most of the houses online prior to setting up an appointment to see the inside. every house had pictures on the internet of the inside except for one. we didn’t know if we wanted to take the time to see it. it only had a picture of the front of the house. we had driven by the house and saw the nice yard and a very nice 2 car detached garage. we took the plunge and decided to look at the inside.

we immediately walked into a nice spacious kitchen.

there was some older carpet in the master bedroom.

mustard colored 70’s shag carpet. AND the bathroom off the master bedroom had carpet in it too. I knew that would be the first thing to be updated if we bought the house.

the other 2 rooms had linoleum in them.

 

and….as hubby says, “look its already blue for when we have our boy.”
yes. yes it is babe. but for right now it will probably be a guest room.

nice spacious living room.

we fell in love with this house. it was in a quiet neighborhood. the yard was a huge upgrade from where we were renting. actually…in the yard the previous owners had a garden…and the size of their garden was the size of our backyard. our yard now is probably 7 times the size of the old yard.

(you can see part of the garden plot here)

this is the majority of the backyard. I joked with aron that the puppies would probably think we were just at the dog park with the big yard.

we looked at one more house after this house, but still came back to the “Martin House".” we cleaned up some bills that needed to be taken care of and closed on the house on July 19th. it was ours! we were excited.

that day we dealt with our work stuff and then took the puppies over for their first romp. it brought tears to my eyes. they were so happy to have so much room to run. I felt like I could literally see their smiles. I’m sure they didn’t know it was all theirs….but its so nice for them to have so much room.

we were pretty well packed at our old place. I knew before we moved into the house I wanted to replace the master bedroom floor. hubby and I pulled the carpet out and got ready to lay wood floors.

thankfully we had help from some amazing people otherwise we might still be sleeping on the living room floor.

there was linoleum under the carpet….it wasn’t bad looking, but we had already bought the wood flooring and I was ready for the new look.

so much better than the shag.

please come visit! we have plenty of room!