Sunday, March 8, 2009

WERland Wyoming


This past weekend Jill, me, and the boys made a 4 and 1/2 hour road trip to Worland,Wyoming. This wasn't just a joy ride to see the splendor of Worland, but to go and cheer the Kemmerer boys and girls basketball teams to victory at the Western Wyoming Regional Basketball Tournament!! We left early Thursday morning, little did we know that we were going to miss out on a spectacular performance by the KHS girl's basketball team. Their first game was at 9am against the rival Lyman Eagles (Lyman is about 45 min. away from Kemmerer) and they apparently played a tough game! I was a little bummed we missed it, but we definitely got our fill of basketball games this weekend. The girls ended up not making it to state but the KHS boys won the regional tournament even thought one of the star players broke his elbow in the first round of play!My parents also decided to make a road trip to come see their long lost baby girl- i'm sure due to empty-nesters syndrome and perhaps part of it was due to the fact that Worland is the same distance from Lewistown as it is from Kemmerer ;). It was really fun to see them! They are so awesome, and the grandkids absolutely love their grandma and grandpa Allen. Jarrett has acquired a particular fondness for my dad- it is too cute.

I stayed with my parents in a town about 45 min. away from Worland, called Thermopolis, whose claim to fame is that located there is the 'World's Largest Mineral Hot Springs'. The native americans who used to live in that area called it " Healing Waters" because I guess there are like 60-some abundant minerals in it. I thought the town was so charming! We stayed at a Best Western(although jill will tell you that I truly wanted to stay at the ' Gachman' Inn ;) teehee) there and got to soak in an au natural mineral hot spring! I will admit that it's smell was fairly putrescent, it literally smelled like rotten eggs or something, but it felt so nice. It is amazing how much better water feels when there isn't gallons of chlorine in it!
We also took the boys to the Dinosaur Center in Thermopolis, which was actually impressive. I even thought it was interesting! I cannot believe how gargantuan some of those dinosaurs were. Crazy- even seeing there skeletons gave me the chills. The boys, on the other hand, absolutely loved it! They wanted to crawl under the roped off areas and touch and climb all over those dino skeletons- not me!



This machine was way cool! It would iron out your penny and then put the imprint of some dinosaur on it along with it's name! The boys were entertained by their new toys for only about one second though.

As for the title to this entry, my dad was the inspiration. I have been getting some teasing on behalf of my Montana accent from some of my friends. In Montana we don't say FLAAAAAG, we say 'fleg'. We don't say RAAAAAAG, we say 'reg'. We don't say CREEEEK, we say 'crick'. Anyways, I was explaining this to my parents and my dad just laughed. He said that he just had the perfect story for me then. Wyoming thinks Montanans have a problem, no way. My parents had stopped at some small town in Wyoming on their way to Worland to ask for directions to Worland High School. The lady at the counter of the gas station, after minutes of concetrating very hard trying to understand my dad, had to go ask someone else because she simply had no idea what my father was talking about. Finally, she brought out another woman with her, and my dad asked again how to get to Worland. After a few second with an expression of utter confusion on her face she said, "........... OH! You mean WERland , WERland high school." My dad just laughed and said " Um, yes. Yes, I meant WERland." That story made me feel a little better about my Montana 'accent'.



He's just the cutest!





Do they come any cuter?






I don't think so.