Instagrams & Milk: Weekend in Wyoming

So, as I mentioned in an earlier post, we went to middle of nowhere Wyoming over the weekend for a family reunion. The drive consisted of lots of sagebrush and antelope, my mom falling into giggling fits and taking several wrong exits, and a sick girl working in a gas station who dropped the F bomb a plethora of times in front of, us, the customers. Those Wyoming women are rough, guys. We walked in and the chick had a thermometer hanging from her mouth. We thought that was a little strange. Then while waiting in line, she yelled and cussed at her boss over the phone since he apparently wouldn't let her go home due to her high temperature. Then she acted like she was hyperventilating as she chucked our candy bars in a sack, all while wiping her snot across her arm. We washed our candy bars in hand sanitizer after that. Just the wrappers, not the actual bars. My grandma felt bad for the girl. I, quite honestly, did not. She was being a drama queen. A Wyoming drama queen with a dirty mouth. 

But aside from that adventure, we came across no other drama queens, but instead enjoyed the outdoors and some company of family members. I didn't even touch my camera all weekend. But I did get some instas for you to enjoy. Sadly, I did not capture one of sick girl with thermometer in her mouth. You'll just have to take my word on that one.   

Driving through Kemmerer, WY and we find these giant wood people. Normal, right?

Driving across Wyoming like it ain't no thang. 

I discovered the addakitty app. How fantastic. 

A fine summer evening 

Married a year and still crazy in love. It's real, folks. 

Wyoming mornings are cold. Good thing there were natural hot springs nearby! 

Again with the addakitty. Hilarious. 

My husband likes to chuck my sister around. It's cool. 

Surprisingly, no one lost their balance and fell in.

Life-size chessboard. Cowboys vs. Indians style. 

I love getting to see my lovely cousin, Meg. Such a babe.

Trees!!! I love trees. 

She picked a flower for me on our hike 

A hike around Silver Lake for our anniversa-weekend! 

If you want to be Instagram buddies with me, find me @mrskellwell. You can browse through more odd vacation pictures as well as many photos of Luna, my cat. 

Where the Deer and the Antelope Play

Our first day in Jackson Hole was low key. We spent the afternoon walking around to all the different shops. For dinner we ate at an overpriced steakhouse in which my steak was overcooked and I felt the cut of meat wasn't even worth the price attached to it (I'm kind of a steak snob). But we had frog legs as an appetizer which made the bad steak worth it. I'd never had frog legs and I'm all about trying new things. Take my word for it, I will take a bite of just about anything (as long as it's safe) just to say I've tried it. It doesn't hurt that I have never been a picky eater.

That night, we stayed in Alpine, just outside of Jackson Hole, because the hotels are less than half the price. It's kind of a funny little place. When we got to our hotel at 11 that night, the front doors were locked. Luckily there were still people in the bar (Wyoming and their bars) or we would have had ourselves a camp out. A nice man with a dark beard and horse teeth unlocked the lobby door and let us in. As he searched for our room keys, he peered over his glasses at us and said, "You folks are kind of late, aren't you?" Apparently the hotel locks up every night at 11. What hotel locks up at 11? Only in Wyoming. We stayed up much too late in our shabby but cozy room applying temporary tattoos to one another and nibbling on Oreos.

The next morning, we rented our rafts (no tour guide for us), and found life jackets that fit accordingly and then we were off. We had a big group of people, there were around 20 of us, the majority of us being about four feet tall or shorter, so we got lots of odd looks from other rafting groups. Onlookers probably thought we were crazy for hauling a bunch of rowdy kids with us, but it made for double the fun. After dealing with some grouchy forest rangers, we split up into groups, grabbed our oars, and we were off. Down the river we went. I loved it and tried to soak in every second of it. From the calm parts of the river when we splashed around and admired the gushing brooks running into the river, to the wild rapids which threw some of us across the raft and into the lap of our neighbor, it was a treat. Some of us also watched as a beaver plopped into the water after us. Our raft also got pulled into a giant rock wall. . .it was scary at first but mostly ended up being hilarious. And the other raft apparently uprooted part of a pine tree with their raft. We are apparently very skilled rafters. However, I can proudly say that none of us went overboard.

 And as cruel as it sound, it still makes me chuckle thinking about the two youngest kids in our raft whimpering and crying as we went down the big rapids while the rest of us were hollering and laughing. Poor children. I hope we didn't end up scarring them for life. They'll look back on it someday as a fond memory, right?

Instagrams & Milk: Jackson Hole Style

We got back from Jackson Hole on Tuesday night. It was beautiful and we had a great time with our family friends. I even brought back a couple souvenirs. Sunburned cheeks and stiff shoulder blades from all that rowing through river rapids. Oh, and we also brought home a beautiful vintage tablecloth too.

River rafting is my new favorite thing. But more on the whole Jackson Hole extravaganza later. For now, I'll leave you with the instagrams I gathered while on our little trip.

 The ever famous antler arch

They found some super stylish "bison" hats 

 My lucky smashed penny.

 I consumed my first frog leg. It was alright. 

 Good movie. Quirky. But good. 

theeee best caramels 

Me and the brother after conquering our second run down the river in a rainstorm. Don't we look dangerously attractive? You don't need to answer that question. . 

You can find me on Instagram @mrskellwell. If you follow me, I would love to follow you back. And stay tuned for more about our rowdy trip in Wyoming, riding rafts down the wild Snake River.