Tippets Nitty Gritty: August 2013

Ben did this posting- he did a great job- but me being me, I have to have a word in, so my comments are in pink. :)

At the end of July we went on vacation for a week and had a fantastic time. I think that it is the first real, go somewhere planned for several days type vacation that we have had in a long time. I told Ben that this was his vacation and he was in charge. We started off in Utah to go to a sheep sale. I have been wanting to go a the "Crossroad of the West" sheep sale for several years, (Yes, several- I think I remember him talking about it when we lived in Wisconsin) and this year it worked out. We were in search of a good buck and a couple of ewes. My brother Tom and his boys met us there.

Do these guys look like brothers or what?
Really?! You even dress the same!!

Mona says that all of us Tippets' look the same. I don't know what she is talking about. I mean, I am wearing a Boise State and he is wearing a Florida shirt. Who couldn't tell us apart.

If you've never been to a sheep sale, picture this: big arena, pens, sheep, sawdust, hay, people combing the sheep's wool, it smells just like the state fair. Carter and I had the same idea- just pet them and see how soft and woolly the sheep is, that's how you'll know who to buy.

We got to the sale at 8 a.m. the auction for the sheep that Ben wanted to buy started at 1:00. There's only so many sheep to pet and only so many laps around I can make before I'm DONE. Luckily, my cousin, Brett and his family, live in this town and the kids and I left for a respite visit. They played with their boys who also like to be cowboys. Fun and relief was had by all.

I feel that we made out like bandits

I am really excited about this buck. He was the grand champion of the show. I also found out that he was the grand champion ram at both the Wyoming and Montana state fairs in 2012. He is a really tall, thick ram and we should get some good looking lambs out of him. I did not mean to buy him, but he was still available in our price range when the bidding stopped, so we bought him. We got back to the auction at 1:04...and already proud owners of the Grand Champ. I'd say Ben was excited to finally have his chance at a registered buck.
Mona wants to name him Lord Grantham after her favorite character on Downton Abbey

Not really my favorite character...
I just want to walk out on the farm and casually ask: "So... where's Lord Grantham?"
And then of course, burst into laughs.

This is a yearling ewe that I a super excited about.
We are going to name her "Crazy Legs". There was a intersection in Madison WI that was called this because several streets all came together at one intersection.

I wanted to get two yearling ewes, and this one was available. She comes out of a flock from Montana. We are going to name her "Zilker" after a park in Austin Texas that we liked to go to when we lived there.

After the thrilling experience of the sheep sale we headed to Wyoming to spend a few days with my parents. (It was a true action- auctioneers yelling a thousand miles a minute, pointing, yipping and waving hands with buyers muttering under their breath with poker faces pretending to be non-interested in any of the sheep up for sale.) I always like to go back home, and July is a great month to do it. When I think of Wyoming I think of it in July, the grass is green, the weather is warm and the wind only blows a little bit.

We always have to go to JR's house when we go to Bridger Valley. He was my neighbor and I worked on his ranch when I was younger. Afton is usually not this good with strangers, but there was a dog around, and she was more worried about staying away from the dogs than being held by someone that she did not know.

JR bought a pony for kids to ride when they visit. The boys thought he was just their size and loved riding him. He also pulls a cart and the kids had a fun time driving the cart.

JR is the most generous person that I have met. The boys like going there because he will always give them something, like this year it was horseshoes. What city boys doesn't need 3 extra horseshoes?

As you all know I am just a little bit eccentric, and I have named all of our kids after towns in Wyoming. We had to go through Eden Wyoming while we were there. Usually Mona will exclaim "Why did we name our child after this place?". But this time she actually thought it was a nice little place, or she is getting better at keeping her thoughts to herself.

I just love that every town has the elevation posted... trying to impress by numbers something if they can't by population.

This is Benny and Pat Pearson. I worked on their ranch in Daniel Wyoming for a summer. I have talked them up for so long that Mona really wanted to meet them. They are great people and we had a great visit.
Ben is good at finding people I consider "salt of the earth" these folks were no exception.

We went over to Jackson to spend a afternoon. It was fun, but a bit of a tourist trap.

Jackson was really fun. Little shops with beautiful photographs, souvenirs treats of all sorts, yes touristy, but we only stayed long enough to see a little bit and not get annoyed by the crowds.

Are those Mom shorts I'm wearing?! I didn't think they looked that bad.. now I am rethinking these.

Fun fence out of skis in Jackson

We had to stop at the town square where they have the elkhorn arches. That is alot of elk antlers!

I love our girls, but I am looking forward to them growing up just enough that I don't have to carry them everywhere we go.

While in Jackson we went to the "Bar J Wranglers". It is a ranch that they feed you a authentic cowboy dinner of beef and beans and then put on a show afterwards. The food was good, and the entertainment was even better. We would highly recommend going there if you every find yourself in Jackson. These cowboys were so funny. We all laughed so hard, including the kids. Very highly recommend their show. So much fun--maybe my favorite thing of the trip.

To get back to Idaho, we rented a house in Driggs for a few days. I had never been there before, but what a fun place. Someone that I work with has a vacation house there that they rent out, so we took them up on the offer and had a fun time. If it was about 3 hours closer to Boise and had a lake to water ski on we would think about getting a place there. We explored, hiked, roasted marshmallows, played, slept in, ate well and generally had a great, relaxing time. We really need to go there again.

The cabin was fun... the kids did well entertaining themselves in this loft above the house and going up and down, down and up, up and down the swirly stairs.

Driggs is at the base of the Tetons, and about 12 minutes from Grand Targee ski resort. We went hiking, and the kids did really good for the most part. 30 minutes going up and 10 minutes coming down. If only we just had to go down hiking would be so much easier.