day 23 and 24

oh nebraska.  the one thing i will say about you is that you're...consistent.  which is a good thing...unless you're driving through you.  this is the first time we drove into the dark.  we kind of felt like we had experienced enough of nebraska's "consistency" and wouldn't miss too much. 

after driving past the birthplace of john wayne and buffalo bill's ranch, i figured we had to have at least one true cowboy experience while we were in the wild west.  

we found a little town called ogallala where boot hill is.  if you know me well, you know of my strange fascination with cemeteries.  apparently a bunch of outlaws were buried here…their bodies thrown in a burlap sack with their boots on.

cliff and the kids had fun playing cowboy shooting games.  this trip has included a lot of shooting.  nerf, wii, sticks, two fingers in the air...not quite sure how i feel about it.  but then, i do have two boys so i should probably get used to it.

i'm going to make a bold statement.  many of you may think i'm crazy.  you need to know that this is only my opinion and not necessarily fact.  here goes: wyoming may be the most breathtaking place we've seen on this whole trip up until now.  well, southeastern wyoming (southwestern wyoming was not so inviting).  i think the thing that was so shocking about its beauty was how unexpected it was.  dead flat prairies to rock formations rising from red dirt  and the sky...the sky was so big.  the bigness of the sky hit me the most these days, even more than the canadian prairies.  and something about this area just made me want to sing "home on the range".  or "country roads".  i listened to country music on the radio voluntarily (no an alien hadn't taken over my body) because it just felt necessary,  and it wasn't all bad.  kind of bad, but not all.

i didn't take many pictures because i drove a lot these days, but i sure did get a lot of snuggling in.  my allie girl has been incredibly affectionate and i've been soaking it up.  we don't get a ton of one-on-one time together, so this has been pretty sweet.  love you, baby.