pride.

where the buffalo roam.

nate and i rendezvoused in north platte, nebraska over labor day weekend.

our final destination was not planned, but it turned out to be pretty great (obviously).

except for when i almost got attacked by a bear at the fort cody trading post!

kitschy fun.

this native american statue (corpse?) was pretty creepy.

furs. i wasn't about to go near them, but nate said that the skunk was the softest.

buffalo bill's hometown.

we paid 10¢ to look in this box. 

sooooo worth it! next time you're in north platte, definitely check it out.

also check out this two-headed calf. 

it was born in something like 1926 and lived for something like 3 days.

there was also a giant diorama of little carved people. 

i took photos of some of my faves, like this guy getting a hair cut.

and this guy having quite a ride.

and this guy pooping (seriously, that's what he was doing).

nate had the opportunity to ride a giant buffalo.

and stand next to this humongous man.

cowboys and indians.

then we went to buffalo bill's ranch and saw some real buffalo.

and at cody park we saw llamas.

and peacocks. they were in the same area as the llamas. 

who knew llamas and peacocks were besties?

then we toured this giant train.

nate had a hard time driving.

he made me take this photo. i was mad there wasn't a train to algona. 

sweet train/ bike hybrid.

hershey station.

nate nye bond or jesus? 

the world may never know.

we ended our little trip with a bike ride around the countryside.

travels with daisy.

cam and derrick came to visit me!

and so did our old friend nate hundt.

we went for a lovely hike up mt. falcon.

i got rocks in my shoe.

and nate got iceddd.

(if you don't know what this means, ask a frat boy.)

derrick's #1 colorado dream was to hit up dave and buster's. 

mission accomplished. big time.

so many tickets!

then the camster and friend were kind enough to give me a lift back to the homestead.

daisy came too! 

scott took a whole day off work to take me water skiing and bike riding and rainbow sherbet eating. 

i have the best dad ever.

(we didn't bring a camera, but i'm sure i looked something like this.)

old pops even got up. what a show off.

then i went to kaitlyn's bachelorette party. 

there's no need to discuss the happenings, but here's a photo of all of us at okoboji.

the next night was alicia's bachelorette party in des moines.

good times with old friends. 

supermodel documentary hour.

long hair is such a summertime burden.

free at last.

in honor of his haircut, we had a fashion show at the pavilions.

he may tell you differently, but i'm like 95% certain it was even his idea.

that is not a fake hurry-up-and-take-my-photo smile. 

nope, that is genuine enthusiasm. i am sure of it.

cow camp adventures.

last week, nate and i had ourselves a wilderness adventure a la historicorps when we helped to rebuild the historic off cow camp. the camp was in rio grande national forest of southern colorado where we spent the six most pleasantly strenuous days of our lives.

on the road again...

our driver, damion.

adventure number one: i had my first funyun. 

as an onion hater, it wasn't as scary as i thought it would be.

adventure two: creepy gas station fun.

adventure three: cow in the road.

little did we know that this would only be the first of several cows we would have to deal with.

our home base, the fitton guard station.

gross outhouse amidst the nice scenery.

our little tent and damion's blue fortress.

tent fun.

our personal bathroom suite.

more cows.

hiking down to the cow camp.

our project site: cabin, barn, and soon-to-be outhouse.

peeling and shaping of the logs

these logs were felled in the surrounding forest and then were brought down to our site by an amish fellow.

most of the peeling and shaping was done before we got there...

but we got in on a little of the action.

i'm due for a tetanus shot, so, if my mom asks, i avoided this task which involved big rusty blades.

starting to put together the barn.

damion putting his muscles to good use.

by the end of the day, we had the barn looking like this.

(obviously i mostly helped by taking pictures.)

and then we built a roof on it!

dobbing

katie mixing the mortar.

un-dobbedness.

damion going to town on that wall.

teamwork. i like it.

nathan, the project assistant, was by far the best dobber of the group.

at first, i really liked dobbing. after five days of it, i really did not. 

the outhouse

for the outhouse, a big hole was dug to bury the tank... and then the hold was filled in.

i filled in most of the hole because nate was complaining too much to get anything done.

(just kidding... mostly.)

then cement was poured around the base.

dave, a shop teacher from chicago, led the framing task force.

i probably had an entirely inappropriate amount of fun with this circular saw.

damion and i squared all of these boards and quickly became dave's (favorite) little helpers.

the aftermath. 

sorry, boards. it had to be done.

damion and i built this roof. dave only helped a little.

max and nick, the identical twins that thankfully had unidentical facial hair.

dave and his wife, kathy, hard at work on the outhouse door.

raising the walls!

topping it off with our lovely roof.

nate's floors

they had to make new holes in the fancy tool belt for my fun-sized bf.

life lessons from jonas.

the beginning of the floor action.

what a hard worker.

all finished!

other

our view.

a nice break from those obnoxious paddle boats slash paddle boaters.

view of our work site from the guard station.

my newest bff, lucy.

and leia.

chewing on a tasty treat...er... log.

lots o' cows. i think we counted 85.

the crew cow watching.

the marmot.

us.

hiking out.

our reward to ourselves after a week of hard work: slurpees. 

as a big germaphobe, i was pretty proud of myself for dealing with dirty fingernails and massive amounts of cow dung for six solid days. i could have probably stayed my whole life had i had just two things: 

warm running water

and my golden girls.