CHEYENNE — For the first time in decades, the Wyoming Governor's Mansion is home to young children.
Two young children, to be exact: Mary Mead, 12, and her 11-year-old brother Pete.
Like many previous children of Wyoming governors, Mary and Pete have to adjust to the difficulties — as well as the perks — of being in the public eye.
Meanwhile, Gov. Matt Mead and his wife, Carol, will face the same issues that many other Wyoming First Families have had to address: how to raise children while serving in public office, and striking a balance between public and private life for both them and their kids.
Matt and Carol Mead say their top priority is making sure they include their children in the experience of being Wyoming's First Family.
They often take Mary and Pete to social events and gatherings. When Matt hosted a formal dinner for state legislative leaders, the kids helped the cook and brought out salad and dishes to guests.
But just because their dad's been elected governor doesn't mean they're off the hook from doing their usual chores: making their beds daily, cleaning their rooms and taking out the trash.
"We want them to have as normal of a childhood as they can," said Matt Mead. "Whether it's requiring them to have to do chores, make their beds, and all that — they're doing it."
But being the child of the governor has already yielded tangible benefits.
After hearing that Mary Mead was collecting rocks on the family ranch, one Wyoming resident sent her a world-class rock collection.
Pete, meanwhile, has been sent pies, cookies and chocolates.
"My son has gotten gifts from a lot of women," said Carol Mead, laughing.
Yet, all the public attention also created what Carol Mead called a "fishbowl experience."
"I don't want to say they're on display, but I think people do observe them," she said. "And there's an adjustment there, to get used to that, I think."
The kids also have to get used to living in the Governor's Mansion, half of which is regularly open to the public during the day and VIPs at night.
"They're worried about if they're still going to be able to see their friends, and how's it going to work, and if they still have sleepovers," Matt Mead said. "They're working through that. They're good kids and they're resilient."
The question about sleepovers, at least, has already been answered. One night after dark, Pete and his slumber party friends, armed with flashlights, fanned out to find the bronze statues of animals scattered across the mansion's backyard.
"It kept the security well-entertained, at any rate," Carol Mead said.
Both Mary and Pete said they like their new surroundings.
"It's a really fun place to go skateboarding," Pete said.
"It was really fun moving in," Mary said. "It took some work, but it was worth the results."
While every Wyoming governor has had children, the last sitting governor to have pre-teenage children was Stan Hathaway, who took office in 1967 with 12- and 14-year-old daughters.
Another young resident of the Old Governor's Mansion was Paul Hickey, who was 8 when his father John Hickey was sworn into office in 1959.
Hickey, now a Cheyenne attorney, said while as the son of a governor he was often in the public eye, he also experienced things other children didn't have, including accompanying his father on business trips to Puerto Rico and Glacier National Park and meeting then-President Lyndon Johnson.
Hickey and a group of neighborhood kids set up a clubhouse above the mansion's garage called Hangman's Hideout because of a beam that stuck out from the building. They also built a boxing ring in the basement of the mansion and held weekly fights.
"I'm sure I got knocked down more than my share, but it was fun," Hickey said.
Paul's mother, Winifred, worked to make life more normal for Wyoming's First Family. Most evenings, she would serve dinner in the mansion, giving all members of the family time to share how their day went.
"That family gathering time, which was very dependable and very usual, really I think was the center of keeping a normal, balanced life," Paul Hickey said.
Perhaps the most influential child of a Wyoming governor was 19-year-old Eleanor Alice Richards, who served as private secretary to her father, William Richards, the state's fourth governor, in the 1890s.
On one occasion, Eleanor signed an urgent extradition paper from Colorado when her father and the Wyoming secretary of state were both away.
She also said her father would frequently seek her advice, asking for her immediate reaction.
"He believed in women's intuition," Eleanor explained later in a Wyoming history magazine.
On a visit to St. Louis, William Richards jokingly told a reporter that his daughter was "acting governor" while he was gone. Newspapers around the nation trumped up the story and dubbed Eleanor the "girl governor."
"I received many letters sent from Mexico and fashion news from Paris, (and) several offers of marriage," she wrote.