Summer fun in Montana

Since we were moving during the beginning of the summer, we made our annual summer trip up to Montana a couple of weeks ago. Here are LOTS of pictures of all the fun!

 

 

Happy Birthday MacKelle

 

I Can't believe she is FIVE!! It is crazy how fast time spirals quicker and quicker.  For MacKelle's birthday, we went to Billings on Monday to Chucky Cheese's (since Justin couldn't go on Tuesday). The kids had fun, and we got to see Tia Francis (from the college days) and her son, who we met for the first time. It was fun and great to catch up a little. On her Birthday we had  a few friends over for cake and ice cream. MacKelle wanted a Topsy turvy cake (that wanted to fall down! But we got it to last through to the cutting). She was VERY specific and knew just what she wanted. Ü I worry that every year they will want more and more detailed cakes...pretty soon, I won't be able to meet their expectations. But we had fun making it together. She put some of the flowers on, and cut out a bunch of extra ones with Trace.

And of coarse there were presents... We did a little remodel on her bike as a gift, so she put as many gifts as she could in the basket, in the back, hanging off it...She told me she was "organizing"

 

The Family at Chucky Cheese's

Our good friend Tia!

Exploring the Big Horns

This week has been really fun, our next door neighbors from Idaho came to visit their family and us in Wyoming. Tobee grew up here in Cowley, so they have been showing us the sites. Yesterday was so fun, we went on this crazy STEEP road up the mountain (this picture is towards the top of the road). It was BEAUTIFUL!!

 

One of the first things that Trace and Tyson had to do was throw rocks off the edge...I don't blame them, I kinda wanted to try it too. Ü

 

Here is Jenny and I (and Justin and Mason-notice them in the background)

 

After we got to the top, we went to Bald Mountain for a picnic. The girls were SO excited to see all the beautiful dandelions and worked hard to pick some bouquets for us.

Tyson and Keylee's grandma and grandpa Monk were the planners of this excursion. They found some stuff so we could pan for gold in this little creek. The kids loved it,and after about 15 min or so, all the adults had taken over and the kids were off exploring. It was pretty fascinating. We found some pretty sparkly specks of something (we'll say its gold).

 

Mason had a blast, he played in the creek, climbed into an old fire pit, drank some water out of someones panning-for-gold pan...nothing like the great out doors. 

It was a great day and we all had a lot of fun. Thanks Christiansens and Monks!!

Holy Cowley!

So we made it here to Wyoming. We've been here a little over 2 weeks now, and we've been busy. We have been unpacking, got a pass at the pool and have been going there regularly, putting up a fence, a wall, making friends...The kids have been going to a "Summer Fun Program" that is Mon-Wed. mornings with field trips on Thursdays. It has kept them pretty busy, and has been great to help them get to know a few more people. I haven't been taking pictures like I should, but here is what I have so far:

We have lots of trees in our yard, one of them is a Mulberry tree. The kids and I love to go out and pick yummy berries for a snack. There are even some branches low enough that Mason can get in on the action.

Here they are working on the fence. There are some VERY nice horses that come over whenever we are out, and they were more than happy to breath on us while we worked on it.

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This is the back door of our house, I'm not sure why I didn't get a front one, but this is the part we are fencing in to keep the kids away from the highway.

 

 Yesterday we had a BIG thunderstorm come through town. After it was done, we walked around town with our new neighbors to see how much water we got. These were taken at the elementary school parking lot. The kids LOVED to ride through this mud puddle!! (Sorry, there were some technical difficulties and I can't get these any bigger)