Summer Trip to Montana-Kalispell

On the 2nd of July we headed up to Kalispell.  My mom spent the week that we were in West Yellowstone in the hospital with a  skin infection and ended up having to have 2 surgeries to get it under control, so needless to say she was a little under the weather.  It was good that we could come at that time to help with cooking and such, but we ended up doing a lot on our own as my mom was unable to be out much.  Dad came with us some, but we did a few family day outings which was nice too.  On the 3rd we did some grocery shopping and cooking for the 4th, laundry and relaxing after all our playing in West Yellowstone.  On the 4th we headed off to the parade first to celebrate and of course the girls wanted some candy!

That afternoon we headed up to do some bowling in Whitefish as we thought mom could come along for that.  The kids always love bowling and had a blast as usual.  They also bowled really well!

Then it was back to Grandma's house and we had to take our annual 4th of July pictures.

Then it was time for some fireworks.  Starting off with the poppers!

And then the parachute men are always a hut with the kids!

 Then Josh took some people up flying.  We missed the first fly by so this was the only pictures I got as they headed home.

And then it finally got dark enough for sparklers and some fireworks!

On the 5th we decided to go up to the Glacier Maze to have some family fun time.  This time we did the maze and the boats.  We decided to do the maze first.  It was fun, but super hot!!  We decided to race the girls and they beat us, but then couldn't find the way out.  So we decided to take the easy way out and get some ice cream to cool down.

Then it was time for the boats!  We got soaked!  Everyone drove except Raelyn.  Aubrey did great and we all had fun!

That night we headed to Woodland with Josh and Carrie, and Greg and Sarah and their kiddos.  It was a busy night but a lot of fun to cool down!  Unfortunately The river was shut down for awhile, but we discovered that the big pool is really much warmer!  It was also a bummer that, that day Josh had a run in with a crazy lady who thought some fertilizer had pitted her window and chipped her paint on her car...I mean really?  Who are you kidding?!!  Anyways Josh responded not quite the best and so he had to spend some time on the phone with a cop.  A fun time at the pool though.

Unfortunately after swimming Piper fell while running and chipped her front tooth.  So they decided to head home and we went to DQ to get some ice cream with Greg and Brinkley and Kenton. Kenton is such a cutie!

The next day we decided to head up to Big Mountain (I refuse to call it Whitefish Mountain!).  We had not been up there in the summer so we decided to check it out.  We rode the gondola up the mountain and walked around a bit up there.  It was really pretty and a fun new thing to do.

That is Glacier National Park behind us.

There was a fun learning center in the downstairs. So we had fun exploring that.

Aubrey is as tall as a whitetail deer

Raelyn is almost as tall as a whitetail deer

Claire was taller than a grizzly

Hans is taller than a moose

Olivia was taller than a elk

Bear Grass!  We learned about it and the girls loved it!

Tired girl on the way home.

That night we had dinner with everyone and the kids played in the pool to cool off for a bit.

The next day was a laid back kind of day.  We didn't get up and going and make a plan for anything so we just kind of hung out (Hans and I drove around and looked at land and then damaged vehicles and dreamed about what could be...lol!!) till that evening we headed down to Sarah and Greg's house to have some cousin time!  These kids don't get to see each other often but they sure have fun when they do!  It was nice for us to chat with my cousins and aunts and uncles as well.

Here are the younger cousins...Olivia and Michael not pictured and the twins were at their other grandparents house.

Pretty sunset!

Saturday afternoon Hans flew out for home so he could go back to work.  I stayed with the girls for one more week so that Olivia and Claire could go to their first year of overnight camp at Big Sky Bible Camp.  Saturday afternoon I took the girls to the duck pond as it is one of our favorite stops in Kalispell.

Babies!  Always a favorite!

When daddy is away these girls like to sleep with me.  How can I resist these sweet girls?!  Although it sometimes proves difficult for me to get good sleep.

Sunday was drop off day for Olivia and Claire at camp.  They were nervous, I was nervous and it was a bit tough.  They were actually kind of mad at me for signing them up for camp, but I knew they would get over it.  It took a couple hours to get them both dropped off and settled.  Claire was in Wikiup cabin and Olivia was in Spotted Bear.  I only got a picture of Claire when I dropped them off.  She was really worried but made friends quickly and was doing fine when I left.

Then I had the whole week with just my two little girls.  It felt so weird to only have 2 kids and they maybe fought more than normal since they are used to having Claire there to mediate a bit.  But overall it was a fun week.  I spent a lot of time wondering how the girls were doing and what they were doing at that time at camp.  That felt weird.

I can't get enough of the view here.  I love it and miss it!

We walked over to the river one afternoon. So pretty over there!

I got my hair done as usual...

More trips to the duck pond!!

Aubrey loves to climb the Mountain Ash tree in my parents yard.

One evening we decided to walk down to the bridge with Grandpa and happened to see a little doe right close up.  Aubrey spotted and her and then we proceeded to stand and watch her for quite some time.  She did not seem bothered at all that we were there and just wandered around eating as we talked and watched her.

Then as we were headed home we decided to go see how Josh was doing on changing pipe and Grandma Betty called and needed dad to look at something we stopped there and ended up exploring a little bit, eating raspberries out of the patch and having some ice cream cones with Grandma.

At Grandmas I taught them how to put the little seeds on your nose like I used to when we were kids.

Looking out from Grandma's house

One day we decided to meet Carrie and the twins up at Whitefish Lake.  Greg and Sarah came for a bit too.  The girls took a bit to warm up to playing, but they finally did.  The water was actually pretty nice!

One day we went down to the bridge to do some fishing with Grandpa.  We caught a few little fish and then we were  starting to think we weren't going to catch any more and it was about time to head back when all the sudden I look down and there is an (at least) 18 inch trout zipping by and little Raelyn is holding tightly to her pole yelling, "I got a big one guys!!!  Can I get a little help?!"  I ran over to help her but the line snapped and the fish was off.  Such a bummer!!  Too little of a pole and light of fishing line to reel that one up.  But it makes for a great fisherman story!!

On this day we decided to go back to the pool (of which I have no pictures of) with Carrie and the twins and Sarah and her kiddos.  Afterwards Sarah said we could come to their house to play.  This was a great opportunity for Aubrey and Raelyn to play with Brinkley.  They had a ton of fun and it was nice to chat with Sarah.  They actually ended up staying with Sarah while I went home to do some things and they brought them back later that evening.  Maybe next summer they will get to have a sleep over with Brinkley!

The next day was Friday and it was that afternoon we got to pick up the girls from camp, but we had to squeeze in a few more things before we went to get them.  I went to the furniture store to see if they still had the table and chairs that I love!  We played at the furniture store a bit with pictures as I waited for numbers from the salesman.

Then we picked up lunch from DQ and headed to the duck park to eat lunch and play one more time.

Took some cute pictures of the littles at the park.

That afternoon they had an ending chapel when I picked up the girls.  That was nice to see the songs they had learned and what they had been learning all week.  We also got to see a fun slide show of the week.  

Rae fell asleep on my lap

Claire with her counselors, Amazon and Snaps, and her cabin mates.

That night the girls were tired but there was a get together to see my great Aunts and Uncles and cousins at Aunt Jessie's house so I went with dad and left the girls home with mom.  It was nice to see everyone.

Grandma Betty with her brothers Larry and Gil and sister Jessie

Siblings with their spouses

Aunt Jessie's garden with the pretty mountains in the background.  See how the sprinklers come out of the top of the fence? So cool!

We decided to spend Saturday there as well so the girls could have one down day before traveling home.  We went and did some more fishing with Grandpa and caught one little fish.  Then we went to lunch at Norm's News and stopped at the hanger to see the Camaro and the plane.

Last night playing with Piper and Diedrich and gave the kids a little birthday gift.

And a picture with Grandma Betty the morning before we left.  Love her!!

And then we were on the road back home.  Had to stop at our favorite spot the St. Regis Gift Store.  The drive went well till we got to Cle Elem and the traffic was horrible over the Snoqualmie pass.  It took 2 extra hours with the horrible traffic which made a 10 hour trip a 12 hour trip.  So long and miserable!!!  We were glad to get home.