Their Scottish of Course!

I had a few home visits that I had to do today, so I took Emma with me and left Sam in charge. When I left they were playing with play dough that I had just made and cleaning up the kitchen from making quills and ink. We got these books called "Story of the World" and my kids have been fascinated with all the fun projects in it. It is a history of all the civilizations of the world in chronological order and each "lesson" has a project in it. They were making quills and ink because they read about the monks. Then when I pulled up...The sight was amazing I will never forget seeing all the kids outside dressed up like Scottish warriors. They had read about the Scottish/English wars and had themselves all dressed up and painted. I was so impressed with Sam and his creativity. It was so cute and I was so glad that they had had a great day! When I got inside, I found a "MENU" they had a restaurant for lunch and on the bottom of the really cute menu was the en caption: "Free toy with every meal" They crack me up!

HEART LAKE, MONTANA (Ryan's 1st post)

Hey everyone! I finally have something worthy of posting on the family's blog. It only took 2 years but I'm pretty excited about this one. Friday afternoon Sam and I left with the scouts from our ward for an overnight backpacking trip. Even though Sam is still 11 the scoutmaster said to bring Sam since I was already going to be there. I thought it would be good for him also, because in August I am taking he and Noah on a longer backpacking trip into the Uintah Mountains with some of my friends from our old neighborhood in Farmington.

The trailhead to Heart Lake is about 80 miles from our house in the Scapegoat Wilderness area -good grizzly bear country. The trail to the lake is about 3.7 miles with 1,000 feet elevation gain. A good hike to measure how Sam will do and also a good indicator of where his fat, out-of-shape father sits. We made it to the lake in about two hours, not bad for Sam's first trip carrying his own gear and our food. Because he was carrying all the food I nicknamed him "Bear Bait" for the trip. He thought that was pretty cool!

We set up camp with our new, cool (and expensive) NorthFace tent. (Ask Melanie what she thinks about the tent. I think it about ended our marriage. Thanks ladies for taking her on that expensive shopping trip to the outlet malls in Park City in June - I owe all of you dinner.) Unpacked our gear, ate a trail delicacy of freeze dried Chicken A-La-King w/ noodles, and then went fishing.

I was told, before we left, about the cutthroats in the lake but wasn't prepared for what I would catch. After about 10 minutes fishing with a fly rod and a yellow humpy I landed this nice 16" cutthroat, handed it to the boys (along with a sharp knife) to clean and get ready to cook.

I went back to where I caught the first one and within a few minutes landed a second one about the same size. I handed that one to Sam and fished for awhile longer. I have fly fished for years, mostly in small rivers and streams and hadn't caught anything of any real size. And I have never caught anything in a lake using a fly rod - so I was pretty excited. I was wet and really cold, but really excited. I fished Saturday morning too and caught a few more but the highlight of the trip was Sam catching his first fish - a beautiful 20" cutthroat.

He did it all on his own, fishing with a lure - casting, hooked it, landed it, and released it. He still is glowing with excitement - especially because it was bigger than what his dad caught. It doesn't matter to me (ok, maybe a little). I'm just hoping he's "hooked" and wants to fish more.

But what makes me more happy than seeing him catch a big fish was his attitude in comparison to some of the older scouts. Some of the boys broke camp first thing in the morning and kept asking (for hours) about when we were leaving. When I asked them what they would do if they were home, a few of them said "Play X-Box." What!?!?!?!?!?! Later Sam said to me, "Dad, I can't believe those guys would rather play X-Box than be here."

Thanks "Bear Bait"! You passed the test. Welcome to the club! Now we just need to convince your mother that we need that new, lightweight camp stove.

RJA

Rainy Days and Mondays...Didn't Get Us Down

I have to admit I kinda like the Carpenter's song..."Rainy days and Mondays" but yesterday, we didn't let it get us down. Ryan's mom had left us instructions on how to make PVC pipe bows, and although I wasn't excited about the prospect of making them, Sam convinced me that it needed to be done, so we headed off to Home Depot to get the stuff we needed. If you try making this, which I highly recommend, be sure to haul your whole crew into Home Depot and let them carry the 10 foot long PVC pipe and 4 foot long wooden dowels all through the isles as you pass tons of people who give you really crazy stares, it really adds to the fun of it all. I am serious. It was quite entertaining. I heard all sorts of crazy comments. Really does no one have six kids anymore, come on people! Here's the finished project. It was so fun to make and really inexpensive. Mara even needed in on the action. They work really well, and shoot really far. The kids have been playing with them ever since. Here's the instructions:

40" 1/2 " PVC pipe

3 16" wooden dowells

colored electrical tape

nylon twine

Decorate PVC pipe

Cut a notch in the end of the PVC and the end of the dowells

Tie a knot in the ends of the twine and stretch (Pull really hard)

Wa La

Bow and Arrow

Fireworks...makes me think!

We went to out great neighbor's house for a BBQ and fireworks display. It was great fun, great food and great company. The wind threatened to ruin our party, and we had to rescue Mara when her plate flew up right on to her lap. She tried so hard not to cry, but couldn't contain it. After quite a long pause with her fighting for control, she just let out a huge bawl. It was actually quite sweet, just how hard she tried not to lose it. We played volleyball in the pelting rain, and then everything cleared up and it was time for fireworks. Someone always brings glow necklaces and bracelets for the kids, and they love them. Emma loved the fireworks.

The little kids were playing a game during the fireworks display where they were pretending that the fireworks were bombs going off and they had to duck and cover when they went off and it really made me think just how grateful I am that I can look at fireworks and see them as a celebration of freedom. Many people in the world today know war. They view the sound of cannons, gunshot and "fireworks" as something to be really afraid of. It is not a happy sound to them, it is a sound that inflicts terror in their hearts. How humbled I felt to watch them "pretend" to duck and cover. How grateful I am that my children live in peace. That I have never know the terrors of war. That I can look at fireworks and be reminded of the freedom that I enjoy.

Hope your Fourth of July celebration reminded you of all that we hold sacred and dear.

Great Falls Parade-July 4th, 2009

River's Edge Trail with Grey

What's really funny is all that was packed into my suburban

just minutes before the picture was taken.

Noah had scout camp all week, but Friday he didn't have to go until the afternoon, so we went on the river's edge trail and rode down to the skate park.

Sam and Grey getting ready to go down the hill.

They all lined up and took turns going around the outside of the skate park.
I was really embarrassed about the graffiti that was in the bottom of the pits. I promptly steered my kids away from them.

Little poser

Love that cheeser and her cute crinkled nose.

Noah wheelin' We all had a great time there, even Noah.

Mara in the background cheering Caleb on.

He was so brave and really got going on those hills

Max was just a flash as he speed by me.

He went down the first hill and didn't quite make it up the next, and got scared.

He said he wasn't going to do it anymore. After I made him, he loved it and speed all over.

After staying at the skate park for as long as I dared.(I think the skateboarders were getting bugged that there were five bikers on their turf) We walked down the trail to the park.

Swung on tire swings!

Climbed to the top of the towers!

walked across the top of balance beams!

Tried really hard to keep Emma from falling off! and watched as she climbed up the huge slide from the bottom. She and Noah and Caleb definately come from the same gene pool, they can climb anything, and I mean anything

We made a squish sandwich on the slide...Yes Noah is crying!

His legs got stretched a little too far...He really was hurtin, but the picture is cool!

We really did have a great time with Greyson here, I didn't post all that much, because we were having fun!. The first weekend he was here, we went to Loggin' Creek to camp and had a great time even with the rain. I took the kids up Thursday night and Ryan joined us Friday night.I didn't get pictures, but the high-light definitely was climbing the mountain that was straight up. The boys climbed it about four times, and I went up it with the girls twice before Ryan got there. I had Emma on my back and was hanging onto Mara's hands with her walking right in front of me. We had to slide on our bottoms all the way down. It was pretty fun.

The next weekend was the father's and son's campout and Ryan's parents came up. Ryan took the boys (5) and his father and off they went leaving LaVone and me with just the girls. We went to dinner and watched "confessions of a shop-a-holic" It was really fun. The boys had a great time as well. They got home saturday and that night we headed to the Lewis and Clark Festival.

The interperative center was free on saturday, so we went in and the kids had a great time playing with the furs and costumes.

Max was posing and Sam was trying to eat him with a animal skeleton.

Mara trying on the outerwear of the era!

Noah sporting a wolf skin-yuck!

Emma petting the wolf with Caleb's help

Just as we were leaving, Emma climbed up on the bear skin and layed her cheek on the softness. She was so stinking cute. she just stayed there for quite a while. They had a great time and I think that Scott and his brother Paul and Ryan's parents had a great time as well. Later that night Paul brought out his knives that he makes out of antlers and obsidian, and the boys were facinated for about two hours while he talked to them about how he makes arrow heads out of the rock and carves the antlers and makes the leather. It was great fun! Thanks all for the great time.

Puppy Love!

Ryan and I were turning in for the night and went to check on the pups.

This is how we found them.Three grouped together,
Two on top of each other,

One laying on the edge...How stinkin' cute is that

Just after this picture was taken the sweet little thing rolled right off it,

It was so funny.

Caleb has offered to give me all his money if he can keep this one (above).

It's hard to explain to a child that no amount of money can purchase sanity and that if we kept one, my sanity would be lost. I simply cannot do a puppy again. I just got out of the puppy stage, and refuse to enter it again.

The problem is that Caleb has these gorgeous brown eyes that seem to melt me...hold strong, I must hold strong!

Oh to Play...

...with Isaac was all Caleb wanted to do! Luckily we were able to.

Caleb and Max got to go down to "The Ranches" and play at the Beckman's. They were in heaven and since returning home I have heard more than once..."why did we have to move?"
Sigh...it was so nice to have such great friends to live so close to, but June 15th was our official two year anniversary for living in Montana. Ryan said when we moved here we needed to give it two years. The vote was taken and the verdict is in...We love it here, have met really great people, and will stay, even though we really miss friends and family.

While in Utah we also got to play with cousins that my kids are lucky enough to call their best friends...I of course left the camera and didn't get pics, but thanks Arkoudas' Erickson's and Rees' for the great time at Wade and Cherish's and at the bounce house.

Love Those Ladies!

Since I was in Utah...I had to go to Park City!

(Gymboree had way too much cute stuff) I was lucky enough to have my dearest friends accompany me!

I love these ladies! They are great inspirations for me, and I love being with them!

They totally make me giggle inside and laugh outloud! I really miss them and hope they soon get the memo that they need to move to Montana!

I could never ask for better friends! I hope that they know just how much I treasure their friendship and can't wait for the day when I can just twinkle myself to be with them.

We ate at my favorite Mexican Resturant Baja Cantina! Love "The Hoist" burrito, ate the whole thing. The waiter was hilarious in that he obviously was new and had no idea how to get a good tip. He kept saying..."we charge for that" about everything...lettuce, sourcream, the complimentary chips and salsa that they always set out... We kept waiting for him to charge for the water as well...What a nut!

I am so grateful to Addy for tending my chillins so that I could go!