Chatterton Family Reunion~Paradise Valley, Utah

This pretty much sums it up!Ryan took the boys hiking to the "Wind Caves" on Saturday with my brother Morey and his older boys and a couple of my cousin's boys.

They had a great time, I wish I would have gone, but I was busy yaking!
Going down into the windcaves.

The mighty hiker!

Hey hun, if you got me a pair of hiking shoes, I could go with you:)!
Or is that your plan to keep me away?

Caleb hiked the whole way in flip flops! that is my kid.

Like Mother, Like Son!

I really do like to hike in flip flops...unless of course their is no trail and you are stomping through bushes and ant hills and...hence the new shoes!

A great hike.

They had a much better time this time.

The first time Ryan hiked it was with me and well to put it bluntly, he was out of shape and I dragged Sam (4) Noah (2) and Ryan up the mountain.
This time, he sailed right on up!

Mara and Hattie had a great time. They play so cute together. They were licking suckers and laughing, just like little girls do. I loved it. So glad they got to play together. WE see them too few and far between.

Noah, Sam and Carter, getting ready to go down the slip-n-slide.

They had to soap up so that they could cruise down fast.

Max and Spencer all lathered up!

Loved this picture of my Dad and Emma. He is such a softy in his old age!

I am left to wonder what happened to the grumpy man who used to answer the phone with a gruff "Maughan's" and scare all my friends away.

Hattie and Mara trying out the slip~n~slide. They had to push themselves all the way down, but they loved it and kept going back for more.

Sam (who said the slide wasn't fun because it was too bumpy)

Don't bumps make it fun?

Noah, bum surfing!

Caleb, kicking up the surf spray!

This sums up our adventure we loved it. Lots of good food, 8 of the 9 of my Grandma Chatterton's children were there.

It was great to see so many, and we truly missed those who weren't there.

The boys had a cabin all to themselves and when I walked in there, it reaked of men's aftershave. When I inquired...

"girls hate the smell of boys, so we dumped it all over to keep the girls away."

Between that and all the snakes they had, I guess any girl would keep their distance.

Max Turns 6!

Max turned 6 on August 14, 2009 and we were in Utah. That was good for him though,

because we had a great CARNIVAL party for him.

We went to the State Fair in Montana before we left and they had a dart game.

It was $5 for 3 darts.

I couldn't justify $25 for all the kids to throw three darts so I told them we would make our own and they could throw as many as they wanted.

So A dart game turned into a CARNIVAL PARTY for Max. Sam, Noah, Greyson and Kyle helped with the games.

Max got to have his best friend Hayden come as well.
Sam in charge of the DART GAME.

Noah in charge of the BEAN BAG TOSS.

Grey in charge of the BOWLING.

Ryan was in charge of the PICK 'EM UP game.

Greyson thought he needed to wear the reggae wig.
It looks good on him!

Max sporting some dreads.

Me doing the FACE PAINTING.

Everyone kept coming back for seconds and thirds...

The older boys wanted eyes painted on their eyelids.
CREEPY!

After all the games outside we went in for presents and lunch.

Hot dogs, carmel apples, popcorn and chips with my dad's homemade salsa!

Happy Birthday Max!

We love you and had a great time at your party!

Thanks to everyone for coming and sharing your kids with us!

Max's Latest!

Max was playing in the tree yesterday, swinging from a branch, when the branch snapped and down he went. He came inside crying, but not hysterically, but as soon as I saw his collar bone, I knew it was trouble. It actually didn't break it, it just bent it really good. I went to the doctor for a figure 8 sling, but after informing me that that was what he needed, he came to tell me he didn't have one his size, and sent me home with a sling that was useless and told me to go see an orthopedic surgeon. Well, in the mean time he was in quite a bit of pain because he kept using it. I wrapped it in a bandage, to keep his shoulder back, and immobile. As long as he doesn't use it too much, he's okay. He keeps telling us we are treating him like a baby because we won't let him jump on the tramp or ride his bike (one handed?) or run (what if he trips and can't catch his fall.) I hope we make it through the next three weeks with his arm immobile. We just barely paid off his last useless visit to the hospital...ughhhh!

Four Generations

My grandma has been in the care center for quite a while, she fell and broke her hip. She hasn't been doing so well, so I flew down with Emma yesterday to see her. She is still so spunky. I sure hope that is how I am, personality to the end. I was rubbing her feet and she said, what's that down there? Jokingly I said "it's just a bug" and she said "well then get it off of there." We had such a great visit. At first Emma was just scared of her, but she warmed up pretty quickly. Emma insisted on feeding her a goldfish cracker. Since my grandma doesn't eat much, we thought it great that Emma could get her to eat one cracker. She bit into it and said "this thing is damn hard" she made us laugh. She always has the CNA's on edge because they will think that she is asleep and then when they are close she will psst at them really loud and scare them half to death. Then she just chuckles at herself. (Now you all know why I have an obsession with scaring people. My mom did it, her mom did it...) When I went to leave I said "I love you grandma. You are such a good grandma." She responded with "I don't know how good I am." I said "you are great. " and she said "great, great, great, great, great." and then gave a huge smile. I love her and was so glad to get a picture of her with Emma and my mom. I was so glad I got to come and see her.

We figured out while I was there that she has 9 children, 43 grandchildren, 123 great grandchildren...and counting and 20 great, great grandchildren...and counting. What a legacy.

UPPER HOLLAND LAKE

My most recent backpacking trip took place this past Wednesday and Thursday to Upper Holland Lake just outside the Bob Marshall Wilderness Area. The "Bob" is well known for being very remote and full of grizzly bears. I was lucky enough to get invited the Sunday before by someone in our ward who was going in with some of his family as part of a family reunion. Thanks to the Rowley family for letting me meet up with them and come along.

We started our hike at Holland Lake (seen here) and climbed over 2,000 feet in elevation in about 7 miles. After taking on switchback after switchback we came out on the face of this mountain where I was able to take this picture. Below me is about a 200' drop nearly straight down. This is about a 1/3 of the way to Upper Holland Lake.

This picture shows where an avalanche came down over the winter. The brush managed to survive but the trees were uprooted, snapped, and thrown up the other side of the draw where the trail was. It was amazing to see the power that avalanche had. It would have been awesome to see and hear it when it happened.

Our first look at Upper Holland Lake.

Looking out on the lake from our camp.

Before we walked out Thursday, we took a quick 2 mile hike up to Gordon Pass where the Bob Marshall begins. So this is proof I made it.

The next trip is late August back to Heart Lake. I have a friend, Brett Harrison, who lives in Vegas now, coming up for a few days. I'm just planning on some fishing trips close by until then. We are going to be in Utah the middle of August where I'm hoping to do a good day hike if anyone is interested. Hope to see some of you in a couple of weeks.

RJA

Lewis and Clark Caverns

We stopped at the Lewis and Clark Caverns on the way home from Paradise Valley. It was tons of fun. While we were waiting for out tour to start, there was a ranger who had toads and snakes for the kids to play with and hold. The ranger was warning the kids that if they touch the frog and then touched their mouth, they would get a sick feeling in their stomach because of the poisons the toad emitted out of it's skin. The kids wanted to touch...why not, toxic substances are fun to play with right? I totally would have wanted to touch it if I was a kid.
Max was so pleased with himself.
After washing our hands, we started our hike to the cave opening.

It was only 95 degrees, but us cold blooded folk who lived through a -30 winter were quite hot by the time we got to the top. The shade of the cave was totally welcomed. The cave stays a constant 50 degrees all year long. It felt wonderful.

waiting to go in.

Crappy picture of me, but this is at the mouth of the cave.

Inside the cave
It was lit up and there were stairs and hand rails, very accessible, but not to natural. I really would love to be a spelunker and repel into a cave.

Does this look like a root beer mug?

The guide was always pointing out formations and getting the kids imaginations going. It was great.

Samwise was in charge of the camera...He took all the great pictures.

Emma loved it. Especially when they turned out all the lights and it was completely black.

When it was so dark, not a speck of light, the guide said "raise your hand if you want the lights back on." Caleb thought that was so funny. I loved the dark. I wanted to stay like that for a while and feel the stillness.

"Chicken"?

We entered the cave way up high, and then came out clear down below where we entered. It was so cool to see how far we had come down into the earth. It was a great trip and I can't wait to go again.

Caleb and Max ran ahead, so they didn't get to be in the family picture. When Noah saw this picture he said,"that's how our family should be." RUDE! What would we do without Caleb and Max to crack us up? He was just kidding, but it made me think just how grateful I am for each and everyone of my kids.

Paradise Valley, Montana

I took the kids to Katri's for a much needed weekend getaway! They had a blast.
We slept in the blue teepee, Max's favorite color just happend to be blue so he was in heaven. There were horses in the field next to her house that were really nice, and they let the kids pet them and feed them all they wanted. Againg Max was in heaven.

This was just funny, Ryan called and all chaos broke loose, Emma neede to be changed, the kids were all squealing and Mara was bawling that she wanted to talk to her daddy. I threw Sam the phone, got control and turned around to see this.

Noah, Max and Caleb all slept in this sleeping bed, and Mara, Emma and I slept in another sleeping bed (two bags zipped together)

The kids played at the river and on the "island" and had a grand old time. They were so good while I was in class.

Mudfights

Muscle men

Lovely Ladies

Rafting!

I went down on Wednesday and Ryan came on Friday. He fished a little and then we headed home on Saturday. It was tons of fun!

Puppy update.

This picture was not easy...six kids and six puppies. Kinda funny!

Two puppies went to new homes last night. Caleb was quite sad because our favorite one,

the only one that had brown on her, got chosen. She went to a great home though.Both people came and took the dogs without paying for them, It was kind of funny, I know I told them that we wanted $50 for them, but they just left without paying, and I didn't have enough guts to say anything about it. I did ask the one people if Ryan had told them how much and they say "no he didn't say anything about price" instead of saying well, it's $50 bucks, I just said "okay" and off they went. I am gutless I know, but it really doesn't matter that much to me, otherwise I would have been more agressive.

There are four more puppies left:

"Hicky"

and "Panda" They are the boys...

"Princess"
She has a strip across her backside that is in the shape of a tiarra
Hence the name
and...

"Milly"
Someone please take her...I can't stand how cute she is and
she may make be buckle under pressure.