Montana trip 2012

 We were able to have two great family vacations in Montana this July.  Luckily for us, they were the same week, so we only had to go up once.  We spent Sunday-Thursday morning with the Dawsons at Lake Hebgen.  Ben's Aunt Brenda and Uncle Doug have two cabins right on the lake.  Thursday-Saturday were spent just outside of Phillipsburg, next to a little ghost town called Granite.  That's where Luke and Lisa picked to have our 2nd annual Jay Jenkins reunion.  

It was one of the best weeks ever.  I loved spending every minute with Ben and my kids, and extended family.  We camped out in the tent the whole week, the only hard part was having enough clean clothes for the whole week.

We put over 1000 miles on this trip... it was so much fun!

My pictures are all kinda scattered and random.  I didn't take half as many as I wanted to.  We were just having too good of a time to stop for pictures.

 

 Monday we hung out at the beach, going in the boats, riding bikes, visiting, and eating

 Aunt Brenda got an old tub out to use for the kids baths.  Much easier than in the showers

 The kids loved hanging out with 2nd cousins since they rarely see them

 

She wasn't about the get naked out in the open.

 Tuesday we went to Yellowstone park.  The kids were troopers!  I can't believe how long they walked.  Carly got a little tired, so at one point, Larry took her back to sit on some benches and she fell asleep.  Carly snores SO bad and loud, the tourists were laughing and taking pictures.

Courtney and her boys

6 out of the ten grandkids

Wednesday morning I figured we'd eat breakfast out on the beach.  My kids are early risers and they woke everyone up that slept in the cabin on the first two days.

Abigail didn't get out of the water the whole time we were here.  She just sat out there, happy as a clam. 

Hailey was so tired, she snuggled up to Grandma and fell asleep

Wednesday night, we cook tinfoil dinners and roasted marshmallows.  When I told Luke what we were having he said, " I don't like eating tinfoil"

Thursday morning, packing up our stuff to head out to the other reunion

the signature Hailey pose

The kids played lots of games

Carly wanted another one of her smiling like Hailey

all of the Larry Dawson family that came this year.

crazy picture

We had such a great time, I married into the best family! 

The hardest part of the trip was packing the car back up to go to Phillipsburg.  We had so much stuff, and then we had to fit more in.  We had it all packed up, thinking we were doing great on space when we realized we hadn't packed the two coolers yet.

Abigail had her legs on one of the coolers for 5 hrs.

Saying good bye to the Dawsons. Apparently, Sharla said something funny.

My Mom also pointed out to me later that day, that I always wear this shirt when I'm camping.  It's true, I have very few t shirts, so yes, this is one of my camping shirts. 

Oh, wait, one last potty break.  I love it when the kids are in the car, then they decide they need to go.

Thursday evening, we made it to our campsite with the Jenkins.  Grandma brought stuff to entertain the kids... these are their new awesome visors

The beautiful view and my handsome Luke

We were camped out by an old Mining town.  We went on a hike to look the different mine shafts

On Friday, we went and visited the Granite Ghost town.  It was eerily cool.  It seemed weird that people lived there once because it was so quiet now.

awww, Uncle Brent's just one of the kids.  (standing in the door way of the bank)

Abigail found a heart shaped rock

a huge mill built on the side of the mountain.  I didn't get a good picture of the mill, because I was concentrating on Brent with the minnie mouse back pack.

another building

we went through a world famous candy store in Phillipsburg.  It's one of probably 4 businesses in the town... seriously, this town was one street.  It was  crazy small and cool.

The kids each got a bag to get whatever candy they wanted.  The girls took full advantage and filled up their bags.  Luke came out with a couple pieces, so I sent him around again, telling him not to come back till it was filled up. 

I don't remember what made the guys decide to chop down a tree, but they did.  Matt, Jed, and Ben took turns chopping it down.

Celebrating over their victory (Ben don't ask me to take down this picture, I won't)

I don't know the forest rules about chopping down trees and such, so don't tell anyone. 

The kids got unbelieveably dirty.  Abigail was covered in 20 layers of dust.

So we heated up water and bathed them in a cooler

How come pictures never do it justice?  The sunset was amazing

Eating some french toast Saturday morning

Abigail is by far the hardest to keep clean, she ran out of clothes the fastest, and had to borrow Luke's

The whole group.  

We are only missing Blake, he had to work :(

What a great reunion!  Luke and Lisa did a great job!

Loved this week, it was so fun to be with our families!

summer stuff

 

 Luke played baseball again this spring, he loved it and did great!  It was fun to see such an improvement from last year... he's growing right up.

Abigail, doing her thing

All the friends the girls made at the games.

Cheering section, Sharla, Me, Mom, and Ben's legs in the background

We usually go on Friday picnics with my aunts, Grandma, Mom, Sisters, and lots of kids.  One Friday we decided to switch it up and go to Fat Cats.  Carly has to smell good for the bowling game.

Luke did awesome

enjoying some fries

We're always thinking of new activities to fill up our summer days.
This day was a hike.  I love Ab's pose!

The girls packed Hailey a backpack with books in it.  I felt bad because it was kinda heavy, but she wouldn't let me take any of them out.

My neighbor called to see if we wanted to go to the willow park zoo in Logan with her and her sister, so we loaded all the kids up.  We each had a big double stroller and lots of kids, it was fun.

Abigail has been doing a computer program from the waterford institute.  It's called UPSTART.  It focuses on reading, and after the 15 minutes of required reading, you can do math and science.  If you want your kid to read before they go to kindergarten, this is the program for you.  You have to get on the waiting list, and you have to be willing to use the program 5 days a week.  If you don't qualify or make the list, you can also buy the program.  I would say it's worth it.  It's amazing.  It's fun for the kids and they learn so much.  When Luke did it, he was reading at a first grade level at the end of preschool.  Now, at the end of 1st grade, he's reading at a 4th grade level.  It's just such a great start for kids.  I think it's only available in Utah.  I haven't gotten Abigail's test scores back yet, but she is also doing great. She loves to read and be read to.   She had her graduation a few weeks ago, so we went down to slc to take her final test and celebrate.

We headed on over to the new city creek mall, and picked up some icecream.

Now to make the most of the last few weeks of summer!

race

 A few months ago, Jess asked me and Shannon if we wanted to do a half marathon with her.  I thought, sure, why not.  We ran together almost every Saturday morning, it was fun training together.  Matt even ended up signing up for the fun as well.  Jess found a race for us to do, she said she just went with the cheapest one.  It was Canyon to Canyon, which was just 13.1 miles of hills, we didn't realize that at the time.  Well, we not only survived, but we did pretty darn good

My own little cheering section, which also included Ben's parents:)

 Matt (and a little bit of Ben)

 Shannon decided to kick it into high gear at the end, and sprint off without me.  You can see the determination on my face to keep up, but alas, she ran in ahead of me.

 flowers and hugs from my girls

 Shannon and her boys

what a happy runner

Lots of fun, but for the next one, I'll definitely be going down hill