Babysitting - Saturday, July 13, 2013

I babysat for Lori and Heather today.  It was a long day.  I really wish we had a nice fenced in backyard for the kids to play in.  I felt bad that they had to be inside the whole time they were here.  Lori paid me in food.  We have a ton of food now!  That's good.  We desperately needed it.  She brought a bunch of food in the morning, then went shopping in the evening and bought stuff that was on my grocery shopping list.
We played with play dough and cloud dough to keep busy today.  Alea had a lot of fun with the playdough and she kept asking me to take her picture.  I'd snap a picture then she'd quickly change her pose so I would snap another one.  So, there are a ton of Alea pictures.
Here is my cute little Alissa posing with her cloud dough creation.

 This is Lilly playing with the cloud dough.

 Here is Alea.  she made a green monster with the play dough.

Parker and Brinley playing with the cloud dough.

Alissa was super helpful when it came to taking care of Jaycee.

Just a Regular Day - Wednesday, July 10, 2013

I just think my kiddos are cute.  We didn't go anywhere exciting or anything.  It is just a regular day at home.  I just felt like taking pictures.  I just never want to forget any of these moments with my little ones.  I love them so much and they grow so fast.

Mantua Reservoir - Monday, July 8, 2013

Roger really liked this mountain biking trail in Mantua.  It is right by a lake, so, Roger went biking and the kids and I played in the lake.  It was a good time.  I don't love that it is a steep slope into the lake and when you get out too far in the water, you will feel weeds grabbing at your feet.  So, it is not the safest lake to play in.  I want to get life jackets for the kids and have them wear those when we swim here.

Roger Mountain Biking With Friends - Saturday, July 6, 2013

Roger met some friends in the ward who like to go mountain biking.  He is so excited to have someone to go mountain biking with.  They took him on a trail in Mantua.

Our Montana Trip - Thursday - July 4, 2013

We slept in a little and relaxed all morning today.  I spent some time uploading my pictures off of my camera, so that I could have room on the camera to take more pictures.  Around 2:00 pm, we went to Two Medicine Lake in east Glacier.

 We had a lot of fun playing at Two Medicine Lake.  It was really different to see this side of Glacier National Park.  It is a lot different than the other side.  We are the minority on this side.  There is an Indian Reservation by this side of the park.  We decided to head back to Grandma's so we would get back before dark and be able to watch some fire works.  As we were heading out, we saw an entrance for a hike.  We couldn't resist stopping.  So, we stopped and went on this short hike to a waterfall.  It was so pretty. I'm glad we went.

 After the hike and on our way out of Glacier, we stopped to get some ice cream.  We figured we had taken too long on the hike and we probably wouldn't get to see a firework show, since we wouldn't get back in time.  So, we relaxed and enjoyed our ice cream.  while we sat eating our ice cream, some people across the street in an RV park, started lighting some small fireworks, so we felt like.... at least we got to enjoy that and see some fireworks.... and it was nice to be sitting, relaxing, and eating ice cream while we watched their small firework display.  So, we left, feeling like, we had a pretty good 4th of July... We had a fun day playing at a lake, got to go on a hike that we all really enjoyed, then we got to eat ice cream and watch some fireworks go off.

Anyway... so we finished our ice cream and headed back to Grandma's house.  We hadn't driven too far, when we started seeing some of the fun big, illegal in Utah, fireworks.  I asked Roger to find a place to pull over.  We found a good spot to pull off the road.  It was like we had our own private fire work show.  Alissa, Brinley, and Roger went out and sat in the back of the truck.  I stayed in the truck with Parker (he was really tired and we could see the fireworks just fine from the truck).  There was a hill in front of us.  It was covered in big tall pine trees.  It seemed like the people lighting them were just up on the hill a little ways.  We just had the perfect view of all their fire works.  My favorite part about it was getting to see the silhouette of the pine trees along with the beautiful fire works.   We loved that fire work display.  when they were finished with their fireworks, we climbed back in the truck and started to drive again.  we were talking about what a perfect day it had been.  We got to watch two fire work displays, but the second one was the best ever!  We were just feeling really blessed and we thought it couldn't get any better than this.  then we continued on down the road.  Surprisingly, it got better!  We had to drive through Hungry Horse, where everybody in the town had congregated out to the main road through town, to party and light off their fireworks.  We felt like we were driving in a parade and that was different for us.  But it was an awesome experience.  The big, illegal in Utah, fireworks were going off all around us.  There were so many fireworks going off every where.  It was just an atmosphere and excitement that I had never experienced before.  I thought it was so fun.  We wanted to pull over and enjoy all the fun, but there was no place to park until you got out of town, then you'd have to walk back and we didn't think our tired kids would want to do that.  We thought the Hungry Horse experience was the best ever!  If we are in Montana over the 4th of July again, we know exactly where to go.  Being in Montana over the 4th was very different than being in Utah.  Everybody had the big really nice in the air fireworks (the professional kind - not the dinky ones that were recently made legal here in Utah), so they are going off all around you and it is so fun, exciting, and pretty.  The best 4th of July ever!  Besides the very first 4th of July that Roger and I spent together - I will always look back fondly on that one too.

Friday - July 5, 2013

We drove home today.  Driving home is my least favorite part of any vacation.  We passed a lot of these really beautiful bright yellow fields.  I love how pretty they are, so I had to stop and take a picture.

Our Montana Trip - Wednesday - July 3, 2013

 The kids were really scared to play outside or do anything with out Roger being there with us, so we spent most of our time sitting inside.  We had fun though.  We ate some lunch and spent the rest of the time playing Jenga.  When Roger got back, the kids weren't scared anymore.  Roger ate his lunch, then we all went outside to play.  The kids had fun running around and playing and Roger an I had a nice time sitting outside relaxing and watching them.

 After relaxing at the cabin for a little bit, we headed to Bowman Lake to play.  The water was really cold!  It was hard to get used to it.  The kids had a lot of fun playing with their floatie toys.  Roger and I decided that we would both go out in the water and both of us had to go under the water.  It was so cold, so it was really hard to do, but it was fun.

There was one really annoying thing while we were there......Horseflies!  There were a lot of them and for some reason they were attracted to me.  They were swarming me pretty much the whole time we were there.  I was so frustrated.  I kept running out into the water to get away from them, but they would follow.  Eventually it got too much for me to handle.  I got mad and decided I was just going to go to the truck  and change into my regular clothes, so they wouldn't be able to get to me as well.  I changed into long pants and I wore my big hoodie sweatshirt so I could be completely covered. up.  They still swarmed me, even after I changed, but it didn't bother me as much, when I was completely covered up.  I wasn't so scared of them stinging me.  After I changed my clothes, everybody else changed in to theirs also.  Then Roger started a fire for us.  We sat around the fire for a little while.  We had planned to roast hot dogs by the fire, but we realized that we had forgotten to bring our roasting sticks.  There was a little chipmunk in one of the fire pits.  It kept popping it's head out to look at us.  We had fun trying to get a good picture of it.  We also saw a few deer.  It was fun to try and get good pictures of the wild life.

 After our camp fire, Roger had a really good idea.  He suggested we take our chairs out to the lake, eat the snacks we had brought with us for dinner, and watch the sunset.  So, that's what we did.  It was so nice and relaxing.  I loved it!  Roger always comes up with the best ideas!

On the drive back to Grandma's,  the kids started listing all of the fun toys that they wanted to get for Christmas or their birthdays.  It was fun to hear them talking about all of the fun stuff they wanted, but that lead to a talk about how to be happy with what you have.  Parker told us that he had said a prayer and asked Heavenly Father to let us see a deer running along the side of the road as we were driving home.  Heavenly Father answered his prayer, but he had fallen asleep so he didn't get to see it.  It was fun for all of us who were awake.