Getting Ready

School is just around the corner and this cute girl finally gets to go!  (sometimes late birthday's are the pits.)

 Huntley has been waiting so long for this day to get here and has been asking all summer when she finally gets to go to school.  I on the other hand have been dreading this day and knew that once it starts it is going to be apart of our lives for a long time.  So in order to make myself more positive I decided to start some back to school traditions.  We'll see how it evolves over the years but the main idea was to go to town and get all of her school supplies and let her pick out a place to go to for lunch. 

The supply shopping part wasn't the funnest.  I guess going the week school starts in a college town was a bad idea.  The stores were crazy and it took three different stops to get everything on her list.  Who would have known watercolors were such a wanted item.  After everything was crossed off we went to get food and surprise, surprise, she picked McDonalds.  Hopefully her taste evolves over the years but considering we had free happy meal coupons from the library it ended up being a good place to go.

 After lunch we hit up Costco and stocked up on all sorts of goodies for her lunch.  It seemed like everything kid/lunch related was on sale and we bought it all.  Now I'm going to laugh really hard when after two days she changes her mind and decides to eat school lunch. 

8 more days to go!

Cowboy Pais

 Last week Paisley finally got brave and decided she wanted to ride.  She's never been afraid of the horses but always said no whenever we've tried to get her on one.  Sunday during feeding time, Scott asked if she wanted to get on and much to our surprise she said yes!  She only lasts a few minutes before deciding she wants to try out another horse but she is all smiles the entire time.  Who would have thought I would end up with little cowgirls.

It's Raining, It's Pouring

 This week has been one nonstop, constant down pour.  I miss seeing the mountains out the window and I'm feeling a little anxious for when winter comes.  Supposedly summer is coming back next week and I'm glad.  I'm extremely glad we spent our only sunny day on Monday to our advantage and had fun at the lake.  What I wouldn't give for a book, a lawn chair, and little girl giggles right now.

 Instead we are stuck inside trying to use our imaginations and organizing.  The rain is good for making me get all of Hunt's clothes ready for school and forcing me to face all the clothes I don't fit into in my closet.  The girls were awesome about helping me model my maternity clothes.

 And when we get to the point where we just can't take being inside anymore we put on our boots and jackets and stomp around in the mud.  The girls have been dieing to see if there really are potatoes growing under the potato plants so we decided to find out.  Hooray there was and boo apparently some other critter has also been enjoying them and half of them were nibbled on.  I can't win with animals and my garden this year.

 We also played with chalk and now I won't play with chalk in the sun ever again.  It works so much better in the rain and the chalk doesn't feel so chalky on your fingers.  I really hate that feeling.

 We also have been putting our basketball hoop to use.  Hunt even made two baskets last night and Pais just likes to hang on the rim.  No the weather isn't anywhere as dreadful as winter is going to be but I really can't wait until our good friend Mr. Sun comes back to play.

Our First Ever Montana Camping Trip

While Nini was here we ventured out on our first camping trip since becoming Montanans.  I figured that was a big deal and deserved a post on it's own.  Especially since I went without Chris.  (Although we went with our friends from Church so I did have plenty of help so it's really not that impressive, but still, pregnant lady, two kids, and their grandma, that's semi-impressive.)

 Huntley was in heaven.  She had friends to play with at all times and a million flowers to pick.  I think that girl could live in the mountains surrounded by wildflowers and be perfectly content for the rest of her life.

 Pais on the other hand was kind of a little stinker.  Actually more of a big stinker and spent the entire time saying "hold me."  I don't know what her deal was considering she took over my air mattress during the night and had a great nights sleep. 

 As for me, I survived!  I actually did have a really good time and loved the experience other than I didn't sleep the entire night.  It was my first time camping in "grizzly country" and being in areas with big huge bears is still intimidating to me.  I actually wasn't too worried until I heard about the sow and her cubs that lived across the road from where we were camping and occasionally they had to shut the area down when she decided it was where she felt like being.  Of course my tent and the side I was sleeping on was closest to where she'd last been spotted so the whole night I kept thinking about how I was first in line for being bear bait.  Yes, I'm seriously the biggest wimp.  Next time I'll sleep just fine though when I can make Chris be first line of defense.

Nini comes to Montana

During the end of July we had a special visitor all the way from California, NINI!!!!

The girls were in heaven the entire week she was here.  They got to go to the candy store two times, ride the stage coach, play at the park, go to the beach, have Hunt's first ever back to school shopping experience, and just have lots and lots of fun.  Life is always grand when Nini comes to town.

We even spent a day at Yellowstone and it was probably our best trip yet. The animals were everywhere but since Hunt was our little photographer for the day my phone was dead 15 minutes after entering the park.  Too bad considering there was a lovely buffalo sitting in the road who caused a major traffic jam where we were able to drive four miles in two hours.  Gotta love Yellowstone in the summer.

Thanks for coming to play with us Nini, come back soon!!!

Headed to the County Fair

Well, there's a full moon in the western sky

 And there's magic in the air

 Ain't nothin I know of, can make you fall in love

 Like a night at the county fair.

 Except for the fact we went during the day and Hunt falling in love with millions of animals probably isn't what Chris Ledoux had in mind when he wrote that song.  Either way we still loved the county fair and had a blast today exploring.

 Our county isn't very big so the fair was pretty small and was just your typical 4-H animals, fried food, a building with quilts, paintings, and canned stuff that the girls refused to go in, and a few bounce houses.  There was even a playground with this awesome old school slide that burned your bum. 

 Their was two older gentleman who had a tent setup and were helping kids make rockets and shoot them off.  I think they secretly got a kick out of watching the rockets scare the crap out of people walking by and they ended up being my favorite people ever.  They sat with Hunt and helped her color flowers all over her rocket and didn't mind one bit that she wanted to launch it over and over and over. 

 I got to rest and crack up at my other little munchkin who told me she doesn't like Pepsi and then end up trying to get every last drop out of the can. 

 Luckily we hit the bounce house up after that and she was able to burn off all of the energy in her little body.  So much energy she bounced into a wall and gave herself a bloody nose.  At which point I was yelling for Hunt to get out so we could leave but the little stink hid so she wouldn't have too.  It's probably a good thing my kids are at their worst when other people are around so I have to hold it together and not scream like a raving lunatic. 

 Luckily she eventually came out, Pais got cleaned up, and a nice lady gave the girls the balloons from the car show as we were leaving.

Although I really could use that Pepsi right about now :)

Ups and Downs

Life never ceases to amaze me how fast it can change.

Monday we spent the day together as a family finishing up our 14 straight days of daddy time.  Chris left during the night and it was a really hard adjustment for the girls to go to bed and be used to having dad around to waking up and it's just mom.

 It was hard for me to and I really didn't want to deal with daily life so I figured we'd wait until tomorrow to do that and go to the beach instead.  That was a great idea. We had the beach to ourselves so we got the best sand castle building spot and set to work having a great day.  Until a giant thunderstorm rolled through and we ended up back home facing the chores we'd tried to avoid.

 Our next two weeks are pretty low key.  I wanted to keep it that way since school starts up soon and I figured it would be good for us to start working on a more normal routine.  Since they are slower I decided I'd use Pais's love for ice cream and convince her to start using the potty.  After an extremely long discussion, she is way to smart for her own good, I finally convinced her that it is okay to be a big girl and she'd try and wear the panties that are taking up extra space in her dresser.  The kid seriously rocked it and went the whole day without any accidents and using the bathroom like she has been doing it her whole life.  Life was looking great and she really wanted that ice cream cone so we went and got them instead of waiting the week like I'd originally told her.  Of course as soon as we got home she peed all over my couch.   

None of these things have really been that dramatic or really that big of a deal I just couldn't sleep at night and was thinking about how life really can change fast.  You never know what tomorrow will bring.  It was a good reminder to me to appreciate the here and now.