Family Pictures

We took family pictures yesterday. There weren't any where all of us were looking at the camera and smiling at the same time, but at least they show our personality, right? Here's all of us:

My girls:

My boys:

Me and the girls:

Dad and the boys:

I can't say it was painless, but it was worth it!

Yellowstone Park Pictures

Last weekend we went to Yellowstone National Park. Lindsey and her family were coming north for a visit and decided to take a couple of days in the park, so we decided to join them. It was a great weekend, although next time I think I'll go during the week. It was very crowded, and people are weird. There was a three mile backup because people got out of their car to take a picture of an eagle's nest. I don't know if it's because we live here and we've seen lots of eagles nests, or because people are just weird, but causing a three mile bumper to bumper backup to take a picture of an eagle's nest seems weird to me. But, who knows, maybe I'm the weird one.

I am so happy to live in this beautiful part of the country, though. I love looking out our door and seeing beauty all around us. And not to far away is - I think - the most beautiful scenery in the world (I might be biased, but that's okay). I spent a lot of time in the Beartooths as a kid, and I will forever love it. I always tell Ben that it's my "happy place". When I was in labor, or sometimes when I'm trying to get to sleep, I imagine the old dude ranch. I can walk around it in my mind, and remember every nook and cranny, every rock and tree. It was good to go to that country again, and breathe in the fresh air.

Anyway, enough of my reminiscing. Here are some pictures of our adventure. The kids did remarkably well in the car for so long. Joey kept saying, "When are we gonna get out of this place!" And when we got home that night before family prayer, Ben had everybody say what their favorite part was. Mine and Grace's was the mountains, Haley's was the bear, Andrew's was the wolf place in West Yellowstone, and Joey's favorite thing was "coming back home". What am I going to do with that kid? I had to throw in this picture of Joey's fat lip. He's always got some sort of boo boo on his face. We're having their pictures taken later this week, so hopefully it will heal in time.

We stopped in Bozeman to let our butts feel better. We went to their Children's Museum and played for an hour before hitting the road again. Haley sucked it up and breathed Bozeman air, even though she's a major Griz fan. Thanks, Haley, for being understanding. We'll make a trip to Missoula soon.

The first thing we did in W Yellowstone was eat, and the second thing was swimming at the hotel. Zach didn't like it in his floaty.

Matt loved splashing and splashing and splashing.

The boys had a great time, and were so glad to finally be with Brenlee again.

The girls hung out in the pool. Grace finally learned how to keep her head out of the water with the life jacket on.

The wildflowers were plentiful in the park this year. They made the meadows and grass so pretty. The fairies must have been busy!

This is one of the first places we stopped, Firehole Falls. This isn't the actual waterfall - it was up the canyon a bit more, but it was really pretty. The kids were yelling at dad not to drive off the cliff. Those little monsters have no faith in their daddy's driving skills!

This was a geyser spring. The water was a beautiful blue, but we didn't get any pictures of that because Grace was disturbing the peace with her screaming fit. She wanted to push Matt's stroller, but I wanted him to live.

This was a picture on our way to Cooke City. The picture doesn't do it justice, but it was absolutely beautiful. I couldn't get a great picture from the window, so I stuck Haley's camera out the window going 55 mph, and took this picture. I thought she might have pooped her pants a little, but I don't know what the big deal was. I had it wrapped around my wrist. And I didn't even drop it. We would have gone back to pick it up if I did, anyway.

This is Old Faithful. It was poring rain, so we took shelter under some trees because I wasn't smart enough to bring jackets or umbrellas.

This is what we all looked like after our sprint to the car, which, of course, was parked in the very farthest spot in the very farthest parking lot. The poor baby was drowning in the rain, but we all thought it was a pretty funny adventure to get soaked. It felt good after the hot morning.

This was one of Andrew's favorite spots. It was the first geyser "distraction" we stopped at. (After the eagle's nest incident, where Ben kept saying, 'I wonder what the attraction is up here', Andrew started calling all the attractions "distractions".) This was an inactive geyser, and it made a hissing sound. Andrew thought it was evil. Could be, I'm not sure. Maybe there's a hissing monster that lives down there.

This was a picture of Firehole Falls. The kids didn't want to get closer to the edge than this. Probably because I lectured them on staying close to us because of all the dangerous boiling water. Then all I heard from Joey was, "I don't want to fall into the volcano!" He kept "spotting" volcanoes everywhere we went.

This was our second geyser. It splashed us a little bit.

This is the brink of the Lower Falls of the Yellowstone. Ben took the girls and Andrew while I stayed in the car with Joey and Matthew. Joey was just wanting to "get the heck out of this place and go home already." It was the end of the day. He had done great until then.

Here's the boys at one of the distractions. They always have a great time together.

We're looking forward to the rest of the week with the cousins! Goodbye Yellowstone, we'll miss ya!

Something I Just Overheard...

Sometimes I think I should just wear earplugs. People always wonder how mothers have eyes in the back of their heads. We don't. It's just that mothers have a unique ability to identify sounds and their meanings. Like in our house, splashing usually means the baby is playing in the toilet. A plopping sound means he's just dumped the shampoo bottle into the toilet. A ripping sound means he's inserting as much toilet paper as possible into the toilet. A smearing sound means that someone is wiping a booger on the window.

I am working on the computer, and I just overheard the boys. This will be the gem of the day:

"Get your face out of my butt!"
(followed by giggles)

Joey and Grace, aka "Ding and Dong"

I can't figure this kid out. He's four years old, and I still have no idea what's going to come out of that kid's mouth. The other day, he tried to get my mom to give him some crackers. She said he could take some in the car with him because he was just about to leave. He said, "How about if I snap my fingers like this (snap), and then you get me some crackers?" Sheesh!

Then last night, I bought the dog some new balls. She hid her other ones and we can't find them. Joey decided to throw one over to the neighbor's yard. The neighbor was outside, so Joey climbs onto the deck and yells,
"Hey, Mr. Cory! You throw that ball back over here!"
Mr. Cory: "Why don't you come over and get it yourself?" (Mr. Cory knows how to deal with Joey)
Joey: "Because your wife won't let me come into your house!" (totally not true, although I wouldn't blame her.)

Joey also is upset that he has to feed the dog. As soon as he does, she licks his hand. I told him that's how dogs say "thank you". He said, "That's terrible."

The neighbors on the other side let me know, while laughing hysterically, that they get "updates" from the window from little Gracie. I didn't know my darling little girl was publishing what goes on at our house from my bedroom window. They especially liked it when she told them Matt was eating out of the garbage, and they could hear me screeching in the background about how disgusting it was to eat out of the garbage. I think I'll keep the windows closed from now on.

Rant (Sorry)

I realized the other day that all of our kids can walk! Pretty soon all of them will be doing their business in the toilet, we'll have no more cribs (first time in 8 years!), we have no infant car seats, someday we'll have no diaper bag! Can you imagine? Boy, life will be easy then. Yeah right. That's about the time I become the full time chauffeur, right? I'm only a part time chauffeur now. Always dragging the little ones to the big one's stuff, or vise versa. But I did look at the little fingerprints on the window and the little tiny shoes scattered by the front door, and got a little sad because I know they won't be there soon. Boy, time is going fast....

And here begins the rant:
I don't know if I told you this, but I found a preschool for Joey! My friend from church, Kim, works there. I'm feeling pretty comfortable about sending him. She knows all about his allergies and their severity. We went to other schools, to take little tours, and I would always talk with the teachers about it. I was always met with this response, "Oh, it's no big deal. We've had other kids with allergies, and for snack time we just have them sit at their own table." Excuse me?! It's "no big deal"!? Are you insane? One molecule of nut in this boy's mouth, or on his hands, and he dies. It's no big deal? And you'll separate him from the other kids and make him sit in solitude for something that's not his fault? No thanks.

So I'm really excited about this preschool. I was sitting at a play area at the mall a few weeks ago and ran into another mother that took her twins there. We got to talking and discovered that our boys had the same allergies, and have had the same background with doctors not knowing what was wrong with our babies, and not believing us when we suggested what the problem was. And her kids went to the same school! I think it's meant to be. The school is proactive in keeping him safe, and ask all the parents to avoid bringing anything with nuts there. Ahh, finally, some common sense.

I've always been afraid of the way other parent's will react to not being able to bring nuts. But really, how big of a sacrifice is it -- to (heaven forbid) not have our kids eat something? Is it really that much of a sacrifice to have the peanut butter sandwich as an after-school snack instead of endangering a little boy's life? Should we not teach our children respect, restraint, and sympathy toward other people and their life's situations? Maybe we should get rid of all the handicapped parking spaces. After all, how dare they ask us to park 10 feet farther away from the front door? How dare someone ask us to refrain from eating whatever we darn well please! We are Americans! We should be able to eat anything, all day long!!!

Okay, I'm better now. Thanks for listening.

Camping Trip

We had an awesome time camping this past weekend. I wasn't sure how well it would go, but all four of our potty-trained kids came. That's our rule for camping -- you can go as long as you're potty trained. I have enough to do while in the mountains, I'm not going to change diapers too!

We got our favorite camping spot, complete with a stone fort somebody took a lot of time to make. The boys loved it! They also loved peeing in the woods. I think that might have been they're favorite part. There were outhouses available, but they preferred the really old-fashioned way.

We had great weather, no rain, wasn't too cold or too hot. We didn't catch any fish, but oh well. We left 2 1/2 hours after we had planned to go, and had to come back 2 hours earlier than planned because we had to get Joey to the doctor to see if he needed stitches. But we're looking forward to our next trip already! This is Joey fishing all by himself. I couldn't believe how well he could cast.

And here's the eye. It looked much worse the night before, when it was a big gaping gusher. He has a nice shiner on his eyelid. He was pretty tough about the whole thing. He got a little too close to the water pump while Andrew was pumping water. He got the metal arm right in the eye.

Haley had her first fire-starting lesson. My husband is an expert at fire. It was good to see him passing his knowledge of destruction to the next generation.

Here's a group pic, minus the photographer, of course. We had a great time at dinner, contrary to Grace's expression. Dad made his world famous hamburger, onion, potato, and carrot foil dinners. They were yummy!

The girls had a great time bonding in the great outdoors. Grace ate more than I have ever seen her eat in my entire life. Ben and I were making bets on who would be the first to vomit, and all bets were on her. We made it through the trip with no pukers!

The lake had this really cute walking bridge that you could fish off of. The kids liked fishing there, and Grace spent a lot of time squirting water into the lake "for the fishes". I'm glad I brought that squirt bottle.

Daddy, the fisherman. I'm glad he knows what he's doing, because I don't.

Andrew really enjoyed his smores. It was a great trip, although a lot of work for the adults, but we can't wait to go again! Thanks, grandma Jane for babysitting the baby!

This Week's Worth of Fun

Leave it to me, I forgot the camera for the Fourth of July, of course. When we got to the fireworks show, both Ben and I asked if the other had the camera. Nope. So this is all we have, after we sat for an hour and a half to wait for the show. By the time the show was half-way over, the kids had been whining "I want to go home!" the entire time, so we left. Joey didn't quite make it to his bed. I am looking forward to the days when we can go to the fireworks and other things like that, and all enjoy it. Shouldn't be long now...

Today was our Thomas the Train adventure. We got there at 8 a.m. and played at all the activities at the depot, including getting fake tatoos and making trains, we boarded the train and took a tour of the downtown alleyways, junkyards, and abandoned buildings. The baby was in need of a nap, so he cried the whole time, but luckily the train was filled with children so it didn't really matter. I could barely hear him from one row back.

This is Grace's "I'm about to do something really naughty" look:

On Tuesday we took a trip to the "zoo". We were greeted by this monster. The kids really thought he was great.
Joey kept a safe distance from Jake this time.

Haley seemed really interested in what was going on.

We found this nice little spot hidden away, and we actually got a shot of all the kids looking at the camera. Hooray!

We tried to go swimming Monday night, but the pool was closed because the lightning detector was going off. But that didn't deter our fun, even though it was really cold outside. They don't care. Since we were all in our swimsuits, we ran in the sprinklers in the front yard. This was a hoop from the elephant sprinkler, that you have to try to throw around the spinning trunk of the elephant. Grace thought it was a cute picture frame.

Andrew thought the elephant looked dangerous, so he wore his helmet for safety.

And here he is cheating.

We'll be off in a few hours to go camping, so I better get busy!

Haley's trip

Haley just got back from her trip to Oregon and Washington state with Dan and Bree. She had a great time, even with all the driving! They took a big van from the car lot that had a 27-inch tv/dvd so they watched lots and lots of Disney movies. They spent a lot of time with family in Oregon, swam in the pool every day, and went to the beach.

They also traveled to Seattle to visit more family. Haley had a blast being outside at the lake they live on. She declared their house to be awesome, complete with hot tub, a dock on the lake, and a loft above the garage. She found a little friend:

She had a blast eating cheese with Chloe and playing at the lake.


They also had fun seeing who could blast the biggest, best fireworks. She came back on the 5th of July, and can't wait to go visit again! You know Haley, she'll travel the world forever if somebody else pays!

Girls' Camp, as promised

Alright, as promised, I will now share about Girls' Camp. I'm so sorry there's not very many pictures to share, but I was literally in the kitchen ALL DAY LONG! We (the three cooks) cooked for 130 people every meal, every day. It was one of the hardest things I've ever done. I haven't worked physically so hard since we worked on the ranch. We were up at 4:30 a.m. to be in the kitchen by 5:00. We would start breakfast, serve, it, clean it up, then start lunch. We'd do the same thing over and over all day long. Every once in awhile we got to put our feet up for a few minutes, and one day I decided to forgo rest and ride the zip line instead. It was so fun! But very high. The hardest part was getting up there (40 feet up a narrow post), and the second hardest thing was getting enough courage to take that first drop. But once I was in the air, I was fine. I'd totally do it again. I gave a little waive before I plunged:

I originally wanted to go to camp to spend the week with Haley. But she was busy most of the day, and so was I, so we really didn't see each other much. But at least we were near each other all week. So I guess that counts. She slept in a tent with some friends. I think that was her favorite part: socializing with friends. She just loves Girls' Camp. This was her second year, and hopefully I'll get to go back next year, but maybe not as a cook. Or maybe as a part-time cook, if they have that position. I'll be sure to bring ear plugs. We had a snorer in our cabin. But thankfully, our high councilman ran to the nearest town pretty much every day to get needed items, and he picked some up for us. I was able to sleep for a few hours each day, and I even took two showers!

The best part was the scenery. I had no idea it could be so beautiful in central MT. We woke up with deer grazing on the lawn, and it reminded me of the days at the dude ranch. I love being up in the mountains, so all the work was worth it!

July fun so far...

Last night we decided to have our annual backyard fireworks show. We can't do it in the front because a patrolman lives just a few houses away. We don't want another ticket. So we started out fine, with the boys still patient and controlled, and Grace waiting in unexpected bliss:

But that scene only lasted a few minutes. When we let the tanks loose on each other for our annual war of the tanks, Grace and Matthew both started crying, and the boys were jumping up and down laughing. It wasn't long before I had to take the little ones in and have them watch (still crying) from a bedroom window. Can't wait until tonight...

Matt's new favorite place is on the deck. It's like a new room out there with the roof. We put some plants and chairs and a coffee table out there, and we all love it. Matt especially likes it because that's where the dog's water dish was, and he would go splash in the dog drool water. We've since moved the water dish to under the deck, and Matt still likes to go out and play.

Doesn't he look like a big kid here? Breaks my heart...

He even has his own little chair. It's really cute to see him try and back up to sit on it. He loves his graham crackers, and sometimes shares with the plant.

He also likes to cram himself into places he really can't fit that well.

The basketball hoop is a big hit. We're always out there every day shooting hoops. Matt didn't want to be left out, so he grabbed a ball (soccer ball, but a ball nonetheless), and tried to shoot it all the way up in the hoop. It fell a few inches in front of him, and he laughed and clapped for himself every time.

Matt's not the only one enjoying the new deck. They just make themselves right at home. Even Mojo (Sam's dog) loves it!

Andrew got home from his trip to Utah. I'll publish those pictures as soon as I figure out how to get them off the email my mom sent and onto the blog.

Next week we get to ride Thomas the Train when he comes to Billings. Can't wait! They've never ridden a "real" train before. I have only in Boston, so it's been awhile. Speaking of Boston, GO RED SOX!!!!!