Play Dough, Camping, and Red Lodge Trip

One random picture of Andrew before I get started.  He had quite a production going on here:

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I went to check on Matt before bed the other night, and found the little Miss asleep like this:

I guess she proved me wrong the other day when I said she was sitting at the movies like a barbarian.  She really is a lady!

The house was a mess last week, so we broke out the play dough with the Utah cousins.  We found out it's time for new play dough.  Most of ours is disgusting.

Matt was using the squirt gun to put water in the empty containers and drink it back out.  Gross.  I put a stop to that.

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The boys had a great time at Math Camp, and all the cousins were just happy to see each other all week.  Grace cried for two days before Emma even left.  She was just so sad to see her favorite cousin go home!

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The boys took off camping for the weekend.  Joey wanted to stay for a week, but one night had to suffice.  They roasted in the heat, but had a great time, as usual.  They ate Dad's famous foil dinners.  They just love camping and fishing.  I'm glad they could all spend time being boys together.  Better in the wilderness than in my living room.

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We and some friends of ours took off for Red Lodge on Monday.  We were a little concerned about the number of bikers that would be left over from the weekends' festivities, but most had left by the time we got there.  Haley and I decided to count the number of bikers we saw between Laurel and Red Lodge.  The final number was 92, although it was shaky getting to that number, because Haley was having some trouble counting.  It is summer, after all.  She did fine until we got to 38.  There was a large group headed our way, and I think she got a little nervous.

She said, "38-39-40-50!"

My new nickname for her is "40-50".  I called her that all day.

She had a little trouble adding 4 to 76.  I told her it was 80.  She had to count on her fingers.

She had a little more trouble between 88 and 92.

And this is the girl who just signed up for honors' math.

Good luck.

Just kidding.  We laughed so hard, we almost peed our pants.

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The Beartooth Center was great.  We saw lots of animals.  You can get right next to them (with a fence in between, of course).  We were three feet away from a mountain lion (who was growling and hissing at the kids -- they were noisy), a bison, coyotes, wolves, bears, donkeys, and deer.  The kids loved it.

Then we took over Red Lodge Pizza Company, my favorite!  The staff did a great job handling 11 kids with only two mommies.  They asked if we were a birthday party when we walked in, needing a space for 13.  I said, "No, just two families."  We got a smokin' good deal on the lunch buffet (four of our kids were free!), and then we hit the park.  They have a beautiful new park, and we were the only ones there for most of the time.  The kids had a blast playing with their friends.

Then we hit Rockvale's drive-in for ice cream.  The kids slurped up their melting cones while Melissa and I talked.  I think we could talk forever, if we had the chance.  We talked for three days straight a few months ago when we went to Bozeman (sans children!).  It's so good to have friends.