Kalispel (Continuation of trip #2)

We had a great time with my Aunt Jan and Uncle Tony after our trip to Seeley Lake. We went to Kalispel and Glacier. Jan and Tony took our family on some great hikes. It was so beautiful. We hope that we will be able to get up there again soon. It is to bad that Montana is so stinkin' big. Even though we have relatives in Montana it still takes us forever to get up there.

The kids were real troopers during the 3 mile hike up to a lake. I love that we can enjoy the outdoors as a family. So far it seems as though everyone likes to be out in nature. I hope it continues that way since that is where Russ and I love to be the most.

Trip #2 of the summer

We had a great family reunion with the Duce's this summer. They rented cabins at Seeley Lake, which is outside of Missoula. It is near where Grandpa Duce had a ranch in the sixties. There were lots of cousins for everyone to play with, and lots of activities. It was nice because they hired a cook and we didn't have to worry about cooking the entire time (every mothers dream). One day they hired a bus to come and take us to the old family ranch. It is a fancy dude ranch now. We got to eat lunch there and take a tour. We also went to a cool ghost town. We were right on the lake so that the kids could swim, fish, or go canoeing whenever they wanted. We also held a memorial for Grandma Duce. She died right before the reunion. We are so grateful for those that put such a great reunion together. There were a lot of great memories made.

Trip #1 of the summer

Our Trip to Utah

We had such a great summer. It all started with our trip to Utah in June. Russ had a conference in Salt Lake so we decided we would drive down with him. We went to Bear Lake with some of my family. The kids had a great time at the beach. They loved collecting shells and burrying each other in the sand. The weather was a bit chilly, but the kids didn't know the difference.

Dylan in the sand Grandpa and Lizzie Lizzie in the sand Peyton in the sand Connor and Katie

Later on in the week we went to Hogle Z00 with the Hall cousins. It was really fun, and the cousins had a blast together.

We then headed to Lagoon at the end of the week. It was pouring rain, but we tried to make the most of it. Not to many pictures of this day, because of the weather. I have a few of the little kids, but none of the big boys on their bigger rides.

Camping over the Fourth of July

We had a great camping trip over the fourth of July. We went with some friends of ours to a campground outside of Redlodge. A really bad wind storm hit this area last winter, and trees were literally ripped out of the ground. It was crazy to see all of these trees just lying around, with huge roots attached to them.

We had a great time playing in the river nearby. Russ got to do a bit of fishing and even caught a small one. We drove down to Redlodge for the 4th of July Parade. It was cute. Lizzie loved the fire trucks and all of the horses. I think the kids got more candy there then they did las Halloween. We went back for the fireworks, but weren't really impressed. We were waiting for some big show to start, and it never really did.

On the last day of our trip we went on a great hike. I kept on telling everyone that this was the idea of a perfect day for me. We went up the road about three more miles from our campsite and hiked into some beautiful waterfalls. The hike wasn't that bad and the kids did pretty good. We are almost to the point where we won't need to carry a child in a backpack. That will be nice. The river was running so fast because of all the run off from the Beartooths. We had to cross over some cool boulder fields. The boys loved climbing on all of the rocks. On the way back we stopped and let the boys play in a little pool of water. The water was pretty chilly but that didn't stop them. It was a wonderful day to spend as a family. To bad we had to go home early so Russ could get ready for scout camp :)

Funny Dylan

The boys had swimming lessons this week. After Dylan had a near panic attack about getting in the water. I called and cancelled his. Later that day when we were in the pool I resorted to bribery and told him he could buy a treat if he stuck his head under water. He did it. So while we were in the car yesterday to get his treat I asked him as he was eating his candy if it was worth putting his head under water. He said, " Mom, I put my head under water for two reasons- 1. I wanted candy and 2. I just wanted to make you happy." He is such a sweetie.

Our First Blog

After being on MySpace for a couple months and seeing all of our friends and their amazing digital creations, we both started feeling a bit like Paris Hilton - half clothed and clueless. Therefore, we sat down this afternoon and created a blog. I guess we technically should EACH have our own blog, but I haven't seen the exact blogosphere rules. Perhaps I'll run into them sometime in the future. If I find we've violated a digital commandment, you know we'll quickly turn around and in a couple years I'll create my own blog. We're really hip, you know.