Montana Trip Part I

I decided to divide the Montana/Washington part of our trip into two parts. There were so many pictures and things I wanted to share! My photos can not begin to portray how beautiful this place is and how much fun we had! So here goes nothing.

We loaded the kids up in the van and left Logan, Utah, still in their Pajamas, and headed for the Cabinet Mountains in Montana! Our first stop was at the Idaho Falls, Temple. The kids got out and ran around, to stretch and get their "wiggles" out. That's why they are in their pajamas.

 The beautiful Can of Tuna River! It's really not named the Can of Tuna River, but that's what we call it. The family joke goes, 2 years ago we were on our way home from Sages5k run in Washington. We were stopping in Kalispell, Montana to pick up my grandaughter, Haven, and taking her back to Arizona with us. Her parents, in Arizona, called and were asking where we were at, when Crystal replied, "We are at the Can of Tuna River, John was bewildered for a moment until he realized she was trying to say Kootenai River! So we now call it the Can of Tuna River.
What a beautiful sight she is!

Right of the bat Wayne steps on a board with a nail in it and cuts the back of his leg.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this little boys smile! He is such a sweet little man!

Caden Caldwel

Ellie Mae and Caden played non stop. It was impossible to keep them clean- as you will see.

Just a little mud slinging!

Payten

Jayden

Through the trees is a wonderful BBQ grill, fire pit and picnic benches, where we ate many wonderful BBQ dinners.

Jessica lives in a barn that was converted into a bed and breakfast. This place is huge with 7 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms.

If you look through the trees to the left you will see a smaller home. Some really interesting people had rented it for the summer. They were scientists and they were studying the frogs and the effects asbestos had on them, if any. They moved in August and Jessica's mother and Father-in-law moved in it. It is just the two family's at the top of this mountain. The blue, through the trees, is the Kootenai River at the bottom of the mountain.

We sat around the fire pit well after midnight everynight. It was so fun that we didn't want to go to bed.

We went in to Libby, where Jessica had an ultrasound, they were awesome and spent 2 1/2 hours trying to see what she was having. We were finally told she was having a girl! Then a couple of months later an ultrasound revealed HE wasn't a girl at all! This happened with Mr. Caden too! Surprise were are not girls but cute little BOYS!

Ellie was so tired she fell asleep eating dinner.

There was so much thick green foiliage! You can't see them, but these ferns were hiding approximately 12 baby fawns!

 Ross Creek Cedars!

Jessica and John live just down the road from the Ross Creek Cedars. It was such a beautiful hike that we did it again after Spencer arrived!

 The trees are big enough to climb inside their hollow trunks.

 This picture was taken inside one of the trees. That's the sky at the top. It was incredible.

 Payten and Jayden

 John and Caden

Caden and Ellie Mae

 Crystal's Family (William, Crystal, Ellie, Jayden, Wayne and Trey)

 Silly Girls

 Huge trees!

 Kaitlen is getting so big! I loved looking at her Teen magazines with her and Haven. We sat around the camfire and the girls would point out each guy and tell me if they thought he was "Hot or Not". WOW! They do grow up, way too fast! But it was a time with my grandgirls that I will always cherish!

 DJ was always so willing to help out with the little ones!

 Isn't this old water pump just the coolest?!!

 Water gun fights!

There were field of wild daisies everywhere! 

Well that's the end of Montana Part 1! I promise to post the rest soon!

Summer 2012 - Utah

I am so far behind on my blog! I wanted to get some of my photos up from our summer trip! We escaped the Valley of the Sun and her triple digit heat for one full month and it was HEAVEN. The best part of the trip was spending time with my children and my beautiful grandchildren.

The first leg of our jouney we spent two wonderful weeks in Logan, Utah. That's where my daughter, Amanda and her sweet family live and I am so jealous! Logan is beautiful in so many ways. Of course I took around 2,000 photos on our trip-and that's the truth. Choosing which ones to post was the hardest part!

DJ drove the entire trip and he did a wonderful job! No accidents, tickets or even scary moments. He took his job seriously and took very good care of us. Spencer stayed in Arizona the first leg of our journey and he was really missed!

We went on a wonderful hike. It was so cool, green and so beautiful!

 I loved watching this man fly fishing

 We camped out every night in the living room, which made for late nights, and lots of giggling. John's dog, Reba, is the sweetest dog! She cuddled up with William every night.

 The kids played and played in the backyard. It was the first time Ellie was able to play outside and actually get dirty. Her first summer she was too little, so this was the first time she was allowed to play all day long in the dirt with no fear of sunburning and dieing of heat stroke!

  There is nothing like eating watermelon after a hard day of playing in the dirt!

 Logan has a really nice little zoo 

We fell in love with the soft serve rootbeer ice cream at  the A&W Rootbeer Stand.

 I got to watch Izzy at her swimming lessons. Can you see her giving me the "Thumbs Up"! She's such a funny little girl!

 Some more hiking. We got to the end of the trail and ran into a huge "Young Women's" camp site. It was so fun visiting with them and their leaders.

 Hyrum Park

The kids had never been on a merry-go-round before. They had a blast!

 Isabelle was running toward the slide and smacked her head on the metal hand railing going up the side of the slide. It was such a hard bonk!

 Nolan wasn't too sure about the tall slide but Uncle DJ soon had him going down it like a pro

Isn't Nolan the cutest little boy! I know I say that about all of my grandkids, but I have some beautiful grandbabies!

 The white sand was amazing. Ellie wasn't too sure about it at first.

 Such a beautiful park and we had it all to ourselves

Jayden LOVED the cool white sand

 DJ and William would swing really high and then jump out. I remember doing this as a child...I think it would kill me now!

 DJ taught the boys how to skip stones

 Isabelle graduated from one of her swimming classes!

What would a family trip be without a little drama?  Smiling through her trials, Crystal was quite miserable, hence the trip to the Emergency Room. Who knew you could just be walking along and have your bladder and rectum fall out? Poor girl. I know that is too much information for some of you, "Sensitive", people out there. But it was part of our trip. The Dr's assured her that she could finish her vacation as long as she rested and didn't lift anything. She has since had surgery, one month ago, and is healing very well.

Jet Skiing! This is one tired little man. 

 Leave it to Wayne to spear a fish!

 I don't think a day goes by, that William doesn't think about and miss his little brother, Sage.

There is nothing like a peanut butter sandwich!

 Izzy spent 3 days at the lake building little piles of dirt with sticks stabbed in them. She thought they were so beautiful!

 DJ building a sand castle with the kids. Notice the Diet Coke box?

 The finished castle. If you look closely you can see that they used parts of the box.

A fire on the mountain across the street. The entire country seemed to be on fire this summer. Such a tragedy losing so much beautiful land and trees.

 If you look closely you can see the helicoptor filling his bucket with water. What a miracle it was to have water so close at hand.

 We sat in the back yard and watched the fire burn for hours. It was interesting to see the blue head lamps of the firemen right in the middle of the fire. We went to bed praying that the fire would be under control in the morning. We woke up the next day and the fire was out! Such a blessing.

 More hiking

 This place was so beautiful!

More swimming

 Jayden loved picking the wild flowers

 Fourth of July Parade

 We had such a beautiful spot to watch the parade. This is hour fourth of July's should be. You never truly appreciate weather and beauty like this until you have to park in a sticker and cactus ridden dirt field, with a monsoon storm, aka haboob, blowing your way, with your skin slathered in sun screen, all the while trying to enjoy yourself in 115 degree heat!

 Amanda's family

 Waiting for the fireworks to start

 Before we knew it, our time in Utah was over, it was hard saying goodbye, but we knew we would all meet in Montana soon. The mini van was loaded up, at 3am, and we were off to Montana!

We had such a wonderful time with Amanda's family! They were so gracious about opening their home up to us and taking us around to see all of the sites! Did I mention it was the best summer ever?!

I will post our Montana trip next...I bet you can't wait. LOL