We went up to Sunburst for a long holiday weekend this year. It was Kyle's all class reunion, and we had a great time! It was so nice to have Kyle's whole family together and see lots of friends. Luckily, my kids were great too. Thank goodness their sinus infections are gone. Here's cute baby Kaden with his Mom, Aly. He's the most laid-back little guy.
We haven't seen Kevin and his wife Marisa for a few years. It was great to visit with them. Diana had some family pictures taken on Sunday out at Bonnie's beautiful house. This is a cute one of Dick, Diana, Chris (in back), Kevin, and Kyle (in front).
We had Colty take a quick one of our little fam too. Ave had just woken up and was not in a smiling mood. Still cute though! For those of you who don't know, we will have an addition to our little family next year. We are due Feb. 6th!
Carterman had a blast at the parade. Callie taught him the "Callie dance", and he did it perfectly!
Carter's favorite part of the parade was the candy! Bre and Colty helped him collect a ton of it, and he ate it all weekend.
Carter absolutely loved this chair at Grandma and Grandpa's house. It has a very nice back massager on there. He and Avery shared the "mashage" as he calls it, but he was in charge of the remote!
Avery was very good with Uncle Kevin and Aunt Marisa. She was a little shy at first, but eventually she was her goofball self. She showed off her animal sounds, she played with their "big giant" German Shepherd, and she danced and ran.
Carter was not shy around anyone. He's such a little clown. He didn't eat as well as usual, but I think he's having a growth spurt. He looked taller when he stood by Landon last night. I love this picture of Marisa, Carter, and Callie - good smiles everyone!
He looked fantastic in Callie's sunglasses. He actually sort of looks like a big bug! He was many different superheroes all weekend. His Flash imitation is the best. He got a Spiderman costume last night for having no accidents at all in Sunburst. He's got this pottying thing down!
Carter absolutely loves his cousin Colty. Colten is great to him too. He gave him piggyback rides and played with him all weekend. This picture is unfortunately very dark, but you can still see how happy he is!
Avers had a dandy time getting thrown in the air by her pal Callie. Callie and Kyle fixed her hair in pigtails on Friday night. She got many compliments on how cute they (and she) were! Fun times!
We actually had two very hot summery days in Butte last week. We got to bust out Ave's first nightgown. She looked gorgeous in it, especially with that ponytail on top of her head! Too bad she's drugged out on Augmentin.
We had to put this up for Auntie Kelsie. She says Carter looks great in sleeveless shirts. Erica brought back this muscle one from Alaska. It's awesome! This is a funny picture - the two kids eating Captain Crunch, Avery naked, underwear on the table. Ha ha!
Another muscle picture...and a super tough football face to go with it!
There is really nothing better for a little baby girl than to jump on her Daddy. We read "Hop on Pop" the other day. Maybe that put her in the mood!
This was our last stop of our Yellowstone trip - Gardiner, MT (my posts are always backwards). It was very cute. We stopped, got the kids in pajamas, and had some ice cream. We got back about 11:15 Sunday night thanks to some great driving by Grandpa.
Carter took this picture with my little camera while we were driving by this buffalo. The boy's got talent! I did delete about thirty other ones he took of course.
These two pelicans were pretty cool. I told Carter and Avery they were like Nigel on Nemo. Carter kept saying "Hey 2 Nigels, look over here!". He was killing me.
Here's a half sunny, half shady family picture. We had a great time - thanks Mom and Dad!
I think the kids favorite stop of the trip was Yellowstone lake. We saw a little rock trail that went out into the lake, and we decided to stop there. There is nothing more fun than throwing rocks in the water or pretending Daddy is going to throw you in the lake!
Ave liked to throw with both hands and yell "double"! They were all so so good on the trip.
The waterfalls there were so beautiful. Erica and I had never been to Yellowstone before so we were just as interested as the kids. It was nice to have Mom and Dad to show us around too.
This was in the gift shop after the Grizzy/Wolf Discovery Center. He looks good in a cowboy hat!
They were absolute nuts in the gift shop. It was about nap time and their collective attention span was down to about three seconds. As you can see, I couldn't get them to look at me.
Oh no! The boys are in a bear trap. They loved this thing!
They also liked the teepee too. Carter told me it was from Peter Pan. That boy retains so much info from movies!
Landon got a little tired while we were waiting for two new bears to come out. He decided to lay down in the shade - Avery had to join him because she loves to copy what Lando is doing!
Avers liked the feel of this "bear coat" as Carter called it.
They saw a giant sand pile on one side by the wolf enclosure. These kids cannot pass up climbing up a sand pile.
Lando was getting a better view of the bears here.
The bears were so cool. The wolves were all passed out. It was too hot for them, but the bears were so fun to watch. They were splashing in the water, chasing away birds, digging for food - just very entertaining.
There's my Boo Boo watching a Grizzly behavior informational video. She just liked that the border of the movie was purple!
We went and saw Old Faithful on Saturday afternoon. It was really cool. It's kind of scary to think you are just hanging out walking around on a volcano though!
We found a nice place to watch from the side away from the huge crowd. I thought the view was just fine. Here's my little monkeys waiting for the eruption with their Poppa.
These little geyser pools were our first stop in Yellowstone. I thought they were really cool and so pretty. My kids were just happy to be out of the car...even though they don't look like it in this picture!
It's odd how something so pretty can be so smelly. That's probably what they say about Avery at daycare sometimes! Landon did not like these stinky things. Carter just wanted to run through the stink smell. "C'mon Mom, we gotta run!".
We saw some elk just relaxing on a little grassy island in the river right when we drove in the park. It was a nice sight to get us started on our little excursion. We saw a Mama bear with three cubs as we were leaving the park too. We had some good wildlife sightings!
We left Saturday morning from Butte at about 10 and made it to Virginia City just in time for lunch. I haven't been to Virginia City since eighth grade. I forgot how cool it is. Kyle loved it - homemade ice cream and a great candy shop! Carter ate a very fancy truffle for a treat.
Landon enjoyed his strawberry ice cream very much. Ave just wandered around and had bites from everybody! What a fun vacation!
We went up to the Folk Festival Saturday and Sunday. The kids came with us on Sunday and had a good time. They were dancing and enjoying some snow cones. They really did have fun even if it doesn't look like it in this picture!
They had some really cool stuff for little kids up there at the Family stage. You could pan for gold, decorate your own hard hats, and go through this cool mining tunnel. At the end of the tunnel you could pick up these fake rocks and throw them in the top (with some help from Daddy).
Jordan was a big help as always up there. She helped Ave decorate her hat. It said Avery on the back in lovely red glitter.
After we went home for nap time, Ave woke up as silly as always. She absolutely loves to wear her brothers swim trunks. It's probably her favorite outfit!
Diane, Art, Terri, Erica, and I went up for awhile on Saturday night. It was a lot of fun. We saw an awesome salsa band, and I swear half the city was up there dancing. They estimated 150,000 were here for the Festival. I don't doubt that at all - it kind of blew my mind!
Jocko had to use up the extra fireworks from the 4th. She did some lovely work with smokebombs - Ave is checking out her name here.
And there's my Carterman with his name. My kids really enjoyed the fireworks - my dog did not the poor thing.
My girl loves to chat on the phone. She especially loves to talk to Terri. "Hi Tewwi" is what she usually is saying!
She has been very into dressing herself and layering lately. She went over to Terri's house last week for awhile when I wasn't feeling good. Terri and Jordan found this skirt that I bought for Abbey when she was about 5 - I loved it. Then she came home and put on this cute outfit from Grandma Bonnie. So she had on two shirts, two skirts, a pair of pants, and a hat. Looking good!
I have a lot of pictures of these two together this time. They are good buddies. Carter is an awesome big brother, and Avery idolizes him. I love this picture!
Avery decided that Abb and Jord could help her up the stairs, but she was going down by herself. She had to go down on her belly like the boys too!
Carter's been asking us if we all want to sleep on his bed. It's not quite big enough for us all, but it's perfect for him and Ave to watch a movie together!
