Discovery March 2011

This was our last ski trip of the season. We hadn't been to Discovery in a couple of years and I'm so glad we finally got over there. I forgot how much I love Discovery. It's my favorite! We didn't have huge expectations for the snow conditions but it ended up being gorgeous. The best snow we'd skiid on in a long time. When we got there it was a white out, then the sun came out, then it would dump snow again, then the sun would come out...it did that all day long. Yummy!

Andrew and his cousin Jackson




Motherload

Lunch time...camera a little fogged up.


Last chair...one last quick run down Berkeley on some very tired, well used legs.


To be continued...with Elwood the Donkey.

Girls Night

Summary: Girls night/hotel sleepover planned by my sister for two of her daughters' birthdays + some preteen friends + mom and I + I had to drag Andrew along = 7 females and 1 poor, vulnerable 10 year old boy.

One smokin' hot grandma and Kelsey


Madyson and her friends

Andrew


We had been mildly joking with Andrew that we were going to paint his toenails when he fell asleep. He was pretty nervous. Girl stuff is not funny to him...at all. I had no intentions of actually doing it because I have witnessed the wrath of Andrew many times. But I made the mistake of telling my sister that Andrew is a verrry sound sleeper. So, once he fell asleep all heck broke loose on my poor kid. A bra may or may not have been strategically placed on him as well.

Other than taking pictures and laughing, I was NOT involved.


Unfortunately Andrew woke up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and discovered his nails (and he may or may not have found a bra). I heard him sobbing. I got up to find him trying to rub the finger nail polish off with toilet paper and water.

I felt terrible.

Mostly because he woke me up so early.

No seriously, I felt terrible. I helped him get the nail polish off and tucked him back in bed...and I haven't heard the end of it since.

Thanksgiving 2010

We spent our Thanksgiving with my sister and her family in Plains this year. Nothing much to report other than the usual...like too much food and that kind of boring stuff. We always have fun going over to visit them. They have seven kids so it's a lot like going to the circus.

We spent a good part of the day sledding down their road. In need of more sleds, Tim and Sam looked around and realized the kids' plastic fort had some panels that would work perfectly, so apart came the fort. Boy Scouts sure paid off for those two.



Go Lilly!

Flathead Lake - August 2010

We had such a cold, wet summer that we really didn't get up to the lake nearly as much as we normally do. I think if you added up all the sunny, warm days, we maybe had a total of 3 weeks of summer weather. So sad. But now that we are in the dead of winter, I would do just about anything to be in the middle of a cold, wet summer right about now. These pictures make me miss the water something fierce! Seriously, who needs some big, schmancy, expensive, exotic vacation spot when you have this at your fingertips...or toetips?

Wow, sometimes these old farts look like they actually do like each other ;)

Kelsey and gramps...

Andrew

Madyson

Andrew and cousins Bailey and Maddy

Bayzilla blowing bubbles with nothing but dish soap and her hands. Quite the master.

Pretty 'Maddy Patty Duke'

Bailey

Andrew LOVES to snorkel

Smokin' hot Grandma Sue

And a smokin' hot Grandma Sue skiing

Ringing Rocks - Aug. 2010

On our way home from the caverns, we stopped at the ringing rocks...one of just a couple of places in the country where the rocks do this. It was pretty interesting. Some of the rocks don't have the bell sound at all and the rocks that do are all a little different tone. It was pretty cool for a while but I got bored a lot quicker than the boys and really had to pee. Anyway...

L & C Caverns trip part 2

Just some more random pictures of our little trip.


We headed back to our cabin and had some lunch and then packed up.

Naturally Tim was itching to fish the Jefferson, so on our way out, we stopped along the river for a little bit.

Andrew played with an orange he found floating in the river.

I don't think Tim ever figured out what they were biting.


Next stop, Ringing Rocks...

Lewis & Clark Caverns - Aug. 2010 (part 1)

Tim and I realized that although we've both lived in Montana our entire lives, neither of us had ever been to the Lewis and Clark Caverns. It's vaguely familiar that maybe my parents took me and my siblings there years ago but who knows. So anyway, I got online to look things over, decided to rent one of their little cabins, threw some things in the van and off we went. Yippee!

We got in later than planned and I was very glad to not have to set up a tent in the dark and the rain. Even Tim, uber-outdoorsman that he is, was perfectly happy to just walk into a cabin and turn the heater on. Man we're getting old and lazy.

We brought our things in, made some hot cocoa and got ready for bed. The MOST uncomfortable beds on the planet! Yeah, we're getting old. Andrew spent most of the time up in the beams.

The next morning we got up and did a little hike around in the hills, then went back because it was so flippin' cold and wet. Then we headed up the mountain for the cave tour. The nice thing about the crappy weather and going on a weekday, was that our tour group was tiny...us and like 5 other people.

As we got closer to the top, with the fog and the stone steps, it felt a little like we were headed into Mordor.




At the entrance...

And inside...
Our tour guide was a bat nut. She gave us a big lecture on not disturbing any bats we saw, and then once inside she kept stopping us and pointing out every freakin' bat she could find and making us stop to look at them. Seriously, one bat looks just like the next. She got a little mad with us with the first bat she found because we bypassed it without noticing it, so she whistled and called every one back to admire the thing. Freako'...





To be continued...