Montana

We took a spontaneous trip to Montana last week so Dan could do some golfing with his Dad and brother. Because my sister is here I was able to leave 4 kiddos at home and just take Donald. It was really fun and I think Donald liked the mommy time as much as I liked time with him. We stayed in Helena the first 2 nights and then drove down to Gallatin Gateway where Dan's brother Ben lives. We were surprised to see this beautiful house in the works! We're so excited they have started building and we got to see it all planned out. It is so beautiful. When I first drove up I thought, "This house has the best curb appeal I've ever seen!" Just look at the scenery and the Gallatin River runs right through their backyard.




Donald was in love with Ben and Kara's dog Margo. She's super sweet and mellow. She was very patient with his constant attention and he just couldn't get enough of her.



Here's Ruth E., Kara, JudyGail, Margo and Donald.

My last morning there we put the soundtrack to Mama Mia on and Donald gained an appreciation for ABBA. However, Ruth E. is the one that put on the show for us with a little help from JudyGail. They are such fun sweet girls.

Church History and Primary

This month our primary went to the Church Museum of History and Art and participated in three little programs. They acted out a piece of art, they learned about different types of art in one of the galleries, and they learned to sketch a face and create a sculpture with clay.

After all the fun at the museum we had a picnic lunch right in downtown Salt Lake. It was so neat.



Charlie got to pretend like he was a pioneer making a campfire. It suited him perfectly because fire is his favorite part of camping.

Halloween in July

We are so lucky to have my sister Amanda and her daughter Deya here visiting! They've been living in Houma, LA so we haven't seen them since last summer. The day Deya arrived she got dressed up in her new fairy dress.

The rest of the kids decided to join her because she made it look like so much fun. She's so sweet.

Dan decided to dress up like a super cool statistician hanging out at home with his family. Here he is with his little bat princess.

Adrian, the ninja, had to show Aunt Amanda how to use his batting practice ball.

She had to try it to make me look bad because I can't do it very well. She can though.

Cherry Jubilee

It's been a month since I blogged so first I need to make my apologies. Sorry I haven't blogged for a while. We have been super busy enjoying the summer and being with family.

While my mom was visiting we were inspired to actually pick the cherries off of our tree. Last year we had an abundance of peaches and I had no idea what to do with them so I watched them ripen and start to fall off, full of earwigs. This year I determined that I would try to do something with our crop of fruit. The year starts with cherries so this is the first time I have canned/froze/jammed anything in my life.

It was rewarding and we ended up bringing some frozen cherries to my sister's in Elko to celebrate the 4th of July. It was such a fun trip. I have to say the fireworks in Elko, NV are the best I have ever seen. Some pictures of our fun with cousins in Elko can be found here.