Friends

I love getting to visit with friends. One of my very best friends from the Air Force Academy, Laura, was in town camping with her family and I was able to go visit her and let all of our kids play at the playground. It was wonderful to get to see her again and catch up on our lives. We talked about the different personalities of our kids and how life is going now, how did we get to be as old as we are now, reminisced about the old days and enjoyed each other's company. Of course, the visit was too short, but sweet and hopefully it won't be 4 or more years before we get to catch up again! She did say she'll try to make it to England - woohoo! Thanks for the visit and memories, Laura!

Montana Trip

I drove the kids up to Montana for a visit - I took 2 days as it's around 14 hours from our house to theirs. The trip up went pretty well - actually only stopped for lunch and one snack break, then made it to Sheridan, WY for the night. The next day we made it to Ulm, MT & were very excited to see Grandpa T & Grandma Rosemary! There were minor things on the road trip, like Jonah almost getting stuck in his seat belt like Jack did on the drive out to CO, and LOTS of talking from Catherine, getting a little lost in construction zones, but not bad at all. We had wonderful weather while in Montana & were able to do many outdoor activities.

We were able to meet the ladies that work with Rosemary - here's a shout out to her office that reads the blog - thanks again for your hospitality & the flashlights & pink "hair crown" as Catherine calls it!

Tom was able to fly up from OK for 2 days to join us for a camping trip to the Dearborn River. Tom's plane landed at 12:30am Friday morning and we left around 9:45am to drive out there. Here are some pictures from the camping trip - First, Catherine loved to throw rocks into the water just like her brothers - here she is with Grandma Rosemary as they watch the rock splash in:

Jack's favorite camping activity was tending the fire. This is where you could find him when he wasn't throwing rocks in the water. He fell in the creek while throwing rocks and got pretty wet!
Here's the gang relaxing by the fire:

Here's everyone gathered around the table while Grandpa T made pancakes & bacon for everyone - a very yummy breakfast - "These are the best pancakes I've ever had!" Adam said and he ate at least half of the bacon that was cooked!

Here's Catherine taking five while we packed everything up the second day. She stayed up pretty late in the tent with the boys - they were asleep or wanted to be asleep, but she was the one who kept talking!

The night that we returned, it was the 4th of July - we all went to eat pizza and met Tom's sister Pam & Uncle Jim there - we ordered way too much food, but had fun visiting!
Tom left early the next morning and the kids threw more rocks in the river. Also, the boys LOVED riding on the 4-wheeler with Grandpa!

The kids also were able to do some craft projects that Grandma Rosemary had bought, we watched Wall-E one night, and went on a terrific boat ride the day before we left. It was a fun trip! The ride back was not as easy as the ride to MT - there was car sickness, many bathroom stops, more arguing from the kids, and even MORE talking from Catherine. I was very thankful to arrive back at our "yellow house" in CO once again! Now the big push to get everything ready for our move! Thanks to Grandpa T & Grandma Rosemary for the great visit and all of the hard work that was involved in housing our large, energetic family!

Kids Playing

I've been trying to enjoy the summer with the boys and play some during all of the craziness. In a rare mood one day, I decided that they could all play with playdough & they had a ball - it's been a LONG time since I've gotten the playdough out - it always seems so messy and not worth the hassle for me. But, I decided to relax and let them play and they had a lot of fun - see:

Here's a couple of candids from Catherine, who loves the camera. I don't think we have to worry about not having many pictures of our fourth child!