Fort Benton

On Tuesday we took a trip to Fort Benton with Nana and Gramie and Poppi. This is Shep...Marcus thought he was pretty cool.

I just happened to snap this picture without really planning it. I thought it was so cute!

There was a Penny Pincher in one of the buildings. The kids each got to pinch a penny.

It made it flat and oval shaped and put a cool picture on it. Marcus was intrigued.

There was a really cool old bridge that you could walk across. Perfect family photo opportunity.

And a cool octopus tree.

Taylor came with us too.

When we got to the fort, it was closed so we just peeked inside.

This is what we saw. Pretty cool...too bad we couldn't go inside.

Then we found a cool playground which was the biggest hit of it all with the kids. Funny how you drive all this way to see so much history and the kids only care about the playground :-) Oh well...maybe they'll appreciate it all when they are older.

Fire Crackers

We had a 4th of July dinner at Nana and Papa's house and then went to Sabrina and Tim's for some fireworks. This is Jared's motorcycle...the kids really wanted to ride it :-)

Emma had her hands over her ears the entire time. This is really the first time our kids have seen these fire crackers; they are banned where we live.

My sister's family put on an impressive show. The kids thought it was cool.

They got to check things out up close and were very excited to see what each different one would do.

There were even snappers. At first the kids threw them to the ground to make them snap; then they discovered it was easier and more fun to just jump on them.

Emma was brave enough to hold a sparkler.

Marcus wanted to try on Jared's helmet and sunglasses. Cool Dude!

Olivia did quite a few sparklers...Ta Da...

Even Marcus did some sparklers.

Taylor invited the kids to sit on her car a safe distance away from the big fireworks. The grand finale was awesome...but loud too :-) It was a blast!

Giant Springs

We took Gramie and Poppi to a park in Great Falls called Giant Springs. There is a fish hatchery there and the kids have never been there either. We only got to view one part of the fish hatchery but there were some big fish in there. Here are the kids looking at the big fish with their cousin Taylor.

Papa and Poppi bought some fish food for the kids.

They had a lot of fun feeding the fish.

Then we walked around to take in the sights.

We thought this would be a good place for a family photo.

There was even a playground to play on. Emma overdid it a little (I forgot to mention, she was diagnosed with pneumonia last Thursday). She decided to rest a little with Poppi. It was lots of fun and beautiful to see.

4th of July

Gramie, Poppi, Nana and Papa with the kids. We got a great spot at the 4th of July parade this year. The guys pulled the trucks up in a parking lot and we just camped out there.

We grabbed one of Mom's (aka Nana) umbrellas from her yard and tied it to a parking meter...it made the perfect shade; we looked like pros for sure! Honestly, it was all by accident too. There were no plans or preparations made for this.

They handed out free flags so everyone had one! Perfect!

Emma had her spot picked out from the start and didn't move from it for majority of the parade.

Marc had his spot picked out too :-)

The parade started with the military...Jared was in it too! It was 90+ degrees out there! He must have been HOT.

The airplanes and helicopters flew by again this year. They were so close you could even see them wave at us!

Poppi made sure Marcus didn't eat too much candy.

Jared found us after he was done marching in the parade...he said that he was definitely hot.

Those are my girls hugging that chipmunk! What brave girls.

They were so excited. They had a blast. It was a perfect parade; didn't last too long and had just enough candy too (which was left behind in Nana's pantry).

It's A....

We went to my visit my family in Great Falls as the kick off to our week long vacation. One of the best parts of the trip was finding out the gender of my sister and Jared's baby. A friend of mine had done the cake idea where she didn't know what it was and found out by cutting the cake. Unfortunately, my sister and Jared couldn't wait that long...so they actually knew but didn't tell any of us (except Mom who made the cake)...oh well, it was still fun anyways. Here is the cute couple with the cake.

And they cut the cake...they look like pros at this cake cutting thing.

IT'S A BOY!!! Can you tell how excited Jared is? The blue matches Tavein's eyes!

Nope, Jared is not excited at all. He put on a good show for all of us...what an actor (remember, he had already known prior to this).

Tavein and Riley are very excited to have another boy cousin join the crew.

These are the cousins minus the teens. Marc's parents were there to witness the cake cutting too. Tavein and Jared have not come up with a name yet, but Bruce has put his two cents in and Tavein said "Bruce" is in the middle of the list (and the list is long...). Better luck next time Poppie!

Summer is finally here!

These are pictures from last weekend. It's finally nice enough to bring out the swim suits and sprinklers...just thought I'd share a few fun pictures from last weekend...

Olivia and Marcus racing through the sprinkler.

Olivia and Marcus...so cute!

Aww...

I have no idea...

Yay for summer!