While Morgan was in Boston Shelley, Leah and Lily stayed with me for a few days.  It was so fun to spend some time with the little girls as they usually stay at Josh and Stacy's these days when they come down.  I wanted to have a party before the kids went home so I got all of the kids together and we had a water party at Josh and Stacy's house. 

 

We started with the sprinkler under the trampoline

Little Lily did not stand a chance with this rowdy group.  She could even stay on her feet and was mostly grasping the side of the trampoline

 

I love this picture of my girlies.  They are all so cute.

 

They were all enjoying being together.

 

Next we went to the front yard for snacks and of course giant Pixi Stix.

 

 

Then it was time to get the Slip n Slide  out. 

 

 

 

Jonas doing the slide.

 

Then after the slide I started a water fight with the kids.  Well it was mainly with the boys.  They loved it and really ganged up on me.  44 years of age and I still love water fights,  I just pre-plan them now so I can be prepared with a dry change of clothes. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Summer Vacation

 

Glacier National Park has been on my must see list for a few years now.  Whitney and I decided to get away for a week and see some new sights.  We spent the first night in Ashton with Shelley and Alan and went to the St. Anthony parade.  It was fun to see the Ashton Stake float that Morgan and Andrew had worked so hard on.  After the parade Whitney and I made our way to Montana. 

 

On Saturday night we made it to West Glacier and stayed at the Belton Chalet pictured above.  It was built in 1910 and they have tried to keep it quite authentic for that time.  No TV, no phone, no internet, shared bed, no AC, no insulation.  We slept with windows open across from the train station.   I heard it at 7 in the morning coming through. The train station is part of the park here.  People came into see the park by train from the Midwest.  I think it comes in from Chicago and goes onto Seattle.   Whitney went to sleep with wet hair and woke up with mildew smelling hair.  I guess it was from sleeping with the windows open.  The smell eventually went away. 

 

We went to Columbia Falls for church on Sunday morning.  It was about 15 miles from Glacier.  After sacrament meeting we started into the park. 

 

The first site was Lake McDonald.  These lakes in Montana are huge.  They are thin and really long.  We saw a place to park and we walked down to the lake to check it out.  It had a shallow beach and so we waded in. 

The water wasn't very cold.  I was surprised that we could stand to wade in it.  I looked down into the water and this is what it looked like under the water.  Cool rocks.  We gathered some for the little girls.

 

This is another view of Lake McDonald

We got up to Lake McDonald Lodge.  These Red Buses are found throughout the Park.  They are from back in the 1930's.  I am sure they have to update the engines etc. but the body of the buses are still the same.  They are only found in Glacier National Park.  We saw them all over. 

Here is Lake McDonald Lodge.  There is quite a Alpine feel in Glacier Park.

The inside of the lodge

 

The most impressive thing in Glacier Park is the Going to the Sun Road.  It is amazing.  It is probably the most picturesque drive I have ever been on.  These mountains are so huge and you are just in the middle of all of them.  These pictures can't do any of them justice. 

 

Here is one of the tunnels in the park on the Road to the Sun. 

 

 

This was a water fall tunnel.  It was cut into the road so the above water fall went underneath the road and then out.

Here are the back ends of some bighorn sheep.  We had to really zoom into get them.

Whitney shot this from the car as I was driving. 

This is a tunnel on the west side of the park.

This is Swift Current Lake.  It is on the East side of the Park.  We had to actually leave the lake and then go back in at a different entrance.

A storm was brewing over the lake.

This lake is surrounded by mountains.  Well it makes sense, it is a glacier made lake.

This is the Many Glacier Lodge at Swift Current Lodge.

 

This is where we stayed.  It is sort of a Swiss themed lodge in keeping with the surroundings. 

This was built in 1915.  We felt like we were really roughing it the past few days.  Also no TV, internet.  We ate dinner in the dining room looking out at the beautiful lake.  The scenery was beautiful. 

Took this picture this morning.  It was quite chilly and I was glad that I had prepared for colder weather. 

 

We drove across the Canadian Border today.  We were all prepared with our passports.  All border agents are the same.  Abrupt and down to business.  We were all excited to get another passport stamp and he didn't even stamp it. He was more worried about whether we were smuggling in weapons. 

Always wanted to see the Cardston, Alberta Temple.  It was closed and under construction.  There are 2 construction workers on the top.  We were joking about how Moroni had a friend on top with him.  There is no real Moroni on this temple however. 

 

We checked into our hotel in Calgary.  The highways up here are a bit different than home.  There really are no exits.  The highway that we drove into Calgary on just turned into one of the main roads going into the city.  It also happened to be the road that our hotel is on.  Super easy to find.  We will venture into the City of Calgary tomorrow and see some sites.  It is about 50 degrees here.  Everyone is wearing long sleeves and jackets.  It does not seem like July.  I am actually enjoying it. 

 

 

 

 



Winter 2013

Since I have not blogged for a few months I thought I better buckle down and post a few things.  Most of you have probably noticed that I have been pinning a lot of baby quilts.  There is a sister in my ward that I wanted to do a quilt for so I went to the trusty fabric stash and started putting things together from a little pattern I found on Pinterest.

Some pieces may look a little familiar.

I put this much of the quilt together today.  I still have more sashing and possibly a border to do.  Jenny get ready.  I am going to start quilting again.  The pieces on the end have not been trimmed yet so it looks a little odd still.

A dear sweet sister from my ward passed away this week.  Roxanne was my Visiting Teacher for 4 years and came faithfully each month.  I always told her that she reminded me of my Mother.  She died on January 21st, 16 years to the date Mom died.  I found that interesting.  I wanted to do something for this sweet family.  They have not let us do much for them, just handling things on their own.  I decided to make them some cookies.  I just got home from their house.  I had not cried yet about Roxanne's death until I left their house today.  It brought back a lot of memories of Mom and the time we went through around her death.

 

 

 Now for a lighter note, this is s from our night of games at the church during Thanksgiving weekend.  The night when Essie was taken out by Josh with the first throw of dodgeball.

Who can remember this disturbing picture from the pass-along picture game. 

 

Or this scary ballet dancer

I think this proves that we are a little twisted as a family or at least Jonas is.

 

Les having a little snuggle with Lily Girl at her shower.

Essie enjoying her first "big girl" party with Tenny and Whit.

Since we have not seen any wedding pictures yet I thought I would post some.

Sadly, I do not have many of the bride and groom.  I was more the self-designated behind the scenes photographer.  I was to capture the hidden, sometimes silly hidden moments of that day.  I was successful as you will soon see.  I think Tenny is crying from coldness in the above picture.

 

 

The boys just trying to stay warm. 

 

Leslie's attention to detail paid off with beautiful centerpieces.

Maren is always good for a pose.

Playing in the window sill with a beautiful back-drop

The teenager table.  Although most of them are not teenagers anymore.

Jason and one of his good friends.

 

I love this picture

I love this one too.

 

This is a rare occurence so we thought we better document it.

 

I know you all humored me with this pose.  Sorry, I am silly at times.  Can't be helped.

It was nice to be all together for a few days.  Hope everyone is doing well.  I am sure Morgan will be posting actual pictures of the bride and groom soon.