We be Trippin'

The boys and I flew back home for a fun trip to see my brother who's leaving on a mission and all of my extended family.

Everyone but one person of my grandpa's 100+ posterity was there. This included all of his 8 children and spouses, their children and spouses and his great grandkids (a true miracle). The only missing link was Tan the man himself. He needed to save his days off to see his parents who are leaving on a mission next month. Pretty exciting times for us.

Grandpa got everyone tickets to Tarzan that wanted to come. With 20 minutes left in the show Liam turned to me and asked, "Are we outside?"

Grandpa's house

Homemade rockets.

Money hunt. Grandma chucks in some sweet change and the kids fight to the death to find it in the sawdust.

Before the hunt Liam was stung by either a wasp or bee on his cheek. 30 minutes before that he was stung on his arm. I kept asking him what the bug looked like to get an idea...

Later in the day he showed me this creature that Julian's holding. "Mom, this is the bug that bit me."

Get Your Griz On

Tan's work scored us tickets to the first home game and pre-game President's brunch. It was pretty cool; tickets are pretty expensive and everyone from miles around are so excited for this team.

Out of all those attending at the brunch, my name got pulled out of the hat to receive a free Grizzly sweatshirt :) The look on their faces when they read my name was priceless. Nobody had a clue who I was.

During the game both teams got pulled off the field due to lighting that was hitting 3-7 miles of the stadium. After huddling under the concession awning for 45 minutes it cleared up rather suddenly:

To quote a local journalist, "The only things that slowed the Grizzlies Saturday were a couple bolts out of the blue and gray." The team won 73-2 (got to love those first game match-ups).

Side Tracked

I should be searching for a home right now, but instead I'm taking a minute to play with these guys. (Totally posed by themselves, thank you very much.)

Yesterday we went to the Roots Festival. It's a two day music spree that goes on downtown. Everyone just floods the streets and eats food while listening to live music. Tanner was loving it and the boys and I had a pretty good time too. Next time we'll bring white shirts so they can get tie dyed. We didn't get to experience the full music festival spirit without it!


Every Friday and sometime during the week Tanner is out fly fishing. It's been so nice to live close to the rivers and it really relaxes him- I just get a little nervous with him being in the wilderness like that (I'm such a worrier!). Last Friday night he told me he would be home around 10. Tanner didn't have a cell phone, and so after 3 episodes of 20/20 10:03 came rolling around and I was on the phone calling neighbors to set up a search and rescue! I was truly scared that something had happened. Tanner was home by 10:04. Whoops. I love you honey!

Until I get over being paranoid about living here, Tanner let me buy some bear mace. Since then we've enjoyed exploring other areas nearby. We found an awesome girl to watch our boys so we're really excited for dates again. We headed on a hike together last Thursday and saw a ton of deer. We're beginning to feel like the deer are like the rats here. I went on a jog that follows the river and when I came up and over the hill there was a deer just staring at me. We both stared at each other for a few more seconds then went on our merry way. Kind of funny.

The women in our church group is getting together for a camp out overnight without hubbies or kids. I told them I would be nervous to camp in a tent because of bears. I was informed there was a "problem" bear in the area, but we'd be ok. So scary!

Summer has been fun and I can just feel autumn coming. Tanner talked to me about enjoying each day as it is, and trying not to compare it to the day before or upcoming day. I am really going to try and do that for the next few months.

We miss all our family and friends! We hope you've enjoyed your summer too.

Random

Yesterday Tanner wanted to fly fish somewhere, so we all piled into the car and 30 minutes later arrived at our destination. It was so beautiful. Once we got on the two lane road that followed the creek we saw a herd of big horn sheep. They were just hanging out in someone's property right off the road! Let me preface this by saying I come from a place where I have looked for bighorn sheep hanging out in the gorge almost my whole life. I never spotted them like other people did- ever! So glad I could redeem myself. Liam and Julian loved it.
We were driving for a bit after that and finally decided to take a right and head down a road to the creek. Since we were kind of out in the middle of nowhere I was surprised to come across a couple our age with two little kids of their own. After some small talk the couple asked if we wanted to exchange numbers (because the wife stayed/played at home too). I was so excited. I've been missing our neighbors and friends so much this week, so to run across those guys who were our same age, with the same number of kids and at the most random place in the area was pretty cool. I enjoyed the rest of the evening watching Julian hook Liam's leg with the lure and the boys throw rock after rock into the creek. No bears were spotted, so that was a plus too.

Tanner sometimes asks after the day is done if I liked Montana that day. Yesterday morning I didn't, but by the end of the day it was pretty good once again :)