Montana! Montana!

August--celebrating Morgan's birthday--being in Montana!!

check, check, check!

It seems that August has become our time to head to Grama & Papa Haugen's and

try to get my whole family together and have some end of

summer fun!  

We tend to be there either during the county fair or smack dab on Morgan's birthday!!

We went a week later this year, so we missed out on the fair, but we celebrated Miss Mo's birthday in style!

Candles in a donut for her breakfast--perfect!!

Marshall loves loves loves this 4-wheeler!  Standing--no hands--eyes closed....

you name it and that's how he rode it!

We also enjoy our time out at my Uncle Larry's!  With 5 horses (some are just being boarded there)

the girls are in their element!  Malia especially loves these monster animals and enjoys getting them

ready to ride!  She has become quite the horseman and I think would spend all her

time out on the ranch!

Girls with Suzie-Q

Trampoline for the little crazy peeps!

Heading out on a ride on the "real" 4-wheeler with daddy!

I love the rolling hills and back roads!

Heading out on a trail ride with Auntie Wendy!

On the hill above their property--Malia in the lead!

Church at the nursing home with Great Grama.

Monkeying around....

Super star!

One of the elementary schools just built this awesome new playground!!  Score!!

Cleo--sitting still for a couple minutes!  She's a little
unsure of Marshall!

Luscious--such a patient pooch!  We love her!

Auntie Mel's IPad was very popular!  First time playing Angry birds for our household!

We also celebrated Erica's birthday!  She'll be 5 in  September!

Happy Birthday!

Time for a mini-pedicure!

Catching some bugs with Erica!

Love this big BUG!

Great Grampa and the electric fly swatter!  Marshall tried to "borrow" it but Great Gramps
was not giving it up!

Hunter Sven

Cooling off & goofin around!

Silly boy--who are you?? Where's your cute face?

Oh, Luscious...she's just such a good dog!

Good job Morgan--leading Suzie-Q all on her own!!  Way to go!

Time to trot??

Papa & Marshall...trying to catch up to big sis Malia!

Ribs Dinner--Some good cooks in my family!

My parents and all their Grandkids & Grandpups!

The whole family--minus Tim & Jose--(somebody had to take the pics!)

Hunter & Malia...looking forward to 4th grade!!

My brother and his kids!

It was a great week and it's always amazing at how fast the time flies.  You look forward to this all summer, then it's here and then it's over and we're all headed home and getting ready for school.
The kids all enjoy being at Grama & Papa's and definitely look forward to seeing their cousins.

I love being with my family like this and having our kids experience Montana--it's how I remember going to Wyoming every year to visit my grandparents, ride horse at my Aunt Pat's and just make some awesome memories and then looking forward to next year and doing it all over again!  Good times!

I even had a chance to see three great friends from high school!  We haven't all been together in about 10 years and to sit and chat for almost 4 hours was the best.  So good to catch up and hear about each others lives!  Next time---we'll remember to take a pic!

Morgan 7 on 8/11

My sweet Morgan Rylee is going to be 7 at the end of this week.  It's so unbelievable.  Along with being 7 she is going into 2nd grade, too.  Every new chapter of life as a parent and watching these kids grow is so exciting for them and for us!
Morgan has never had a "friend" party, so this year we decided that she could!  BUT--we will be in Montana on her birthday, which does happen to fall on a Saturday ( a perfect day for a party )...so what should we do???
Well, we had her party early--on Thursday August 2nd!!  She is our only "summer" kid with a birthday during months where the sun shines and doesn't just reflect off of mountains of snow!  So, we were able to celebrate this occasion in style--complete with a Bouncy House!  Oh, my goodness it was a fun a night!
Some friends of school & church came and even Malia was able to have a couple neighborhood friends over  and they all really enjoyed the craziness of the evening.

Let's go fishin!!

Fishing at one of the many local lakes has become a summertime favorite for all 3 kids!  They are all so brave in taking the fish off the hook, too--not me!  I can put a nasty-gooey worm on the hook, but I'd prefer they grab the slimy fish and get him off!!
It's crazy how wherever we seem to go that Malia is the "sunny master"!  There will be other people fishing off the dock and who have probably been there for a time and caught nothing---then we show up and Malia starts reeling them in left & right!  Then Morgan and then Marshall start doing the same!  It's hillarious!

This last adventure brought a lesson with it!  There were probably about a half dozen "tween-age" boys fishing and then jumping off the dock--being what I assume is "normal"--except for the fact that their language was awful.  Every other word a swear word and bad ones at that--ones that make my kids' eyes go wide in unbelief that they just heard that.
I was getting pretty angry about their language and I could tell Tim was about to blow a gasket--well, of sorts--it's just sad that poor language has become so normal even in young kids like that--but anyways...they started noticing how Malia was catching all these sunnies and so one of them said to us--"hey, can I take the fish off the hook and throw it back in?"  Not sure why, but I said, "Sure you can, on one condition--that you all quit swearing while you're on the dock."  It was interesting to see their faces when I said that...they all looked at each other and then almost in unison said, "Ya, I think we can quit swearing while we're up here."  So, they got to throw some fish back in the water and we were able to fish in "peace"!!  Like I said to the kids...if people are doing things that you don't like or that you think and know to be wrong--it doesn't hurt to ask them to stop--in fact I've found that most times people will respect your wishes and not have a problem with it what you ask!!