Montana-2 weeks ago

Well, I'll be honest, the past 3 weeks have come and gone in a blur, and although the blog has beckoned me to put my pictures up and get caught up I've allowed myself to be pulled in a million different directions in trying to finish some projects that I've wanted to get done (lots of photos coming).  And as summer was here in full-hot-force the weather has changed it's tide and fall in definitely in the air.  The nights are cooling off.  The temperature is in the 70's and low 80's.  Harvest time is here and it's time to break out my canner.  Football is upon us at our household and the "Hansen Field" has been painted on our back-yard (so lovingly and diligently by Cory) and has been in use for 5 days already. What a good daddy!!  The sun is setting earlier.  The nightly family walks are perfect. And all I can say is that I LOVE LOVE LOVE this time of year!
 
About a week and a half before school started we had a garage sale and the next day I took the kids to Montana, solo, to make a visit to Grandma and Grandpa Jones!  It was fun to have them all to ourselves! I took our bikes with us and we went on a sweltering bike ride (95+ degree weather; I'm not kidding either) and my Mom got a flat tire on the way home.  Good memories ;-)  We got to see and hang out with my brother and his family a bit and celebrate their boys birthday's.  We did some shopping and I also got to go walk around some old antique shops (kid-less, thanks to my Mom) and thrift stores in search of some gems for this creative kids area I am making.  I can't wait to have it to all come together and finally be done! I found the perfect antique bench and and old vintagy looking pillow case I am going to make into a pillow for the bench.  It will look great with my little white bookshelves, table, and all the other fun things we'll have going on there.  So without further ado... here are some photos from our trip to Montana.

My kids with their cousin James enjoying crayon shaped popsicles.  Aren't grandparents great.  They buy the popsicles I'd never buy!  The kids were definitely loving it!

Silly faces

Oh... I love my kids!

These just made me smile!  I couldn't just pick one.

Now that's a mischievous look if I've ever seen one.

Brooklyn's sweet little baby face is not longer a baby face.  I'm kind of sad.  She is growing up and she is definitely changing!

What a beautiful little girl!

My parents neighbors, Mikel and Donna, have been our close family friends for about 30 years.  Every time we go home the boys want to ride the riding lawn mower with Mikel.  He is sweet to humor them. Here are some fun photos from a perfect afternoon!

Briggs perfecting his Yoda light saber moves!  He's pretty good if I do say so myself!

Ethan boy!  

Cousin James' turn

Sterling hanging out with Grandma and chewing on her finger

Brooklyn was being so funny.  I took a bunch of cute photos of her!

Note that the awesome outfit was totally chosen by my little girl!  So sweet!

She was completely fine wearing two different shoes much of our trip!  It cracked me up!

One Evening we went to my brother and his wife's home for the celebration of their boys birthdays.  Our kids were so excited to be there for that!  

Baer loved his car.  LOVED IT!  Here he is with his mama!

Briggs worked on this book for months for James.  He colored all sorts of transformers and power ranger and then stapled them into a book.  He was excited to give it to him!  I think James liked it too!

Good buddies!

I think this is a cute photo of the boys

My brother and his cute family!

Sterling with my mom; always a standin' when he can ;-)

I think Sterling looks just like Cory here.  I also think that Lynn (Jacques Mom) looks really pretty!

The kids got to decorate cupcakes

and eat the frosting...

Ethan didn't eat all of his dinner and was okay not decorating cupcakes until he saw the cupcakes and icing.  He changed his tune pretty quickly.  

Baer absolutely LOVED this car.  It was pretty cute!
The boys thought it was cute too and we talked about how special Baer is on the way home and how grateful we are for him in our life!  He is the happiest little guy that you ever met!

A perfect evening!

Jacques cupcake!
Overall it was a great trip!!