July

What happened to summer? I had big plans--huge, but mostly hung out, did housework (badly), and went on little park outings and play dates. And now August...otherwise known as the short Sunday before a very long work week begins...is here.

Here are some of the fun things we've done in July.

Daityn Day- Was a fun day. We went to the Children's Museum, Gibson Park for a picnic, Udder Factory for some ice cream, home for a quick rest, then to the Spray Park, swimming lessons, and McDonalds. The girls didn't seem phased, but I was exhausted.

Glacier National Park--Yay--we finally got to go camping. We actually doubled the number of times we have slept in our four-year old tent. It was great--the weather was nice, the company was unbelievably excellent, and the pie was AMAZING!

pull-out on the Going to the Sun Road

Beautiful view

Deciding what to do next?

Courtney and Brent

Claire and Taylee

Me, Claire, Taylee, and Jenny

Ahh, the pie place

Coming back from the pie place

Another trip to the pie place

Could it be the pie place again?--why yes, yes it is

Claire adored Bella

Jenny had bought some really fun toys for the girls to play with

Daityn's Birthday Party--What a tough act to follow. I did not get a picture of all the kids in their hula gear, but if I did it would have been one cute picture. Taylee also had her first sleep-over at a friend's house that night (I slept over as well. I'm thinking she can have an independent sleepover when she's 16...we'll see how things go). Later that evening Taylee and Daityn came up with a great dance and called themselves the Hula Balula's. Very cute.

Gunny sack race--look even Spider Man stopped by for a visit

Unplanned matching clothes


Swimming Lessons-- Wow-she did awesome. She can now swim on her own on her back for 15 yards. On her stomach she mostly doggy paddles but still is doing it on her own. I'm very proud of her. We've decided to fork over our life savings and sign her up for swim lessons at the Peak during the school year so she can continue her success.



Swimming on her own, face in the water, big arms

Diving board


Chit-chatting with a friend

Canada-- We spent a weekend in Canada visiting family. While we were there we took Taylee five pin bowling. It's a little different than bowling in the States-obviously there are only five pins, the ball is much smaller, and you get three chances each turn. I was sure I could beat my 10-pin record of 65, but no such luck. My first game I bowled a 47 (Yikes). Taylee did great--she bowled an impressive 71.

Lessons--I'm just making some random actions for looks--bowling is no my thing

More lessons (maybe I should have gotten some lessons)

Celebration--there was A LOT of celebrating and dancing and more celebrating and dancing and cheering. She pretty much wore herself out after one game.

The beautiful park that is close to Stan's grandparents' house

Mike's Cabin--Is such a beautiful place. We were all disappointed we had missed out on going last year so made sure to schedule time in this summer. We picked huckleberries (for Mike's special huckleberry pancakes), went on nature walks, roasted marshmallows, and of course had a dancing fairy show (doesn't everybody bring a beautiful dress and fairy wings camping??).

Pet and Doll Parade--I cannot believe what a good sport Bella is. She actually had a tail fin as well, but after a couple of blocks sat down and refused to move until the fin was removed from her beautiful tail.

Ariel and Flounder

Tinker Bell and Pirate

Ariel and Tink

waving to the crowd

Tink waves (she was quite a charmer)

State Fair and Rodeo

Miscellaneous July Pictures

Taylee and me in our our new mud room

Taylee and Colman at the park (Spiderman and Spiderlady)

Taylee strumming her guitar and singing which has become one of her favorite things to do this summer. We actually have had to stop listening to K99 because of an incident in which Taylee was belting out "I wanna take a ride on your disco stick!" to the neighborhood. Sometimes she would mix it up a little and add "on a Saturday night" which did not help matters at all. Now we are big fans of 97.9 The River--light rock favorites. (In the summer I just can't blame stuff like that on daycare).

Stan and Taylee on the roof. Taylee LOVES helping Stan-whatever he is doing. In fact, just the other day she was mentioning that Daddy could marry her and divorce someone else (who could that someone be I wonder?)