Billings with The Billings Stewarts

On the way to Billings we stopped at the Prairie Dog town by Big Timber. The kids Loved the dogs! We even got to listen to some of the dogs barking. It was great to get into Billings. We are staying with Frank's brother and his family. Cort and Grace are having a great time with their cousins, Sayler (4)and Blake (10 months).

Cort and Sayler Love each other!

Blake Loves the BBQ Rib bone!

Family Reunion

Grace and Kaitlynn had a great time playing princesses.

The top picture is the Zimmer family:(back L to R) Tyler, Glenn, Wally, Austin, Frank and Grace. (middle L to R) Natalie, Linda, Darcie. (front L to R) Mathew and Cort.

This is the whole family at the reunion! Everyone had such a great time!

Summer Fun

The kids are having so much fun together!

A Boy Day

This morning Grandpa got the backhoe out and pulled down a couple of trees out of the front yard. Cort was pretty excited about the short ride in the backhoe. Grace was not impressed that she did not get a ride. Grandpa told her there would be time another day and it was ok.

After all of the trees were limbed, cut into sections and the yard cleaned up we went up the creek. There was a cow moose and her calf in the salt lick. The calf was just enjoying bing in the shade, it did not want to move.

On our way back into town we stopped off at some friends of Grandpa's. They had a big Field full of grasshoppers. Have I mentioned that Cort is obsessed with grasshopper here in Montana. They got 2 or 3 in the picture. Then when we got home Mathew and Cort went hopper crazy at another friends house. I think they brought home about 8 hoppers! Every one is glad to let the boys take the grasshopper:) Mathew and Cort have a maze of bottles hooked together to make "Bugville" I will have to post a picture, it is cool!

Logger Days in Darby Montana

Cort had a lot of fun catching grasshoppers at Logger Days! He caught 2 at first, that is what he is so proud of in the top picture. Then one got away. Cort started holding on the the back leg of the hopper he still had. After about a half hour and one slice of pizza, I decided we needed to find some thing to put that grass hopper in. So we found an empty water bottle that worked great!

The kids all had a great time. This is where we watched the parade. We left with soooo much candy. I think there will still be candy left when we come home next year.

Swimming Lessons

The kids are taking swimming lessons in same pool that I did. Grace does really well as long as her head is high and dry! Cort is turning into a fish! Today he dove off of the diving board, it was a Great dive. I would put the movie on, but it was to long. I am so proud of them! Tomorrow is the last day of lessons. Cort is disappointed, Grace is fine with lessons being done:)

Austin's Birthday Splash!

Today for Austin's 13th birthday we went to Splash Montana. The kids all had a lot of fun and we went through a lot of sun screen!

The kids has lots of fun trying all the different slides, river floats and the kiddie swim area.

It is a great park for small children. They have a kiddie area about 30X60 feet, the deepest place is about 3 1/2 feet deep. In this picture Grace is sitting, and Mathew & Cort are Seal walking.

Austin, the birthday boy, at Splash Montana!

Happy 13th Birthday Austin!
We all enjoyed Austin's Lemon Meringue Birthday Pie.

Boy In The Setting Summer Sun

The other night when we came up from the beach, Cort had to wash off he crocs. This picture is what I remember summer evenings in Montana being like. I think it is one of my new favorite pictures of Cort.

Montana Fun

Grace is having so much fun here in MT that she has crashed for a nap today.

Cort on the other hand has been going and going and going. However, he now will sleep in till 8:30 or 9:00 in the mornings!! Cort is loving the river, I will not let him go down without me. I think he may need a tee shirt that says "Have water, will be wet!"

This is the Clark Fork River from the sand that Cort is playing in. It was a nice picture with the sun setting.

Cousins are Fun!

Little Grace talked all the boys into having a tea party with her! And everyone had a grand time at her party.

Tonight we went down to the river about 7:30. The kids were having so much fun! After about 15 min. I heard something in the brush behind me. I stood up to check it out and a little white tail buck in velvet with 3 points was wondering toward us. The kids were really interested for about 3 min. Then Cort and Grace were more interested in the sand and mud.

Grandpa and the kids

Tonight Grandpa went to eat dinner and play a quite game of solitaire. The grandkids had other plans. They all had ideas of where to put the next card. They were all at the computer for about 20 min., then Austin and Grace left. Cort and Mathew were there till Dad turned off the computer.

Schultz's Farm

Today we went up to Schultz's to pick daisies, play in the creek and check out Jim's tractor. Grace picked so many flowers, she was in heaven!

Cort even helped his sister pick some flowers. What a great big brother!

Cort did not stay dry. He was trying to catch a fish, but he got cold instead:)

Grace is happiest when she is picking flowers!

Cort really liked Jim's tractor. If you look in the back ground you can even see the wind rolls that Jim had just finished. Ev even brought out the horses, but both of the kids were to scared. Cort tried but when he got close he would change his mind. What can I say, the apple does not fall far from the tree:)

Pine Cone Work

This brings back so many memories! It was never this much fun to pick up pine cones when I was little. I never had fun cousins to help me pick them up. I never thought to through the pine cones. I just dumped then and got done as fast as I could. Cort, Mathew and Grace were seeing who could through the pine cones the farthest.

Sun and Fun!

The weather has been great! I am loving being home! The kids are having so much fun with Grandma and Grandpa and their cousins! The big boys went to the pool this afternoon and Cort and Grace were to small to go by themselves, so we come home and filled our own pool! My white Alaskan babies are going to be tan Montana babies soon!

HOME!

We crossed the Montana border about 10:00 a.m. Montana time. We stopped in Eureks for some running time. The kids were so excited to be in MT, they just did not want to keep going they wanted to be at Grandma and Grandpa right then. We got into Superior about 2:00 p.m. on Sunday afternoon. It was a short day only 400 miles.

Oh, Canada

We made some great time through Canada! We did have to take a few breaks, you know you should always take time to stop and smell or pick the flowers. Cort needed breaks just to run!

We even found a nice little family of goats in the park. If you look close at the top middle goat you will see he is losing his winter hair. They were so neat, there were even 4 more on the other side of the road. It was a beautiful drive. We ended up doing about 800 miles the first day. I could not have done it with out two of the best traveling children in the WORLD! We got through customs in Prince Rupert at about 3:00 a.m. on the 5th. We got into Radium Hot Springs about 1:00 a.m. on the 6th. It was so nice to have a nice soft bed to sleep in!

Montana here we come!

We are on the road, well, we are on the ocean! We will get into Canada at 2:30 a.m. on Saturday morning. This is going to be an adventure! Have a happy 4th of July!

Spikey was driving the boat the other day when I went outside. I guess even a dinosaur needs to drive a boat.

We went out fishing the other day and on our way out a blue whale surfaced. I was not fast enough to see the whole thing, I only say the tail. Wow, what a tail it was! It was less than 100 feet away from Frank's little 17 foot boat (by the way, the tail was the size of our boat)! I asked Frank what would happen if the whale did not see us and came up for air when we were on top of him? Frank said we would go swimming. I was a little nervous for the rest of the time. Cort decided to chum the fish up, with a little vomit. I should not laugh, but on our way out he was bragging about how he "never" gets sea sick. Which made it funny when she started throwing up off the side of the boat. Frank did get a little halibut, he called it "dinner for 4". I think it would feed at least 6 adults. We came home with sun burns all the way around. It was a great family day on the ocean!

Water Fight

We had some great summer time weather, it is about time. We were the high for the state with 78 degrees! I think it will be hard when we get to the Montana heat. The kids started out with water balloons and then Grace thought the hose would be much more effective than the little balloons.