Montana Highs and Lows

Finally, our Montana trip! We had such a great time in Montana with Brian's whole family. Here are the highs and lows of Montana, or rather the lows and highs. Bad news is always better followed by good news, right? Okay, here we go!

Lows:

• McKay throwing up the evening before we were scheduled to leave.
• Sarah practically having a mental/physical/emotional breakdown because of the above mentioned low.
• Waking up at 4am to start the nine hour drive.
• Lindy getting sick on our second day in Montana, as well as Brian and me, but not as bad as Lindy.
• Elise and Jaynie getting sick on our second night.
• Sarah wanting to cry on our second night.
• Ken, Adele and Missy getting sick on our third day.
• Feeling 100% responsible for your family throwing up and feeling miserable on a vacation.
• Getting eaten by mosquitos and seeing those pesky bugs on my little baby.
• My bangs freaking out. They did not like Montana.
• Realizing when we got there that I had packed all my garment bottoms. . .and NO tops! Nice.
• Realizing right after that I had also forgotten deodorant. Yum.
• Sharp teething.
• Allergies for my left eye.
• Oh no, we're not done with the throwing up yet. Jenn getting sick the day we left. Not a fun drive for her.
• Having the reunion in Montana end.

On the the Highs:

• McKay getting a blessing in the car in the dark at 4am and not getting sick again. Also, being SO excited about going.
• No crying, fits or vomit on the nine hour drive to Montana.
• Traveling with our portable DVD player. We LOVE our portable DVD player!!!
• Having two amazing aunts who helped our babies to be angels in the car.
• Breakfast at Smitty's in Idaho Falls with aunt Shauna.
• Staying in cozy cabins in the gorgeous Montana mountains.
• Playing games as a family while the kids were all sleeping. That hasn't happened ever!
• Seeing two black bears, plenty of bison, dozens of elk, a big horn sheep with a million babies, and a few moose.
• McKay naming his stuffed buffalo "Hootie". I just could not be more in love with the name he chose. Hootie.
• Somehow, Brian and I got the least sick out of everyone. So not fair, I know, but a high for us nonetheless.
• Ellery finally crawling forward!
• Horseshoe tournaments
• Listening to "The Five People You Meet in Heaven" on cd in the car.
• Swimming in crazy creek.
• All the fun sights and places to visit in Yellowstone.
• Talking on the radios between cars and giving each car a nickname.
• A beautiful picnic in the mountains.
• McKay finding an old fence in those mountains to be a cow in. . .or was it a sheep? Oh I can't keep all his animals straight anymore. It was one of those.
• Cousins playing together.
• Ice cream almost every night.
• Our family still loving us and being nice to us even though we got all but three of them sick.

And now for some proof. All together we took about 935 pictures so get comfy. . .there's a lot.

Here's the little sicky himself. Hard to believe that something so cute can cause something so awful.

Old Faithful

Picnic in the mountains. Top right corner is McKay being a cow. Ken is also cut off of the family picture in the center. . .but you can still see his leg. . .sorry Ken.

Church in a "barn". McKay has never been more excited to go to church! And church in a barn is pretty popular. It was packed!

Visiting Mammoth. I sure hope that's what it's called. We saw a ton of elk here, just hanging out on the lawn of the hotel. We also saw a bear and a big bull elk on the drive back. Very exciting.

McKay and Elise. So precious.

This here is the behind of a girl who can now crawl. It's kind of amazing given the load she has to carry. She was so happy and content to just hang out in the middle of the floor of the cabin- that's pretty much all she did.

At the cabin.

Lindy and Jaynie. I just liked this picture so I put it up. We went to this pretty waterfall that was pretty close to our cabin.

Crazy Creek. This was the weirdest river I've ever seen. It really was crazy. It was this raging river rushing down a mountainside. You can kind of get an idea from the top left picture. The water was very fast and very cold. But we found some little pools to enjoy and aside from the mosquitos taking advantage of our bare skin, we had a lot of fun.

Being tourists in Cooke City.

And that's it! But next up for me is a little trip. . .

with these girls. . .minus Elle, plus Missy. Can't wait!

the end.

mourning a loss. . .

I guess I will finally concede to Brian's label that I am a person who loses things. I am. I once lost my wedding ring- thought it was left in a hotel in California- but it was really just tucked into a crevice in my bag. I've lost my credit card a few times. And the big whopper, was last year when we sold our car. Brian's schedule was super busy so I was in charge of selling the car. Me. Nice, huh? Anyway, after the final transaction was made, somehow I misplaced the $10,500 check that the Arab gentleman had given me for our car. I thought maybe Brian was going to kill me. That was by far the worst, and after that incident Brian christened me with the title of someone who loses "important" things.


Well, I've been at it again. On Saturday night I was at the mall trying to take advantage of the Gap Friends and Family discount and my kids were just about done with the day. McKay found a stick in the parking lot and got a sliver in his hand and was crying about it the whole time. The sales lady gave him two bandaids and another one gave him a bear sticker and nothing helped. He was kind of out of control and SO tired. Ellery was extremely tired as well, but at least she wasn't crying. While I was in line I moved McKay to the stroller so he could have his breakdown in a comfy seat, and I carried Ellery. After I made my purchase I was trying to juggle Ellery in my arms, push the stroller and hang on to my wallet. I decided I didn't have enough time and energy to put my wallet all the way back in my purse which was buried in the stroller basket, so I stuck it on the sun shade of the stroller and thought to myself, "Okay Sarah, don't forget your wallet right there. It's not the usual place." Well, guess what I lost on the way from the Gap to my car? My wallet. So I'm mourning.


You may think I'm mourning the $100 bill that was inside. Well, it stinks that I lost that, but no that's not it. I mourned for that already.


You may think it's the cutest giraffe print wallet that I got in Texas at the one and only Sam Moon. Nope.


You might be thinking it's my credit cards. Wrong again. Those have already been cancelled and replaced.


It's my driver's licence. Or more specifically my driver's licence picture.


I just got home from the DMV where I got a new licence and the mourning began. You see, my old licence had the best driver's licence picture of all time. It was my twenty-first birthday. I was a size two. I had just come back from Hawaii and was extremely tan. My hair was long and blond and had not yet gone through the sacrifices of having babies. And it was just a really good picture. And I'm sad. Today my hair looks like a seventies disco dancer (not in a good way) and my face is round and white. Please mourn with me.


I know it's not a major catastrophe and as my dad would say, "No one died. Your children are healthy. You're okay." But I just want to be a little depressed about it for awhile. So I'm taking today. . .

And for those of you who are still concerned, we did get a replacement check, but I sure felt dumb asking for it : )

tickle bugs

We just got back from Montana where we enjoyed a memorable family reunion and I really want to post about it. . .but my laundry's stacked high, my refrigerator is empty, my children need baths and my back is sore from traveling for nine hours straight. I guess what I'm trying to say is uploading pictures is about the last thing I want to do. So it will be a couple days before I get that post together. But I do already have this together:

My little bug catcher. He was so excited about having tweezers and a net to capture all his little critters. We have been keeping many a tickle bug in this little bug oasis. On this particular day he scored two teeny spiders, five tickle bugs including a mommy, daddy a brother and two babies, a slug, and a half dead bee. It was quite a group.

McKay's pets never last very long- a week or so if we throw in a raisin or two- who knew tickle bugs eat raisins? But even when they die he doesn't sweat it much. He'll just go collect some more while telling us, "When I was a little boy I called them roly polys, but now I call them tickle bugs," as he plucks more of the helpless creatures and drops them to their impending death. Hey, at least he gives them nice juicy raisins as a last meal.

Snowbert

Last week we spent some time up at the Cliff Lodge at Snowbird, or "Snowbert" as McKay calls it. This is where my family has had our family reunions for years. We love it up there and it was a fun, but quiet few days. Most of the family couldn't come up this year...long story that I don't feel like explaining. Anyway, enjoy about a million pictures:

The view from our balcony. Love this mountain.

The first two days were filled with cousins. McKay was in heaven. I think that he could live at Lisa's house and no one would notice- he just fits right in.

Every time we are at Snowbird we have to walk to the lookout. Look at these cute cousins.

McKay about to climb the ladder. . .

To get on top of this. What is this? We don't really know, but we climbed up this wood tower thing just hanging out off the trail. Kinda fun.

Ellery just hung out in her stroller and sucked on her tinkerbell phone the whole time. When Ellery was younger it seems like all the pictures we took of her were from her carseat. You know, "We're at the zoo and here's Elle in her carseat!" "Ellery spent the whole day at Disneyland. . .in her carseat!" Now I think we've moved on to, "We're on a little walk at Snowbird, and Ellery rode in her stroller. Look how happy she is in her stroller with her tinkerbell phone." At least she is happy about it.

McKay moved into this little house that we found by the lookout point. He went right in, and next thing I know he was headed back out to "get the mail" and then he made a lovely dinner of pine cones and strawberries.


What a proud little homeowner.

Once all the cousins ditched us and went home things calmed down a bit. . .for a minute. We had to make an emergency insta care run down in Sandy because McKay's "asthma" started acting up. It was actually really scary as we were driving down the canyon to get there. He was acting all lethargic and his eyes were moving really funny and I was 100% panicked. I wanted Brian to pass everybody and run all the lights, I was so nervous. But then McKay threw up, and turns out he started feeling better after that. I'm so glad that he warned us because I was able to catch it in a blanket. Once we got to the doctor his breathing had normalized and he was okay. We're thinking it was the altitude. Scary, but so glad that it went away.

We went back up and just kept McKay on Motrin from then on to control his fever. Here we are in the hot tub on the balcony. After this we decided that a hot tub is probably not the best thing for a fever. Oops.

The next day we headed to the pool and had it almost all to ourselves. Ellery loves the water. . .

. . .but not as much as this kid. He could live in the bathtub, and a swimming pool is even better.


On our last day there we rode the tram up to the top of the mountain and I took the most beautiful pictures on Brian's phone, but turns out I don't have the connections to put phone pics on my computer. I am kind of depressed about it. Ellery laughed the whole way up and I was shocked that she even noticed we were doing something different. But she did, and she loved it. McKay loved it too, but I think maybe I liked it the most. I've gone up there a bunch of times but it was so quiet and beautiful up there and everything below you looks so still and I think I just appreciated the beauty and peacefulness of it all over again. I told Brian that I would live in the mountains if we could live on the very top and have a tram to get us up and down. We'll see. . .

And that's it! Goodbye Snowbert! We had a great time. Thanks Dad- we loved it.

today. . .

. . .marks the day that Ellery has been out of my body. . .

. . .for as long as she was in!

Happy Nine Months to my girl!

carter's grandma's pool

Last week Katie and I packed all five of our kids in the car and headed up North somewhere...I can't even remember where...to spend some time with our Las Vegas-dwelling friend Molly and her cute little boy Carter. McKay was so excited for this that he woke up way early that morning and said, "Are we going to Carter's pool today?!!!"

He had a pretty good reason to be excited. Not only did the kids get to play in a full on gym (go cougars), jump on a trampoline, play in a fun little playhouse and "play" numerous arcade games. . .

. . .they got to swim in this. Needless to say, Carter's Grandma had an amazing house, and maybe an even more amazing backyard.

We all had a blast hanging out in the pool. We stayed in the water I think for four hours! It has been so long since I've been swimming for that long. . .and it was so fun!

After our little swimmers were out of the water they even got a sweet little treat.

And more fun in the bath water! One of McKay's favorite things in life is playing in the bath, and playing with Halle and Gray in the bath is even better!

After about thirty seconds of driving Katie and I turned around to find this. All our tuckered out swimmers were fast asleep. . . except Elle. She babbled and talked the whole way home.

Thanks baby Carter, Molly and Carter's Grandma! We loved seeing you guys and we're so glad you invited us up.

the river runs

The other day we headed up the canyon for a picnic lunch and a little fun in the river. We found a perfect spot for wading around, or swimming if you're McKay. Ellery even dipped her little toes in. McKay loves throwing rocks in the water and this time he got fully submerged. He was a little reluctant to get wet at first because it was pretty cold, but by the end he was soaked all the way down to his Diego underwear and loving it! We will definitely be going back to this sweet little spot.

Nashelle

This cute little guy sitting by Elle is her twin friend, Nash. Sometimes I look at Ellery and I just see little Nash's face/head looking up at me. They just have this similarity that I can't quite put my finger on. I told Katie and she has since noticed it too. What is it? Their hair color. . .their head shape. . .their round faces? They are both chunky little things, maybe that's it? I don't know but whatever it is it's sure cute!

What if they get married someday and this priceless shot is in their wedding video. So precious.

Our 4th

Brian and I are Practically Twins. . .

Our birthdays are two days apart. Last week we each turned 27!

Brian's birthday:

*I just realized that I have a double photo in here. I just don'thave it in me to fix it. Oh well.

• McKay was so excited for Brian's birthday- I went in to check on him the night before and he had put his party hat back on and was peacefully dreaming of the party.
• We went kayaking down the Provo river. It was so fun and so beautiful and I decided that kayaking should probably be one of our "things". My whole family was shocked to find out that I not only went kayaking, but that I planned it. Why can no one see me doing this?
• Eating dinner at the OG. One of our favorites.
• I made Brian a cheesecake- his favorite. McKay was overly excited to eat the strawberries.
• I bought Brian a bunch of clothes. He hates getting clothes for presents but I didn't even care. The man needed new clothes, like it or not. Usually he will tell me something that he wants me to get him. This year I didn't even let him and I felt liberated as I shopped in clothing stores instead of Out-n-Back. Sad to say he only like ONE shirt! So hard to shop for someone who is so picky but doesn't like anything that's in style. Love you Sweetheart, but it's true!
  

Brian then left for a three day scout trip and I was left on my own for my birthday. It was weird to not be with him, but I still had a great day. Here are the highlights:

• Started the day off cleaning my house - my birthday present to myself.
• Really enjoyed lunch with my parents and Jana at CPK. Their split pea soup is my favorite. (Sounds weird but it's so good.)
• Watched Jana and my dad explore Macs at the Apple store. I get it, I do. Those commercials make me feel so uncool.
• My sweet sister Lisa was my "husband" while Brian was gone and had a little party for me at her house. Festivities included feeding the horses over their back fence (McKay's favorite part), playing at the park, eating cake and lying on the grass looking up at the stars. Thanks family, for taking care of me on my birthday~!
• Getting tickets to Wicked for next year! So excited!!!

And what about this little guy. . .

He doesn't understand why it can't be his birthday now. I guess it's kind of confusing to have mom and dad's birthdays in the same week. We tell him his is in a few months and he corrects us and says, "No. A few weeks." Poor kid. It's going to be a long few weeks.

She's Big

I'm kind of mourning the loss of my "baby" this week.

Since Ellery has been flipping, crawling, flopping, twirling and tangling herself in her crib, we decided it was time to lower it.

She thinks it's great- more room to play. I think it's depressing. . .


. . .because now my baby is this big baby who needs her crib lowered.


Goodbye little baby. I miss you already.

Summer 'do

What do you think? So far I've been called "a blond Elvira" and told that my eyebrows look too dark behind my new blond bangs. I don't care. I like them. The real test will be when I actually have to style them myself. That could be scary.