Big Sky

I've had the privilege of traveling to Montana probably 5 times now since Steve and I got married and I was instantly in love the first time. Could there be a more beautiful state?

Well, Florida is just as beautiful. But then again I am a little biased.

Seriously, I love Florida for it's beaches, palm trees, green-ness, Disney-ness, thunderstorms, and of course the year-round beautiful weather, except for those couple of months of mugginess. My brother-in-law, Paul, puts it this way, "When you open your front door, it feels like you're walking into someone's mouth."
He's from Utah.

Again, I am partial to my home state, but I don't mind the humidity all that much. In fact, my body is so accustomed to it, when I got off the plane in Salt Lake my skin felt like it was cracking. The kids had chapped lips by the time we picked up our rental car, no lie. Forget Temple Square, our first stop was to buy chapstick and lotion.

Having spent several years living in Utah way back when, I have a soft spot for that state. Many memories were made there. My firstborn was made there....
The winters I could live without, but I survived and now I love to visit. It's a beautiful state.

However, in Montana I could just drive and drive and look out the window all day long. It's that pretty. At least the area we visited is.

Well, here are some pics to emphasize just what I mean.







We went on a quest to find snow for these little Floridians and Texans and we really found some! Tromping through the snow in flip-flops - a once in a lifetime experience.


4-wheeling was so fun up in the mountains. Here's Sadie.


Audrey - too cute with her Cheetos fingers!


Jackson


Cousin Jake and Audrey


Steve and Sadie on the dirt bike


Jackson and Grandpa


Audrey and me


4th of July fireworks over the lake. Jackson with cousins Jake and Alec.



While driving we were chased by a Middle Eastern woman who wanted to know how we got that perfect picture of the moose.

Just kidding. That's Sue, trying to avoid the camera as usual. :)

Yeah, right. Fakers.


And where else can you take a picture like this? That's four generations of Henderson men.


Great fun!

You Might Be A Redneck If...

you cut your kid's hair with a vacuum.

Looking back, that's what I should have titled that last post. I guess I can't deny the little bit of redneck in me. Oh well, it sure beats wrestling a 14 month old while holding scissors. :)

Okay, so I'm an admitted blog stalker. I'm not addicted or anything but I sometimes find myself looking at my usual friends' blogs but then blog hopping from there. I might see a name that looks familiar and then an even more familiar name will pop up and then I find myself wondering if they know the same people or maybe they're a cousin of a former roommate's boyfriend or something.
Anyway, sometimes I find some really good ones and bookmark them. 'Good ones' meaning it has a recipe or project I have to try or they often post cute crafty ideas and I have to check back later to see what's new.

Like this little gem of a craft.


I don't remember where it came from. I forgot to bookmark it, I just printed it out this time. It reminds me of the duct tape wallet and duct tape purses the kids and I have made in the past. Or even the Capri Sun purse I made for Sadie a few years ago. This Uno one was just too cute to pass up. I'm working on one using Go Fish cards for Audrey.

A couple of important notes for today.
My mom's pathology report came back negative for cancer cells in any of the tissue samples or lymph nodes they took during the surgery. She will have to be screened and tested every 3 months for the next 2 years and then if the news is still good, she will be tested every 6 months after that. I'm certain Heavenly Father heard our prayers on her behalf.
When we found out she would be having the hysterectomy, my younger brother, Paul, joked that he was sad that there would no longer be a chance of him getting the baby brother he always wanted. :)

Just a few minutes ago I found out that I'm a great aunt! I've always been a great aunt but now I'm a Great Aunt, as in my niece just had a baby girl today. Shouldn't I be like 60 or something?
Congratulations to Abbie and Adam!

A Really Good Invention

Before


During


After

Total Haircut Time: About 2 minutes.

Ian got his cut too. Check out these two handsome dudes.


Thanks, Grandaddy!

Jet Lag

There is nothing like coming home after a nice long vacation. For one night anyway, because here we are traveling again, visiting my parents for a couple of days.

We had a blast on our trip out west. So much so, that I actually was not ready to come home. That's a shocker because usually after a week I'm done. It must be because some of our kids are older now. Before, our vacations were more work than staying at home.

Justin wins the "Baby Traveler Of The Year Award" hands down. He put up with a lot of flying, driving, hiking, strangers and sleeping in those strangers' houses and hotels. I think he gave up on thinking we were going home anytime soon because he started letting people hold him and got comfy in the car for the long drives.


He did awesome on the plane, both ways. The only complaint would probably be from the guy he dumped ice water on during the flight home. He was really nice about it but we still had an hour left in the flight to endure the embarrassment and even then we had to look at his wet pants while we waited at the bag claim for our stuff.

Anyway, we're recovering nicely. I am revved up to cook every night because if I have to eat out again in the near future, I might scream. We're doing a sugar detox since the clothes I took on the trip no longer fit by the end of the trip.
The jet lag is not a problem. How could 4 kids sleeping in until 10:30 be a problem?

I took many, many pictures. Many more than I could ever post on this blog at one time so I'll have to do some here and there. The kids had their own disposable cameras too. Audrey used hers up between the airplane trip out there and Temple Square. She was so cute taking pictures of everything pretty.

A big thanks goes to our friends (who will remain anonymous in case they want to be anonymous) who put up with us and all our baggage when we stayed with them for 5 days. We had so much fun with them! Our kids are great friends and were inseparable the whole time.

Jackson and Jaden taking a break while hiking the Y.


I know. Scary. I didn't know they were up there until they were up there. Then I yelled for them to get down....as soon as I take a picture.

Regan and Audrey at Bridal Veil Falls.



Sadie and Riley hiking the Y.



Maddie putting the moves on Justin. He was playing hard to get.



Timp Cave was cool.


Bowling was fun.


Check out that form.


Park City was a big hit.



Water skiing was a blast.


They even let us tour the Conference Center after hiking, despite our dirty sweaty selves.


Good times had by all. I'll post some Montana pics later...