Rural Montana is gorgeous. Every time we visit it is hard to drag the kids and me away from the beautiful country, crisp clean air, blue blue skies, open fields, green landscape, cooler weather and the much simpler and slower pace of life. What else would you expect when you visit God's Country?
The little girl cousins were so ecstatic to be with each other. They played like they'd known each other forever. It was super cute watching Acacia bond with her cousins, playing in the grass fields and running all over with them holding hands and sharing countless laughs and giggles. Acacia really took to Ruby (5) and followed her everywhere. These pictures were taken just after the reunion when they were playing in the grass at the tiny school park. They kept running through the grass, counting to three and then throwing themselves into the grass laughing their heads off. Oh, the joy of being a small child. . .it's priceless.
We ordered Luca a bike and it came the day we got there. Uncle Earl put it together for him and Luca spent countless hours riding it. It was a very wise investment! Luca spent a lot of time cruising the town streets, running errands for Grandma and playing with his cousins Tanner & Erica. Every time Luca would pick up a dandelion and make a wish he would wish that he "could be with his cousins every day!" Luca loves his cousins--all of them. It doesn't seem to matter which group of cousins he is with, he just plays and gets along with them all. I love having an outgoing little boy who makes friends with everybody. It's definitely a special little talent of his.
Tony only stayed with us for 3 days because of work. His flight home left out of the Lewistown Airport. This is the airport and the plane he boarded when he left. Tony was the ONLY passenger on the plane. Talk about small town aviation!
Tony's flight was delayed a couple hours so we had fun playing in the grassy fields in front of the airport. Good thing I had just bought a soccer ball for the kids right before we headed to the airport. The cool thing about a small airport is that Tony only had to arrive about half an hour before the flight, but with it being delayed we were there for a couple hours. There's endless fun in grassy green fields!
A few days before we left we went to Livingston to see Gary,
Christy and their Girls. Again, there was no lack of fun for the kids. Luca was thrilled to give Regan a ride on the quad. My in-laws drove down there with us and it was an interesting drive. I'm sure they were glad when it was over.
Axton cried a lot of the way down there, and on the way back
he talked--very loudly-- the entire way. There was no sleeping for this boy. Of course he hardly slept the whole time we were in Montana. This day was an exceptionally wide eyed day for
Axton and later I found out it was because his Uncle Gary had been letting him sip on his iced tea. Gary had taken
Axton for me so that I could have a break and go on a walk with my sister-in-law
Christy.
Axton didn't go to sleep that night until about 1:00 in the morning. Thanks Gary!
I took the kids, Tanner and Erica to the
Lewistown pool for a good splash of fun. Their pool is pretty awesome, especially considering there aren't any public pools anywhere near
Redlands. This pool has two big slides, a high dive and two low diving boards. Luca went down the slide 41 times and the small diving boards 5 times. He was very eager to share his numbers with everybody. We ended up getting rained out at the end, but it was totally worth it. I have to say that the trip there and back was funny because we were playing "Eye Spy" together. Well, in rural Montana where everything is green and there aren't any signs or billboards the available colors are very limited. It became interesting very quickly. You'd be surprised how many shades of black and grey there are on power poles.
The Billings airport has a little play area in the terminal to entertain the kids. This worked wonders for me as a solo parent traveling with 3 young children.
SO LONG MONTANA! IT WAS A BLAST. THANKS TO MY FAMILY, ESPECIALLY MY GREAT IN-LAWS FOR PUTTING UP WITH US FOR 2 WEEKS. WE LOVE YOU ALL AND WE CAN'T WAIT TO VISIT AGAIN.
You know if it were up to me we'd have moved there a long time ago.
Good think Mom was getting ready for her race, because now Luca had an extra set of clothes to keep him warm while he waited for his own race.
Acacia & Axton patiently waiting for the 5K to start. These little tykes have been very good about being supportive to their mama, who is not a runner, but is trying to get better.
My supportive Clan!
Look, there's Lisa and myself when the race first started. We met at Jazzercise and both had babies last year. We were due on the same day, but her baby is 6 weeks older than mine. She was 3 weeks early and I was 3 weeks late.
And just over 27 minutes later. . .
Here comes Xander. He ran his little heart out. He ran so fast he tired out at the end, but he was among the first finishers. This is Luca's buddy that he's known since preschool. They go to the same Charter School and they were in the Running Club together. Xander was the fastest and Luca was always on his tail. Even though they are competitive, they know how to have a good time at it.
GO LUCA GO!!!
Luca did a great job. He ran super fast the entire time. Tony and I were both really impressed with the way he paced himself. He started fast and finished really strong. He was among the first few finishers too. We were very proud of our little boy this day. He did AWESOME!!!
Luca & Xander and their medals. 
Cutie Pie Emerson. 6 1/2 Months
Acacia loved Eliot. Cute cute girls. I'm missing a picture of Quincy here. I guess we'll just need to get together again!
Axton enjoying roasting marshmallows for the first time with his Dad. Too bad Mom and Dad are mean and would never dream of letting an 11 month old baby eat a marshmallow!
Oh yum! The girls and Luca loved them so much they couldn't even keep them in their mouth. It ended up all over their faces.
Really Luca, you don't have to try to get the whole thing in your mouth at once.
Luca caught his first fish all by himself. He baited his hook, casted the line and reeled the fish in completely on his own. He was so excited about his little fish. It was entertaining to watch Luca fish. He did almost everything by himself, but he was pretty good at getting his line stuck on branches in the water. He would always bait his own hook. Every time he'd lose his bait he knew he had a "BITE". Realistically, I think the water ate more of his bait than the fish did. . .but SHHHH, don't tell him.
The boys really enjoyed hiking and trying to find hidden treasures. (aka: geocache) They were pretty good at making their own trails through the brush.
The happy little camper getting ready for a hike with Dad. That backpack was the best garage sale find ever!
Axton Xane. . .all tuckered out.
Acacia and Brooklyn did just about everything together. They had so much fun and enjoyed every minute of playing in the dirt, fishing, taking care of their pretend babies and even setting the camping chairs up as cars pretending they were driving down the street with their babies. It was too too precious.
Here they are taking turns holding the baby (bear) and being the Mommy. The girls definitely benefited when Leah had to go to the doctor for pink eye. She came back with a teddy bear that Acacia and Brooklyn adopted as their own. I'm pretty sure Leah never even got to touch the little bear.
These little "BESTIES" were finally taking a break. Perhaps they were tired from all the rock collecting and making of "dirt soup". It was not uncommon for them to have pockets full of little rocks. Who says little girls can't play in the dirt?