Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?

The Chronicles of pulling a U-Haul trailer 700+ miles:

We left at 6:30am Monday June 22nd and arrived in Bozeman, Montana at 9:30pm that night. It was a LONG day, but the girls were wonderful in that car and Papa did a great job of pulling that trailer. Don't be scared to visit! It really doesn't normally take 15 hours but we were pulling a trailer that couldn't go over 55 and we did have to go through wyo, which we refer to fondly as "windy wyo" so that set us back as well.

On your marks, get set, GO!

It really doesn't take much to put this baby to sleep! Even with tremendous amounts of sun in her eyes and gigantic headphones on her head...this was literally less than 30 minutes after departure. And about 1 hour since she had gotten up for the day.

This is pretty much consitent with what Morgan looked like the whole way there...

Except for about an hour of this...

And an occasional little something like this! Yes that is her microphone and yes, Skylar did try to chime in but really had a hard time trying to find the beat, so she went back to reading. It was just too speratic for her to jump in!

Is this not so funny?! She had like 5 stuffed animals and about 8 books on her lap, but it made for a good pillow, I guess!

Skylar really had a great chance to catch up on all her reading-she can check that off of her "to-do" list! Thanks Nanny for all the books!

And, while the girls did great, Morgan's feet had a little bit of an episode. She informed me here that her feet were "fighting." It was really funny. I have video if this thing will let me load two. Otherwise I will post seperate.

The girls were so excited to see their Daddy again after 6 days without him and 6 months with him! And then Morgan quickly realized that the Germers (who were our neighbors in Laramie and also live in Montana now) don't live next door to us anymore. We had to explain that they were in a different town, but we would visit them. So now, pretty much everyday, she says, "I want to go to the other Montana where Nick and Alex are."

That's gonna leave a mark!

Oh ouch! Skylar had a doozie of a fall last week just before we left for Montana. She was carrying a bouncy ball pretty much the size of her and she didn't see the flagstone step in front of her so she had a "rough" flagstone edge to the lip. She is one tough cookie, though. She only cried for a minute or two and was all smiles after that. Check out the damage-

This was just minutes after so it isn't even swollen yet, but you can see where her teeth entered her bottom lip-OUCH! Or "owie" as Skylar kept repeating the rest of that day. And that is a smile she has on her face.

And this was the next day. Pretty much super duper swollen, but she really didn't fuss about it at all. She has her sister to thank for that. Morgan has done her fair share of toughening Skylar up over the last 19 months!

The Water Fountian Park

Well, we got to see my grammy and a couple of my cousins yesturday before the big departure. We met at the "water fountian park" which I think is actually Cornerstone Park in Englewood and we had a great time! The girls enjoyed dodging the water and playing in the sand and we actually got to enjoy our picnic. Every time we eat lunch there it seems there is a terrible wind storm while we eat, so it was quite a treat! And a great day!

A great shot of Morgan and Skylar in action! Be glad there is no audio on this! The screeching is SO high pitched and loud!



On second thought, let's take a looksie...

Just taking it all in!

Morgan was pretty much screaming the whole time. And the funny thing is she loves coming to this park, but rarely does she get a single drop of water on her! It is really entertaining! She was slightly braver this day than previously, but she MAYBE got 10 drops on her.

Is this not the best shot of all the girls? Too bad Morgan was too busy playing in the water to have her picture taken with Shammy!

This is my cousin Karen's little girl Breanna (so on the geneology chart she would qualify as my 2nd cousin)-is she not the cutest thing? She was hard at work on her experiment for quite some time! It looked good whatever it was! :) *There was a little geneology confusion on my dad's side of the family so I was just clearing that up for them-love you Dee-Dee!

And this is Rayna (also my 2nd cousin)-the cutest red head I've ever seen! She was busy climbing most of the time but I did snap this shot of her when she was in the sandbox.

Bozeman or Bust!!

Well you could say that has been our moto for the last 4 days-BOZEMAN OR BUST!!!! Bryan accepted the job with the Montana State Bobcats to be the running backs coach on June 8th! Happy 7th anniversary to us! And it has been pedal to the metal ever since. Bryan and I dropped off the girls at Grandma and Grandpa Tutu's house on Tuesday night and we left at 5:15AM on Wednesday morning to Bozeman in search for dwellings!

We have had nothing but good fortune since we arrived-we found a great 4+ bedroom house and a car for Bryan to get around in-it's even Bobcat colors! We didn't realize that until after the purchase but we were both relieved it wasn't maroon or "he'd a been walkin'!"

Here are a few pics of the house that we found

okay, well maybe just one. The inside isn't very exciting yet-it's still empty, so I will post more pics when we get settled.

So in just 48 hours we found a house (I think we counted seeing over 20!), a car (we test drove 5) and then waited 2 hours at the DMV for temp plates on the one we liked), got a grand tour of the athletic offices (I say "grand" because Bryan couldn't remember where they were, so we got lost and found some other fun things to look at), and took a great scenic walk along the trail system for a great view of all of Bozeman, and our heads aren't even spinning off our shoulders yet! Okay, well mine did a couple of times, but luckily Bryan was standing right there so I didn't completely loose it.

This was a view of the south part of town-gorgeous!

And this was west...I think...now I can't remember-my head may have started spinning from the shear beauty of it all. I will give a full report when I'm stable!

Ciao!

Estes Park in a day

Well we recently visited Estes Park for the day and the girls and Bryan and I had a great time! It was a little foggy on the way up which made us nervous for a nice day but by the time we got to Rocky Mountain National Park there were no clouds in the sky and it was lovely! The last time we had been to Estes was when my bro and his wife got married and Morgan was only six weeks old so we thought it was time for a visit.

A nice family shot if only Morgan wouldn't have been quite as involved in the "junior ranger" packet they gave her-oh well, take it as it comes!

And Morgan with her signature half interested half smile to make her mommy happy she got at least one photo of her for the day.

And don't even think that Skylar is actually posing so innocently for the camera. She wouldn't stand still while we were trying to get a picture, so we had to sit her down on the ground. And this would be her thinking she is just as cute as can be trying to make it impossible to get a shot of her.

This was a Big horn we saw on our way into the park. They were just walking along side the car in their pack. Um...no I don't have any food for you. I can read park signs! And Skylar, once we said sheep, "baa-ed" for about 45 minutes.

Once we were in the park there were elk everywhere! They must just know they can pretty much chill there. We had a great little picnic in the park and then headed back down to town. Morgan, all the while wondering where Estes PARK (as in playground) was.

She gave up on looking for it for a minute. Thinking Mommy and Daddy were big fat liars telling her we were going to a park all day!

So instead of Morgan thinking we were totally lame we did find a park and it was beautiful! And the girls had lots of fun. It was even right off of Lake Estes so we went down by the water and daddy showed them how to skip rocks. Skylar wanted to go in-of course!

Life on a ranch is hard sometimes...

WARNING-THE FOLLOWING CONTENT MAY BE DISTURBING TO SOME READERS. READER DISCRETION IS ADVISED!!!!

Well, we had a bit of a tragedy the other day. Those cutest little baby chicks, well, they were taken last night. And by taken I mean eaten. Not sure if it was a neighbor dog or a coyote but the baby chicks are gone. Luckily Daddy was the first to arrive on the scene so he cleaned everything up and destroyed all evidence of their existence. We weren't sure if the girls would notice and for much of the morning when they were outside they didn't. Whew! We counted our blessings and thanked the lucky stars the girls are 18 months and 3. But when they went to play outside after nap time Morgan noticed right away. It was very sad and emotional and tearful...even for mommy to see her that sad.
So when she asked us where they were, natually, we lied! Right through our teeth! And if you saw Morgan's sadness you would have done the same without a second thought. We told her that they were big enough to fly away, so they are happy now flying around in the sky. Sometimes that is just what baby chicks do. And sometimes it is better to lie to your children. Times like this...

Morgan Turned Three!!!

We had a great day celebrating Morgan's 3rd birthday!! We did a lot of reflecting over what the past three years have given us and what the next year will bring. We have been truly blessed with an amazing little girl!

Morgan really wanted a black puppy, so we set off to Build-a-Bear! Thank goodness they had a black puppy for her! She has been before, but as you see she is still on system overload in a place like this! So she picked out her puppy and off we went to bring that little puppy to life!

After the puppy is stuffed the way you want him stuffed (huggable, or sittable, etc.) then you have to give him a heart. So the build-a-bear lady had her rub the heart on her head so he was smart, her ears so he would be a good listener (gee if only I would have known it could have been so easy), her tummy so he was always (I can't remember full, I guess? maybe a good eater, I was more interested in the look Morgan was giving her than what she was saying), and her heart so he felt loved. Then they stuff the heart in there and sew him up.

Okay, now we're talkin'! This is the part Morgan remembers! The bathtub! She loved giving him a "fluff" bath!

Okay so then he was complete! Now on to accessorize! He had a little puppy that came with him and she got a leash and dog house for him too! And lastly, we named him-Snoopy. So after we got his birth certificate we were done. Whew!

Then, of course, the puppy wanted to get out and stretch his legs a little in the mall, so Morgan took him for a walk (or a drag, depending on how you look at it). After that he really could have used a real bath. Mall floors are nasty!

Then it was on to tradition. After dinner we went to Wendys to enjoy a frosty. This was the first thing I had after I gave birth to Morgan after not eating for almost 48 hours. So, naturally, I fell in love with the Frosty! Frosty and I were a match made in heaven. And, in all reality it could have been dog food and I would have gobbled it up, but it was a yummy chocolate Frosty. And now that I think about it was two! HAHA! Michele and Joe brought Bryan and I one and I remember asking Bryan if he was going to eat his-I must have looked desperate because he said I could have it. So, essentially, that was Morgan's first thing she ever had too! Long story longer, we now have Frosty's on Morgan's birthday!

I don't think Morgan minded-do you?

LOL! No, I don't think she minded!