ho ho ho

horsin' around

We had fun hanging out in our pjs all weekend. Here's a video of the girls horsin' around:

a new smile

Ava was so excited to find $5 under her pillow! Yeah...tooth fairy pays now! I got $1 for my first tooth and 25 cents for each one after. Word is she checks for cavities and doesn't pay as much if you're not a good brusher (that's what the first graders say anyway). Ava's really been brushing good; she wants to get top dollar for those baby teeth! (Zoe too, she wants to make sure her teeth are clean..."I brush in little circles, that what the dentist says!")

happy halloween

The girls drew their faces on their pumpkins (Ava got one at school too, so she had two), then Jamie and I cut out their designs

Ava's school pumpkin (left)
Zoe's pumpkin (middle)
Ava's other pumpkin (right)

Ava was a dancer, Zoe was Rapunzel

This isn't really from halloween, but it looks creepy enough to tag along...

fun with grama and grampa

Grama Joleen and Grampa John came to visit over MEA break. The girls were excited to get to spend the weekend in a hotel (especially the swimming!).



Jamie and Dad went fishing for the day and caught a bunch of trout while us girls stayed at the hotel and swam. Here they are tying spawn sacks of fish eggs...the magic bait!


On Saturday we went to First People's Buffalo Jump, just south of Great Falls. Years ago, the Natives drove the buffalo here and this is what they saw. Jamie and Dad are standing right at the edge of the cliff, but you really can't see it until you're right there (and neither did the buffalo!)


Here's what it looks like from the side. Zoe and Grampa are standing at the edge of the cliff. As you can see it's quite a drop!


I need to do a better job taking pictures...think I've been getting lazy (all of these are my mom's)...sorry mom, next time I'll make sure I get some of you too!

100!

Ava's been begging to go to Golden Corral to eat since June. Since it's not Jamie and my favorite place to eat, we put it off for a while. But if you know Ava, you know she is persistent...so, we decided if she read 100 books, we'd go to Golden Corral. She made it to 100! So, we had to pay up. Here's some pics from the day we went...they have a brand new chocolate wonderfall (a chocolate fondue waterfall) and it was quite messy :)





P.S. remember this smile...she's got two wiggly teeth, it'll be changing pretty soon!

bozeman & yellowstone

We drove down to Bozeman over Labor Day weekend and went to the Museum of the Rockies which was pretty cool. Lots of dinosaur fossils, a frog exhibit, and the girls' favorite part was the upstairs children's discovery center which is all about exploring Yellowstone.



On Sunday we drove down a little further and spent the day in Yellowstone park. We saw an elk with her 2 calves, a couple wolves, buffalo, eagles, and lots of geysers, bubbly mud, and the likes. Zoe kept saying, "P-U! It stinks like boiling hot eggs! Are they cookin' eggs in there?" (for anyone who hasn't been to Yellowstone, it smells pretty sulfur-y)

They're looking at the bacterial mat around the grand prismatic spring trying to find thermophiles (micro-organisms that thrive in heat)

back to school!

Ava started 1st grade on August 31st and she loves it. She still complains that I come pick her up too early...which is usually close to 5pm with all the beginning of the year stuff I have to do. I think she'd sleep at school if I'd let her.

camping by monarch, mt

One last camping trip in August before heading back to school...

We set up camp right on this little stream. The water was so clear in the deep parts that it looked like a it had been professionally landscaped! Mother nature did a pretty good job with the rock layout :) The water was freezing, but the girls didn't mind one bit. They moved rock after rock, waded, and even swam. It was nice to listen to the sound of the water. So many cool spots to camp!

happy birthday Ava!

Ava celebrated her 6th birthday when we were back in Minnesota...

{Barbie took a spill in the cupcakes}

{candy!!!!}

gates of the mountains

We went to Gates of the Mountains back in July...

Eh-he-he-he-hew

This one's for you Grampa John...



For anyone who has no idea what the context is...we just watched Ernest Goes to Camp. Just bought a triple feature DVD (along with Ernest goes to Jail & Ernest Scared Stupid) at Target for $5! Ernest was one of my childhood favorites. Our VHS copy was likely run pretty thin with how much wear it got. When we used to have gerbils, my brother Justin even named one Ernest Petrie (Petrie from the Land before Time, another classic). Anyway, my dad still throws out a pretty good Ernest "Eh-he-he-he-hew" from time to time. The girls started doing it constantly after watching the movie--it clearly still has an impressionable effect. :)

missoula

We were planning to spend last weekend in Rapid City, SD, meeting Grampa Jeff & Grama Donna, but since Grampa got called to work in Minot because of the flooding, we decided to postpone the Rapid City trip. Since the girls already knew we were going to go to a hotel (the first thing Ava said every morning when she woke up at the crack of dawn..."only eleven more days until we get to go to the hotel!!!!"), we decided to spend the weekend in a hotel a little closer to home. We drove out to the Mountains and stayed in Missoula. I really like Missoula. Way hipper than Great Falls...if you find yourself in MT, go to Missoula! They have lots of great restaurants, downtown is filled with lots of little shops (didn't go shopping this time, but they just looked cool from the outside) (: We spent a lot of time at the hotel waterpark, eating out (cheesy fries 3 times...yum), and Jamie got a couple rounds of disc in. We stopped at Big Sky brewery and the Carousel for Missoula and awesome wooden park. We also checked out my recent obsession: Airstream Trailers. There was an RV dealership there that had a whole line of them, but apparently all but one were spoken for, so we only got to walk through that one. Still, I fell more in love. Jamie was really diggin' it, checking everything out, then he got the sticker shock and said "Get out. GET. OUT." LOL! Yes, they have a hefty price brand new, but they are so cool! I've seen some awesome vintage renovations too. They are built to last...nearly 70% of all Airstream trailers ever produced are still on the road! Retro/Classic/Modern...Where else can you get all that? No cheesy RV upholstery, no impractical carpeting, just nice sleek aluminum, spacious, light, airy, lots of windows, cool features...oh, yeah...back to Missoula (:

Ava in the pool:


Jamie & Zoe splashing off the slide:


Ava went down the water slides a zillion times, but I'm pretty sure Jamie went down more than her...not sure who had more fun...

Ava on the carousel:


Zoe on the carousel:


We all had to hop on the wooden trout:





P.S. I've already started saving...I WILL get me one of them Airstreams! Vintage or slightly used, not sure yet, but I will get one!