WOW, what a whirlwind!

Life is a funny thing...  You think that you have it all figured out, (lol) and then you realize how crazy things can really be!  But, with a whole lot of love, some fantastic support from family and friends, great communication, and willingness to keep digging in and working, sometimes you can get pointed in the right direction again. :)  

Clint and I had a little bump in our road...  a road that has been blissfully smooth for about 13 years!  Now, I suppose this hiccup is a small price to pay for the awesome times we have had, and the lifetime ahead of us...  but it's just unfortunate that life's lessons and personal growth can be so painful and hard.

Anyway, we decided that a weekend getaway would be a fun thing to do, so with Grandma's help, we jumped in the truck on Saturday morning and headed South.  (okay, not like "warm, California south", more like Dillon, Montana south!) Clint rented us a cute little cabin, and the two of us went to "just be" and enjoy one another.  Here he is studying the map in our cute cabin.

We got to visit some of the places that we have great memories of.  One is Clark Canyon Reservoir...  we stayed there several nights when we were scouting for moose about 6 or 7 years ago.  Although we were "kid less" on this trip, sweet and adoring Shep still came along!

I love these little structures on the reservoir.  This is the exact one that we stayed in back in the day!  It was fun to visit all of these places again!

Shep had a great time running on the beach.

Clint spotted a couple moose in the brush.  Here is a little bullwinkle enjoying a snack.

The views on our drive were amazing!  The country down there is so beautiful.

We had a really great time, and are now back at home enjoying the kiddos.  Clint is on overnights, which is always hard, but he has a great attitude and will be done on April 1st...  so, we can put up with that!  Besides that, the kids are great and life is pretty darn good.  :)  

Tribute to Stanley...

Stanley the giant water beetle...  (a.k.a. toe biter), source of endless entertainment as the children waited for him to claim his next meal...

 I had Dane put his hand next to him so you could see how big he truly is.

Well, last night Stanley passed...  but he graciously agreed to donate his body to science, so he will continue to educate, and entertain us.  :)  Thanks Stanley.

A trip to the cabin

Over the weekend, we took advantage of three days off and headed to the cabin.  On the way up there, this little guy was hanging out by the road.  Cute little bugger...

But, I imagine he has a rather short life expectancy.  :)  He was intrigued by our tire.

Once we got to the cabin, we dropped off our stuff and headed out on the ice.  This is Kimber's preferred method of travel.

It's such beautiful country out there.

and we even caught a couple nice fish that day!

Which Kimber promptly covered with snow!

A couple of the fish we caught were pretty nice size!

One of our favorite parts (okay, my favorite part!) is the nice warm fire!

On Sunday when we woke up the wind was howling, so we couldn't go fishing.  We decided to take a drive instead.  This shows the snow blowing.

We love going up and looking at the bighorn sheep.  They never cease to intrigue us.

and there was a nice herd of antelope too!

Since we were stuck inside, we had fun playing board games.  This one was called "Hoot Owl Hoot" and was pretty fun.  Clint got really into it and was trying to figure out the best strategy.  :)

The next morning was beautiful!

and the fish were biting like crazy!

Clint and Dane were truly the committed fisherman of the bunch!  Look at how great they did!!!  I can only claim a couple and that is simply cause I was out there at the right time!  :)

Christmas!!!!

As always, with two little ones, Christmas was a lot of fun!  In fact, you could almost call it hair raising fun!

 Last night, we sprinkled a little reindeer food on the lawn...  I must say, that might very well be a new tradition for us.  It was so fun watching the kids run around sprinkling the magic!

 Luckily, the reindeer found their way, and we were so fortunate to wake up to many gifts from Santa and family.

 Grandma joined us for the fun!

 This was the only picture where we actually got everyone smiling...  yes, my eyes are closed, but that's okay!

They even got new "shooter guns" from Grandma, and all kinds of other amazing things!  Thank you to all of our family and friends who spoiled us.  We wish we were closer, but you all are in our thoughts!

 Here is Kimber modeling the super cute hat that Nana made her!

 and Dane looking for treasures to view under the microscopes.  I think Clint is as excited about the microscopes as the kids are!

 Merry Christmas to everyone!  We hope that you had a wonderful day, full of family, friends, and love!

So much fun! Christmas Treats and Programs!

Over the past two weeks, we have had some fun for sure!  We did some crafts...  that were a total flop!  They were snowflake ornaments.  We almost got two done before the troops turned against me and we ended up with zero!!!!  It was still fun though.  Here they were while fun was being had!

I did make some cake balls and other treats.  Here were some fun reindeer that I made. I intended to have the kids help me, but after the snowflakes I decided to do most of them, and then let the kids help with a few.  

 Which turned out to be a great idea...  Cause they had a wonderful time and their brownies looked nothing like reindeer! :)

 Then we had Kimber's Christmas program at St. Thomas.  

 All of the Teachers do such an awesome job getting the kids to sing and play their parts.  Kimber was a "jingle beller".  :)  

 Then it was off to Dane's program at Morningside!

What a great way to get ready for a fun Holiday!  The kids did great and we really enjoyed watching them!