Beautiful Easter!

As you saw from my last post, Friday was a snowy mess of a day.  Saturday was beautiful and ended up getting to about 48 degrees.  Clint and Dane went down to the River to do a little fishing and Kimber, Grandma and I spent the morning running errands.  We had talked about going out on the boat, but part of the road to Holter is dirt and it was probably a mess.  So, we decided to stick closer to home.  Then we all regrouped at the house and Clint, Dane, Kimber and I headed back down to the River.  Here are some pictures from our walk on the River's Edge Trail...

In even such a short time, their was a hatch of some sort of flying bug...  Here they are all lined up on a post.

 The bugs hatching provide great food for the swallows that build their nests on the rocks.  I actually didn't even see these until Dane pointed them out to me.

 Giant Spring Park

 Today we decided to head out for the annual Easter Egg Hunt.  Wow, there sure were a lot of people and kids!  But, the kids had a really great time and it was such a beautiful day to be out.

Here is Dane saying hello to the Easter Bunny.

 Dane picking up eggs...  Since he didn't get any candy in his Easter basket, he enjoyed the sweets that were hidden in these eggs.  (he did get cool stuff though...  a butterfly net, a "bug keeper", a little fishing set from Grandma, a bubble gun from Nana and Grandpa...  all fun things!)

 Grandma went with us to the Easter Egg Hunt.  She and Kimber hung out while Dane and I did some of the other stuff.

 Dane and I at the Easter Egg Hunt

 Clint was working for all of that fun but about the time we got home he was off work.  So we visited with Grandma for a few minutes and then headed back down to the River.  This time we took the butterfly net and Clint used it to catch all kinds of fun stuff...  like crawdads, snails, minnows, a bullhead sculpin, waterbugs, etc. Who knew a butterfly net from the dollar store could provide so much fun!  Then we brought some of it home and put it in our fishtank!  Having kids is so much fun...  it totally allows us to be kids again!

Well, the snowy, sloppy weekend really ended up to be a lot of fun.  Maybe if the weather holds we can get out fishing next weekend, otherwise we will still find something fun to do!!!

Lots of snow on this Montana morning!

This morning we woke up to a snowy Montana day.  About 6 inches to start  and it didn't stop coming down until there was probably more than 10".  WOW!  So, we stuck around the house with the kids and got some stuff done.  Poor Clint even got put to work on some "honey do's"!  Maybe we will make it out to do something fun tomorrow is some of this snow melts. 

Below you will find a few random pictures and then some pictures showing what our yard looked like today!  Isn't is suppossed to be spring????

Grandma and Kimber having a great time!

Kimber wearing one of the "happy birthday" hats that we got for Clint!

View out of our front door when I first woke up!  (our neighbor already took care of our walk...  we love him!)

Dane practicing snow removal from the trees

Enjoying the snow!

Happy Birthday to Clint!!!!

Well, it was a nice weekend to get some things done around the house and to celebrate Clint's birthday.  Friday he turned another year older...  and we had a nice time celebrating.  Even though Clint had to work, Mom came over and we enjoyed a nice dinner and evening.  Although I certainly ate too much yummy food!

I didn't do well at all taking pictures though...  sorry I guess I wasn't in the mood this weekend.  Then Saturday was decent weather.  Dane played outside a lot and I got a lot done around the house.  Sunday was the Icebreaker Road Race... 

Clint had to work but I went ahead and ran the 3 mile run.  Despite the snow I did pretty well and finished in 26 m. 11 sec.  Although not record breaking I was pleased.  Thanks again to Carrie, Brock, and Mark for watching the kids!

Anyway, that's about it!  Now it's back to work for the week and then maybe some fishing next weekend!

One of our favorites!

I was transferring videos and pictures to jump drives and ran into this video.  Dane was about 10 months old and pretty stinkin' cute!  (If I do say so myself!)

Enjoy!

A wonderful trip to Oregon...

Wednesday afternoon we got back from a 6 day trip to Oregon.  It has been too long since we went back to see Clint's family so we set the dates and made it happen.  It was really great.  We had a wonderful visit and got to spend some good, quality family time.  Be prepared...  there are going to be many, many pictures of family and kids on this post!

To try to make traveling with the little ones easier, we left Montana at 1 am on Thursday morning.  The kids were actually pretty good.  Dane was so excited to see Nana and Grandpa.  Although I did ride the last 30 minutes in the back seat with them.  Clint said he couldn't pull into his parent's driveway with me in the front seat.  (just kidding!)  The kids had actually reached their threshold so it was time to switch things up a bit.  It took about 14 hours and we rolled in at 2 pm their time (1 hour behind us).

The first night we just relaxed and since Clint drove the hard shift (1 am to 5:30 am) he was pretty tired.  Here he is with Dane...  catching up on some zzzz's.

On Friday, we stopped by Bill and Sheri's cabin and then headed out to do a little fishing.  Dane caught a few mud cats, a rainbow trout, and some whitefish.  He got a new fishing pole (a real kids pole) from Grandpa and it was a total hit.  We got him a fishing pole for his b-day but it was a regular one so this is a lot easier for him to cast and reel.  Although we aren't using his new pole, here we are reeling in the "big one"!

We pointed out the "pokeys" on the catfish for Dane because he really likes holding them and we don't want him to get poked.  Funny story...  Sheri, Kimber and I ended up leaving the boys to finish fishing.  When Dane got home he said that one of the fish "wasn't nice and poked him, but Grandpa poured beer on it, so it didn't hurt anymore!"  Now I know why it's so important to always have beer when we are fishing! 

That night (Friday) Sam, Shannon, Porter and Wyatt headed out to Bill and Sheri's after Sam got off work.  They came out for dinner and ended up spending the night.  As you can see Bill was cuddling with the boys and we just kept adding kids...

Bill, Dane, and Wyatt

Bill, Dane, Wyatt, and Porter

Added Kimber to the mix

Then we woke up on Saturday and all of the boys went fishing.  Here is Porter with one of the mud cats.

After they got back, we went down to Sam and Shannon's house for a night.  It was nice to catch up with them and the kids had a very fun time playing and hanging out.

Here are some pictures from our visit.

Aunt Shannon, Wyatt, and Kimber

We put Dane to work mowing the yard... 

Clint and Wyatt

We only suffered one injury over the weekend.  Dane got about 3/4 of his big toenail ripped off.  But, by the next morning he had bounced back and although it was sore he still played and had a great time.  Here he is cuddling with Daddy.

Uncle Sam, Kimber, and Wyatt all snuggled in!

Kimber enjoying the nice weather.

Wyatt and Porter do SO GOOD for pictures.  Dane, not quite as happy to oblige.  He was being kind of obstinate, but we did get one where they all sat still and looked the right direction.  Except for Kimber, and once we added her, things went downhill again.  Too many kids to organize!

Sunday afternoon we went back to Bill and Sheri's for the remainder of the trip.  They have a new house and it is truly beautiful.  It was also very comfortable and they did a great job baby proofing so the kids could just play inside and out.  Here are some other pictures from our stay.

Grandpa and Kimber

When I told Dane (2 weeks before the trip) that we were going to see Nana and Grandpa, he got really excited and asked to make "hands".  They had made jello hands the last time she visited and he thought that was super fun...  I passed on the request and they got to make cookie "hands" several times.  Here they are cutting out the dough. 

One morning after it rained, Grandpa took Dane worm hunting.  Here was the harvest!  They did quite well!

The next 3 pictures are of Porter, Wyatt, and Dane.  Can you say "trouble comes in 3s"????

Kimber hanging out in the grass

Then it was time for the trip home...  Since we stopped at Cabelas in Post Falls it took us about 14.5 hours.  A long ways no matter how it goes.  We did get up super early and were on the road at 1 am their time so that helped.  Here is Dane at one of the stops burning off some energy.  Both he and the dog would run like crazy every chance they got!!!

I know that I'm repeating myself, but it was an incredible trip.  It was so fun to catch up with family and let the kids hang out.  I really look forward to the next opportunity to see everyone. 

Besides that, not much is new.  Now it's just settling in and getting back into routines.  Spring looks like it might be coming soon and Clint is on day shift, so we are all pretty excited about that.  Here in a couple weeks we will start having days off together so then we probably will start taking some fishing trips!  Gotta love Montana!

Before our Trip

I meant to post before we left for Oregon, but we were SO BUSY trying to get everything in order that I just couldn't find the time.  So, here are a few random pictures.

Dane got his new "big boy" (twin size) bed.  We went and picked out sheets and a blankets together.  Spiderman it is!  He loves it and is doing great.  It is just on the floor at this point so that if he falls out, it isn't too far!

 Craft time!  Dane is working on his birthday thank you cards.  With Dad and Kimber helping, of course!

 Kimber and I began our battle with thrush.  We both were on antibiotics for a while so we got thrush really bad.  With Dane I found that Gentian Violet was the only thing that would really get rid of it, although it is exceptionally messy.  Kimber and I had a whole lot of purple going on for a few days! 

My Apologies!

I'm sorry it has been so long since my last post!  Clint and I just returned from a trip to Oregon to see his family.  It was so much fun, and I can't wait to share all of the pictures and stories!  However, it will have to wait until the weekend.  So, please tune back in this weekend and there should be an update!!!!