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!

Well... if you can't be in Mexico, you can still have fun!

These boys are great fisherman and just love catching trout on the River!!!!  

 Today was the Police Dept. Christmas Party...  Kimber got dressed up in a pretty dress that Grammy made.  It was actually one of her cousin's and got passed down!  

 Here they are eagerly waiting for Santa to call their names!

 Dane and Santa having a little chat.

 Kimber actually sat on Santa's lap this year!

 Then we came home and used the last little scraps of snow to build a couple snowmen.

Trying to make it to Mexico... and a new plan for fun!

Well, we should have been in Mexico this week...  but I guess it just wasn't in the cards for us!  We were totally prepared!  Santa made a surprise visit early and brought the kids one of their presents that he thought they might like on the plane/trip.  Santa was a little messy and left some snow in the house!

The surprise gift was a leappad for each of the kids!  Super fun stuff!  As you can see in some later pictures, they did come in handy... just not so much on planes!  Although we spent part of Friday and about 13 hours in the airport on Saturday waiting for flights, the kids did outstanding!  Here they are playing around.

Then they were chillin', playing with their Leappads.

Here is our family, wishing that we were actually getting on a plane!  

At one point they were going to fly us to Denver on Saturday, Houston on Sunday, and then Mexico on Monday...  but our flight out of Great Falls to Denver never went. That was kind of our turning point...  It seemed like maybe spending 4 days in airports just to get there was too much.  

So, we went to a hotel that night, and the kids had an amazing time playing in the pool!  

Then we went to a movie and had a great time...  and today we went out rabbit hunting!  So, we are doing our best to make lemonade out of these lemons!

Here are Dane and Clint planning a stalk on a wily rabbit!

Success!  But in all honesty, I can't actually claim any of these fine rabbits!  This was all Clint!  Nice work!

Not only did we have a really nice time, but it also was a beautiful evening to be out!