Camping in Montana

Its become a family tradition that we head of to Big Sky, Montana every summer and meet up with all the Montana family for some camping fun!  I have not had a chance to get out of Logan really at all this whole year, so I was super excited to be in the outdoors with the people I love.  Its about a 6 hour drive to the campsite so I was concerned this would be less than pleasant, with two small children in the car.  Luckily, a portable DVD player and a little Veggie Tales, Finding Nemo, and Dumbo helped keep the girls entertained.  They also slept for a portion of the ride, so the drive went surprisingly well :)  We made very good time.
Unfortunately, upon arrival at the campgrounds. the downpour of rainfall began.  It was around 6:30 pm and I wasn't about to start setting up a tent in the rain, all by myself.  I drove back to where we had reception and made a phone call to Uncle Dick.  Change of plans... we decided to continue driving and head up to Bozeman and stay the night with cousins Ally and Kyle.  That was a much better idea than trying to rough it out in the rain.  All the Jacksons came and stayed there, so it was a big slumber party!  We decided to head out to the campsite the next morning, when the weather would be not as ugly.

An excited mommy, driving away... very excited to be getting away :)

It wasn't more than 10 minutes in to the drive when I looked back to see this angel girl sound asleep... excellent way to start the drive!  Isn't she precious?

Avril intently watching her Veggie Tales

It wasn't long before they were both snoozing.

They had an awesome playground by Ally and Kyle's house.  The girls did not want to leave...

What a fantasticly beautiful day!

Aunt Star and Uncle Boose had an air mattress in the front room to sleep on.  The girls had sooo much fun playing on it :)  Who knew an air mattress could be so much fun!?

This is one of my new favorite pics of McKel.  She can just shatter your heart to pieces with those big baby blue eyes of hers.

Avril getting some rest...

bouncy bouncy!!

I think Avril is checking to make sure McKel brushed her teeth...

Oh boy do I love these girls!!!

For breakfast the next morning, Uncle Dick made eggs and bacon.  McKel was mostly interested in trying to fit that gigantic cantaloupe in to her mouth...

Mmm...gimme some o dat!!

As soon as we got to the campsite, the girls went running off down the trail, sooo excited to be in the great outdoors.  They were jumping up and down with excitement, just loving all the beauty that nature had to offer.

A happy McKel

Sisters... in heaven!

A happy Avril

A classic McKel face :)

It was no surprise that throwing rocks in the river was a huge hit with the girls.  They loved playing in the "wa wa," as McKel would say...

Aunt Star was so kind to read stories to the girls.  She is an excellent storyteller, and captivated the girls' attention :)

Ally, Kyle, and Annie

Ellie is 2 years old, about 6 months older than McKel... and yet they were about the same size!  Ellie was so fun for the girls to play with :)

Hmm... that's weird, its a person just my size!

Play with me!  Says Avril...

One of the highlights of the whole trip was getting to see tiny baby Isaac.  Aunt Star admits that she was a baby hog most of the time :)  It was so sweet to see her loving that baby so.  And I have actually never seen Avril so engrossed with another person before, as she was with baby Isaac.  She would not leave his side.  She wanted to kiss him and hold him and just give him love constantly.  I took the girls for a walk and I asked Avril if she needed anything... a drink, a snack... anything?  Avril replied... "yes, I need to see baby Isaac.  I want to pet him."  Haha, so we went back and let her see the baby again.  She just could not get enough.

He is so tiny and sweet!  And barely made a peep!  He is such a good baby :)

There's a smile!!

Isn't that just the cutest thing you've ever seen?  They instantly love each other!!

I'm not so sure about this girl, she keeps poking me!

Save me, Grandma!

Cousin Chad with his lil one.  You can see Sage is getting dangerously close to McKel.  The girls were just terrified of the dog.  I think it was mostly Avril who was scared, and McKel just tried to copy her big sister.

More pics of the girls and the sweet baby Isaac.  They are all just so cute I have to include them all:

Ellie with her Aunt Annie :)

Here are some adorable Ellie pics with Sage:

Baby Isaac with his mommy, Emily

The girls had a blast playing in the tent... and making a big ol mess, of course!

Ally with her lil nephew

Check out their hair!  The static electricity was having a field day with these girls.  You can tell they are having so much fun together...

you can't watch this video and not smile.
The Jacksons brought the most gigantic marshmallows I've ever seen.  If you know Avril, you know she is in love with marshmallows.  I had to keep hiding the marshmallows from the two girls, or the whole bag would've disappeared and I'd have had two very sick kiddos.  McKel loves to take adult-sized bites and stuff things in her baby-sized mouth.  This is a common McKel eating habit.  She must've thought the gigantic marshmallows were bite-sized, because... see below:

Yep, that's an entire gigantic marshmallow stuffed in her little mouth!

Avril took smaller bites, making a sticky mess.  Messes are what camping is all about though, right?!

Morning time! Everyone hanging out by the campfire.. Ally, Kyle, Annie, and Aunt Star...

Had to get a shot with Uncle Dick too...

Time to head out... Uncle Boose and Uncle Dick were so kind to help get our tent down and packed up

Aunt Star once again helping out with keeping the girls happy, while we were cleaning up the campsite getting ready to go.  Here they are all down by the river playing:

We took this picture for Shelby... knew he would love seeing some of his favoritest girls!!  I'm going to email it to him right now!!  Love you Chubbs :)

Thank you sooo much for our fantastic weekend!!  We made some great memories, and just loved being with such good people.  Felt right at home up in those mountains.  We were pretty excited though, to get back and take a much needed shower/bath, not gonna lie...  Good times at Swan Creek campgrounds!  Love all of you, Montana peeps!  :)