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!  :)

Updates

Playing catch up with the blog again...Summer is seriously just whizzing by!  The girls love all the summer activities, and getting to play outside.  Here are the updates...
Mommy:  I am proud of myself for my diligence in getting up 3 mornings a week and going to my boot camp class.  I've made some great friends in my class, and I can see results, which is exciting.  I just don't have time or the motivation to make it to work out on my own, so working with a group and trainer has been fantastic for me.  I also try to participate in some kind of race on the weekends, when possible.
I am still working over the self pay billing at the Cache Valley Hospital.  I work with amazing people, and have met some great friends there as well.  I love the people, but don't love the work load or pay.  Hopefully I can find a way to better that situation, now that I have a mortgage to pay again... makes it hard on the pocket book.
I don't have much "me" time, because I pick the girls up from daycare after work and usually get home around 5:30.  Then feed the girls dinner, play with them some, throw them in the bath tub, brush their teeth, get them ready for bed, read stories, say prayers, and then try to get them to sleep.  This is easy with McKel... has always been difficult getting Avril to sleep.  It is usually close to 10:00 pm by the time I am able to leave her room, she makes me stay with her.  She also gets up a couple times during the night and cries if I am not by her side.  I don't know a solution to this problem.  It makes it so rough for me because I like to read or work on the blog before bed, but this cuts a lot in to my "me" time in the evenings.  I feel like I walk around half asleep too, since my mornings start at a quarter to 6:00 am.  Hopefully this will get better someday...
Although this phase of my life is very difficult, I am so lucky to have my sweet angel girls.  They are absolutely my greatest joy.  I am constantly in awe as I watch them grow and develop.  They are the good stuff, they bring smiles to everyone around.
Avril:  Okay, I'll just say it.  This little girl is a handful.  She requires a lot of love and attention.  The best word to describe Avril is sweetheart.  She is so tender-hearted and sensitive.  She gets upset easily if things don't go her way.  However, she is so loving and caring and affectionate.  She is very emotional.  She loves to be nurturing and is often busy caring for her dolls and stuffed animals.  Her vocabulary is astounding.  She is well beyond her years with her vocal skills.  She is a total sweet tooth.  She would be perfectly happy eating marshmallows three meals a day.  I often have to bribe her to get her to eat her regular food.  She is so creative, so adorable with her big brown eyes, has the cutest smile you've ever seen, is so intelligent, so sweet, and so amazing.  We love her soooo much!!
McKel:  This girl is little miss personality, to the max!  She seems to always have a smile or some kind of smirk on her face.  She is full of energy and the most coordinated 20 month old I have ever seen!  She can easily keep up with her 3 year old older sister.  She is always running around, skipping, jumping, or climbing.  She will often run with her head cocked to the side, or looking backwards, or something adorable like that.  Normal running is just too boring, she likes to add some personality to it.  She breaks out in to a smile so easily, its the greatest thing ever :)  She has a good set of pipes.  Avril is always covering her ears and saying, "McKel is being loud, its hurting my ears."  It is true, McKel can be quite loud!  Her vocabulary skills are a little slower than Avril's, but physically she is way ahead.  To me she looks like a little gymnast, she just has this short little cute body like a tank, running in to things, knocking them down, and continuing on her path of destruction.  She does say a lot of words, but you have to have been around her to understand what she is saying.  Its so cute the way she says her words.  She loves her big sister, and mimics Avril all the time.  She is extremely attached to her Papa- both Spencer and Bryan.  Generally she prefers them over anyone else.  McKel is just a happy go lucky girl, and an absolute joy to be around.  We love her immensely!!

I have no idea what gave McKel the idea that this is how you use this piece of equipment.  We were watching a movie and this is what McKel was doing most of the time, all while shouting out words I was unable to decipher.

Avril had big ideas of her own, for getting a good workout.  They were just too funny to watch!

Hahaha!!

Avril had a fever and had to stay home from school one day.  She spent the day with Nana and Auntie Arleen, and Papa Bryan, they took turns.  She said her bear was sick with a fever too, so she was so sweet to take care of him.

This month, cousin Brian got home from his LDS mission that he served in Mexico City, Mexico.  At first when I saw him, I didn't make a big deal, because I thought he was his brother Sam, who I'd just seen recently.  He has grown up so much!  We attended his Homecoming at their ward.

McKel was so tired, she slept through the whole thing...

Spencer and Brian- Parkinson brothers.

This part is kind of embarrassing, but I guess I should include it.  Brittney asked me to help her learn some hip hop dance.  Since I'm pretty broke, I give her dance lessons in exchange for babysitting.  I am quite out of practice since I haven't really danced since high school.  Britt found some awesome choreography by a girl on YouTube named Emily Sasson.  I watched her dance and tried to figure out the moves.  We used the dance room at our gym to practice sometimes, and Brittney took a video of me doing the dance...
Bass Down Low.. the Cataracts.  Next we are going to learn a Chris Brown dance :)  I'm still working on that one...

I snapped this pic of Avril and I just before bed time.  We are reading stories.  I treasure these moments I get to spend with my little angels.  I just look at that girl and my heart melts...