Mardi Gras Murder Mystery Date

We were invited to a Murder Mystery Date tonight at the Seedalls. We got to dress up and act and eat AMAZING food and visit and try to figure out who murdered Pierre DuPre. What a night to remember!

I played the part of Connika Gothica- a famous, eccentric, billionaire author that was the next door neighbor to the dead guy. Brett went as J. Stephen Peek-  The DuPre family attorney & Pierre's closet friend & confidant. We were able to meet Alexis (Heidi) - the snotty southern belle daughter of Pierre & her fiance Gator (Kyle). There was Melissa F. DuPre (Hailey), the tacky slut from Vegas that married Pierre just a few months ago. A poor, jazz musician from the French quarter, Bourbon DuPre (Nick) was an illegitimate nephew of Pierre. Oh yaaaah! Then there was the staff- Elise St. Gresch (Davina) - a pretty french girl that has worked as the maid for years and happens to find out she is Pierre's daughter. And last but not least- Cayenne Pepper (Nate) the DuPre family chef and an aspiring TV star. He kept the night smokin' HOT! ;)

We set a timer on my cell phone so we could get a group shot. We look awesome!!

Cheyenne is one crazy, hot chef! ;)

P.S. This is the pie we had for dessert. Oh my heavens! Does Davina know how to do perfection or what???

GDO to Bozeman

I went with a few of my girlfriends on a road trip to Bozeman today. We just headed out on the road to get away from Helena for the day. We drove, ate, visited, laughed, shopped, ate some more, shopped the boutiques, tried on fur coats and shopped some killer GAP sales repeatedly! LOL Then we headed back. What a good break! And what fun, beautiful friends to be with! Love you ladies!

Praying for Sweet Kate

Sweet little Kate was in a really bad accident last week. (One of the Jacksons cute girls- on the right) She was life flighted to Primary Children's Hospital for a head trauma. We have all been praying for her like crazy!!

We had her cousins and her other sisters (Kyle & Heidi have been down in UT with Kate & their grandparents have been watching them) over for a playdate today. They had a good time! Cute Chloe kept telling me- "Oh man! I miss my Katey. Oh gosh! She's soooo cute!!!!" Chloe misses Kate so much! Get better, Kate! XOXO

Jacksons for Ice Cream

The Jacksons invited us and the Nielsens over for Ice cream tonight. It was so fun to chat and eat while the kids played. Thanks guys! We just adore you! (I wasn't really brave enough to take pictures but I did manage a bad pic with my phone. Take it or leave it!;)

{Ok- they were bugging me so I fancied them up a bit with my Scrapbook Program)

The Jackson Eight

We have meant to have all eight of the Jacksons over ever since we moved in. {We've had a few of them over at different times} Tonight was our lucky night! We were able to have them all over to make scones with us. So much fun!
Glory was so excited that she spent like 20 minutes in the window waiting for them. Silly girl!
The weather was amazing so the older kids spent most of the night out on the tramp. I tried to go take a picture of them in the dark. They were so hilarious acting like I was melting them with my flash. LOL In their defense--- it was SUPER bright! :)
The rest of the girls had a blast making scones and playing together. Abby was cracking us up with her "knuckles" and her destructive toddler behavior. Gotta love that kid!
The adults got to just sit (beside chasing Abby to rescue the kids craft projects!), snack and visit for hours. What a darling family! Thanks guys for coming! We adore you!

P.S. I totally forgot to get a picture of Kyle & Heidi while they were here. {What is wrong with me? ;}

I decide to just steal their photo from the dance last night. It's so stinkin' fun anyways. Perfect!

Ice Skating with Jacksons

The Jackson invited us to come Ice Skating today. The weather was amazing and we had snow much fun! We love the warming house at Memorial Park for when you get too chilly. It was wonderful to play and visit with some friends. Thanks guys! We luv you all!

Indoor fun:

Memorial-able Camping: Hungry Horse Dam

In the morning, we packed up. We wanted a day at home before our week started so we left today instead of tomorrow. All three of our families headed into Whitefish to attend church. It was cool because the meeting was the farewell talks of the Missionary couple that had put on the MTC experience back at the beginning of May. It was fun to hear about their experiences up there.
After Church, we all headed to Hungry Horse Dam. They had a visitor center to check out.

Our favorite part was that they had a thing called a "Glory Hole" to drain the water if it gets too high. [The link above on the dam has a picture of the glory hole working]

And spending time with our friends. How cute are these people!!!?

We also got to see a neat little waterfall.

And of course, throw rocks. ;)

What a fun trip! Thanks so much to the Jacksons for inviting us we had a blast! We luv you all! Let's do it again soon. ;)

Memorial-able Camping: Avalanche Hike & Apgar Village

Once we got to where the road was closed, we parked and went for a hike on the Avalanche Creek Trail. It was a gorgeous walk. We just stayed on the wooden boardwalk so we didn't make it up to the lake which was fine with how many little kids we had. The trees were super-duper tall and amazing. We drank from fresh water falling off a rock. The boys threw rocks in the creek. Surprise! LOL And it didn't even rain on us while we were there. Perfect!

Avalanche Creek Trail

Trail Vertical Gain or Loss
Moderate climb to lake
Short Introduction to Trail
One of the highlights of Glacier National Park. The Avalanche Creek trail has three main features: the Trail of the Cedars, which is an easy universal access boardwalk through an old growth cedar forest culminating at the Avalanche Creek Gorge bridge. The second part is the gorge and creek, where amazing glacial waters carve through a narrow gorge. Third is the lake, which is at the top of the creek and surrounded by cliffs. In the spring time, a half-dozen waterfalls crash from the snowfields high above down a thousand plus feet of cliffs to the talus and eventually the lake below.
Full Description of this Recreation Trail
This very popular trail during summer months this trail can be busy with limited parking. A safe trail except for a section just above the main creek chasm wanders through massive and ancient cedars and cottonwoods along the main bottom walkway.
A wooden boardwalk for the first half-mile or so called the "Trail of the Cedars" followed by a well-traveled dirt trail that starts at the Avalanche Creek Chasm and follows the course of the creek with some variances up the valley to the foot of Avalanche Lake.
Trail Distance
3 miles to lake and back -- less than a mile if only following the wooden boardwalk.
Type of Trail Experience
Out-and-Back

After our hike, we headed back. But we first made  a stop in Apgar Village for ice cream. Yum!

Memorial-able Camping: Glacier National Park

We decided to spend the afternoon on a drive through Glacier until we go to the "Road Closed" sign by Avalanche [I think that's what it was called]. We stopped on the side of the road everywhere that looked cool. So... we stopped a lot! ;)

First stop: Jacksons said you can usually see the bottom of the river here. but the rapid snowmelt has been making the whole river muddy and crazy fast.

On our next stop, Brett started throwing rocks into the river. That ended up being one of the kids' favorite things to do the rest of the trip. Brett would help them find the biggest rocks they could carry. Silly boy!

Memorial-able Camping: Vistor Center and McDonald Lake

After breakfast and everyone was ready, we headed on a road trip into Glacier National Park. Our first stop was to the Visitor Center near Apgar Village. Nothing big but got to check out signs and have a few races. ;)

Then we made our way to McDonald Lake for lunch. It was so beautiful!!! We ate, visited and the kids skipped rocks and waded in the cold lake a bit. It was perfect until right before we left when it down-poured rain. ;)

Memorial-able Camping: Friday Night

Our new friends, the Jacksons invited us and the Payne family to go camping with them for Memorial Day weekend in West Glacier, MT. We can't get to ANY camping equipment right now due to our fun living situation ;) so we thought we would have to pass this time. But they were staying at a KOA Campground that happened to have cabins available. Yeah for us! 

We made it up there Friday night in time to join them for dinner down the road at a Cafe'. They had put our group in the backroom which was a good thing because we were so large and so loud. The only thing is that the room had an echo so we seemed even louder than we really were. LOL

Back at the KOA we started a fire, ate s'mores and boiled water in a plastic bottle. We adore the Jacksons and the Paynes. They are such fun people to hang out with!

It was late before we parted ways but we had decided to have Justice work on some of his Scout requirements while we were there. So when we got back to the cabin, the boys (and Victoria) pitched  a tent in front  of our cabin. It was a bit tricky because it was raining and it was on cement. They got very creative in how to stake it down and keep it up. LOL Justice and Victoria spent the night out there in the rain. Brave kids!

In the morning, Glory checked it out with them. Cute kiddos.