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.

Last Light: Justice's Science Fair

Justice participated in his school Science fair. Brett and him came up with the idea for testing batteries in flashlights. (Somehow Mom ended up helping the most though. Go figure. LOL)

Justice decided to call it- LAST LIGHT. He first thought Energizer would last the longest.

But he did the research with help from Mom. ;) 

We made up a chart with our findings.

And made a Display Board.

And then he shared his finding at the fair.

Turns out that for the money- Rayovac Ready Powers were the best deal! Way to go, Bud! We are proud of your hard work.

Glory's Kindergarten Fieldtrip

Glory's class went on a Fieldtrip today and I got to join them. They are such a cute group of kids.
We started out at Exploration Works in downtown Helena. The kids had a great time exploring and doing all the fun activities.

Then we headed over to the Great Northern Carousel. The kids all got a ride. So fun!

We ate lunch outside on the stadium seats. What adorable girls!

After lunch, we walked [a very LONG, LONG way] over to Memorial Park to play in the fort and have a snack. (Guess I didn't take any pictures over there) What an awesome fieldtrip!

Look Up

One of my favorite blogs posted this video last week. It's so thought provoking that I thought I would share it. 

Life is so much about BALANCE. 

Technology is amazing and a reality for us in the world today and will continue to be in the future. It has opened doors to being connected globally. It allows us to do so much that we would have never done without it. It's mind-blowing actually. And I am guilty of indulging in it's possibilities.

I love Google Search. I can find ANYTHING I want to know about. And even stuff that I never wanted to know about. LOL

I "got with the times" and upgraded to a smart phone this last year. Truth be told- I love it!!! I love asking Siri where to find things. I love never being lost. I love texting a quick note to friends to tell them I'm thinking about them. I love being able to play a game while I am waiting for the kids after school. I love having a calender handy and alert reminders of upcoming events.

I love to blog! It allows me to remember this awesome life I live. It allows me to share it with others. I know I blog a lot (my kids even lovingly call me a "blog-aholic") I always dispute their accusations by telling them I only blog when we do something I want to remember. ;) Guess we have to stop being so awesome and then I wouldn't have anything to blog about. LOL!  I do hope my efforts in documenting our life will be a treasure for me and my cute family long after I am gone. 

But I certainly recognize that technology can be dangerous. It can consume you. It can rob you of a really meaningful life surrounded by people you love. It can take you down paths you feel you can never return from. It can become all you know- if you let it. 

This video reminded me that I want to Look Up and recognize more all that life has to offer. How 'bout you?

(He says one word that might be offensive so be careful if u let kids watch it)

A Special Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day 

to all those amazing women in our lives! We love you!

Here at home---- My family always makes Mother's Day a special occasion. I love their creative ideas and how excited they get to do things for me. I know a lot fo that comes from their Dad. They are so stinkin' cute!!! I am one lucky wife and Mother.

This is my card they made me this year. Everyone designed themselves and they all helped with the rest. How darling is that?

They were way excited to give presents. They went shopping yesterday and found me a sander of my own so I can work on some projects I have in mind. They also made some sweet things at Church and at school. I love them! Then they gave me a "Spa Day". I laid on the ground and got a manicure, a pedicure, a body rub and my hair done. Awesome!

Here's Glory's card from school. translation- "My Mom likes to take pictures." "My mom is a nice one to me." "My Mom says 'I luv you' a lot." A drawing of me with brown hair. (That still is so weird to me. LOL) "I love my Mom. I heart my Mom." What a sweet kid!

Here's what they made me at church. They all apologized for giving me peanuts and offered to pick them all out. Cute kiddos!

Victoria was being very secretive this afternoon but Brett paid attention and realized she was working on a surprise for me. So after my Spa, I asked if she'd like to walk with me to the mailbox. When I got the mail out, I had a envelope addressed to me from West Fargo. "Wow, I got a card from West Fargo," I said. "Yea, looks like it," she replied with a straight face. She didn't even stay for me to open it when we got back to the apartment. I think she really wanted it to be a surprise when I read it. She is very tender-hearted and thoughtful and easily embarrassed. But she was super excited when I gave her a hug for it. Luv that girl!

P.S. We invited Sister Scurr over to join us for dinner. Her kids are grown and gone. We love her! The kids made her a card as well!

World's Toughest Job

Love this!

Happy Mother's Day!

Oreo & Sprite's Party

My little girl has made her Momma proud!! ;)

Liberty encouraged and helped her friends plan a ParTay this weekend. They used the excuse of it being Ann's cat's birthday and an idea was born. They got together one day a couple of weeks ago and planned it. They had a notebook, made lists of ideas and guests. They designed an invite and gave it out. They went shopping and bought the stuff. They got together early and put together gift bags and decorated. They ended up with 8-10 girls attend. They did a scavenger hunt, a craft, ate lunch, opened presents and played with the cats.They had a PURR-fect time! So cute!

Academic Fest

Victoria is a fantastic reader. She met her reading goal for the year so she was able to join in on the fun at the Academic Fest.

She got to pick 3 different classes (well she picked 6 and they gave her 3) she wanted to attend. She picked Cartooning, I Spy bottle making and Horse care. 

We dropped her off after breakfast and picked her up after lunch. She had a fantastic time!

 

Here's her sheet from her Cartooning class. She is quite the artist!

 Here she is with her I Spy bottle when I picked her up. One happy kid!

Crafts for my new Home

I've been completing a couple crafts lately to put in my new home. That is- IF we ever get in there!! ;)
But I am way excited about my craftiness! Luv them!
1- Seamons Rules
I learned how to use vinyl and make the words different colors. I luv how it turned out!!!

2- Ironing Board Cover

Using the fabric for my new laundry room, I made a new cover. So excited!

3- "Wake Up and Be Awesome" Wood Sign
This is our new Family Motto. We found a scripture to go with it. I used an old cupboard door I got when the Burtons moved. It is so AWESOME!!!!

LDSopoly

Grandma Karla gave our family this new game when she came to visit for Victoria's Baptism. We have a love/hate relationship with it. If you lose- it's a dumb game. But if you win- it's way fun!!!!
Tonight (for me) it was an AWESOME game! LOL I ended up with all 22 temples, the entire Standard works, the Bishop's Storehouse, the Clerks Office, two "Get Out of Spirit Prison" certificates and a good pile o' cash. Fun night! ;)

MTC

A month ago, the Missionaries asked me to help them advertise for their MTC Event. (Member Training Center) 

I made up a poster and designed the Missionary tags for them. One of the cute sisters, Sister Ward, came over one day and made almost 200 name tags. She is darling and such an inspiration of happiness.

Brett and I attended tonight. They did a really good job even though it was quite a long night. We had an opening speaker, 3 mini classes, a closing speaker and dessert. I get freaked out about role playing activities. It makes me nervous but I learned a lot about following the promptings of the Holy Ghost and focusing on the Savior as I share His message with others. I'm glad we went.

Here's the Poster I designed for them. They printed it as a 20 X 30. It looked awesome!!

Vigilante Parade

The kids had the day off for Vigilant Day. Don't worry if you don't know what that is- it's a Helena thing!

A little history:

The Vigilante Parade

THE FAMOUS MONTANA HISTORY PAGEANT
BEGAN IN 1924 TO PREVENT SCHOOL VIOLENCE

Around the turn of the 20th Century, Helena High School had a tradition called "The Senior-Junior Fight". It was a bloody and destructive springtime affair, the object of which was for the juniors to take down and desecrate a senior-class flag, which seniors would run up a flagpole located between the High School and adjacent Central School.

The fighting got so bad that the School Board eventually had the flagpole removed from the grounds. The problem was that seniors in subsequent years simply ran their flag up the pole located atop the High School building, and the fight continued on the roof.

A crackdown came, and all aspects of the event were banned from the school grounds. This had the effect of spreading the conflict all over town, with a further escalation in violence and property damage.

Authorities tried organizing alternative senior-junior competitions over the years, including a baseball game, a tug-of-war and a wrestling match. These events were seen by students as being too tame and controlled.

There were other unauthorized student actrivities during those years, including "Sneak Day" in which truancy was widespread, and "Old Clothes Day", when students would wear ragged clothes stuffed with hay and straw. There was also "Costume Day", which was held only once, but likely furnished the basic idea for the Vigilante Parade.

In 1924, meetings between students and administrators set into motion a plan for the parade: a grand pageant of historical floats, involving almost every student in a creative competition, and having at its heart the theme of the tough pioneer spirit.

As former (1907-1933) HHS Principal Albert J. Roberts said in a 1939 Helena Independent story about the origins of the parade:

"This parade, so little thought of at the time, and then only as a splendid substitute for several lawless activities, has more than any other Institution distinguished the city of Helena and its high school. From It also thousands of our citizens have obtained a knowledge of the life and customs, of the thrilling story of the early days in the Treasure state."

Kind of a bummer reason for a parade but it looks like it helped and now it's quite the event. We met the Paynes up on Last Chance Gulch to watch the Parade. There were tons of floats! Even though we don't know all the stories, it was pretty impressive to see all of the history represented. It will definitely have to be a yearly tradition of ours.

Some of our favorite floats were the Buffalo Jump, the Flower girls (they passed out flowers), the Drive-ins, the dog sled, the Bullriders, the Boxing, the KingKong Cathedral, the Special Forces, the Bands and the Bakery ones throwing flour at each other.

The Floats we understood were ones portraying the Man Gulch Fire, the Mayor's Mansion, the shooting range, the Hospital, the Mining, the Tour Train, the Great Divide Skiing, the Women's Commemorative Painting, the Northwestern Energy, the Parrot Candy Shop and the Bands.

Afterwards, we watched them make Kettle corn and got a couple big bags. The kids LOVE kettle corn!!

Great day for a Parade!!!

That Titanic Lady is OLD!

I recently watched the movie Divergent with some of my friends. I made the comment that the lady from Titanic is looking old. After a moment or two, I processed what I had said and commented, "She's looking old, NOT me." LOL I totally remember watching Titanic and feeling a kinship to her character. When was that anyways? When I got home from the theater I did a little research and realized that Titanic came out 17 years ago. WHAT?? Holy Moly--- Bummer!!! I guess I am THAT old.

Despite the realization of my old age, I had a fabulous birthday! I really do have an AWESOME family that is very thoughtful.
First, the day before my birthday, Brett took me to lunch at the Creperie. Good food, sunny day, hot date! Perfect!

Next, Liberty choose to use her Mental Health Day {see explanation at the end} to spend my birthday with me. Very sweet! Thanks to an extraordinary man in our lives, we were able to sleep in. And wake up to breakfast ready on the stove. Yum!

After getting up and ready, we did a little shopping together. We bought this beautiful star for our new house. Yeah!

Before heading back home, Liberty treated me to lunch at Subway. We even got free cookies because it was my birthday. ;) We were going to do a craft project together but ran out of time. We did do a little research and had some good laughs at the fun wood signs on our google search. The day went by way too fast but it was so special to spend the day with my beautiful daughter.

When Glory got home form school she had all sorts of special things planned for me. First she had made this duck at school that she thought would make for a fun Duck Hunt game. She had hid it last night and I had to go find it. So fun! Later, she came into my room and told me that we (just me and her) had to "go get the mail now". The way she said it made me realize she had something in mind. So hand in hand, we skipped down the road to the mailbox. When we got there, I opened and found a "special letter and treat" waiting for me. Her face was so cute. She was so excited she could hardly stand it. What a sweet girlie!

After work, Brett made me a delicious dinner! Some of my favorite things- Roast, baked potatoes, corn on the cob and broccoli. I ate way too much but it was so good!! 

Present time!!!! The kids were so excited to get me my own fishing pole complete with my first big catch. We are Montanans now, you know. ;)

Then they sent me on a Money Scavenger Hunt around the front room. Each person ahd hid some dollar bills for me to find. We played the HOT/COLD game until I had found all of them.

For dessert, the kids helped make snickerdoodle cookies and strawberry/banana parfaits. Yummy!

What a great day! Happy old Birthday to me!

MENTAL HEALTH DAY: We have had some amazing examples of families whose children are all grown. One thing we took from one of them was the idea of a Mental Health Day. In the Seamons version- each Middle School child can choose one day a year to take a break from school for any reason. We encourage them to be smart and not miss essential things but they can decide. In High School, they get to pick two days.