Vacation in Big Sky Country

We love Montana! Our trip over the 4th of July was awesome. We were able to spend time at Glacier Park with Stu's family and at Flathead Lake with mine. The boys had a blast with their cousins, and they also loved jet skiing, boating, and playing at the lake. Here are some photos...

Stu's dad, Jim, with Stu and the boys at a waterfall near our Glacier condo.


Bryce & Drew with cousins Thomas & Jillian on the Trail in the Cedars at Glacier Park.


Bryce, Drew & Thomas in another tree.


The cousins toast marshmallows on the deck with Uncle Rich & I.


Playing with cousin Elsa & Aunt Betsy when we got to the lake.


Stu & Drew on the deck at the lake. We love that view!


Bryce, Drew, Aunt Dede, and Stu at the 4th of July parade in Polson. It was literally a "one horse parade"! Bryce managed to collect plenty of candy, though!


Uncle Cameron hams it up with Drew and the ever-present life jacket.


Auntie Britt & Drew. Aren't they cute???


Uncle Kennet & his baby girl. Elsa was such a sweetie! She is the happiest baby I've ever seen.


Drew lounges by the lake.


My family got together to remember my grandparents on their former ranch near Frenchtown. The ranch is really beautiful, with a view of the Nine Mile Valley. It was easy to see why my grandparents loved it so much.


Stu & Drew on the Missoula Carousel.


Bryce loves the carousel!


On the flight home, Bryce was invited up to the cockpit for a tour and a photo. He even got to wear the captain's hat! After that, he was assigned the duties of "Jr. Captain." He had to keep an eye out the window for airplanes headed our way. He loved it!

All in all, a great trip. We are always so happy to spend time in such a beautiful place. It was wonderful to reconnect with so many family members and friends. We also got the news that we have a new little Bobcat in the family...my cousin Brett and his wife Carlen welcomed Maren Mae on the 4th of July. We can't wait for our next trip to MT so that we can meet this little firecracker! :)

We hope everyone had a great 4th!

Home Sweet Home!!!

I am going to start this post by warning you that I have a LOT of photos to share! After blogging without pictures for so long, it's a relief to have the technology available again! First off, here's a shot of the new house, finally finished and all ours! We closed last week, and we spent the weekend furiously unpacking. We did well, we have all of the essentials finished, and are down to the last few boxes. It's great to be here...it feels like a castle after "The Cave"!


Here are Bryce and Drew on Bryce's last day of preschool in May.


The kids all put their handprints on the outside wall of the preschool on the last day. Bryce's are the blue ones on the left in the third row.


They boys on a fun trip to the Children's Garden at the Botanic Gardens in ABQ.


Drew on his last day of the semester at the Little Gym. He loves the gym! He has very little fear of anything, and loves to climb, swing, and explore.


He did not love the medal ceremony at the end of class, however!


Drew tasting his medal. Let's hope it wasn't made in China.


Bryce demonstrates his skills on his last day of the Little Gym semester.


Bryce also loves the gym. He's getting pretty good at balancing and tumbling.


He also really liked his medal ceremony!


Bryce and his playgroup buddies on a ride at our local amusement park.


Bryce takes the bumper car for a spin. He was actually a pretty good driver!


Bryce's playgroup (& siblings) at the park. We have some awesome friends in ABQ!


Stu playing with Drew at the Little Gym.


Bryce and his good friend Lamar after their last soccer game with their trophies and medals.

See! I told you there were going to be a lot of pictures! As you can see, we've been keeping busy for the past month or two. Now we're feeling so happy to be in the new house, and we're really looking forward to our Montana trip next week. To all of you we'll see up there, we can't wait!

We hope everyone is having a great summer so far. Keep us in mind if you're ready for a road trip! We're finally moved in & ready for visitors! We'll keep the margaritas chilled for ya...

It's Ours!

Well, we signed on the dotted line today, and the house is ours! We're very excited to get moved in this weekend! The movers are coming tomorrow with all of the stuff that's been in storage, and we're moving as much as we can from the apartment today.

The boys are excited to get out of the apartment too, and can't wait to see all of the toys they haven't seen since April. It will probably feel like Christmas at our house for the next week or so!

It will be crazy trying to get settled in for the next week, but then we get to head to Montana for a MUCH-deserved vacation! We can't wait to get to Glacier Park and Flathead Lake for some fun and R & R! (Maybe a gin & tonic or two...who knows???) We can't wait to spend time with our family & friends!

We'll update again after we get the computer set up in the house. Wish us luck...it's supposed to be in the 90's here this weekend! Miss you all!

One week to go...

It's been way too long! I haven't posted for a month, and I apologize. I kept thinking I would get my pictures downloaded from my camera, and then I would post, but it just didn't happen. This will be another text-only post, but at least I can update the blog!

We have one week to go until we get to move into the new house! We close on June 19th, and the movers arrive with our stuff on the 20th. We leave for Montana on the 28th, so it will be a wild and crazy week as we attempt to settle in as much as possible before our vacation. It was snowing in Missoula this morning, according to my mom, so we may have to unearth winter clothes for the trip!!! It's been in the 90's here, so 40's would be quite a shock. I still want to move back to Montana someday, but days like today do make me think a little bit! Seriously, snow in June???

The house is looking good, especially compared to the apartment that has come to be known as "The Cave." We don't get a lot of daylight in here, since we're on the ground floor and there are multi-story buildings on both sides of us. I am thankful that there is air-conditioning here, or else I don't think we would have survived 9+ weeks. It's almost painful to go visit the new house now, since it looks totally finished, and we know that we have to return to The Cave. We're all really anxiously anticipating our big move. We really appreciate the new house now!

Bryce has started his summer program at the preschool, and is loving learning about bugs. He will finish that at the end of the month, just in time for our vacation. Drew is taking a summer gym class at The Little Gym. He has more energy than I know what to do with, so gym class is an excellent outlet. I have some great pictures of both boys at their "Medal Ceremonies" at the gym last week that I will post after we get moved.

In addition to the big move, we are all very much looking forward to our Montana trip. We'll spend a few days at Glacier Park with Stu's parents, Paige, Rich, Thomas & Jillian, and then we'll head to Flathead Lake to spend the 4th of July with my parents, Betsy, Kennet & Elsa, and Brittany & Cameron. We can't wait to see everyone! Stu is ready for a break from work...his job has been VERY demanding for the past couple of months.

We hope everyone is enjoying the beginning of summer. Once we're unpacked, come see us if you need some sunshine! :) More soon!

Happy Mother's Day!

The boys on a field trip for Bryce's school.


Portrait of Stu & Drew taken by Bryce.


Bryce "taking 5" as goalie for his soccer team. And yes, the game was in progress at the time.


A new picture of the house! The weird brown stain on the garage is just a test patch for the final paint color.


Family room with tile and fireplace.


Kitchen with tile and cabinets, but no countertops yet.


Bryce & Drew love the master bath cabinets, but I'm guessing they'll lose their appeal once the countertops go on!


Drew testing out the linen closet shelves.

Ah, blogging with pictures at last! Although the "mystery cord" is still unavailable, Stu's dad downloaded the pictures from my camera for me today. Thanks, Jim! We can finally share some new pictures of the boys and the house.

I hope that all of the mothers reading this had a great Mother's Day! Mine was very nice, Stu & Jim took Karen & I & the boys out for a wonderful brunch at The Range Cafe in Bernalillo, NM. I also received some very cute gifts from Bryce which were created at his preschool. He made me a necklace with beads that he strung himself (including a few that he made from play-dough, which Drew keeps trying to eat), a very cool mosaic piece made from painted egg shells, and a book called All About My Mommy. Bryce dictated the text and illustrated it himself. It's the kind of thing that I'll keep forever, and then drag out to show any potential mates that he brings home. I love it!

It was fun to check on the house this weekend, things seem to be coming along pretty well. The tile and cabinets are in, and we're supposed to get the countertops this week. Our current projected closing date is June 20th, but we're really hoping that gets pulled in a bit. We'll see. Apartment life is actually going ok, but we're anxious to have our own space again.

Bryce's preschool graduation play/ceremony is tomorrow evening, so we'll post more then. We hope everyone had a great weekend!

Low-Tech Blues

I don't really like blogging without pictures, but until Stu produces some mysterious "cable" that will download photos from our camera, I don't have much choice. For me, technology is an undiscovered land, and once I learn how to successfully complete my desired task (i.e. downloading photos), I don't like to have my modus operandi messed with. All I knew was that I needed the printer to download photos, and now, apparently, I don't. Oh well. Hopefully I can get it figured out by this weekend, so that we can post some new pictures of the house.

Things are definitely happening up there, we can see new coats of stucco going up, and we're told that cabinets, tile, and our tile roof will be installed in the next few days. With any luck, we'll be able to close in about a month. Our apartment is feeling a little small, but the boys are adapting well. We are supposed to have 60-65 mph wind gusts this afternoon, so that kind of rules out outside play. I'm not sure, but I think gusts of that magnitude might be able to give Drew a serious Wizard of Oz tornado experience. He still only weighs about 23 pounds!

I will also post some new pictures of the boys as soon as I can...we have some cute shots of Bryce playing on his soccer team last week, and Drew has a brand-new "big boy" haircut. He's really picking up language now, this week he's been working on "putt-putt" (we have a putting green in front of our apartment), "car" & "go", and I think I heard him say "shoe" the other day. He's really been trying to listen and imitate sounds. It's really fun to ask him questions and have him respond with an enthusiastic "Ya!" and a smile. He also loves to say, "No-no," but he's generally pretty agreeable. Bryce is busy rehearsing for his "Graduation" program at preschool, in which he has several lines as a Pteradactyl. I love these shows, the kids write their own lines, so they're generally pretty amusing. He's also working on some Top Secret Mother's Day presents at school, although he keeps accidentally giving me hints. It's so cute to see him excited about having secret projects to work on!

We'll try to get those photos posted this weekend, so check back for updates. Also, Stu and I both have new e-mail addresses, so please let us know if you haven't gotten those. We'll be sending out "Change of Address" cards soon so that you can all reach us (& come to visit) at the new house. Take good care of yourselves, everybody! We love & miss you all!

1 move down...1 to go!

It's been a while since we've posted, but I swear we have a good excuse! How does packing up & moving a family of 4 sound? We've made it into our two bedroom apartment, which is working out ok so far. We were more than a bit trepedatious about the boys sharing a room for the first time, but they have adapted very well. In fact, the first night we stayed in the apartment was interrupted by crying not from one of our children, but from our cat. Lincoln cried obnoxiously from about 4 am until about 5:30 or so. He's a punk. The crying has subsided somewhat, but the cats are still trying to make it clear that they do not think moving is a fun event. Little do they know that we'll be doing it all over again in about 6 weeks...

On that note, the new house is coming right along. Stu checked in on it yesterday, and the first coat of stucco is on the exterior. On the inside, the drywall is up, and the texture seems to be completed. It should be time for the trim work to get started! We can't wait to see our tile, cabinets, countertops, etc. It's really starting to sink in that we'll be living there soon! We closed on the sale of our old house on Monday, so we're ready to go. With any luck we won't have any major construction delays, and we should still be looking at a closing date in early June. We'll try to take some new pictures of the house and post them in the next few days.

Luckily, the weather has been lovely here, although we have had quite a bit of wind. With temperatures in the 70's and low 80's, it's been nice enough to spend time outside with the boys. We hear that some of our loved ones are still getting snow, so we do feel fortunate! New Mexico does have its perks! Sunshine and green chile are nothing to sneeze at. If you are still digging out of a snowdrift or two, keep your chins up! I'm sure it will be gone by June! :)

We hope you're finding ways to enjoy spring in your neck of the woods. Take care, and stay in touch!