Buffalo Bill Museum

We had a fun day today at the Buffalo Bill Museum. It was their annual Christmas holiday Open House, which is free entrance to the public with local choirs, cloggers, tap dancers performing in different parts of the museum. We asked our new friends, Jodi and Ricky and their 2yr old daughter, Brinn to meet us there. They brought along a friend back from Iraq and we met Jason's cousin and boyfriend there as well.

We started off, while we waited for people to get there, in the gun museum. To me, this is not all that interesting, but others like my husband, could spend days in there alone, looking at the 1700 guns they have on display. Me and Katelyn walked pretty quickly through one part of it. There is a cabin with different mounts, so we looked at the animals.

Soon, we were one big group, mingling through the Plains Indian museum, looking for horses for Brinn to look at. The girl is obsessed with horses and what little girl shouldn't be. We soon split up and boys went to the guns while Jodi, Brinn, Katelyn and I went to the art museum. There weren't as many people in there and the girls could walk around. We found a drawing station and the girls occupied themselves for a couple of minutes.
Brinn saw the model horse and that was going to be her focus for her drawing. She and Katelyn have struck up a really good friendship the couple of times they have played together. Brinn loves to ride a friends pony, named Petey. Any white horse she sees is "Petey!" She and her parents live and work at the CWAM base, so there are other horses and she knows their names. Before they came, Jodi said that Brinn thought that Katelyn could ride Petey, she would ride King and Mommy would ride Rain and they would go out and round up cows. She didn't know where she got that idea from but I guess it's a date for next summer or so a 2 yr old thinks.
(Brinn smiling goofy, she really is a cute little girl and quite the talker)

Since they forgot their stroller and we didn't know you could get them from the museum, we would take turns using ours. Katelyn would ride and Brinn would walk and then they would switch. Sometimes Brinn wanted to walk with Katelyn. They ran up and down the wheelchair ramp in the art gallery, just to run off some steam. We met up with the dads and made a quick walk around the Buffalo Bill part and met up with the rest and went through the nature part with the occasional banana muffin thrown in for snack since we were over lunch.

Upon our exit, we met up with a number of friends from Meeteetse on their way in. We left at 2pm which was past the girls nap time and lunch time, so we went to lunch only to have them both fall asleep. Oh well, it was a good time with some new friends. We have a few things in common with them. Ricky is also from Canada and we know a mutual person from Winkler, whom I went to high school with. He went to and worked with Ricky and Jodi at the LA YWAM base and married an American girl. YWAM makes the world so much smaller.

Busy November

Jason finished working in Bozeman and settled into a job in Meeteetse, which is a huge blessing to have work at this time of the year. Please keep the work coming God! We've settled back into having him at home again after 3 months of having him only on the weekends or we would travel to Bozeman with him.

With the nice weather we had, we finally we able to clean up all the neighbor's leaves that land in our yard. Instead of trying to keep up with it, I thought to just do it once when all the trees were done shedding their leaves. So one saturday, we started kind of late in the day and didn't get done until dark, but it got done.
Now I know why people have a lot of kids, more hands to help with the work :)

We had a friend come in to Cody to speak at the DTS in Meeteetse, but Jason had to pick him up and he stayed with us the following weekend. This last weekend, we had another friend from Bozeman come down with his son and give a basic pistol course, and they stayed with us too. So it's felt like every weekend we've had someone stay with us and I'm busy cooking. Thinking of the coming US thanksgiving, finally it was my turn to be the guest and have some one cook for me. I know that sounds selfish, but sometimes you just need a break. It has been a busy month for us, so it feels like.

Jason shot a couple of small deer, more like year old fawns, but one was made into jerky that he has been craving. The other one we sent off to get some burger made. We'll see how much we'll get. Thankfully, Jason got his first elk and we've enjoyed that a lot, along with all the people we've entertained.

The other day, I caught my little mouse, playing with my jars and tupperware in my front closet. You leave a door open and you will find the contents spread on the floor.

So, this last weekend Jason and I did a basic pistol course and we held it in Meeteetse. We had 8 people in all. We both have taken a course a couple of years ago, but it was a good refresher for me and new to some of our friends. Sal, the instructor, also talked about some self defense things we could do to protect ourselves. The day was bitterly cold and blowing snow when we were done. The thermometer read 6F but the windchill made it feel like 15 below 0F. Yes, we're getting into the -25C area! We had to go to the gun range to practice some shooting. It was fun, but my fingers got so cold, I couldn't feel the trigger and trying to reload was next to impossible. We weren't out there very long, but thank goodness for long johns and a warm car. By the time we were done, it was blowing snow halfway to Cody and made the regular 1/2 hr drive more like an hour and another half to home. Needless to say we went out for mexican that night. It was fun though and Sal kept it fun.

Sunday we had our church thanksgiving meal, which is always pretty good, but never like mom or grandma makes. Katelyn was getting pretty tired and 5 minutes into our car ride home, she was out. This is such a sweet sound when on the road. Much better than the previous night of a half hour of screaming because she was sick of her seat.

This week is Thanksgiving, so we will be off to Billings to see Jason's family on Thursday and extended on Saturday. I think we'll by pass the Black Friday sales. That doesn't interest me all that much.

The Rumble Park

"Let's Get Ready to Rumbllllllllllle!"

Well, not in a ring but at the local Rumble Park. It's a big industrial building in a not great location, but has 4 big inflatable play structures that kids can play on and Katelyn loves it. Having been to one in Bozeman this summer, she learned the ropes and once she learned them here, she's all over it. I went with some friends one day and Jason just had to see what it was all about, so we took her another day and had the whole place to ourselves. It's really too hard to see who had more fun, Katelyn or Daddy.

Parents really shouldn't go on them because we're heavier which is harder on the seams, but who can resist! It does help when you have a little one who needs help.




(The following content may seem painful, but smiles and giggles were present)

Fall Fun

Regrettably, I have not spent as much time as I should have, outside in this beautiful indian summer we are having. Yesterday, I changed that and Katelyn and I headed out for a morning walk. After an easy mile walk, we headed home and had time before lunch to get some pics of Katelyn in the leaves. This time last year she just sat in them, but now she could run through the crunching leaves. I got out the rake to rake some together and she enjoyed the rake more than the leaves. Oh well.

Look at this diva pose!

Beware of the one eyed mommy. Not my best shot, oh well, but the babes is smiling!

Chase and Katelyn

Last weekend, we finally got together with some friends we haven't seen all summer and they only live 15-20 min away. So terrible of us, but it's been hard with Jason working in Bozeman during the week and then coming home and having our own things around here to do or just not wanting to do anything.

Katelyn looking at the ads while we drive around on errands before our company.

So now that the tasty elk is in the freezer, we decided or the rather the guys made the date and Austin and Garret came over for some elk steaks. Their son, Chase, is 2 weeks older than Katelyn, so it was fun to see them interact with each other. The last time we saw Chase was in June and he wasn't quite walking, but now he was mobile. It took him a lot longer to warm up to everyone and Katelyn. They had some super cute moments. For instance: They were both done eating and standing near the table. A piece of Chase's bread fell on the floor, so Katelyn picked it up and fed it to Chase and he stood their opened mouth and ate it. Then she tried to herd him into the kitchen by putting her arm around his shoulders, but he didn't like that to much.

After some play time, Chase was changing into his pajamas and then the rowdy kids came out. They both got on the couch and were jumping around each other and sitting and then throwing their arms up and laughing. It was so video worth that we all got our phones, cameras and video cameras out to record it.



"Girl, what are you doin' ?"


These kids have grown up so much!

Here we all are almost 18 months ago. How time has flown.

From babies to toddlers

October Already?

I don't know where this year has gone, and to think that Christmas is only 3 months away. Don't even want to think about that yet.


So this is the framing project that has my husband driving back and forth to Bozeman, Montana every week for the past 2 months. I think it's about 3600 sq ft, three levels including the walk out basement. For now they are just doing the framing, but hopefully, maybe, there will be work for them to do on it this winter, cause we REALLY need it. Jason stays with our friend, Red, who is starting to make furniture and is quite the craftsman. Together, they have worked on a few projects that Red didn't have time for all by himself. One project was a swing, which they antiqued it to make it look old.

This last Sunday we had our friends the Millers over after church. Their kids Grey and Emma love "Baby Katelyn" as they affectionately call her. Katelyn slept most of the time they were here, so they occupied themselves with a neighbor girl, which was great. They rode their bikes and played with sidewalk chalk. When K did get up, we found the shovels and they dug in the empty garden.
Emma also gave "Baby Katelyn" her trike, because she was too small for it, so she passed it on to us, which we love. For being 4, Emma is sometimes very willing to give away some of her toys, which I know her mom loves.
Katelyn doesn't get the part about pushing herself just yet, but loves to sit on it and get on and off. Or she'll put up her feet so you can push her around, much to her delight. She is growing up so fast! We are loving this Indian Summer we're having. We turned the A/C back on because the house was warming up to almost 80 some days. Hence, the skirts and t-shirts on the last weekend of September!

Yesterday, we had a pool date with Darlene and Emma in Cody. The pool was warm and we had the wading pool all to ourselves. Thank goodness for the kids in school. Katelyn didn't like having to wear a life jacket, but she wore it for the good part of an hour and then we took it off and she was much happier for us to hold her and float her around. I didn't know how she'd like getting splashed or her face in the water, but she did really well. We were in the pool for 1 1/2 hrs! Then we went to McDonald's and she ate a whole cheeseburger!

As we speak, Jason is in the mountains near Meeteetse hunting with 2 friends for elk. Today is the opening day of rifle season, so hopefully he can bag an elk for the freezer. They took 7 horses and packed in food and big wall tent. The local deputy sheriff said they recorded seeing 63 grizzly bears in that mountain range. That's A LOT of Bears! I'm sure we'll hear stories of bear sightings. Jason brought the video camera and planned to film the other two guys archery hunting. So we'll see what comes back on the camera. Hopefully the camera makes it back in one piece.

Well, the babes is sleeping and I should finish cleaning before we go to Cody to help decorate the church for fall this evening.

The end of Summer

Fall has arrived or so it seems according to the thermometer. Today is definitely a soup or stew and a movie kind of day. I figured I would get a quick post in while K is working on her 2 1/2 hr nap. Yay for naps!

We closed out the summer by playing in the home pool for the last time. We finally got K some sand/water toys after playing with cups and spoons all summer. Gotta love those going out of summer sales.

I took K to the nearby park and only got one picture before the tears rolled. You could have handed me the "Worst mother of the Year" award after she went down the slide. I was taking a video of her and she jumped off by herself, but the slide was too high and instead of her feet hitting the ground, she kind of landed on her face. Oh yeah, I felt great about myself. We got a couple of small bruises from the stones and a cut lip, but she did recover. Thankfully kids heal fast. Note to self: Yeah, won't be video taping on that slide.

Since Jason has been gone working in Bozeman, Montana the past 2 months, the weekends are family time. One weekend we ran some errands, grabbed some Burger King and headed to the park.
I don't know who had more fun, Daddy or Katelyn?