Our Staycation Camping

Jason had a 4 day weekend and wanted to get away.  We still stayed close to home and headed to Red Lodge, Montana.  They were having forest fires in the mountains and we didn't know what the camping was going to be like.  We walked down town, visited the candy emporium and stocked up with a bag of cand and some chocolate.  I had heard of a great park there, so we asked the locals and found it.  We didn't stay long, since we needed to find a place to "set up house".

 Thankfully, we borrowed a friend's huge tent, air mattress and pump.  Our tent would have been very tight with the 4 of us.

Once everything was put up and the mattresses were blown up, the girls had a ball running and jumping in the tent and snuggling under the blankets.

 Daddy got a fire going and we were set for a wiener roast.

Our tailgate kitchen

It was a good thing we ate when we did and got the campsite up, because just as we got done, it started to rain and it rained all evening and night.  It was great for the forest fires.  Thankfully, it wasn't smoky smelling either.

Since it was raining and we didn't want to sit in the tent, we drove back into town for some "sert" as Katelyn says.  Dessert was ice cream!

It was a cool night.  We started with Daddy, Mommy and Megan on the queen air mattress.  Katelyn soon got cold all by her lonesome, and snuggled in with Mommy.  Megan still wasn't sleeping.  Daddy got squished and moved to the single mattress.  Katelyn snuggled in and fell asleep.  Megan still wasn't sleeping.  She rolled around and around until I don't know when, until she finally fell asleep in the middle.  We were roasty-toasty.  It didn't take long and Papa bear got cold, so I got booted to the single.  Daddy packed the bedding and didn't quite bring enough for that one bed, so it was a bit colder than the two sleeping bags zipped together.  The girls slept great and were ready to go again the next morning.  Mom and Dad on the other hand, needed some wake up coffee.

Horseshoe Bend

August 1st, we went to Horseshoe Bend to go swimming with some friends.  Just moms and kids.  It was a scorcher of a day, the sand was hot and the water was cold.  Fun was had by everyone, which is what matters. 

Megan was content on the shore, throwing rocks in the water.

Katelyn was content in the water with her life vest.  She did quite well and listened to stay close to me.

I took Megan in a little farther so she could splash while I held her.  That started to get uncomfortable and someone else took her in deeper, much to her delight.  She didn't want to go back to where it was shallow, she wanted to be in the deep water.  Looks like I've got 2 fish on my hands.

Helping Little Sister Walk

Practice makes perfect.  The end of July brought Megan to her feet, literally.  No more crawling.  Katelyn helped as much as she could, without pulling Megan down to her knees.

Swimming Lessons 101

I finally signed Katelyn up for her first set of swimming lessons.  It just so happened that her friend, Samantha, was also going to take lessons, so we signed them up together.  Good thing we did, because it was a small class of 4.  We were hoping that with a friend, both girls would be willing to do this on their own and not have to have mom in the pool with them.  It worked!

Practicing the front float

One day the big pool was shut down, so they had to wear life vests in the lap pool, which was much deeper than what they were used to

Practicing the back stroke

Sam and Katelyn holding their breath underwater

Having a blast!

She did great!  I think we skipped the first 2 levels that were more entry level stuff and went straight to level 1 and she passed on the first try!!!  After seeing her report card, there were a lot of things they worked on that they thought she did really good on. So now when we go to the pool, she is not afraid to go underwater, she knows how to hold her breath, swims going forward even if it is all underwater.  She is a regular fish and loves the water.

Daddy Daughter Date

I was scrolling through Pinterest one day, and came across a blog written by a dad, who takes his little girls on date nights weekly.  We know another dad of 6 girls, who makes it a priority of his, to spend one on one time with each of the girls that are still at home.  Jason has done this from time to time as well, but after seeing this blog, it just reminded me that it had been a long time since they had been out together. So I suggested it to him and he had been thinking the same thing.  Girls need their special Daddy time.

We talked about it all day, which got Katelyn excited about her evening out.  She could pick what to do, but we suggested they try the new frozen yogurt place, which was met with a huge smile.  They both got casually dressed up and I could even put clips into Katelyn's hair, that's how special this time was to her.  (If you know Katelyn, her hair is the least of her worries and not something she enjoys having me do for her)           I made it extra special by giving her a little lip gloss.  She packed her purse with all the essentials: her play camera, a plastic egg, a pop rocket and her pretend cell phone.  (You just never know when you are going to need a hollow plastic egg :)  )She completed her look with a ring, bangle bracelet and orange flip flops.  She was beautiful!

Look at the joy on her face!

The Bellamy Brothers sing, "Redneck girl likes to cruise in Daddy's pick-up truck", and this girl does.  That's just was this little girl wanted to drive in for her date and Daddy obliged.

Off they go!

They hit WYogurt for some strawberry, chocolate and pineapple yogurt, topped off with squishy, juicy "fish eggs", gummy bears, chocolate chips, a cherry, whip cream, caramel and chocolate sauce.  Yes, she was very hyper when she came home :)

They went for a drive and parked to skip stones in a pond.  I'm sure the conversation was simple, but special and it filled up her little heart with love.

4th of July

This was the first year that we didn't go to the annual Cody Stampede Parade.  Instead, we were asked to join a co-worker of Jason's and his two girls on their boat.  The only draw back was that Jason had to work from 2-10pm.  We headed out early and drove 45 mins to Yellowtail Reservoir.  Thankfully, there were not a lot of boats out on the water.  

 Taking the plunge.  Katelyn kept a tight grip on one of us, otherwise we drift away from the boat and it's hard to swim back.

 Megan sporting her new life jacket.  She did pretty good with it, but she did start to fuss closer to nap time. 

 Katelyn and her tubing partner, Anna

 Ready to get going.  Mike knew to take it easy and Katelyn loved it.

I got on the tube solo while Jason held Megan, who was starting to fuss about the life jacket.  She was just tired and actually fell asleep while the boat was going.  The front of the boat has pads on it, so after Jason took this photo, he covered her form the sun and stayed by her while the girls finished their tubing.  

We left just before noon, and thank goodness we did, because the dock was congested with people wanting to get in the water.  It took us a while to get out, but we made it out and back in time for Jason to get to work.  So glad we went and we didn't really miss dealing with throngs of people and finding a parking space in Cody.  

That evening, however, the sunny weather gave way to clouds and a torrential down pour.  We went to some friends for supper, where Jason could meet us for a burger while he was on shift.  We packed the kids in the cars and drove to the fireworks, but a new shower had started as we left.  It rained the 45 minutes we were waiting for the fireworks.  Just as the 10 o'clock start time rolled around, the rain departed and we could get out of the vehicles to watch the show.  Apparently, our fireworks show was way better than Cody's.  They had some technical difficulties and couldn't do the whole show that night, but they had to blow them up the next day since they had already set them the night before.  There went their fireworks fund, up in smoke.

Spaghetti Girl

This girl loves her food.  

She is too much fun and such a ham.  The spoon is merely for holding.  Fingers are still the utensil of choice.