Front Flower Beds

We finally filled in the empty flower beds in front of our house.  We took out the juniper bushes a couple years ago, and we took the plunge buying some perennials.  Hitting the greenhouses after season saved us a lot of money and we still got some blooms out of the plants.

Daylilies

Hostas and something else I can't remember the name of them.  Then another daylily at the end.  That one didn't bloom.

Bleeding heart at the far left, 2 daylilies, a mini daylily, 3 huecherella and 4 mini hostas

We're pretty happy with how it turned out.  It will fill in over the years.

Staycation Day 2

The morning was cool, crawling out of our warm beds.  The girls were up and at'm at a decent hour, nothing really early.  Breakfast was bagels, fruit and leftover sausages with orange juice.  We packed up camp and headed to town.  Stopped at a coffee shop for some mochas and lattes and made our way to Billings.

Can you see the excitement on this one's face? :)

We took the girls to the Montana Zoo.  This is a small zoo.  I thought Winnipeg didn't have a lot of animals, this one is pretty scarce.  It was a scorcher of an afternoon too by the time we got there.  It was sandwiches in the parking lot and in we went.

Even the bear needed to cool off!

Red panda walked right by us

"Where are we?  I know Dad took a wrong turn somewhere."

"Okay, now I'm worried."

Having a sit and stand stroller worked out pretty well.  Katelyn could ride and get out to look while Megan could sit.  It helped to have daddy pushing that load too.

Wolf

The otters were the best.  They were in a playful mood, coming up to the glass numerous times and fighting with the others

Feeding the ducks

Getting close to the peacocks.  Poor peacocks didn't have much for tail feathers.

We made our way over to Jason's grandparents, where we were going to stay.  It had been a while since we had been over there.

Wendell is a piano tuner and bought a baby grand in hopes of selling it.  It is still there, so they have 2 pianos, one at each end of the house.  The girls didn't have to fight. 

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.