Summer Part II

*Disclaimer: This is really, really, long. And possibly quite boring. I'm sorry.*
So now we're at the first of July. For those of you who may not know, the first of July is Canada's 'Independence Day'. It is also my annual family reunion on my Dad's side. It is one of my most favorite times of the year. I love my family. We eat and laugh. And that's about it. This year, Dad got a new toy to play with on the farm and the kids loved going for rides as often as he would take them.

The town we invade for a few days also hosted a triathlon. We had, I believe, 2 kids teams, 2 adult teams and 2 individuals enter from our family. Jen and I waited at the finish line and I was able to get a picture of some of our kids as well as our runners finish. I think it was a lot of fun! Too bad Jen and I couldn't get a team put together. Sigh.

So, here are the kid's riders coming in.

Note the helmet hanging from the handle bars. For some reason that cracks me up.

Runnin'!

Now, I only got the backside of my cousin Kristin coming in because she was seriously so fast, I did not even expect her. She was like, a minute behind the kids. And she was an individual entry. And I'm pretty sure she schooled ever other person.

Here's Dad coming in. He was our other individual. He did really well too. After one of his marathons I asked him how he did. He said he won for his division, 47 year-old retired police officers from Calgary. I think he won in his division for this triathlon too. Way to go Dad!

Here's Maren and Celeste (I think, the picture's not that great. But I think I remember they were running together. In fact, did Celeste do an individual and Maren do the run with her? Someone help me out. Not that it really matters, I guess. Sorry to ramble.)

And here comes Eric.

Best cousins, ready for the parade to start.

At the races. Timothy was not able to come this year so Mom is there, telling Kaylee to run her little heart out.

Emma, totally concentrating on beating everyone.

I love this because it's my two favorite three-year-olds. And they are both totally confused, running in opposite directions. Awesome.

Now for the 4th of July. I invited our family to an annual BBQ and 'tank wars'. (I invite myself to stuff all the time. It's really rude.) Anyway, everyone makes a 'tank' out of something plus fireworks and then they are matched and set at each other and lit and we watch the war. It's really entertaining. So, these are the tanks. (Please note the one that looks like a rose bush was the hostess'. She put pictures of her children on the roses. She is absolutely hysterical. I want to be just like her when I grow up.)

The war. I didn't get very good pictures because it's really kinda dangerous. So dangerous in fact that when I invited us, she said we could come but the kids had to watch from the kitchen window.

And then, I just had to share what I learned this year. Montana is possibly the only place where you can buy professional grade fireworks at the corner store fireworks stand. So, this firework came from our neighbor's house. The picture isn't great but let me tell you, it's really insane. Normal people shouldn't be able to handle such explosives. My family should be exhibit A on that argument.

Summer Part I

So, we inherited a camper trailer and were able to use it (a few times) this year. The girls absolutely loved camping. We are thinking this will be a fun thing for our family.
This is how Eli camps.

And the girls, being themselves.

I love sitting around a fire, just hanging out. We went camping really close to home for our maiden voyage and invited some friends out for some hot dogs and smores. They've got a baby just weeks younger than Eli.

The end of June Timothy's brother and his family came home for a visit. It was awesome to see them. We haven't seen them in four years so it was great fun for the kids... and the big kids too.
Isaac is not really a public humiliations kind of person and anyone who has met me knows, I am. So, I decided to make some posters to hold up at the airport. It was awesome because it's a small airport. There were like, two other people waiting so we really stood out! I'm hoping they were slightly embarrassed. (but not too bad, promise I won't do posters next time guys!)

My sweet niece Alexis loved Eli from the minute they got here. She was so tender with him.

Beautiful babe.

We were in Missoula so of course, we had to take Alexis for her first carousel ride (Eli's too.)

I took this picture sitting on a horse but you can see Linda and Emma (brown shirt) closest, then Kaylee (orange shirt) next to Isaac, next to Jen with Alexis on Jen's lap. Not everyone is looking but oh well.

A couple of tired girls. They played hard!

I just love this. Sometimes these girls are so sweet and best friends. Sometimes, they're not.