Montana Living... here we come!

As we do every year, we headed down to Montana for a few weeks.  It's always fun to see family, spend time in the lake and just enjoy the summer that is before us.  We were even blessed with enough sunshine to more then make up for the last 2 years!  As always, a running tally of the things that we did.

The Boys kicking back and trying to enjoy the tube ride.  Aiden was brave this year and actually got on the tube!  He actually went a lot!  I don't think that I had any pictures, but Enoch also went on the tube a fair bit this year.

This is what happens when the tube gets flipped hard enough.  Not to mention that Caleb was fully clothed when that happened, ripping a pair of jeans.  Not mentioning that.  One bit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Caleb taking the swan/face plant dive off of the dock.  The kids did a lot more swimming this year, which I was really happy with.

Double Tubes with cousins!

We had a great view of these wild flowers the 2 weeks we were there.  My father-in-law had them mixed in with the grass seed and we all agreed that it was an excellent idea!

Diving not your style?  How about cannonball?

My brother-in-law wiping out on the air ski.  If you can't get up on the air ski, you'd better be ready to pull out some fantastical wipe-outs instead.

Feeding the ducks and geese at the Woodland Park.  They weren't nearly as aggressive as they have been in years past.  Perhaps people stopped feeding them and this generation doesn't know that people exist for feeding?  We'll never know.

Clark and 2 of the boys on the jet ski.  They spent a lot of time looking for turtles, eagles, fish, etc on the jet ski in the more quiet (if that's at all possible) part of the lake.  Secretly, I think Clark was just trying to get some quiet time as best he could.

My sister-in-law, her niece and Caleb.  I spared the niece the more entertaining pictures of her face as they hit some sharp turns.  Fun to look at.

Another past-time for Clark to find zen: fishing.  He had to coax Enoch down to actually "catch" the fish.  But, he's happy that he went!

Wake Boarding ala Caleb

Clark

Random picture... what's this?

My father-in-law and one of the younger granddaughters

Cousins!

Best Friends and Cousins... and Kyrie's closest thing to a sister.

There was a lot of Kayaking this year, which was awesome!

Caleb getting fancy with the skis.

My first attempt at wake boarding... this is me getting up just before I face-planted!

Yeah.

3 cousins close in age, there's another group like this.  I'm excited to see these kids grow up and start playing together.

Lip Sync/Dance on the dock.

Getting some air on the tube.  As always, love being in Montana, and seeing family.  I'm really fortunate that I get along with Clark's family and I'm glad for all of the fun we have.

New York 2011

So, Clark and I decided that every 5 years (or so), we should go on a trip together, just the two of us.  Our first trip was to Las Vegas (not my fav) and so this year, we went to New York, New York.  My parents very nicely watched all 4 kids for us (my dad took a week off to help my mom.)  I found direct flights from Calgary to Newark, New Jersey (thanks WestJet!)  It was busy, crazy and loads of fun.  While I don't mind the hussle and bustle of a major city, I don't know if I could wander around it with 4 little kids.    Anyway, here's some pictures from our trip.





Waiting for the train to take us from Newark to New York.

Our Sister-in-Law told us to take "interesting" pictures of New York.  She totally meant something like this, right?

 A GIGANTIC Tortoise skeleton at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH).  Only complaint about this museum?  They should have done a better job playing up the Night at the Museum stuff.  There were tons of kids wandering around asking about the movie.  Seriously, they could be raking in the moola!

Speaking of the movie.  This was the only thing from the movie that we found... and there was a line up for people to get pictures with it!  It was here, at the AMNH, that I was also brought to the sad truth: Boys have not changed in thousands of years, over all cultures.  Basically, as Clark put it, when man figured out how to draw/carve, they carved something.... you think about it, and make your guesses.  And it's not the Tiki Head.

This was sitting outside the AMNH, advertising a new exhibit that is coming.  No, not about war.  Actually, this little beauty (can't you see yourself driving the kids to the park in this?) is used to chase tornadoes!

This is the stage where we saw Shakespeare in the park, in Central Park!  No photos were allowed, of course, but I figured a quick shot of the stage wouldn't hurt.  Good part?  The tickets were free!  Better part? We still got in standing in the Stand-by line.  Best part?  Look at the seats we got!  All in all a good evening spent.  We saw Alls Well that Ends Well, one I actually hadn't see before.  They even did a great job simulating cannon fire in the background (there's a pond behind the stage.)

Kristen in Times Square.  Obviously not on a weekend, but surprisingly on July 4th Monday.  There weren't a lot of people until later in the day.

Who wouldn't want to kiss Captain Jack Sparrow?  Even if he was only made out of Lego?  Better yet, why wouldn't you go visit the 4 floor Toys R us in Times Square?

Where's Kristen?  In Grand Central Station awaiting the arrival of a very good roommate and friend!  I understand that, but where is she?

Look at what we found!  We were wandering around Time Square when we saw a dude wearing a centurion helmet and a T-Shirt that said Volcanoes are exploding in Times Square.  We were going to ignore him when he heard him say that you could get some money off with the coupon he had if we went to both the Pompeii and Harry Potter exhibit.  We were sold.  We met up with one of my roommates from Ricks, Cherie and her brood and wandered through some of the costumes and props from the Harry Potter movies.  (We went to Pompeii the next day).  It was awesome and the last leg of the exhibits North American tour.

Need I say more?  Found this on the dumpster of our stop on the Subway.

I have a love for Pret a Manger (Ready to eat) from my 2 trips to London.  The food is good and it's always fresh!  What they don't sell that day, goes to the homeless instead of the dumpster.  Can't go wrong either way I say.  Have to say I was ecstatic when we found one.

We saw this at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Met).  Can you guess what it is?  I couldn't either, had to have someone tell me. 

Clark and Lady Liberty.  Mental note for those who have New York trips in their future... The Statue of Liberty is on a pedestal which sits on top of Fort Wood.  To go inside Fort Wood, the Pedestal and/or up to the crown, you need a ticket.  The catch?  You need to book it at least 2 weeks in advance.  The museum is in Fort Wood, so you won't even be able to see it without getting a ticket.  Lets you know how impressed I was when we figured that out. 

Yankees Game.  In the Bronx.  Yes, we did get out of Manhattan.  The game was entertaining, I'm not a baseball fan, frankly, I find it boring.  But it's always fun to hear the real fans lose it over things. 

Yankee Stadium only gets an F on one account. They made me throw out 2 metal water bottles. No real reason, I could toss them or go across the street and store them for $10. Seriously! So, we went in water bottle-less. Guess what I bought inside from the Yankee store, only because I was worried we wouldn't find a place with water bottles? Yeah a METAL water bottle!

On our way to the Top of the Rock (the Rockefeller Center), 67 floors up!  For someone with height "issues", I did really well and didn't panic once.  I also didn't look over the edge, get too close to the edge, stay near the closest I got for very long.  But I can say I did make it up.




Clark only had a couple of things on his list to see or do, and this was one of them.  We found the fire hall that the Ghostbusters was filmed at.  Good timing too, because we've heard that it may be on the list to shut down due to cut-backs.  If my understanding is correct, this particular hall was the first ones to respond to the 9/11 attacks.

And to end off, who doesn't love a car flying out of a building? Thanks for the visit!

Canada Day

Every year for Canada Day, we head out to Airdrie for the Canada Day Parade.  While I love the excitement and floats involved in a much larger city's parade, there's just that hometown feeling still to the Airdrie one.  There are still people who throw candy and hand out things, so the kids have a really great time.  Happy 144th Canada!

There was a little bit of a lull at the very beginning and the Mounties took advantage of it and wandered around and talked to everyone.  Caleb was more then willing to jump up for a picture!









Great thing about parades:  the kids for the most part, sit and watch.  Something they aren't inclined to do most of the time.







Where there's a mascot, Caleb will follow.  (And Kyrie run away, panicking.)







Hello Happy Family!

Doesn't this look like a good picture for a Remax ad?