Hanging out with Jill

Tues evening before we left, one of my buds who I grew up with stopped in to say hi. She no longer lives in Bozeman, but was visiting her hubby's family who lives in Livingston for the 4th, so we made sure we connected. Her oldest is 3 months younger than John, and her youngest is a month younger than Ben, so we had fun talking while our boys were entertained in my parent's basement, with mom's stash of toys she has kept since we were little! We got to commiserate on the joys and hardships of having two so close together! It was fun to meet her hubby Marc as well, since last time I'd seen Jill we were working at a camp in MT, in between my sophomore & junior year of college, 10 years prior! It's fun cuz even though we've both gotten married and had kiddos, I don't think we've changed much! (You'll have to ask her, her opinion! ;) )
a picture of the boys all playing together while Jill and I were talking. Somehow I didn't make it into the picture. Hmmm-Chris was taking these!


We moved outside. Dexter & John playing on my parent's porch. I also got a picture of Katie (well her backside in there!)

Chasing a ball!


Jill holding baby Jax with Marc keeping an eye on Des

Caught her laughing!! :)

Marc & Jill Graham and their kiddos

All the boys!


All the boys minus the dads-and they all looked near the camera!

And we are done, ready to play now folks!

Jill & I


Jill asked him to bring her the ball, and he was so obedient and brought it right to her!

What a great time we had. So sad it had to be so short.

Dinosaur Park & saying bye

Our last day in MT we toured the town. One of my neighbors down the street went to MSU back in the early 70's, and said he lived on the corner of Black & Tracy, so I promised him I'd take some pics of the area since he left. I made sure to include some of the rest of the town including the university. However, I probably won't bore you with the pics, so I'll show you a pic of my boys playing at the newly developed Dinosaur park. Bozeman is known for its study of dinosaurs. Our Museum of the Rockies helped clean the bones from the largest T-Rex find (can't remember where-you can tell how much they excite me!) So anyway, they decided to create a park that tells about Dinosaurs as you play on the swings and slides and climb the rock wall. These first two pictures are rather random. This bunny is what my mom used to see on her walks, and it would remind her to call John, and now Ben.

Random pic of my fine hubby!
And, now the dinosaur park pictures:
John often has to be coaxed to go down the slide. This one he did by himself, but very slowly. Notice the legs stretched out to hit the sides to slow him down!
Exploring the tunnel!
Um, really, must we taste the swing?
I figured I should probably be in at least one picture
What is with my children and tasting the swings?!

Going exploring
He climbed this rope ladder by himself. I was just there to spot him.
I was pretty impressed he did this tunnel slide all by himself
Of course mommy had to be there to catch him!







Can you tell he was busy? It was a fascinating park!

Ben, not to be outdone, decided to climb the climbing wall!! With Grandma's help of course. In the background you can see a little girl playing in a sandbox where it has dinosaur footprints, and "bones."

Not sure why I don't have any pics of Chris or my dad. They were both there. After we left the park we ended up driving out to Gallatin Gateway to eat. It was really yummy food, and all to soon the night was over, and we had to drive home pack, get the kids in bed, and get ready for a very early departure back home. It was a great vacation, much needed, and I'm excited to do it again sometime!

Rock Chuck

Mon after we returned from Oregon, Chris got to go hiking Baldy Mtn, almost the highest peak of the Bridgers. He made it all the way to the top, and they started at like 5 pm. Anyway, the excitement before that was when Katie & I spotted a critter eating her flowers. She jumped up (we were at the dinner table talking) and ran after it. She scared it under my parents shed, and thus ensued the adventure.

This is the critter. We looked him up later online and found out he's a rock chuck, in the same family as a woodchuck!
Chris & Katie took charge. Well Chris did all the manly work to save us poor women from distress. John was right there to help. He first tried to shew the little bugger out the side of the shed, but then someone brought up the point, what if he gets out and then gets into something else, so we decided to trap him.
Chris found a box, and worked on maneuvering the animal into it, but he was stubborn. He'd either run the other way, or bite & hiss at the stick when Chris would come near to him.
Another view of the little guy.

"Daddy can I help?"
Chris finally figured out to board every possible escape route and then put the bag from a lawnmower up to the biggest hole, and was gonna gradually make the animal's space smaller and smaller to where he had to go into the bag. Here's John helping!
And I stayed well enough away!! I was keeping Ben occupied, yep that's what I was doing!
Katie was brave! They caught the guy and she helped put the board over top, so that he wouldn't get out.
Then we had to put him in something that we could transport him somewhere (to the foothills of the Rockies, good idea!). So the plan was for Chris to gradually open the bag and shake the guy into the bucket, and I was to trap him. Well, apparently I don't have fast hands, or I was too scared, b/c the minute the guy was in the bucket, he jumped out, ran through Chris's legs, across the street and into the engine of the car. I so wish we hadn't lost our video of this, b/c it has Chris jumping at least 2 feet in the air and screaming like a school girl. It was awesome. Totally Youtube worthy. Oh well.
There he is in the engine of the car. Now how to get him out.
Chris had the brilliant idea of lassoing him and trying to pull him out. He got it around the guy's neck, but he wouldn't budge, just kept hissing.
The guys started showing up who were gonna go hiking, so they got enlisted to help. Here's Cody holding the string, while Chris is trying to shew him out.
Banging on the bottom to scare it.
We attracted quite the crowd!
So, since pulling him out didn't work, the next best thing was dousing him with water. You can kind of see the water coming over the top of the car.
And the booger's free!! He was writhing, and hissing, and squealing the whole time Chris dragged him across the street and into the bucket.
The retelling of the story to my parent's next door neighbor's son, who also used to be my brother's elementary school teacher, Mr. Spady.
They had to get him out and show him to the Spady's
There he is in all his wet glory.
Putting him in the bucket for the final time. The boys ended up taking him to the foothills of the Rockies and letting him loose before they began their hike. What a crazy 2 hours, yep it took nearly that long to get the little guy. But man, so many memories came with it!! :)