Smorgasbord of Pictures

Hello, hello!!

It's been a while since I've posted anything here. Yes, it has been quite the year (understatement, right?). Lots of hard, hard things going on. But ya know, there's been plenty of beautiful mixed in. So why not rejoice in that, I say?!  

I just dumped all the pictures from my phone onto the computer. When I go into blogger to paste pictures, the square with the pictures is super small. Normally, I would look through all the pictures on the computer first and write down numbers of the pictures that I want to use. Then I would put them in order sequentially. In the old days, I would write up a nice commentary.  Not much of that going on here today.  These are all out of order and I don't have time to look through and pick the best ones. I just clicked away and this is what we get. Better than nothing!!

Enjoy!!  Much love from me to you!!!  

Doug took this pic today. This is the book we got Rusty's name from. Read it to M scores of times. 

M's new neighborhood friend. Fast, great friends!  They are having a great summer with their gel blasters. They are planning a big war with other kids in the park down the streeet. 

July 4th rodeo. 

Horseback riding with the cousins in June. 

Such a great outing!! 

Hooray for a family reunion!!  It had been way too long!! 

The siblings. 

Doggy pile. 

We had a birthday party for my mom's 84th birthday. 

Doggy pile on grandma with some of the grandkids. 

Some of my family joking around. 

Eating out. 

M had a fabulous time with his cousins. Someday I hope to get a reunion with everyone!! 

Sorting pictures from my mom's house. 

Friends from when we lived in Washington. Now they live in Arizona and Idaho. 

Couple of gifts from caring friends. We are rich in friendships. 

A familiar scene. 

M's first week of camp ever!! 

Year #2 for Running Club. We have so much fun with it. 

We got out to the Marble Table for our anniversary! 

Bad picture of the crowd of at 4th of July fireworks. Safe to say we got more fireworks then we bargained for. Phew!  

Wild West style fireworks. Hours of fireworks all around town BEFORE the *real* show ever started. 

The rodeo in Red Lodge. 

Savoring delicious junk food together. 

Travel buddies. 

We needed to take a commuter down to the peninsula. 

This man has helped us in so many ways. He's the one who started 40 sunflowers for Doug and planted them with M in the backyard. 

J getting up on Gigantor. 

Hanging out with our super loyal, generous friends in June. 

Lots of December Pics for You.

 Hello, hello!!

Here's a rundown of our Advent and Christmas doings.  We delivered our annual Advent baskets; it's a top-secret mission, as you can see. This year Doug and I handmade our Advent wreath at our parish hall. We celebrated Saint Nicholas and Saint Lucia in a very hurried fashion; always on the go, it seems. I had a birthday and then Max had a birthday. He had two parties! His first overnighter was one of them. Nerf guns seemed to be the theme this year. Painful ones too; not sure what I think of that. Sage got home late on the 21st and then we decorated the tree together on the 22nd. I stayed up way too late Christmas Even decorating the chalkboard and such some other things. I can definitely feel I am not as young as I was when I first started this chalkboard tradition. But the kids love it all, so I try my best. Fortunately, these days Nutmeg helps with a lot of the decorating. She's so good at anything creative and enjoys it too.  But we make the kids go to bed, so Doug and I can put out the gifts and then I do the breakfast table and chalkboard. We found a new Christmas dinner main dish that we love, so that will probably be a repeater in the future: stuffed pork loin. Delish! Saturday afternoon we left for a brief jaunt to the Yellowstone Park area. Doug rented a pretty cool VRBO with a gorgeous view and literally a two-minute walk to the park entrance. Sunday, we went to Mass and then soaked at the Yellowstone Hot Springs. Monday, we rented the kids some cross-country skis at the Mammoth Hot Spring hotel. There are a ton of trails in the area, but we kept it short and sweet. If you can believe it, it took us nearly nineteen years to get the whole family on cross country skies!!  Too long, but I was pretty happy. I am really hoping I can get at least some of the kids back out skiing a couple more times this winter. It really is such a wonderful, life-long activity. The trail we took them on was beautiful. It was a magical experience for us. After skiing, we headed eastward across the park towards the Lamar Valley to see what wildlife we could see. Doug rented a scope for the occasion. During our couple of days there we saw deer, elk, lots of bison, and a coyote. Tonight, we have a New Year's Eve party, a solemnity tomorrow, and then Basil and Sage's 19th birthday on Thursday. Eventually, we'll all need to get back to school, college, teaching, and work. Oh, and someone goes deep under to get his wisdom teeth out on Monday. Much love from the wild west! (Forgive the big, long paragraph here. The website was giving me weird problems every time I tried a new paragraph.)