August Adventure-Part 3-Montana (plus a brief stopover in Idaho)

For the last week of our trip we traveled from Salt Lake to Townsend Montana (thanks GG for coming to get us).  My girls were seasoned travelers by this point and settled right in for a 10 hour day of driving.

 James met us in Montana.  We were all very happy to see him (especially me after two weeks of being a single Mom).  He brought our (almost) 9 year old nephew, Trevor, with him from Hayden ID.  Trevor become a big brother to my girls. They LOVED playing with him.

Some of the highlights of our time on the farm:

We celebrated James birthday by having dinner and peach pie.

Maija, Anikka, James, Ward, Elin, Sherry & Trevor

We went for a picnic and fishing....

and let the girls wade in the creek (you say it crick if you are from Montana....)

Papa and James rigged up a farmer slip n slide for the kids by opening up an irrigation pipe.

James did a little work on the farm.

The girls loved to go outside every morning and look for Shadow, the neighbors very friendly cat.

We ate fresh yummy corn (and other veggies) from the garden.

They also had a good time riding snowflake.

After a rainstorm I let the girls go out and play in the mud and puddles...Elin's dream come true.

After a week in Montana, we drove to Hayden ID for a brief one day stopover. It was a fun filled three weeks for my kids. They got to see both sets of Grandparents, aunts and uncles, and best of all they saw all of their cousins on both sides except for three (sorry Baker's, we wish we could have seen you too).

Now we are back to reality.....

August Adventure - Part 2 - Utah

After our week in Colorado, my Mother drove us to Salt Lake City. What is normally a 7.5 hour drive was a 10 hour drive with my two littles.  Thankfully, they both did great.

We were able to spend time with a lot of cousins:   my sister's children and my nieces, Kali and Kijanna, who flew in from Kentucky.

MJ, Noah, Kali, Ella, Sylis, Anikka and Kijanna

Running errands with all the cousins (except Sylis)

The girls really liked playing with their older cousins.

Anikka and MJ

Sylis and Anikka

Ella, Anikka, Noah, Elin and MJ

We celebrated Noah's 9th Birthday.

We had snow cones...

and went to the park.

We visited James' sister Julie and our niece Olivia.  Elin loved playing in the backyard with Olivia. Anikka liked trying to climb up the slide.

Aunt Leina and Aunt Julie had birthday presents for the girls.

The only not-so-great thing that happened in Utah was that Anikka broke out with chicken pox.  Luckily, she had a pretty mild case but she was pretty grouchy a few of the days. Since she was contagious we were not able to see many people.

Chicken pox sore on Ani's arm

August Adventure - Part 1 - Colorado

In early August I embarked with my girls on a 3 week adventure to visit their grandparents in Colorado and Montana with a stop over in Utah.  We flew from Seattle to Durango Colorado and then slowly made our way back home.....driving.....approximately 1450 miles of driving....with a one year old and a three year old.  Crazy?  Yes.  Luckily, my girls are fabulous travelers and did just fine even with two 10 hour driving days.

Here are the highlights of our time in Colorado with my parents, Grandma Aila and Grampy.

Anikka and Grampy having lunch

Lincoln, Anikka and Deekon

Oscar, Deekon, Randi and Lincoln

Grampy helping Anikka walk. Notice the multiple bags she had to pack around too.

Anikka feeding Grampy

We went for a walk almost every morning with "the boys" as Elin called her cousins.  After a few days she referred to them as "my boys".

Deekon, Anikka, and Lincoln

Elin

We went to the park.

We went to the super fun pool in Durango that had a great wading area with slides, toys and even a castle.

We went bowling one afternoon. Elin refused to even try it and I figured out later that it was because she didn't like the look of the shoes.  They were not "fancy" enough.

These boys are seasoned bowlers

All Elin wanted to do was ride this little carousel

We let the kids run through the sprinklers.

We had ice cream or popsicles everyday.

The highlight for Elin was playing in the dirt in the backyard. She loved to dig for worms.  And yes, she did it all in her fancy attire.

Her brand new shoes.....covered in mud

Picking strawberries

My girls loved being outside everyday playing with their cousins.  We had a great week in Colorado.