Montana....It's the BEST!

We always had to eat on the balcony because the view is so beautiful!

Our second vacation to Montana was absolutely the Best! We flew up on Allegiant Airlines out of Williams/Gateway Airport. It's such a small airport....you just walk right out on the tarmac and get on the plane.....kind of old school! The great thing is that it is a non-stop flight to Missoula Montana and then an hour drive to our destination. This year Amy, Scot and Zack came with us. Unfortunately, Scot had to leave on Monday.

Leaving for Montana

Our family is so fortunate to have good friends that invite us to spend some fabulous time staying in their cabin at Finley Point right on Flathead Lake. This year it was much cooler and the weather was perfect for bike riding in the pines, surfing on the lake, and just relaxing with a good book! This year was probably the best vacation I have ever been on because we did absolutely nothing but relax and enjoy the lake activities. The scenery was absolutely beautiful.

Let the relaxation begin!

On Saturday we spent the day in the small town of Polson watching Kevin, Beau, Alex and Jake playing in a 3 on 3 basketball tournament. You know those little quaint towns that seem like they were created way back when.....that is what Polson is like. They shut down main street and set up about 20 half-court basketball courts. So many kids participated! They had the tournament set up by age group. Kevin and his friends did really well! They wore tye-dyed shirts and called themselves "Purple Haze" (who came up with that???) Long story short.....they kept winning and got tired! They deliberately lost a game so they could be out of the tournament! They wanted to go cool off in the lake. They were so fun to watch!

A close game!

Kev takin' the shot

"Purple Haze" in their glory

Zack dressed for the occasion

The best thing about Montana is the beautiful scenery and the peaceful surroundings. It stays light outside until about 9:30 p.m., so you just keep going and going and lose track of the time. You end up going to bed every night about 12:30 a.m. The Tanner's have two places on Flathead Lake. The cabin we stayed in is on a beautiful piece of property. It has a wide expanse of grass and pine trees.....beautiful surroundings. They have a huge cherry orchard in the back and the cherries were ripe and ready to harvest when we were there. So....needless to say we had all the cherries we could eat. That was good and bad. I felt like I had eaten a cow everyday. Zack loved the cherries. Maury would keep bringing over cherries and we couldn't eat them fast enough. It was fun to walk up into the orchards and pick cherries off the trees and eat them. It reminded me of when I was little in Orem, Utah and I picked cherries in the orchard by my house to earn money. I think I got paid 25 cents a pound! I remeber not loving it that much!

A fresh load of cherries

These cherries were so delicious!

Zack was a cherry lover!

Behind the cabin

Scenery from the cabin balcony

There are always beautiful sunsets!

Just scenery

Lunch on the balcony

The deer just come up onto the property and roam around. Yesterday Zack and I saw one in the yard and followed it for a bit. Zack was so excited! He thought it was a dog. Darn...I didn't have my camera! While driving to Tanner's house I also saw a little bear cub dashing through the trees. We were always on the lookout for a bear or deer. I guess the deer get a little pesky because they eat the flowers and fruit down to nothing. We were excited to see them!



On Tuesday it was a bit cloudy and windy so we decided to drive to Big Fork. It is about 30 miles away and the road follows the lake for awhile. That makes for quite a scenic drive! Big Fork is a little tourist town with all kinds of fun shops. Right before you drive into Big Fork there is the cutest little quilt shop. Stopping in is a Must! Everyone had to wait on me while I bought a few fun pieces of fabric, of course! Big Fork has fun little restaurants and flowers everywhere and a great cookie shop that Max loves called Brookie's Cookies. I have to say they are yummy! We spent a couple of hours strolling through the stores and then had a fun lunch outside on the patio of a deli. The weather was perfect.....cloudy and cool.

So quaint!

Max was a good sport

Fun shopping in Big Fork

The rest of the days were spent sunning on the lawn, riding the jet skis, eating, boating on the lake, reading, eating some more and watching the sun sets. Kevin and his friends did offer some entertainment. They were into "tube wars." They hooked up two tubs on the back of the boat and the wars began. Of course there was tough talk among the boys, oh and of course, Amy. She thought she would be the champ! It was fun to watch them throw each other off the tubes trying to be "champ." I'm not sure who was driving the boat! I think in the end, anyone that was teamed up with Jake was the champ.

The Guys

The Tube Champ

The tube wars begin

The best activity...relaxation!

I think water skiing on Flathead Lake is old school with this group. All they do is surf. It is so strange to watch. They load one side of the boat with huge bags of water so the boat tilts. Then everyone has to sit in the back of the boat on the side that has the water bags. When you look from afar....you see a boat totally running on its side. Kinda weird! The person surfing is pulled up with a very short rope. They are very close to the back of the boat. They only go about 9-10 miles an hour. The tilt of the boat causes a pretty big wave on the heavy side. Beginners keep hold of the rope and try to stay up on a special surfboard. Experienced surfers are pulled up with the rope and then throw it into the boat and then they surf the wave.....it is tricky because you have to keep up.....meaning pretty close to the back of the boat....or you just lose the wave! The boys got the hang of it pretty well. Beau, of course, is a natural. All that practice you know.

Beau had "boat duty"

Every morning was "bike ride" time. I only made it twice and Amy made it once. Max was game for every day. He wanted to ride the "Loop." It is quite a bike ride with beautiful scenery. It certainly delivers the exercise. I should have gone more often to off-set the junk food eating! I am paying for that now!






I hated to see the end of my vacation. I could get use to the relaxation and beautiful surroundings without much effort. It is always hard to come home from such a great week...you get kinda spoiled....no kids, no work! We did have a fun ending to our vacation. The Whiteman Family also have a beautiful cabin on the lake. He is Max's 2nd Counselor in the Bishopric. He invited us to fly home with him on his private jet. It only seats 8 people. I was very nervous and am not a fan of small aircraft! We cancelled our commercial flight and I flew home with my eyes closed! (not really!) It turned out to be so enjoyable....he was so generous. It was pretty awesome.




The cool, nice, relaxing vacations are done for this summer! We are home and it is still the middle of a very hot summer. We are thankful for good and generous friends who invited us to experience the best vacation ever!

Newport Beach 2008

For the last 6 or 7 years we have been taking our family to Newport Beach for our annual vacation together. It is something we all look forward to. We stay at a really fun house on Seashore Drive, right across the street from the beach! It is a perfect location because it takes about 2 minutes to walk down to the beach. We can come and go so easily to accomodate naps and lunch for the little ones. Plus, we can run and get a Diet Coke on ice with ease!

On Monday night Ryan and Julie gave a great Family Home Evening about putting on the Armour of God......taken down to the kids level. They had such a cute lesson. At the end they had the kids dress up in armour....made up of what we had around. Then the other kids got to throw marshmallows at them. They were to protect themselves with their shield and armor. The kids loved it!!!

Kate....dressed in her armour

This year was one of the BEST! The grandkids are at the perfect age. They love to stay and play on the beach ALL day. We have been gradually collecting wet suits and boogie boards so they can brave the cold water and ride the waves. It is so fun to see Emma, Riley, Maddie and Kate start to ride the waves on their little boards. They love it! Actually they are pretty safe in the water now and have learned to go out quite far and brave the waves that come in. Little Kate is quite daring......she just goes and rides them in!

A smooth ride for Emma and Riley

This year Julie bought all the kids these fabulous water toys. They had so much fun playing with them on the beach. What a find for 1.00 a piece. The grandkids picked up a new friend on the beach this year. I think her name was Maggie. She had instant friends on the beach!



The kids just get covered in sand. You really have to look the other way.....If you take a beach vacation you will be living in sand. Luckily we have a front patio on our condo with a hose. We get most of the sand off before jumping in the tub!

Zack would eat anything...even covered in sand!

Kevin has taken up skim-boarding. It looks like so much fun.....but a little difficult to do. Jason, Max and Ryan tried their hand at it. None of them seemed to pick it up at all. After a wave goes out they throw down their board.....with almost no water to move on. Amazingly, they skim across the sand on a very small amount of water. It is fun to watch. Kevin and Beau spent a lot of time perfecting their skills. Dallin and his friend, Danny got really good after a couple days of practice.

Kev skimmin'

The favorite thing is to get up in the morning (every morning!) get all the bikes out and ride down the boardwalk to the donut store. I don't know why this has become our Newport tradition. The kids love it. The past couple of years the parents have been bringing down the kids bikes and they ride right along with us. We are quite a crew when we all are on our bikes traveling down the boardwalk. Add Shelley and Jason's family......we are a mob!

Only half the group!

Lucy and Sophie had their way of getting to the donut store

This year the kids discovered the gumball machine just inside the donut store door. I was the money machine for quarters. They all crowded around the gumballs......each of them getting two or three. Donuts and gumballs.....nice breakfast!

The kids wanted to be "first" at the gumball machine

After we buy all the donuts and orange juice we go sit by our bikes and visit while the kids run around and chase the birds, or chase each other. This year Kevin invited his friend, Beau. They were always a target for the grandkids. Kevin loves to tease and bother the kids just to get a reaction. One of these days he is not going to be able to handle them!

A new activity was discovered this year. Emma is an explorer. She loves to find and collect all the shells she can come up with. She also digs in the sand for these little sea creatures that burrow into the sand when the tide comes in and goes out. This year a new discovery!!! Over by the jetty of rocks Emma came up with a sand crab (with the help of dad) Yikes!!! It scared me to death when she came up and showed me. Those little crab have pinchers! They caught three of them and kept them in water all day. Emma.......what next?

Emma with her "catch"

We had so much fun on the beach this year. Shelley and Jason's family came with us again this year. We certainly did have a saga this year with McCall and Beau. They seem to have struck up a pretty good friendship (?) We all like a good story. They gave us something to talk about.......what's a vacation with family without a good piece of gossip? Actually our kids had so much fun together. Kevin and Beau had a favorite thing this year.....shooting water balloons off the roof of the house at unsuspecting people. Kevin, Beau and McCall also loved the hot tub up on the roof. It was a constant beach to the hot tub routine this year.

Shopping in Huntington Beach

Lunching in Huntington Beach

We are always in Newport on my birthday. This year we went to Pei Wei again for dinner with the whole crew. Unfortunately, my dinner was yucky!!!! I had to send it back and it kind of ruined my appetite. The company was good though. After dinner Max took me to Fashion Island and I spent a bundle at the Nike Women's store. It is my favorite place! Then on to Haagen Daz for ice cream. What is better than that?

My birthday photos

For the past couple of years the adults have come up with "Dueling Dragons" I have no idea where that name came from???? Anyway, all the adults put on their wet suits and go out in the waves. They all try to catch the same wave and then try to push each other off their board. It sounds lame, but it is fun to watch. They stay out in the waves sooooo long. Of course, I barely put my toes in. It is freezing!!! So I'm elected to watch all the kids on the beach while they play

their little game.....that suits me

Preparing for "Dueling Dragons"

I'm tending.......

We always have at least one trip to Coldstone. We get our treat and eat on the steps. Some things never change......yummmmm

These are beach weary kids....but always ready for ice cream!

This year Goose was my constant friend. I love that girl! For some reason she wanted to be with me.....I even rated above her mom at times. I don't know why. She wanted me to sit with her, carry her, take her to the pottie, play with her in the water, get her treats and generally be by her side. That was a treat for me! She is such a goose-girl. A couple of times she fell asleep in her chair on the beach. There was alot of hard playing going on.

"Goose"....you gotta love this little face

The week goes by so fast. It seems it is forever before Sunday is over and then the fun begins.
You just get comfy and the week is over. We had beautiful weather most of the time and great company with Shelley's family there. We have so much FUN! We have next year to look forward to........!

Drew tries to survive with all the girls!

It's a first for Sophie!

UNTIL NEXT YEAR...........................!!!

And The Rains Came!

It has literally been at least a year since I have seen rain! Tonight Max and I went to dinner and on the way home we noticed that the sky looked ominous. We usually shrug it off because it never turns into anything.......just the usual monsoon summer weather.....it kinda tricks ya. We stopped to buy some fertilizer at Home Depot and when we came out......it was pouring! I don't mean a little rain-storm.....the wind was whipping and things were flying through the streets. Max had to swerve to avoid some palm tree bark flying through the air. It was raining so hard we couldn't see very well. I mean it has been a long time since something like this has hit. I must say it is sooooooo wonderful. The temperature dropped 30 degrees! On the way home I began to get nervous about my backyard. I had left the umbrellas out in the pool and my outdoor draperies were not pulled back. All my new furniture was exposed. We pulled into the driveway and saw the drapes whipping in the wind up over my fence. Sure enough my lounge chairs had blown into the pool and my drapes were flying through the air. The garbage cans had blown over and garbage was blowing everywhere. A little quick work in the soaking rain!
This is heaven. I hear the thunder and it is still pouring. We have the doors open and it smells so good! Ahhhhhhh what a little rain can do! It's the BEST!