Nanny and Papa's House

It's time again for our yearly trip to the farm during harvest. Hunter and JP had been excited all week when I told them we were going to visit Nanny and Papa! On our last visit, JP wanted nothing to do with riding on the tractor, so I wasn't sure how the combine was going to go over with him.

Of course, Hunter hopped right on the combine.

Initially all JP wanted to do was ride the tractor. Instead he decided to check out the semi-truck. He thought that was pretty cool!

We hung out at the ranch for a little bit. JP wasn't a huge fan of the wheat field.

The four of us took a nice little walk to the old farm house, where Uncle Burk raised his family in the 60's. 

There's not much left of it...

We probably shouldn't have even been in it, but we were looking for a dust pan. I've always been terrified of the place! Especially now that the kitchen roof has caved in.

JP was my picture kid for the day. Hunter was always off doing something else. 

JP followed my dad and I into the field and then proceeded to get "stuck" behind a small row of wheat. I gladly took the opportunity to capture him in the field!

After a busy morning at the ranch, we headed into town for lunch at the Hi-Way Bar. I always enjoy eating there!

As soon as we arrived home the boys headed out the "jumpoline" to burn off their energy.

As soon as I took this picture, JP ran/jumped to the edge of the trampoline and face planted on the springs...

...as you can see the spring printed on his nose. 

I hopped on the trampoline with him and he was fine. 

Then Aunt Bobby and Uncle Matt showed up...with squirt guns!

The boys had so much fun during the water fight!

JP was mostly used as a shield, so I'm pretty sure he lost. He was drenched by the end of it. He surprisingly didn't cry when he'd get sprayed! Hunter was mostly excited that I let him wear his new SpongeBob swimming shorts. He left the fight early when he fell on the sidewalk and skinned up his knees and elbow. And apparently his pinkie finger too. He was very concerned about his pinkie instead of his bleeding knee. That's Hunter for you.

JP was such a trooper! What a cutie pie!

Monkey-Shiner Babblings

Some of the things Hunter and JP say are too funny not to share : )

Last week we had Sloppy Joes for dinner. At our house, we call them Sloppy Jims, because let's be honest, that's really what they are. After clearing his plate, Perry went in for seconds. JP cocked his head to the side and squinted his eyes a bit and asked "Are you having a Sloppy Daddy?" Haha...yes, I am!

The next day we ate outside on the deck. It looked like it might rain off in the distance. Hunter kept getting distracted at dinner with little things. At one point, I went "HUH! Hunter! Did you hear that?! I think it was thunder!" He got super excited because he loves hearing thunder. And that was that and he went on eating. About ten minutes later he belches at the table. I looked over at him and said sternly, "Hunter, what was that?!" Nonchalantly without missing a beat he responded, "Thunder. It was just thunder mom." 

I didn't realize it until recently, but I call Hunter and JP "the boys" a lot. A lot a lot. To the point that Hunter has now began to refer to himself as "the boys." Let me demonstrate:

H: Mom the boys are thirsty!

M: Who are the boys?

H: Hunter is. Jim is the kid.

M: Oh. Got it. So the boys are thirsty, but the kids aren't?

H: Yeah. Jim's not thirsty. Just Hunter is. 

M: Wow Hunter, you just managed to make that really confusing.

Fort of Blankets

Yesterday I was vacuuming the living room around 9am before Perry came home from work. I told Hunter he could play in the backyard for a little bit and I'd be out shortly. Soon after he went out, I glanced out the front window, for no particular reason, and spotted Hunter on his battery operated car "whizzing" down the street (going all of 1mph).  I wish I'd have grabbed my camera, because by the way he was sitting on it, I'm pretty sure he thought he was going 100mph. It did just get done recharging not too long ago.... Boy did I ever scare the pants off of him when I stormed up behind him and asked him what he was doing! Kudos to him for being able to open the gate that I struggle with...

Aside from it being simply too hot out, this is why we mostly decided to spend the day indoors...

On my Summer To-Do List is build a fort to sleep in. Yesterday was the perfect day to do so! I needed a little break from the "toddler on a bike" chasing, because that wasn't the only time it happened... Here's what we came up with...

 I spun the couch around to help hang the blankets, and used my sewing machine as a weight, as well as the box Grand-dad Henry E made. Oh yeah, thanks again for the quilts mom! They were the biggest blankets we had and worked wonders! The boys are forever greatful! : )

 And let me say this. For how excited Hunter and JP were that we were building a fort, my oh my were they ever patient with me...I'm not kidding you. It took me twenty minutes to set up one table...the other was a card table and was super simple...the other one, not so much. I almost gave up.

Both boys slept in the fort last night and did fairly well going to sleep without too much mom-intervention. Tonight though, JP sleep alone in it. Hunter couldn't calm down so he ended up in his room. Was I surprised? No.

Why God Made Moms...

A friend sent me this the other day in an email and it made smile! Hope you get a kick out of it too!

WHY GOD MADE MOMS

Answers given by 2nd grade school children to the following questions:

Why did God make mothers?
1. She's the only one who knows where the scotch tape is.
2. Mostly to clean the house..
3. To help us out of there when we were getting born.

How did God make mothers?
1. He used dirt, just like for the rest of us.
2. Magic plus super powers and a lot of stirring.
3. God made my mom just the same like he made me. He just used bigger parts.

What ingredients are mothers made of?
1. God makes mothers out of clouds and angel hair and everything nice in the world and one dab of mean.
2. They had to get their start from men's bones. Then they mostly use string, I think.

Why did God give you your mother and not some other mom?
1. We're related.
2. God knew she likes me a lot more than other people's mom like me.

What kind of a little girl was your mom?
1. My mom has always been my mom and none of that other stuff.
2. I don't know because I wasn't there, but my guess would be pretty bossy.
3. They say she used to be nice.

What did mom need to know about dad before she married him?
1. His last name.
2. She had to know his background. Like is he a crook? Does he get drunk on beer?
3. Does he make at least $800 a year? Did he say NO to drugs and YES to chores?

Why did your mom marry your dad?
1. My dad makes the best spaghetti in the world. And my mom eats a lot.
2. She got too old to do anything else with him.
3. My grandma says that mom didn't have her thinking cap on.

Who's the boss at your house?
1. Mom doesn't want to be boss, but she has to because dad's such a goof ball.
2. Mom. You can tell by room inspection. She sees the stuff under the bed.
3. I guess mom is, but only because she has a lot more to do than dad.

What's the difference between moms and dads?
1.. Moms work at work and work at home and dads just go to work at work.
2. Moms know how to talk to teachers without scaring them..
3. Dads are taller and stronger, but moms have all the real power 'cause that's who you got to ask if you want to sleep over at your friends.
4. Moms have magic, they make you feel better without medicine.

What does your mom do in her spare time?
1. Mothers don't do spare time.
2. To hear her tell it, she pays bills all day long.

What would it take to make your mom perfect?
1. On the inside she's already perfect. Outside, I think some kind of plastic surgery.
2. Diet. You know, her hair. I'd diet, maybe blue.

If you could change one thing about your mom, what would it be?
1. She has this weird thing about me keeping my room clean. I'd get rid of that.
2. I'd make my mom smarter. Then she would know it was my sister who did it, not me.
3. I would like for her to get rid of those invisible eyes on the back of her head.

I wonder how Hunter and JP would answer these in a few years......?

Happy 4th of July!

It's a few days late...but hey, Happy 4th! I hope everyone had a wonderful Wednesday! We sure did!

The boys and I took a trip to see Grandma and the parade. The last three years, Perry's dad has had his army jeep in the parade, but wasn't able to this year. So instead of riding in the jeep, we stood on the sidelines and observed.

Grandma helped the boys gather candy when it was thrown their way. 

 Poor little JP was pulling up his shorts all day. I sent Perry to the store to get more pull-ups for him, and he came back with 3T-4T for our toddler who is transitioning into 24M/2T clothes...so they were a little big for him. 

 "Mom! There's horseys!"

 At the time, I couldn't tell if Hunter enjoyed seeing the fire trucks up close because all he did was stare. By the time we got home, that's all he spoke about...and the candy he picked up.

 Someone was handing out flags at the beginning of the parade and to say the boys love them would be an understatement. It's now 3 days later and they are still obsessed with them. Though it doesn't seem to bother him, Hunter's flag pole was snapped in half by Aunt Kim's dog. Now they can't mix them up or the other gets upset!

 Just about after every time Hunter picked up candy, he wanted to take a break in the back of the car until more candy came. And then by the time he'd get out to get the just-thrown candy, he'd miss all of it. JP didn't have to be in the back of the car to miss all of it. He stood around pretty clueless just taking it all in. The kids next to us were really good about sharing with him! 

 After the parade was over, we spent the rest of the afternoon at Grandma's cabin. Hunter was kind of all over the place doing this and that with his squirt guns, but I managed to snag a picture of him on his trike. I can tell he really enjoys riding it!

 JP spent most of the afternoon buck-naked playing in buckets of water with the hose. He made me cold just watching him!

 Hunter eventually stripped down and climbed into a bucket. I don't know how! For one he's clearly too big for the bucket, but still managed somehow. And two, the water was ice cold!

 Grandma has a few deer that like to hang around. JP went down to check this doe out before she ran off. 

 By the time the early evening set in, the boys started getting a bit cranky. On the way home, they slept like rocks. After stopping to grab a few things at home, we headed to Aunt Kim's house for dinner. Once the night started setting in, I packed the boys up in the wagon and everyone walked about 3 blocks to the school to watch the city's fireworks. 

[And then my camera refused to work properly at night, so excuse the blurriness in these next few!]

 Here's the boys anxiously awaiting the fireworks show. This was their first real show and they were super excited to watch the "fire". I couldn't get it through Hunter's head that they were called fireworks, not just fire.

 Even if it wasn't the 4th of July, this is a great view of the city!

This is about the only picture that turned out. That firework was from the show they put off at the mall every year. Hunter was so excited for the fireworks that he refused to sit down. And then became a cranky mess throwing his sandals at me and JP. Thank goodness the show didn't last too long! 

Baseball Game with My Sister

One more thing to mark off on my Summer To Do List - A baseball game! Perry had to work, so I brought my sister Kim along with me. 

We had seats a few rows up and a little to the right of the home plate. For the most part, great seats! (I had a nice pillar directly in front of me)

It started out a little windy, which made it a bit chilly. I'm glad I brought my coat!

 One of the first highlights to the game, was Ollie the Osprey. I hate mascots! I like to watch them from a distance, but am terrified of the up close. And I'm pretty sure they can all sense this! On his way up the stands, Ollie stopped right by me (I was 3 seats from the isle) and "pretend" picked his nose, and then wiped the boogers on me.  

Because we came with a group of people (a work party), my sister and I were selected to be part of the 4th inning show. Kim chickened out so my co-worker, Alicia joined me. We were going to have a balloon popping competition against another co-worker, Bri, and her friend Beau. 

 Here's what we had to do: Run to the other end (maybe 30ft away?) and grab a balloon, run back and pop it in between our chests. Our popped instantly and I'm pretty sure I almost screamed. Was not expecting it to be that easy! Next balloon we had to pop between our backs. I reached around to try to press Alicia up against my back, and I vaguely recall grabbing her boob...oops! Sorry!

 Next balloon had to be popped by sitting on it. [Bri and Beau are still trying to pop the last balloon.] In case your wondering who the super hero is, that's Captain Clean-Up! 

On the last balloon, Alicia had to lay down and I had to lay down on top of her to pop it. As you can see...our competition had a major height disadvantage. 

 We walked away with our prize of size L Osprey t-shirts. It's turned out to be a nice pajama shirt!

For the most part, this is my gang. The stands were packed this game! We actually set the attendance record at 4,316 people for this game! I'm not sure what it normally is, but I'm glad I was part of the new record!

While they were getting ready for the fireworks, they put up pictures on the scoreboard of people at the game. In the 1st or 2nd inning they announced if you wanted to be on the screen to email your picture to Ollie. Kim was busy texting so she didn't hear me when I told her I was sending our picture in... : )

At the end of the show, they had a great fireworks show!

 This is one of my favorite pictures of the fireworks!

 But these were Kim and I's favorite!

Big Sky BBQ

My posts have been out of order these last few weeks....We've been so busy! Last Saturday, the boys went to see Grandma while Perry caught up on his sleep. I spent the afternoon volunteering at the Big Sky Barbecue where all the proceeds went to benefit the MT Food Bank Network. This is their third year doing the BBQ. I volunteered the first the year working at admissions. It was super windy, which made holding onto the money very tricky! But we made it work! 

 This year I worked at the beer station. I was supposed to be an ID checker, but they eliminated the booth this year and had admissions do the ID-ing. I handled the cash box in the *hot hot hot* sun...and I forgot my sunscreen so by the end of it, I was a little toasty and very pink! 

A couple of my unofficial favorite co-workers joined me at the beer station, but on the other side in the shade. I'm pretty sure my side sold more though....

Throughout the afternoon, there were four bands that played and various vendors that served food. I saw pulled pork and BBQ ribs on a lot of people's plates! Our city mayor was also there helping serve food. He later came over and helped call out beer orders. There's a picture with me and the mayor floating around on a journalists camera somewhere, and probably somewhere on Facebook too?

 Guess who else showed up? The dancers. [see video] I would bet that 75% of people in our city would know exactly who I was referring to just by saying "the dancers". They have got to be on something...? Normally the lady is up dancing too, but here she is play her pretend... banjo?