Life has been busy, but pretty simple here. We are all doing really great and enjoying the extreme Montana weather. Now that Christmas is done, I can take a minute to document what we have been up to!
The soccer and volleyball season was a busy time. Tegan and Anika enjoyed their sports, but we were happy to have them wrap up and spend less time driving around town. At the end of the season, Tegan was one of the team’s best servers!
It snowed early in October and we were able to drive 15 minutes out of town to visit the local ski area and play in the snow. They were having a Raptor Festival.
There are so many great opportunities here in town. MSU had a Girls in Engineering day one Saturday, so I took the girls. This picture was taken in a classroom where I took classes back in the day!
The event was fun. The girls got to make little cement pumpkins out of recycled fly ash and glass, taste ice cream made with liquid nitrogen, and try to “program” a blindfolded lady to make a s’more with just words.
Later that same day we went out to the local “pumpkin farm”. We had a nice time there, but it wasn’t the same as Washington farms! They don’t actually grow the pumpkins here. They must truck them in from somewhere and lay them out in a field. At least they still had animals and a corn maze.
Mike had a conference in October on a week the girls had two days off of school. The girls and I decided to drive down to Billings to see my Gramma and Grampa Schraer because I was in trouble for not getting down there sooner! The girls still love the park across the street…like I did when I was little!
Mike and Kelby ventured into Yellowstone on their own one day. I can’t remember why the rest of us didn’t go, but it looks like they had fun!
Kelby went to the High School Homecoming Dance in October. I don’t remember it being a formal affair when I was a kid, but everyone got dressed up. She didn’t go with a boy, but met up with some friends at the dance. She looked beautiful!
It was so fun to have my sister and her family come for a visit at the end of October! I have missed those kids and they are so sweet and cute! Makayla is a ball of funny energy and Gabe is a smart, strong young man!
I tried to show them around town, but there wasn’t a ton to do that week. I had to work while they were here. My sister made us some delicious chili stew that was amazing!
Makayla can entertain herself for hours with Littlest Pet Shop characters! She has a great imagination!
We wandered into Yellowstone Park on my day off. We didn’t get to go in too far, but it was fun to see it in the cold. Those Arizonans were freezing, but we had fun!
The most exciting thing we did was visit the Boiling River and get in! Andrea, the kids, and I had are swimsuits on and wandered down the river. We were either burned or freezing until we got down to a nice deep pool that felt just like a hot tub! Fun in nature! Victor didn’t venture in, but stayed back to get pictures!
I had to resort to buying my pumpkins at the grocery store so we could carve them this year. So weird!
We were having the best time at Walmart!
All the cousins!
On Halloween we took the kids downtown to trick-or-treat in the afternoon so they wouldn’t miss out. They had to fly out that evening. We started out with a nice, hot cup of coffee to warm up.
So cute!
Tegan is in choir this year. Their concert was very enjoyable. I have never been to a choir concert before! She loves singing!
Later in November we had to go out to get our family picture. This was about 15 minutes from our house in Highlight Canyon. It is beautiful!
For Thanksgiving we drove back to Washington! It was strange venturing back to our old stomping grounds. The girls visited their friends and we drove by our old house. Whoever lives there must be fun because it was decked out in massive Christmas decorations! We couldn’t see everyone we wanted to see, but did our best!
We loved staying with Gramma and Grampa. It is kind of nice to get big doses of our family! We made more than a few walks down to Haggens to visit Starbucks!
Can you believe I wrote a “book” in the month of November?! Well, it was really just 50,000 words that I wouldn’t let anyone read, but it was a challenge and I won! I joined NaNoWriMo this year on a whim. They had a local bunch of gals that would get together to write and I joined them a couple times. They taught me a lot and I enjoyed the process of just free writing (no editing allowed)! I had to finish it up while we were in Washington, but I did it! Less than 25% of those that take up the challenge for National Novel Writing Month actually finish, so that was a big accomplishment!
The food and family for Thanksgiving Day were fantastic! It made us miss everyone more all over again! All too soon it was time to head back to Montana. Luckily the roads were good and we beat a big storm.
On the way home I looked up the paper on my phone and found an ad for some 3/4 Jack Russell, 1/4 Dachshund puppies in the paper. We had watched the dog show on Thanksgiving and some dog agility trials on TV over the break, so we had dogs on our minds. When I found the ad, Mike and I were sold. The girls have been wanting a dog for ages. In fact, it was all they wanted for Christmas! Now we will be home for a stretch without visitors, so we were ready to commit.
Mike and I went and picked a puppy the very next morning. I took the puppy to work with me to hide him from the girls and had our neighbor watch him after I got home. After dinner that night we quick decorated the Christmas tree and then sneakily brought a box down to put under the tree. Dad thought they could open the present early and ….
…their dreams came true! They were so happy and couldn’t believe it was real. Reality of a puppy has now hit our household, and while hard sometimes, is a sweet reality! His name is Dyson.
We got in some of our traditional advent activities in December. The girls still love this tradition. Here is our Christmas tea party. I am glad that we were able to keep something the same even though this year is so different for us.
The Tuesday after Thanksgiving gave us a great bunch of snow! It came with a great freeze too!
This picture is out my window at work!
The weather was way below zero. Here is crazy Mike after running 5 miles in 10 degrees BELOW zero! By the way, it is hard to potty train a puppy in that kind of weather!
Bozeman has an annual Christmas Stroll in their downtown. We have been waiting years to make it back there…we had wanted to visit more than a few times over the years. The bummer is that it was 18 degrees BELOW zero before we left to go home that night! We still had fun eating cold food and doing some shopping. Kelby and Tegan didn’t get to come because they were at Acquire the Fire in Billings with their youth group.
We had Anika to ourselves for the weekend!
December brought quite a few Christmas parties for us! We had one with Mike’s work team. The kids were invited to that one. Then we were three others from his work for adults. I had fun meeting his co-workers.
Then, we had our own party. Well, the girls had a party anyway. When I was trying to make my holiday plans, Mike made the suggestion and it was a hit! Each girl invited a few friends. I had games and tons of food. It was nice to meet their new friends!
I got Kelby to go out one Saturday to learn to play carols on her ukulele with the local club. She was excited to go, but not so much when she realized she was the youngest. They sounded so good. I hope she’ll try again another day. I guess this group gets together quite often.
We made our traditional gingerbread house, but this year I got a kit where everyone made their own small one.
As Christmas neared, the city flooded the ice skating rinks. We went to Play-It-Again to get everyone outfitted into skates. Now we are ready to go skating anytime!
One more Christmas tea party!
On Christmas Eve, we didn’t have to go far to find a sledding hill. The snow wasn’t the best by this time. It had an icy glaze, but it actually made the sledding fast! Too bad that a sickness hit our house before Christmas. Everyone was getting over a stomach bug and Tegan woke up with a sore throat on Christmas Eve.
We loved our church’s real candlelight service that night! It was just like I remember as a kid.We came home afterward and ate a dinner of appetizers and watched the movie, The Nativity, like we do every year. We opened our present from Gramma and Grampa Wright and were super cozy in our new pjs!
Christmas morning was laid back and no rush. We opened stockings and presents from us before having our traditional breakfast. Do you like my fake fireplace?! It works great for Christmas.
Then we video chatted with Gramma and Grampa Morrow and opened their presents!
Then, Mike took a nap with the puppy.
Isn’t Dyson adorable!?
We made it out ice skating before our yummy dinner of prime rib.
The girls are excited to have a break from school. I still have to work a bit, so that is a bummer. At least they are there to take care of and train the puppy during the day! I plan on reading and writing more in January. We have Anika’s birthday today, but I’ll update on that next time.
I hope everyone had a great Christmas and is looking forward to the new year! This last year has been a very strange one for us, but we are all happy and doing well.
Blessings to you all!
Shawna
