Jim's Birthday

Jim turned 50! on Friday, so we celebrated with good friends, good food and lots of laughs.
Happy Birthday Jim!

JoDee , Michelle & Jeannette

Lori & Dan

Lori & I

Most of the boys

Debbie was a big help in the kitchen!

The dining room table group

The kitchen table group where Dan kept us entertained

About to blow out his candles

Singing Happy Birthday

Hope your wish comes true!

The girls made this sign for Jim and had the guests add things to the list. :)

Big Hike

We attempted a big family hike this year and we were successful! Peyton and I made it to Rimrock Lake--12 miles total! She was amazing, did just great the whole time. Maddie & Jim kept going to Rainbow Lake--14 miles round trip. Maddie was determined to go farther than last year. She is an awesome hiker.

We had our friends the Kaveneys along for the trip, which made for good peer pressure! Had beautiful weather, lots of raspberries to pick along the way and even saw a couple mountain goats.

the hikers with Lucky the dog leading the way
Peyton & Maddie at Elk LakeJim looking surprised to see meListening to music along the way.RimrockAlmost there!Self timer in the shade Peyton & Claire getting wet on the way home.

Billings

We had a great time in Montana for our annual vacation. We spent just one day at the beginning in Billings but we packed a lot in:

Coffee at Sugar & Spice with Jeni & Jeri

And dinner at Penny & Dan's and a sleepover for just the girls (including Sophie).

Billings

Just back from 2 weeks in Montana--we had a really great time. So many photos, not sure how I can do our vacation justice, but here's part 1: our first two days in Billings.

Gramma Great had us over for breakfast the first morning.

Penny & Dan took us to a Mustang game at the beautiful new stadium.
Aunt Penny & I
Gramma & the girls cheering on the Mustangs
(notice both girls brought their gloves to catch foul balls--and ended up getting lots of autographs!)
A morning visit with Jeni, Bo, Brooke & Blake

Sleepover

Girls are spending their last night in Billings at Penny & Dan's. The plan was to have pizza, go to the Dairy Queen and then paint fingernails & toenails. Peyton literally asked me every ten minutes ALL day today if it was time to go to Penny's yet. They were very excited!

Family

Billing is crawling with relatives and we've seen a lot of them, including those pictured here: Josh home on leave from Iraq and our cousin Ellie who we've never met.

Thanks to Penny & Dan for having us all over for dinner last night so we could see everyone at once.