The trek!

We started the drive from Ohio to Montana and had great adventures. The boys did so great and I think I whined more than they did. We had great weather and stopped at hotels along the way and then let the boys play while we slept in and then headed for the pool for a few hours before we hit the road again. We had to stop in at Wall Drug along the way of course and get some dinosaur toys and treats and play a bit. On we go to Wyoming!

Sheridan

We made great time on the way to Montana so we decided to swing down to Sheriday and say hi to some old friends. We had to stop at the Brinkerhoff ranch and say hello. It was weird being there and having our minds flooded with so many memories of life before kids. It is a very pretty place that we will never forget.

We had to take a pic of our old stomping ground. This was the home we lived in while in Sheridan across from the Brinkerhoff ranch. We lived here free of rent(except for two days a month Trent became a ranch hand) and free phone(except for taking care of their very old dog-Patches) and loved every second of it.

Montana

We made it! The gang of little boys immediately snatched Ryan and Raef up and out they went to Papa's backyard for water fun and eating raspberries. Ryan ate a bucketfull I think.

There was a lot of little boys running around Dad's house when we joined our two more in. Raef instantly remembered Jared and they became best buds again and Ryan tagged along with everyone. Our boys had so much fun running with the Heidema gang.

The last view of the siblings before the big campout. It was short and sweet this year. Lots of fun. We were all ready to get going and get dirty!

When we arrived, we set up camp quickly before fishing and tried to get some logs that were big enough for the amount of people that were coming soon to sit on around the fire. This seemed like the perfect one until we realized how long it really was. We took turns hacking on this thing for an hour and then finally got it. We were all soaking wet and Matt was covered in slugs! Nasty! He didn't even realize he had a whole family strewn across his arm(mostly dead of course.)

This was really quite the scene. Matt and all of his sisters out trying to load the boat into the water when the shore wasn't completely settled. Oh boy! Or maybe I should say, "Oh girls?!" He really was very patient with us. The truck got stuck, I got knocked into the water and then shaken by the nice lab dog helping us, and even managed to lose my sunglasses! But we couldn't stop laughing at the scene. As soon as we got out and going it was a perfect evening. We caught lots of fish and just enjoyed the scenery and eachother.

The rest of the family joined us on Saturday morning and we got camp set up, fishing poles ready, and took off for the river. Some people were fishing, some 4-wheeling, some kissing (Dad), some floating on innertubes, and some just chilling. It was so fun! Raef loved learning how to string the pole.

Mom and Doug met us on Saturday and spent some time meeting everyone and just catching up. Mom delivered her handful of presents as always and then they headed to the river too.

Matt, Becca, and Hyrum

Looking good stud!

The kids spent the day on the river and had a blast floating along with the current until they hit Jen and Dad who steered them back around to the shore. It was a beautiful day and the water felt just perfect.

Raef made sure to get his fair share of fish too! He was catching them all over the place.

We broke the group up to go fishing the last day and we got lucky to have Dad come and fish with the boys! What a memory! The boys will probably never cherish those moments as much as there mom will. Jen and her crew fished with us and then played catch the frog and dead fish catch. A few games I tried to avoid. Yuck!

Hey! What are looking at? You just watch! I'll catch the biggest fish out here!

Told you!

Goobers was all grins with this big catch! And so was I!

As Trent and I discussed how much fun it was to fish with the boys, he commented on Matt and said, " he just really doesn't care if he gets dirty does he? He could have fish guts, boogers, blood, and slugs all over him and it wouldn't even phase him." That's just Matt. And we love it! And thank goodness, we all stood over him as he rescued, killed, and unhooked many fish. I honestly don't think we could pull a trip off like this without him. He really is irreplaceable.

This is me in my happy place. I love fishing! Sometimes, I think that the perfect trip to just relax and find myself would be fishing. All alone...well maybe with Matt or Dad in tow also.

Beartooth Pass

Beartooth Pass is a hard place to even describe. It is probably our favorite place to visit and if it is at all possible to live near it, near Red Lodge area, we would die to live there. Just the smell of the pine makes us crazy to get there. The road winds up the mountain, above the clouds, and pretty much straight into heaven. It is out of this world crazy beautiful and literally takes your breath away. It's freezing! The boys played on glaciers and explored for awhile while we snapped pictures. We drove from Billings to Red Lodge and then over the pass and then entered Yellowstone and went through to Idaho. What an amazing drive!

I wish I could just climb right into this picture. It's beyond words beautiful.

I love moose! If you have been to my house you already know this. So I couldn't believe we actually came this close to one. I haven't seen a moose since we lived in Jackson and there it was a regular occurrence. Even better, though was when I climbed out of our sunroof to take a picture and saw the baby tucked into the brush a little ways back. So cute!!! I didn't get a clear shot but it still shows how cute the little one was.

This is not the best of pics but it definitely captures what we dealt with for well....I'm not sure I even want to add up how many hours we were in the car! Ryan was quite content if he had a car in each hand. But if he dropped one of them then we were all ready to jump out of the car! I bet I unstrapped my seat belt at least 50 times each way to find a car that he just could not live without! I eventually just moved to sit between the boys and made it much easier on all of us. And then I laughed of course as Trent duplicated my actions as I drove and enjoyed not moving!

We usually see a lot of elk through Teton National Forest but we weren't there at a very good time this year so we are proud of these pictures. Not many people got to see them.

The Falls in Idaho

We arrived in Idaho and spent 2 days washing clothes and getting ready to go camping in Wyoming for a week. The boys had a great day at Grandmas finding all of their toys(Trent and Cam's old toys) and making lots of messes. They played in the sprinkler and jumped on the trampoline for hours. They sure do love Grandmas house. And Ryan ate another bucket full of her raspberries. We met up with some old friends(Carters) and enjoyed the free babysitting. Man, do we wish we had the perks of living by family. We had to take the boys to the falls and let them torture the ducks. Ryan chased one duck around all over the park and Raef thought it was so cool to feed the ducks! Grandma was a little nervous with all of the rocks. She said she was out of practice with little ones and gets to nervous now.

Family pic

Wyoming sweet Wyoming

In Montana, Ryan would not even come close to a 4-wheeler. He cried every time we tried. But then we got to Wyoming and we are not sure what happened, but he did a complete 180. We could not keep him off of them. He would go on a ride on one and then come back and jump on another one and say that was his favorite and do the same pattern for hours. And if

he and Raef didn't get to ride on their favorite ones, well, life as we knew it was over. Seriously! One night I was driving him around and he didn't want to get off and as I stopped to take a break from the dust, he almost toppled right off and I realized he had fallen asleep!

Aunt Erin was such a champ as always, playing and entertaining the boys for hours. They worship her and talk about her every day. She is the best aunt they could ever ask for and even though she entered the realm of teenage years, she still managed to get down and play with them just like old times.

This is a view that makes Trent weak in the knees. It is taken from the top of the mountain that the Buttars family owns and is overlooking Palisades Lake. This is where he feels most at home I think. He loves this place. As does Grandpa. He lived here for awhile after his mission skiing and working at Jackson Hole and back country skiing every mountain you can see. This was where he spent his "glory days" I guess you could say.

Trent makes me look good! Seriously, though we are having way too much fun with our new camera and thanks to Grandpa Harris, we are actually starting to understand what we can do!

Grandma and Raef. We could not keep these boys off the four-wheelers. Thank goodness Grandma and Erin like riding them just as much!

Jennys Lake

We had to make the stop off at Jennys lake and take the ferry across the lake. The boys loved it! We hiked to a waterfall and then had a picnic lunch before deciding to hike the 3 miles back instead of ride the boat. We weren't sure if the boys would make it but we gave it a try. They did fantastic and didn't putter out until the very end. They said they did better when they had their shirts off. Oh of course! What was I thinking! And Raef had a whole new wind after he went to the bathroom on the side of the trail. He said, "mom, that's why I was tired. I knew something was wrong. It was because I had all that mushy stuff inside my belly making my superhero powers weak." Yeah, I'm sure that was exactly what it was! Aaaahhh, I love these little people!

Is that the cutest hiker you've ever seen or what?!

I love this picture! All the boys looking at those fish and waiting for the girls to get their stuff together so they could start hiking! Come on!

Two cute boys!

Ready to hike!

Yellowstone

We decided to leave Alpine, Wy for the day and travel up to Yellowstone. It was a long day of driving but we got to see a lot! Probably not a trip we will do again for awhile with little ones! Everyone wanted to get out and run. We didn's see many animals until dusk and then we were bombarded. Trent and Grandpa planned it perfectly so we were going through the right place at dusk. The boys did great but Goobers definitely thought that he was going to push his luck with the "no jumping into the hot pools" request. We had to keep a close eye on him. A fun day though in the end.

Yes, Ryan that says "another stinky pot!"

Breathtaking!

Leave it to me to cause another traffic jam. I wish my memory worked as good as my spotting eyes! Trent snuck up just a bit to get this fantastic pic. Check out those kahoneys! That's a big boy right there!