Our summer playlist

Happy Fall everyone and yes I'm drinking a pumpkin spice latte right now!!! I feel like I just got done writing my fall blog last year.  This year has flown by. It's almost been 2 years since we moved to Montana and we are absolutely loving it.  We have an amazing community, church, great friends and who doesn't love Montana in the summer!!

Like I said who doesn't love summer in Montana! We took an amazing camping trip to Benchmark Wilderness - just northwest of Helena.  While looking for a camp spot - Brian ran up this hill to check out a road before we took the camper up and Brian found the spot of all spots.  A 25ft waterfall, creek and a beautiful view of the valley below.  We set up camp and enjoyed such a great weekend hiking, fire-pitting, dancing, eating and playing in the water.

I got to go home at the beginning of August to spend a long weekend with Dad and Preston.  It was so good to have some quality time with my guys before Preston took off to Duke.  We stayed at dad's new place in Longmont - he is remodeling his place and it is going to be beautiful.  I'm so happy for him.  We spent time laughing, kayaking, eating, and enjoying some great great time together. So thankful to have such amazing men in my life.  

Holland Lake - one of the most beautiful places I have ever been.  We had been told to go here and lucked out finding one reservation left in August! On our way we unfortunately saw a lightning strike which started a fire; we weren't sure we were even going to be camping.  But luck was on our side.  The wind was blowing the opposite direction and we had lovely weather and hardly any smoke.  We borrowed some friends' kayaks and spent a lot of time kayaking, playing in the water, and fishing! It was an incredible trip- I would recommend Holland Lake to anyone looking for a beautiful location!!

Ahh Gavin!! Where do I begin.  Gavin is the loudest, happiest, fun loving and intriguing kid I know.  He goes nowhere without making a friend.  He started up his second year of Preschool at Our Redeemers Lutheran Church.  He is in the 4 year old class with Mrs. Robertson and has a new favorite buddy Robbie - I think the two of them can create quite the storm together:) We are so proud of him and feel so lucky to be his parents!! 

Gav also turned 4 at the end of August and somehow we managed to not take a single picture.  But we had a great time celebrating our buddy.  Gav picked out the cake he wanted from the boxed cake isle (we all know I'm not the type to home-make a cake) and he chose a tie-dye cake with funfettii frosting.  We made the cake together, in a bunt pan, and when it came out of the oven and cooled off (or so I thought) I dumped the cake out and half came out perfect the other half crumbles:( I was so sad.  Gav said "it's okay mom" thankful for his grace.  It still tasted delicious.  We then ate Gav's chosen meal - hot dogs, Cheetos and chocolate milk.  It was a great night, we even busted out the slip and slide!! Hard to believe our baby is 4.

Gavin and Sage both got to meet Nana and Papa in Missoula and fly to Colorado Springs for a week.  They got to spend time with their cousins, go to the zoo, go golfing with Papa and have some amazing quality time with Nana and Papa.  We were really anxious about them being gone for so long.  Once the anxiety wore off we had an great time.  Unfortunately it was really smokey outside due to the fires - so we didn't get to play outside as much as we wanted.  We had talked about a backpacking trip, but settled for hiking, kayaking down the Missouri, dinner with friends, sleeping in, enjoying one another and a quiet house.  Thanks so much for the wonderful gift of time together.  It was really fun connecting without constant interruption.  But after a week we were yearning for the laughter, noise and chaos that comes with our kiddos.  They were missed!

At the end of September Robb, Brian's previous colleague, came out for a quick visit.  The guys had a great time catching up! They were even able to make it out for a hike, enjoy a local micro-brew or two, play out in the water and enjoy a little bit of Helena.  Robb loved Helena - Brian's trying to convince him to get a summer cabin up here:)  Thanks for visiting!!

The garden! We have loved our garden.  Gavin and I have spent a lot of time tending to the garden - weeding, harvesting, watering and saying hello to the humongous garden spider that took up residency next to a tomato plant (he was named Gavin).  It was so much fun to eat what we grew - we enjoyed Zucchini every way possible but probably our favorite was zucchini bread:), tomato sandwiches, vegetable medley, corn on the cob and delicious green beans and carrots. The freezer is also stocked nicely for winter.  The garden will probably be wrapping up quickly as it is supposed to snow Sunday...

We took out our friends jet skis last weekend - we decided to take advantage of the last hot weekend and take the kids out for a spin.  Gavin was in heaven- Brian couldn't go fast enough for him, Sage liked it too - but it was a bit "too windy" for her liking:)  Gav has been fishing with Bri a few times this summer and I think he is going to be a natural - he's not afraid to get in the water and get a little dirty.  Gav is also obsessed with a Bow - he's been in the habit of shooting the moon (the literal moon) every night before bed - it's very cute!