It's nice to have friends...with boats.

Our friend Ben has a nice boat and he let us ride around on it with some friends on Sunday. Ty, Kyler and our two boys were riding in the front, acting like they owned it. 

Mike did a great job trying to surf.  It's tougher than it looks. (No pictures of my measly attempt -- it was too short to grab a camera. :()

This blurry picture is to show you that Derek doesn't need a kid to go on a nice,s low tube ride. Ben on the right is our boat owner friend, and those are his two cute daughters. 

Kyler, Luke and Josh tok some epic spills!  They rode around like maniacs, it was so fun! 

Ty is a little more timid, so he rode around in the boat and held my hand the whole time.  So sweet. 

This is the ride home...little different looking than the ride up.

He's not posing, he's conked out. 

My Husband Relives His Childhood

Saturday night we set off some fireworks after dark.  Mike was SO happy to help the kids make memories like this.  (He may or may not have been more excited than the kids...)

Sparklers are always super fun.  Josh does them with a mission, so intensely.  Luke does them in a twirly fiddle-farty way. 

Grandparents are Fun!

We took the grandparents to Headwaters State Park, at Josh's request.  He took a field trip there at the last week of school and wanted to share his newfound knowledge with them.  

He took us to the pictographs.

Once again Luke was not thrilled with walking  Here we are at the top of the little hill, and he was not pleased. 

Then we came home and set off some day-fireworks.  Luke was pulling the string off of a exploding confetti one here. 

So is Josh.  Why wouldn't you climb to the top of the playhouse???

Anniversary Dinner

We went to dinner at Second Street Bistro in Livingston, which was delicious. Then we came to Red Chair for a few drinks closer to home.  The view was incredible. 

Mike got all artsy with his beer...inspired you might say. 

We Have Washington Cousins!

 Mike's Cousin Amy and her family made a quick visit to Bozeman and stayed with us.  They have boys ages 9, 7 and 2.  It was so much fun to finally introduce our boys to each other.

They played basketball in the driveway until sunset.  Kam is such a good dad, he played with them the whole time! 

Josh played defense by hanging on the rim and shoving his head through the net. Isaak is on his team, and is on the hood of the Heavy Chevy with Luke.  

We could have moved the truck I guess...but look at how fun this is?  

Much later into the evening we asked the boys to get ready for bed.  

Kam works for Omni Group (part of Apple) so his sons both had iPods.  They immediately took selfies and sent each other iMessages with zillions of emojis.  

Say CHEEEESE!

This was the final sleeping arrangement, cozy as bugs in rugs. 

The next morning they had gatorade at the bar.  Tough guys. 

We went to the Museum of the Rockies and the kids did a science experiment involving candy.  Pretty cool!

I couldn't get over how cute they are in a row. Even simple things like watching a video made me smile. 

Terrible picture, but cool moment. 

Climbing on and near Big Mike was super fun. Terrible lighting but to get 5 boys to look at us was impossible. 

Josh ran into Big Mike's leg and cut his eyebrow open.  I thought nothing of it until he said "I think it's bleeding" and I looked over to see this! 

Strangely enough, Isaak had recently had a steri-strip type cut too, so Amy had steri-strips in her purse. We doctored Josh up in no time and then made the bruiser cousins pose together. 

Don't they look like they're asking for trouble? 

Close up.  The steri-strips didn't make it overnight, they fell off, so he's going to just have a little scar on his eyebrow.  He's got three scars so far. He's 9.  Sheesh, I feel like we need to get him a helmet. 

The week in pictures, part 1

MONDAY
We took Ruby for a walk at the dog park, which is so cool because they have a pump for water.  Luke and Josh loved this and spent a long time making sure the water level was just right. 

The park has a loop to walk around, and Luke was not having it.  He rode on my back for a bit, so why not selfie it?  

TUESDAY -- Our fifteenth anniversary.  Mikey sent me some flowers.  

The boys finished up their Bobcat Camp and got autographs on their T-shirts.  So cool. 

Tough guys.

Goofballs! I love when they do piggybacks.  I wonder how much longer they'll be able to do that.

After camp treat.  Look at how full Josh's dish is!  He said it was 16 ounces -- a pound of fro yo!!

THURSDAY - Luke wanted to sleep on the couch because it's summer time.  Why not? 

Josh volunteered to pose in the dinosaur's mouth.  It's a pretty real smile, too bad he's looking away. 

Ballers

Tough guys, all ready for football camp at the Bobcat Stadium.  They're seriously excited about camp, I promise.  

They are assigned to the Cowboys and the Seahawks. Luke could not be happier.  

I love the jerseys and how big they are now...just a few years until they're not so big on them.  At least Luke's shorts are showing, unlike the litlte guy in the orange behind him.  They're lining up to catch passes from a coach before camp started.  

The Big Hole

For Father's Day we went fishing on the Big Hole River.  It's a favorite of Mike's (and of all of ours now!), and it's so far away that we don't do it often so it's a treat!

The pictures are mostly all blurry because I took them from my iphone and forgot to wipe the lens before I took them. When will I learn? 

This is at the put-in, when the boys are rip roarin' ready to go! 

It's such a pretty river! We floated from Divide to Melrose, which is about 14.5 river miles.  The fly shop said it takes about 5-6 hours but we took about 8 1/2 hours.  Mike and I guess that 3 of those hours were spent dedicated to untying knots. 

It was a big day!  Josh caught 7 fish.  This arctic grayling (with the big dorsal fin), a tiny trout and 5 whitefish.

The boys are getting to be big helpers. They are net men, and Luke is completely self-sufficient at the spinner rod. They're growing into nice little fisherboys.

This is one of the many knot-fixing stops.  Josh and Luke are having a dance party, daddy is working diligently on a knot and who knows what I'm doing. I love Josh's real smile in this picture. 

Here's Josh's tiny trout. It counts.
In other news, Luke is trying to like soda. He likes the flavor of root beer, but not the fizz. Here he is with Funyuns and a root beer, living large. 

Seriously, does it get cooler than this? I love that they're both small enough to sit up there. 

Ruby is so curious about these fish. She needs to know what they're all about, but she's not too sure she trusts them. 

Luke gave fly fishing a try, and he did great!  Check that sassy stance. 

I'm so bummed this picture is blurry.  It's so hard to pull in a fish on a fly rod. Josh said that each fish feels like a whale, and I think Luke is proving that to us here. 

Poor Mike.  He rowed for all but about 30 seconds of that trip -- I tried to learn to row, but I just don't get it. I need practice. He fished for a few minutes total, and he caught a nice one right away!  

We saw a mommy moose and two babies -- the mom was smart and moved off the bank before we floated by. It was very cool to be so close and see such young ones. 

We stopped at a truck stop and Luke found this Bobber Cooler, which is such a funny joke. He thinks if you want to fish big, you need big bait.  He also made me take three pictures of him by it, and this is the one he was happy with. I think he is trying to look tough.