Mother's Day in Montana

Lucas had a basketball game at 8am, so once he got home at 9:30, we hit the road.

We decided to take the kids to Montana

 But, Montana is huge, so - we took them to a small part of it.

 Montana is also, gorgeous!

 Bannock is about 2 hours and 15 minutes from us.

We stopped for lunch. It was a gorgeous day.

Juliet and Mason ate their chicken salad sammmies by the river.

 By the river was a teepee. 

The kids went in, this particular one was one you rent and sleep in instead of a tent!

 They decided, this was an important feature (the carpet) and thought we should try it next time we go camping. I said I'd think about it.

Once we were finished eating, we headed into Bannock State Park.

Which is famous for being a haunted ghost town.

 Most of the houses/buildings you were allowed to go into.

 Lucas in the saloon, pretending to slide a sasparilla.

 The kids really enjoyed themselves. It was interesting that the state park let you touch everything.

 One of the houses I pretended to be a ghost and Bridget ran out of there like a mad woman.

The school house/masonic temple was my favorite.

 Each house had a number and on the map there was information about each place.

We came home, had dinner, and then went to church in the morning. The kids really loved handing out all of the "things" they had made. They were all adorable. Scarlett wrote me a recipe for her favorite food. Ham - lots of it. Cooked at 10,000 degrees for 5 minutes. There was more, but that was my favorite. Haha.

Our annual mothers day picture.

 Mason ran away so Nathan grabbed him and we took a quick family picture. Haha.

A cute Mothers Day and a fun little day trip. Love these peeps so much!

Weeds FHE

For Family Home Evening, we talked about Weeds in our life.

Weeds of contention, Weeds of behaviors.

We talked about how our family is a garden, and we need to get the weeds out of our life.

We talked about how weeds can suffocate plants, and our lives.

So, we went out to the front yard, and took care of the weeds.

Then we went to a nursery to buy some new flowers and trees.

I'm a sucker for succulents.

Then we came home and planted.

 

The kids were filthy, happy, and totally got the message. I love when everything just comes together like that.

Pack Meeting - Snakes!

Lucas is terrified of snakes.

I had to convince him to come to pack meeting, because he knew that I was trying to get him to get over it.

What helped was that I invited 2 other wards to come to this pack meeting, so Lucas got to see almost  all of his friends at school...at pack meeting.

The snake guy was incredible. He was perfect for our 70+ boys and they had a GREAT time.

This is where it gets interesting. I knew what was coming up, so I tricked Lucas into going up.

 And then the albino python came out and he was outta there. 

But, he only shed a few tears.

 The boys were very caring and kind and toldLucas and the 3 other crying boys that it would be okay.

Then, he sucked it up and finally pet the giant python.

(With tears in his eyes)

 It was fun, and they got a cool snake segment!

Easter

We decided to try a new way of dying eggs.

We used crayon shavings on hot eggs so that when the wax touched it - it melted!

This is the new preferred method of dying/coloring eggs.

It is very clean, and pretty once the crayon dries.

We had a little hunt, and then had a quick (unplanned/last minute) trip to a freinds cabin in Island Park for conference/easter.

We have been keeping busy in Idaho.

Brandon Mull *Lucas's favorite author* came to the kids school to do a presentation, then had a book signing at Barnes and Noble.

Lucas is mad that in this picture Brandon is holding up the Candy Shop War book instead of the Beyonders or Fablehaven (the 2 series he actually loves)

We had him sign all of our books. 

I finished up the school yearbook, and a few other things for the kids school.

Tomorrow is a Super Pack Meeting that I planned and Friday we get to celebrate our birthdays!!!