Birthday BBQ, Girlscout camp, day at the river and a baseball game

I haven't had a chance to update this for awhile so I figured I would get all three added at once. My birthday was last week and my aunt was heading back to Texas so we went and had a family get together. My sister made the cutest cake and my uncle did some BBQ hamburgers. Here are just a few pics of the night, we mostly just sat around and talked so not much to say with it.

Last weekend Emily had girl scout camp, we left Friday after work and didn't finish till Sunday. We got to Red Lodge and then somehow missed a big giant sign pointing us to ski road and ended up on this little tiny tons of turns road that lead to the top of a mountain. I have to say that is the scariest road I have ever drove on, but once we got to almost the top it was so pretty. We finally were able to get turned around and going back down was not easier. Once we got to camp we got checked in and got our cabin,

then it was time for dinner and campfire. The first night it was rainy so we had our campfire in the lodge and the older girls did skits and we all sang songs until it was bed time. Emily woke up at 5:30 the next morning so we went for a little walk to try and keep from waking up our cabin roommate. I thought it would be fun to walk down the road and check out the stream that was running down there. We take off and as we get towards the end of camp we hear something bark and howl and then see something black running though the forest at us, then it changed directions. Emily starts freaking out saying it was a wolf, I told her it was a guard dog for camp (inside I was also freaking out thinking it was a wolf). We went back to the shower cabin to take a shower before everyone else was up, then we found out the hot water didn't work, lets say it was a really fast shower. After that it was off to flags, breakfast, dishes and then our first activity. Emily picked campfire and knife safety. We learned a few different types of fire and how to build them, like the log cabin fire and a tea pee fire. Then they taught us how to use a knife safety and how to carve sticks and gave Emily a knife safety badge (cat was her camp name, mine was sunshine). After that we moved to jewelry making and made bracelets and earring's. Once we got that all done we had a little free time so we went down to the stream with a couple girls from Laural. Then went on a little hike with some of the girls in our group here in Billings and came across some old covered wagons, without the covers. There was some very pretty scenery so here is just a few random photo's of around camp.



After that was lunch and then we did tie die and candle making.
On Saturday night we were able to have our real camp fires and make smores,
this was Emily's favorite part of the camp. On Sunday it was our turn to do flags and Emily was in charge of the girl scout flag. Once we got them up it was time to eat and leave, it was only about 9:30 so we went up to this lake on the way home with one of Emily's friends and her mom.
It was so pretty I think I will take the kids up there another time this summer and go for a good hike. We then started to head home when I decided I wasn't ready to go yet, so we crashed the campsite of my Mom, her husband and Cody and spent the rest of the day on the river. Cody caught a 17.5 inch fish over the weekend, it was the biggest one fish and game had measured that day. Cody got a few other fish that day and Emily even got one. He also started tossing out the anchor on the boat, tie it off and pulling it up to shore.

I cant get over how much he is growing up on me. Tonight someone gave us some tickets for the Mustang game so we went and watched some of it. It started raining and I didn't plan well for clothes so we had to leave early, but the kids had so much fun.
Cody liked this guy because he could throw the ball so fast, Emily like this guy the best because he is so cute.
Its been such a fun week, I'm so not ready for summer to end.

What to do when the kids get home

The kids got home from Tennessee on Wednesday night and on Thursday night we went to a BBQ. My aunt Laura was in town from Texas so all the family that lives in Billings meet up. It was nice to see everyone like that, we don't get a chance to do it often. We all sat around and chatted, Cody tried to choke Timmy, and Emily talked Laura into pushing her on the swing all night. After that we came home and went back to normal for Friday. On Saturday I was trying to decided if we should go to the lake or to the pool and I decided to skip water and go exploring. I called up a friend of mine to ask if she would like to join us and off we went to this really cool hike trail up in the mountains that I went to last summer. On the way up we found this one "town" for a bite to eat. In the back area there was a cool swing set, with the prefect size sings for Emily. Then they rode the horse, so it was just a wood horse but Emily loved it. The area is so pretty, even if the water was low and the green is starting to go brown. Emily loved to stop and look at the flowers, while Cody just wanted to walk. When we back to the parking lot there was a really nice truck, and the wheels were almost bigger then Emily. Here are some of the shots from our hike.










After we came back down we decided to take a different way home and came across another small town that was having a big party. The kids were off to ride horses, and this time it was a real one.
After that they got to fire off paint guns and bows. The kids then decided they had to climb the rock wall so up they both went, and they both made it to the top. They had some really old tour bus from the 50's that they used in Yellowstone Park and then one that President Roosevelt used when the went though Glacier Park.
On the way back to the car Cody and Emily had to become cats. I knew there was a reason Montana isn't that bad, its all about the summer here.