Cheerleading and Home Depot Workshop

This weekend was kind of a laid back weekend. On Saturday morning we took Emily to her cheer leading. They had pictures so they did that first, during the group shot the little girl next to Emily kept putting her pom pom in Emily's face, this is the only photo I was able to get where you could see her. Then went to cheer for a few minutes. After they did the cheering the YMCA had a "tailgate party". They had tables of food and drinks for everyone, so we got some breakfast and headed down to Home Depot where we were meeting my sister and her girls. We got down there and they had a firetruck and a ambulance for the kids to look in. After that we went to do the craft and after lots of hammering we finished with fire station piggy banks. That was about all we did this weekend, Emily had a birthday party and we just chilled around the house.

Corn Maze and Emily Cheering

Today was Emily's first cheer game. She did a very good job and was so cute. They have only had one practice so they didn't know the cheers very well but by the end they were fired up. Here is a video of her doing the three cheers they knew, the wind was kind of bad so its a little hard to understand them. The first one is one called Fired up, the next one is called Pork Chop, and the last is The Cookie Monster. On the pork chop cheer the lady next to me thought it was to cute and was laughing alot. Then after that we headed to the corn maze. Its a huge corn maze called Grandpas Corn Maze that has a different theme every year, this year it was the rodeo. We started in there and it took us about a hour and half to finally find our way back out. While in there each of the kids took turns leading us, then after awhile Emily decided she was scared so held onto Cody's hand so she could still be a leader. Just as we where getting out Cody had started to walk behind us and decided to go a different path and I about had a heart attack when I turned around and he was gone. He was only missing for like five minutes but it felt like five hours. He must have heard me yelling his name and was able to follow the path back because he sure came running fast. After that he stayed close to us until we were fully out. At the corn maze they also have some very neat activities to do. The kids rode the cow train a few times,
climbed the hey stack playground, raced ducks in pump race tracks
and a few other things they had going. It was almost a perfect day to be there, the sun was out and it wasn't muddy, however the wind kicked up and then you couldn't see anything. Someday I want to figure out how they make that maze. Its hard to believe summer is already over and we are now officially into fall.

Camping, back to school and a new baby

This week we have started into all the after school activities so I have been slow on getting this up. Cody is doing speech after school with a private teacher now, he also started into karate twice a week. Emily is doing dance, girl scouts and just started cheerleading. I will get pictures of all of those once they get more into them. They enjoy doing these different things however with homework and odd things it makes our weeks very busy. Cody got glasses this week for reading and he is in love with them. He wont do any homework or go anywhere unless he bring them with him and they make him look so grown up I think. I think karate will be very good for Cody, they are very good about making the boys behave, look and listen. Last night one of the boys (there is only three and they are all seven or eight) was wiggling around and the couch made the little boy do ten push ups. Its very cute to watch him try to figure out the hand movements, he is really enjoying that. Emily is in love with cheerleading, she has been cheering "Let's get fired up, we are fired up" sense we got home. It will be cute to watch her at the football games. She is also doing hip-hop dance this year instead of tap and ballet. She is very excited over this, after all its way cooler and you move alot more (her words not mine). This weekend we went camping again for the last time. It was alot of fun, a bunch of my family went up with us and we all hung out on the lake and just chilled. My uncles and my step dad had boats up so we just went boat hopping. One of my uncles has a speed boat and the first time we went to get on Cody walks up with a fishing pole and was shocked when he was told there is no fishing on this boat. However Emily thought it was the best boat, after all it didn't stop to fish it just went fast. She asked my uncle "is this a party boat" when she was told yes she thought that was really cool. She did do a little fishing when Tom showed her how to make the worm dance with Grandmas pink fishing pole. I think the only time the fishing pole wasn't in Cody's hands was when we were toasting marshmallows or on the party boat. Here is just a collection of the different photos I took. It was such a fun weekend it was sad to come home. However my new little niece was a plus to coming home. On the way up to the lake my sister had her baby. A little girl who was 7 pounds 5 ounces and 19 inches long named Alexandria Sierra, also going by the name Lexi for those of us that cant spell the super long names she names her kids. She is such a cute little baby.

Now the weekend just needs to get here so we can just chill out and be a bum for one weekend.

Labor Day Weekend

This weekend was a long weekend. We didn't do a whole lot, as our last big weekend will be next weekend. On Friday night we went to the parade for Burn the Point. We sat there for two hours with a friend of mine and his son watching the cars go by. The two boys loved it, they thought this car was the best (I think they say that because it blew smoke out). Anytime they asked me what the car was all I could answer was "this is a mustang" or "that's not a mustang". If I take them next year I better catch up on my car info. Emily was more worried about what cars had candy then what the car was. I decided to talk the owners of this car into trading cars, to bad the kids were to tried to make it to the street dance. Another friend of mine was in the parade with his two little boys, you can see the older ones hand out the wind as they drove by. On Saturday we went to Home Depot for the free kids craft thing. This month they did bean bag tosses. Emily had more trouble with it so Cody went to help her, then he decided she would be more use on the other side and showed her where to put her hands (she was to big to get help from mom). It took some time but we got them all done and they came out so cute.
After that we went to the car show to look at tje cars from last night better. Emily was in love with this jeep, after all its "cute and little and looks just like barbies".
They also had a General Lee and a Batman car along with a ton of the cars from the parade. At the car show I had to laugh, they could get anything to drink, my son went for coke while my daughter went for water. Can you tell who is our health nut. On Sunday we went to the horse races and that was the best part of the weekend. The kids cheered so fast for whatever number they picked. We stayed and watched four of the races and won on three of them, to bad we did two dollar bets so all we won was like six dollars. But we came home with three dollars more then we left with so that made it a good show. We would have stayed for all of them but the kids were getting restless during the wait, I know they want to make more money but they need to get those races a little closer together. Over all it was just a nice relaxing weekend, exactly what we needed.

Hikeing and Chef

Today we started our day off outside of Red Lodge. We went up to the area past Emily's girl scout camp and went for a hike. It was early in the day so it wasn't hot yet, in fact we could have gone jeans for it. We went to a lake called Wild Bill Lake, it was built in 1902 by a man named “Wild Bill” Kurtzer. It is very pretty up there and a nice easy hike. One part of the hike is sandy and Emily goes look Mom we made it to the beach. The hike ends up being about a mile so after we were done we went to eat lunch. After that we went back around the lake one more time then we headed back to Red Lodge. Here are a few photos from the hike.



We decided to try this place called Red Box Car and that's what it is, a red box car where they make the food and it has a very nice place to sit outside by a stream. While we were waiting for our drinks the kids were talking to this other boy who had a bunny and they both got to hold it, now they want a bunny.
We got our root beer floats and sat down to eat them. Then we headed to Chief Plenty Coups Park, it took 17 miles of dirt road but we made it. Once there we headed to the information part and looked at artifacts then the kids got to sit on a buffalo hide and make beaded jewelry. After that we went to his house which was built in 1886. It was very big for how old of a house it was but I wish it would have been more set up with how he would have had it. All they had was this one part set up the rest was empty space. The stair part reminded me of the stairs my Grandma and Grandpa had in there old house. After that it was time to head home and start getting ready for school. We saw cowboys and we saw indians, but where did the weekend go

Fomberg and Cooney

Yesterday we started our day in Fromberg, Montana. They were having an annual party out there for old west days. We got there and our first stop was this museum where they had little things dating back to the 1800's, before Montana was even a state. The kids loved this little train and they lady that worked there got it going for them. After that we went outside to look at the old farm equipment, Cody loved it and wanted to sit on it all (which the lady said was OK). Emily didn't want anything to do with it, after all it was dirty. We then went up to main street to look at the different booths they had set up. Emily got so upset when she saw the hides of the animals, they she asked the lady why did they kill them and did they kill a cat. When the hunting lady told her why and no they didn't Emily was OK with them and wanted to touch them. Cody on the other hand was right there checking them out and looking at the little details of toes, insides and everything. Hunting might have to be on the next thing he learns, but again hes not learning it from me. We then were on the way up the street and ran into a girl the kids age who had got a frog so we had to stop and check out her frog.
It was almost time for the parade at that point so we got some snow cones and sat down to wait. The parade started and by the end I think the kids ended up with more candy then they do on Halloween with the parade. I had to laugh though the parade was so "big" it came around the block twice only in small towns would you see that. Emily got so excited when the horses came down the street and the cheerleaders came behind the band. All Cody cared about was the candy, but he did really good when the boy scouts came down with the flags, he did the boyscout sign as they passed us. Then after the parade the Cody Outlaws come out to the street to do there show. They are a group of gunfighters who act out different skits with gun battle in them.



Cody loved these guys, all day today he has been playing cowboy with his guns. After the gunfights one of the girls pulled Cody out to the street to do a dance with her
then gave him a big kiss. We got a photo with the sheriff and each of the kids.
Then one with Emily and "the really pretty girl"
Then the "badguy" gave Cody a couple of shells form the blank bullets they used. Emily told me at one point her Mt Dew was much better with the sucker in her mouth. They then had Cotton Candy, can we say sugar high. The kids then played some games, got some cheerleader supplies they handed to all the kids and had some more sugar. On the way out we looked at a house that was built before 1907 and they had it all set up. The lady that owns the house showed Cody and Emily all about the stove and how they only had a fire place for light. Was really cool to see were they used the bathroom and how everything was in one room. On the way home we decided to stop by Cooney Lake and chill out there for a bit. It was a perfect day to be there, the sun was shinning and it was just the perfect hot with a light breeze.

We stayed there for a bit then it was time to go home. On the way we went by at this little dinner my sister had told me about. It had really good food and a little sand pit for the kids to play in. They also had the cutest carved out bears sitting by the bench's.
It was such a perfect day, one that you don't want to end but like all of them it does at some point. Here is a link to all the other photos I took (we took way to many yesterday.