Casper

 This is the 2nd time I've written this post, the last one got deleted, so this will be a shortened version.  A couple weekends ago, the kids and I decided to go see Michael in Casper since the kids had a 3 day weekend.  It was nice to get away and spend time together as a family without the day to day stresses of life.  We were grateful that our friends the Johnsons let us crash with them.  They are so awesome and an amazing example to our family. I wish we lived closer to them. The top pic is their youngest Reese, who is 8mos with Stahle, 7mos.  This is the first time ever my baby has been the larger one. :)

Saturday we packed in all sorts of fun.  First we drove to Casper mountain and hiked to this waterfall that the kids loved playing in.  Then we went to the tate museum by Casper college and saw the wholly mammoth they found in Casper in 2006 that is like 10,000 years old.  There was a super nice guy there that was like our personal tour guide and told  us everything we could ever want (or not wnat) to know about fossils and bones.  The most fun was the Casper rec.  They had some awesome slides that me and the kids went down about a million times.  They even let me take Janelle and Kandace one at a time on my lap.  Kandace was in heaven.  Janelle was more nervous.  Baby Stahle even got to try her swimsuit for the first time.  She wasn't in love with the water in the beginning but she warmed up to it towards the end.  Its funny that we have all these fun things in Billings, too but don't take advantage of them as much, because we're busy doing other things.  It was nice to have an excuse since we were on "vacation." :)

Here's Michael and Chauncy with their baby girls.  When we first met Johnson's about 7 years ago, they just had Eli and we just had Stetson.  We've each added 3 to our families and it was fun to see how their kids have grown.

Kandace at the Tate museum.  Thanks Casper fun a fun weekend.

zoo field trip with stetsons class

A couple weeks ago, Stetson's teacher asked if I could go with their class to the zoo.  I asked if I could bring the 2 girlies but she said it'd just be me and her in charge of 22 kids so I'd better come alone.  I was so glad I went.  It was fun to watch Stetson in with his class and see what kind of kid is in a different light.  He definitely marches to the beat of his own drum, doesn't need anyone's approval and has an opinion about every.thing.  Good traits I guess.  I was proud to be his mom and it was great to be with him outside the house.  Stetson tries his mom and dad's patience every day, but we keep trying and pray he develops characteristics that will help him to be happy.

zoo, missionaries, special musical #s

Janelle at the zoo

Me and Stahle after church yesterday

my little artist/performer

I am playing catchup on the blog.  Today is the first day of the 4th week of Michael's rotation in Casper.  He likes it and we're grateful the Johnson's offered to let him stay with them.  Saves us a lot of money.  Life is sure busy.  I go to the Y every MWF and as soon as we get back we hit the ground running trying to catch up with the every day stuff.  Stahle is our little angel but takes a lot of work.  Her am nap isn't very long especially with us being out and about most mornings, but her afternoon one is a couple hours, which is great.  I have certain days for certain jobs at home trying to keep things orderly and clean (still a struggle).  I always think how amazing it would be to have a housekeeper!  To think that some people have always had one.  I wonder what it would be like.  I'm trying to help Janelle learn all her letters.  She's doing better.  She gave her first talk in primary yesterday.  She was excited to do it and kept asking all through church she could give her talk.  I sang in sacrament with Emily Duncan, an excellent soprano in our ward.  Bro Angell, the music chairperson asked if I would play a piano solo but I asked if I could do a duet with someone instead. A few days before we were supposed to sing, Emily had a family emergency so Kandace got to sing instead! I accompanied her and she sang " I know that my Savior Loves me."  She did so good.  A lot of people can't believe that she'd get up and sing in front of that many people.  I think since we've been singing a lot at our house from a young age, she doesn't get too nervous, and she's seen Stetson do it.  She is quite the charmer and stole a lot of hearts that day.
The picture of her above is by her message she made for the "mesenarys" when they came to have dinner with us.  Couldn't get the whole pic to load.  So back to the very discombobulated story, Emily Duncan and I finally sang our duet yesterday, "I know that my Redeemer Lives."  I've sung it a hundred times with lots of different people but it was a treat to sing it with Emily.  She majored in music and is very good.
The first pic is of Janelle at the zoo.  We went last Friday right after spinning.  We met Jill Clemow and Melinda Jacobson.  Melinda and I have hung out a lot lately.  She lives close to Rose Park so we'll meet there quite a bit.  Her little boy Henry is Janelle's age so they have fun together.  As weird as this sounds, ts nice to have a friend with only one kid because her and her husband Steven are sure handy with their extra set of hands whenever we go anywhere together.