Get Outside and Make Your Own Discoveries

That was Ryker's motto all summer.  We'd be out doing something and he'd find something and shout out, "get outside and make your own discoveries!"  Some guy says it on a PBS discovery show and it was the perfect motto for our summer.

Fort Peck:  Switzer's is the house on the left with the white roof.

I haven't even gotten the tent set up yet and the kids have already hit the water with Kara.

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Ryker, Daxon, Kya, and Nikki

The pirates hit the shore.

 

 

Remi

Quiet time is over on our side.  They are heading back.

Hitching a ride up the big hill.

Yep, that's a fully naked, sandy butt on Grandma's leg!

Playing with the neighbors

Where's Ryker?  Kya thinks this is hilarious every time.

Cosmos wondering what all the ruckus is.  He just poked his head in.

Morning walk/ride

Trying to stay away from camp since it is 6am and we are the only ones awake!

Dax is up and he and Grandma Patti found us at the beach.

Breakfast

Hmmmm.....now where's that key?

Tubing time!

Cosmos weighing his options.....stay on the beach or try to follow us like last year.   Please stay on the beach buddy, you are too old for such a long swim.

Thumbs down means to slow down, but Kya gives the pointer finger down.

Kya, Nikki, and Dax

Apparently the captain of this boat doesn't like showoffs.  Try any fancy tricks to impress the kids and he'll dump you.  The kids found that pretty funny though.

Water taxi from the boat into Camp Crazy.

Dinosaur egg?

Very impressed with the wakeboarding!  You'll get your turn soon enough kids.

Board games at the cabin.

We drove into Fort Peck one afternoon and tried to check out the fish hatchery but we needed an appointment so all we got to see was a few walls of fish mounts.

Peck's Rex at the Fort Peck Interpretive Center.

Digging for bones

Building a dam

Kya wanted a picture of me with the beaver.....

 

but she looks much cuter with it!

Fort Peck park

Who brought her?

Checking out the spillway.

Long hot day + rainy evening = early to bed

Exploring Makoshika

Uncle Cam even made the trip to see us.  Ryker has been waiting for him all summer so he could shoot this paintball gun!

Yep, he can hit the broad side of a barn.

And he can empty a CO2 cartridge in record time.  Good thing we got the big box.

 

 

Reload!

Of course they had to see if they could throw them hard enough to break them.

Graffiti Crew

Setting the minnow traps.

Washing my smelly dog!  Why must they roll in dead things!?

Keep that stick up against the bank!

These two seiners exchanged a lot of "Ray quotes" as they were razzing each other in the water.

Not a bad haul.

Someone got the bad side here!

Back to Fort Peck for some fishing.

We got dropped off on the beach while Cam, Bret, and Ty kept fishing and my Mom supervised.

Corn hole and the Marina.

A little to your right.

It was pouring down rain so someone joined us in the tent.  He usually wont come in.

Hunting sand balls

Ready Ryker?

Here comes the sand ball!

Ryker shoved Ty "out to sea" but Kya pulled him back in.

And the big kid water fight is on!

Captain Kya

Fort Peck was fun, but they always love being back at Grandma's!

See that photo cube on the ledge behind the bed? 

Kya picks someone to look at each night.  Tonight she chooses Ty! 

We headed back to Billings for a couple days and took in the Montana Fair.  We went to watch the 4H'ers show their animals, but these two wanted to watch the Motocross practice.  Of course, they climbed to the top of the bleachers.

Kaci Jo was in town so we got to ride some rides with her too!

Ryker had to go on the opposite side as us.  Look at his stance.  He's in the green shirt.  Guess he's getting low and hanging on tight!

Look at Kya's little legs sticking out.  She's third from the right.

She's a dare devil!

We were eating lunch and the wind was blowing the cotton candy over too us so Ryker went out to see if he could catch a bunch.

Farris Wheel

We all got unlimited bracelets and I'm pretty sure we got out money's worth.  There were barely any lines and we rode every ride they were tall enough for, some a few times.

 

Lunch with Kara before we head to the water park then off to Bozeman.

 

I didn't take any pictures of our stay in Bozeman with the Morasko's because we were on our way home and I buried my camera in the car somewhere.  I know, unlike me, huh!  I tried to steal some off Carrie's blog, but couldn't for some reason so I'll just refer you here:  http://ncmorasko.blogspot.com/2013/08/wyman-visit.html

Thanks again for the hospitality.  Someday maybe we can return the favor.....like if you're ever on your way to Canada.  We're not exactly on the way to anywhere, but maybe we can be your destination some day!

Someone is happy to be home!

It was another glorious summer in Montana for the kids and I.  I am grateful that we are able to spend so much time there.  It really takes the kid's minds off the fact that Seth is gone and they love spending time with all the people there.  They are quickly becoming locals just like Seth and Uncle Brian did.  I'm thankful that I have a family that loves to hang out with each other and goes out of their way to come home while we are there and hang out with us!

July 2nd, 2012: The day I threw caution to the wind and rebooted my life!

It was the last day of employment for me, my last day of a steady paycheck and amazing health insurance, and as it turns out, the start of a year filled with adventure, change, and a completely different lifestyle for my family.

Let’s backup to the decision itself.  It was a long time in the making; an excel spreadsheet full of lists including a budget excluding my paycheck, pros and cons of not having my own job, outlets to keep myself from going crazy being home with kids all the time (which surprisingly, I have not really needed), and the weirdest one, how my days would be structured so I didn’t fall into a lazy routine that I despise.  In short, it included a daily schedule that didn’t include propping my kids in front of a TV while I watched TV in the other room by myself.  Instead it was a structured schedule of dropping Ryker off at preschool, going to the gym with Kya, then options to spend quality one on one time with her before we picked Ryker up including, parks, the library, visiting friends, swim lessons, hiking the forestlands, and one day a week grocery shopping.   Then we pick Ryker up at noon, head home for lunch (rarely, if ever eating out, adhering to my nutrition list also found on before mentioned spreadsheet (totally making fun of myself here for being such a nerd if you didn't catch that)) and after lunch play outside, do some educational activities, teach the kids how to do age appropriate chores, crafts, and other things that we never had time for on the weekends, particularly getting to church on a regular basis and getting the kids into Sunday school.

Finally, this spreadsheet was convincing enough for me to pull the trigger and resign (along with the nudge of the kid’s daycare closing and me dreading the search for a new one and a little job dissatisfaction).  I had originally made the spreadsheet for Seth so he knew what we’d be up to and what our financial situation would look like after I was unemployed, but it really ended up being for me.  I don’t know if he ever actually even looked at it.  I read a lot of things to him here and there, but who knows if he was even listening.  I had been talking about this spreadsheet for years.  He probably thought it was a nickname for one of my co-workers.  Maybe he’d already run the numbers on his own, because he always said we’d be fine, just quit.  My onward and upward attitude kept me from really thinking it would ever happen.  Boy was my brain misleading me.  I have a new definition of onward and upward now.  And I am living it!  Not only do I love being at home with my kids, I kick ass at it!  We kick ass at it!  We were always on the go before, but now that the kids are my main focus, there is nothing we miss out on and it isn’t always about the destination.  We are enjoying every step along the way getting there as well.  We aren’t spending tons of money on fancy vacations, but they are experiencing all the culture and activities within 100 mile radius of where we live and sometimes more.  As for those schedules and lists, it’s been over a year and I’ve pretty much stuck to all of them with the exception of our food budget.  For a while we were surpassing it, but only because the nutritional plan has gone so much better than expected and we’ve chosen not to put a price on that.  Now that we’ve eliminated a lot of other things that we used to eat and no longer do, it is about the same as it was before I quit work. Plus, we barely eat out because I always have a cooler packed, even with after school snacks in case we stop at a park or something on the way home.  I apologize for the tone of this post, because I know it sounds “braggy”, but I don’t know how else to put it.  I am pretty proud of the things we’ve accomplished this year.  I spent about 2 years, building and refining that spreadsheet, last year I followed through on the plan and it has worked out better than I could have ever imagined.  I have always made responsible decisions that were predominately made with my brain.  I think this is the first decision I’ve ever made with my heart.  You may think getting married was a heart decision and of course it was, but my head said yes to that one too.   Even though this decision looked fine on paper, my head screamed, just keep working.  The economy was bad, people were begging for a job half as good as mine, I could come and go as I pleased, and I’ll never get that kind of flexibility if I end out going back to work.  Billions of kids go to day care and before and after school care and make it out just fine, and I really felt like quitting my job was admitting that I couldn’t do it all and I COULD!  Plus, I didn’t get a college degree to sit at home playing Candyland and glitter gluing puffballs to construction paper.  For a while I was embarrassed to say I was quitting my job, my GOOD job, but I must say after reflecting on this last year, I couldn’t be happier and I’m actually proud that I had the courage to give it a shot, because it is pretty out of character for me.  I never knew how much more I could do in those 40 hours a week though, until I wasn’t spending them in an office.  For the first time in my life, I’m thankful that I listened to my heart whispering “just try it” when my head was screaming “it’s too risky!”  

Will I ever hold down a real job again?  Most likely.  

Will I commercial fish with my family during the summers when my kids are older?  Most definitely.  

Will I ever regret this time with my kids and Seth?  Absolutely not. 

How much money do we really need anyway?  “Money often costs too much.” Ralph Waldo Emerson