Trip to Colstrip, Montana

Before my sister Nicole goes on her mission in November I had promised the kids a trip to Montana to visit my parents and sister. Last week Cortlynn had a short week at school and I decided that would be the perfect time to travel for a visit. Since it takes such a long time-I planned on driving half way and staying Wednesday night in Bozeman. I'm so glad I did that. I wasn't feeling very well and driving for 8 hours didn't sound too exciting. We arrived in Bozeman a little after 7:00, found some food for dinner, and checked into our room. I found a sweet deal at a Ramada that was cheaper than a Super 8 AND they had a pool with a water slide. The kids were so excited. We went to the pool and Cortlynn couldn't wait to try out the water slide. The pool was a little deep for Tristan but he had fun hanging on the his sister. After a few turns down the slide I had to try it out myself. I think it has been 25plus years since I've gone down a water slide and it was so much fun! Kyra didn't know what to think about mom looking like a drowned rat and freaked out. She couldn't be consoled. She looked at me like she didn't know me and would just shake and scream. Poor girl! It took her about 20 minutes to calm down and that was after I changed and dried off.

The next morning we finished the journey to Colstrip. The weather was nasty most of the time so some of the plans we had changed but we had a good visit. We ate a lot of good food and played some fun games. Kyra actually warmed up to my parents and Nicole and let them hold her. The last night she wouldn't let go of grandpa. Too cute.

We left Sunday morning for the LONG trip home. It took even longer thanks to the fact I got sick a few times. (I swear I payed for my gall bladder to be removed 13 yrs ago I think it grew back or was never removed.) WOW-what a long trip. Kyra handled sitting in her car seat for almost 10 hrs extremely well. The kids had a great time and Tristan has already asked me when we can visit them again.

Thanks Mom, Dad, and Nicole for letting us stay.

Kyra's first sucker and she loved it.
I think Cortlynn borrowed my camera and took the picture of Nicole.

This is the water slide. It felt like it turned forever!

Kyra and I even enjoyed the water before Kyra's total break down.

Look- here is proof they actually love each other.

Parade, SCARY doll, Peas and Carrots

I took the kids to the ISU Homecoming parade yesterday and they had so much fun; for the first hour at least. After that they wanted to know when it would be over. It lasted 1 1/2hrs. It's funny to see people that were in the parade actually watching the parade: I actually saw one boy on two different floats (one towards the beginning and one towards the end.) Tristan and Cortlynn collected SOOOOOOOO much candy. All the candy was thrown at us...I wouldn't let them run out to grab it, and neither would the police patrolling the parade route. Tristan also found a $1 bill. He was beyond excited on this one. Too cute. He is now saving for a $50 batman cave/castle.

This is the bowl of candy collected at the parade.

On Friday I decided to decorate for Halloween. I've had to make a few adjustments since my little girl is into EVERYTHING. There is nothing that is safe from Kyra. I have lights plugged into an outlet in our living room and she goes right to it. So I thought I would cover it by a large scary pumpkin. Nope-didn't work. She isn't scared of the scary pumpkin, the walking hand, the big scary, walking spider, or the scary candles I have. Nope-she is terrified of this doll in a wedding dress that was my moms. So- Cortlynn thought we could place it by the outlet. That worked. She won't go near it. Not sure why-but she doesn't like that doll. Too bad I don't have a few more to help out with the Christmas decorations. ;-)
This is as close as she will get to the doll-and she will keep her back to it.
Kyra is looking at the doll and wondering why we put her there.

I've had issues with Cortlynn and Tristan eating different types of food. Tristan even has a new food chart and every time he tries a new food he gets a sticker. After 20 stickers he can get a treat from daddy's store. That boy....he will take a bite of a new food and gag. Kyra-she is the opposite. She LOVES food. ALL kinds of foods. This week I gave her peas and carrots from my plate. She thought she was so big.
Look at that smile~no gagging from her.

Well Hmmmmm......

Wow-it's been awhile since my last post and I'm afraid this post might just be a "venting" post. It has been a difficult couple of weeks. First I have had several quality Mom of the Year moments. Kyra fell off the stairs and bumped the back of her head on our wood floor. After a few minutes she stopped crying, her eyes rolled back and she started shaking. That lasted for only a few seconds and than she would open her eyes, cry for a second, than close her eyes and not cry. SCARED me to death! I called my doctor uncle and aunt and they calmed my mommy nerves. She probably just knocked herself out. It was an awful feeling. Kyra is my baby that gets into EVERYTHING! You have to watch her 24/7 and if you turn your head for one moment-you better make sure what is around. The other day-I turned my head for a second and I heard her yell. When I located her-she had crawled behind the couch and found an old mouse trap. It snapped down on her right hand. I know it hurt but I think she was more upset. I can't believe she moves so fast and can locate things like this. I didn't even remember we had that trap back there. Poor little girl.

Tristan has been a hand full this week as well. He is a walking accident. That boy constantly has a bruise, cut, or scrape somewhere on his body. We walked up to the school to get Cortlynn and he was running on the sidewalk and fell. He skinned his knee and elbow up so bad. There was blood everywhere. It was nice to see all of the other kids run over to him and make sure he was alright. He is such a boy-anything having to do with bodily functions fascinates him. :( He made a mess in the bathroom the other day and when I asked him, "Tristan, why is there pee everywhere?" he responded with the following "Mom, I was trying to get the fly" I think I'm in some serious trouble with this little man. He'll keep me on my toes.

Cortlynn is doing well in school and loves going to dance-3 days a week. She was stretching the other night and she is soooooo flexible. I'm completely impressed. She has decided to run for class representative and is giving her speech tomorrow----we will have to see how that goes. (UDATE) She is disappointed that she didn't get enough votes to be the classroom rep. The boy that won brought suckers and told the class that he would give every person one if they voted for him. I feel bad-maybe I should have made some rice krispie treats or something but they technically weren't supposed to do that. Oh well-

Our basement is still causing me stress. The company came and fixed our carpet and steam cleaned last Friday and that night I found out that the wrong company did it. On Monday when I spoke to the restoration company to find out why there was such a mix up-the woman actually had the nerve to tell me she didn't know anything about the carpet company or what I was talking about. It took everything I had not to rip her a new one...I paused for a few breathes and informed her the days I spoke to her and refreshed her memory on our conversation. "Oh, that's right. I do remember. Hmmmmm, oops." So she tells me she will contact the insurance company and the carpet company and explain to them what happened. Well-I get home last night and I have a call from the carpet guy-he has no idea what is going on. Nice! I love it when people don't do what they say they are going to do. $100 bucks says she hasn't called the insurance company to get the funding switched so I will freak out again when I get he bill from the restoration company.

This past week there have been several horrific accidents that have killed several people and unfortunately Devin and I have known a couple of the victims. The first was a 23 year old man that Devin knew and who has been to our house on several occasions; he some how fell out of his moving truck and was killed. (there was alcohol involved so this one could have been avoided; but Devin was upset by it.) Two days later I heard that the interstate was closed due to an accident and I found out 3 hours later who was involved. The sweetest women named Cathy works at Fred Meyer with Devin and I've known her for years; her 17 year old daughter and her 18 year old boyfriend was driving down the freeway, something happened and she went thru the median, flipped the car upside down, and hit a semi head on. The car shattered. It didn't even look like a car-just pieces of metal. I feel so bad for Cathy-we would talk about her daughter Micah a lot because she was born with a hearing impairment too so she would give me advice on Cortynn's hearing loss. This has been a horrific week and I just hope this is the last of it.


On a positive note: Cortlynn took this cute picture the other day and it just brings a smile to my face. What cuties.

E.I.S.F. 2011

This past Sunday we took the kids to the fair and they had a great time. I ate so much food and enjoyed watching all of the interesting people. We didn't fork over $ to go on the rides instead I promised I would take them to the water park the next day. I think their favorite part was milking the fake cow and sitting in "bumble bee" aka the yellow camaro.

Tristan did it: he found enough money metal detecting with his dad to buy the batman car from Fred Meyer. He has been saving for this purchase for months and was so excited to finally have enough to buy it. What a cutie.


Tristan with his new car


Isn't she so cute



Kyra LOVES to play with her baby doll. She hugs her, kisses her, and will talk to her in a really high pitched squeal. It is too cute.


I took this picture of Tristan at the water park and it is so cute.

Maybe I should buy a cow and have the kids milk it. They did such a great job.

Kyra looking adorable while enjoying the fair

Tristan could have stayed at this booth all day. He ran around and looked at all the "Transformer" cars. Every time I turned around he was missing and I would find him sitting in this car. He keeps telling us that when he is big, his dad will buy him a Black Bumblebee car. Hmmmm, I doubt that honey. :-)

First Day of 5th Grade: 2011

Cortlynn is looking so old.... :-(

Tristan had to have his 1st day of "school" picture too.

This is just too cute of Kyra.

The first day of school was today and Cortlynn was so excited to start 5th grade. I can't believe she is in 5th grade already! Tristan was a little disappointed that he couldn't go to school but was more upset that he could go to daycare (he still hasn't caught on that mommy isn't working and is staying home with the kiddos). Cortlynn liked her teacher, loved seeing her friends and hopefully is ready to get back into the school year schedule. I just don't know if I' ready for the school year schedule: early mornings, homework, school activities, dance, etc.

Camping weekend and my swimsuit beauty.

Since I'm not working at the bank anymore, we have a little bit more time to do family things when Devin has a day or two off: Last week we decided to go camping. We left Friday night after Devin got off work and drove up to Mackay. We camped down from the reservoir in our camper and had a fund couple of days. The kids were able to fish and go metal detecting. We also drove them up to the 1983 earthquake site and took some photos. I don't think either child really understood what they were looking at but oh well. We roasted marshmallows and I made some tasty foil dinners.

On our way back we stopped by the deli in Arco for a sandwich. We really should have kept on driving....there was the annual mens softball tournament going on and with only 2 places to eat in Arco on a Sunday the odds of it being busy were pretty high. UNDERSTATEMENT! There were people everywhere waiting for their food and when I went to order the girl was so snotty! There were two women working (1 being the owner) and she had to pull her husband and 2 kids to work. That poor guy had no clue what he was doing and they were all sweating up a storm (don't think you really are supposed to wipe the sweat off your head and hair with the plastic gloves than continue to make sandwiches--but ow well. After a 40 minute wait we finally get our meals (listening to the workers complain on how busy they were and that they couldn't believe how busy they were, etc.....hmmm I don't live there an I knew there was a tournament in town) I ordered a sandwich and some wild rice w/chicken soup. I took one bite and it was clam chowder. Devin tasted his and the same thing (I can't eat clam chowder, I can get sick) he takes it to them and tells them that there is clam chowder in it and they said, "No there isn't" ummmm yes there is.... "Well, I didn't do it. I don't know how that happened. It is soup at the bottom of the pot so maybe that's what happened." Really??? You think???

Photos at the earthquake "site"

Tristan was SOOOOO dirty by the 2nd night

Kyra outside in her bikini playing with the kids on the slip n/slide

Swanson Reunion 2011

We were able to travel to Island Park for the 2nd Annual Swanson Family Reunion. We arrived to our cabin on Saturday, unpacked, and was ready for our vacation. Tristan and Cortlynn were so excited to hang out with their cousins and also aunt Nicole. We ate so much good food and snacks I think I left 20 pounds heavier.
This year we decided to decorate T-Shirts. The children decorated their own and the "adults" drew names and decorated that person's shirt. I was quite impressed by the talent and craftiness some of them had. The men may have been griping about the craft portion of the trip but the shirts turned out too cute.
The kids went fishing with their dads and grandpa, some went metal detecting, we had a water fight, cooked smores over the fire, had sno-cones, played cards, and other fun games. The adults had a Wii bowling tournament and I've decided NOT to lose the first game because than you have to come back from behind to try to win. I was so sore the next day. The Wii was a hit as well. The boys loved the hunting game and the girls couldn't get enough of the dancing game. My parents even "Walked like an Egyptian" with huge smiles on their faces. Nicole, dad, Daniel, Josh, and I also decided to play a game of Risk while Devin was out with Tristan(metal detecting). At the beginning Nicole and I decided to team up against the guys and it was the best thing we could have done. We didn't attack each other once the entire game and we slowly took each man out. Needless to say none of them were too happy with us. We didn't even play to see who won: we felt like winners for beating the boys. Teeheeheee
On Wednesday we left and decided to take the kids to Mesa Falls. Cortlynn and Tristan thought they were pretty but were ready to get home. We stopped in Idaho Falls and took them to "Bodies, The Exhibition". Tristan wasn't sure about it and wondered where all of these "monsters" came from: but still enjoyed it. Cortlynn really got into it and enjoyed it as well. All in all we had a great time away and spending it with family made it even better. Can't wait until next year!



Mesa Falls

BFF's Devin and Josh---metal detecting outside the cabin

Parents "dancing"

Nicole winning the favorite aunt title with taking all the kids to the hot tub (by herself) crazy women

The siblings modeling our T-Shirts

ALL the grandkids.

Look at the "sexy" grandparents

I drew Daniel's name and really put my heart into it. :-) Not sure if he appreciated the look I went for. (classy, sexy, diva)

Josh sure looks thrilled in this photo

Josh doing some serious thinking while working on the T-Shirt craft

(Do you like the craft shirts the kids are wearing? They are old Wamu and Chase work shirts. Something good came out of 13 years.)

Clayton and Kyra loved playing on the floor with each other.