Kayaking

Here's our kayaking adventure. We didn't go too far, but it was fun. We look pretty professional huh? We really didn't go on anything very rough. The river was down, so we just had to dodge all the rocks that were showing. Luckily, we never fell off.







OH, and here is the bear that collected the Brown's garbage. This happened before we came, but here are pictures. Merrilee was in the kitchen and all of a sudden, she heard a loud thump, followed by another. So she went to the door and it was wide open. As she walked out the door, there was the bear, about 10 feet from her with a bag of garbage in it's mouth. It OPENED the door and grabbed the garbage bag! Thankfully, he hasn't been back! And as you can see, he has tags in both ears, so he's been around before. From what we hear, he might be...eh hem.. "taken care of" since he's been around a little too much. Anyhow, great pictures!

Well, it's late and I should be in bed, but the internet is cooperating right now, and the movie Speed isn't over yet, so I'm still up. Here are the hiking pictures.

The picture doesn't do it justice, what a serene, beautiful place.
Of course Rylan had to stick his toes in!
Yes, I went swimming, it was about 60 degrees, but it felt good for short while!
We had a family picture here almost 2 years ago, but I was pregnant then, so now Rylan actually got to see it!
Grandpa's turn
Going down.

We're in Montana!

That's why it's been so long since my last update! We are in Big Sky so I haven't had much time to update. We are with Nick's parents and are having a wonderful time. Nick has been helping with a project and Rylan and I have just been hanging out. The weather is beautiful! Yesterday we went hiking up to a beautiful lake and today Nick and I went kayaking! I will post pictures when we get back. We're leaving tomorrow morning, so be thinking of us as it's a long drive with a toddler!

Backyard Bunnies

This might be a long story. Last night, Rylan and I were outside; he was playing in his pool(without water) and I was cleaning a toy box that I just got on a garage sale. I was sitting on the blanket that was next to the pool. Ace was running around the backyard checking everything out and all of a sudden, Ace is digging underneath the blanket and something starts squealing. I jump up and start screaming, trying to figure out what is going on. Before I know it, little gray things are running around and Ace is going crazy! I'm still screaming and Rylan is laughing at me. When I realize that Ace has just dug up a rabbit nest, I start trying to catch the little things. I got one, saw another one take off through the fence and Ace was on the other side of the yard, clearly torturing another one. I didn't know what else to do, so I put the one bunny in the toy box and went after Ace. I finally got him to drop the poor thing and it looked alright, so I put it in the toy box too. Then I realized that Ace still had one, so I got that one too. That one, however, was not doing so well. It wasn't bleeding, but it was injured. So we now had three baby bunnies in a toy box, Ace couldn't hardly control himself, and I didn't know what to do. I put Ace in the house and Rylan and I inspected our new furry friends. Rylan didn't know what think at first, but he was pretty gentle with them. He would reach his hand in the toy box, and when they would run, he would just giggle! It was so fun to see him react to them. Anyhow, since Nick has the camera out West, I called Laurie, Nick's aunt to come and take pictures. Rylan was so funny, his body language was like, "look at my bunnies, Laurie!" You could tell he was pretty proud of them. So here they are, our backyard bunnies!







Then Rylan had to show Laurie how he climbs up to his slide.




So you must be wondering what happened to the bunnies. My farm girl instinct told me that I should get rid of them(re:kill them), but I just couldn't. I knew they would just run away if I put them back in the hole, and I knew that the injured one would probably die, and I didn't want that in my lawn. So I took all the nesting from the hole and put it in the back bushes where I left the bunnies. I checked again this morning and they were gone, so who knows what happened to them. But I'm really glad we got pictures!

Rylan vs. the Vacuum

So tonight, we just got home from the lake and we were all hanging out in the living room. Rylan was playing with his toys, Nick was checking email, and I was uploading photos. Rylan was crawling all over the place and I had seen him crawl over to the vacuum. He's not too sure about the vacuum when it's running, so I thought I would let him check it out and maybe he wouldn't be scared of it anymore. He was up on his knees touching the vacuum when he found the power button. He pressed the button, the vacuum started, and Rylan got a look on his face like, "oh sh*t", then dropped the floor and crawled away as fast as he could. I've never seen him crawl so fast! I got up immediately to shut it off, and Nick and I were laughing so hard, but Rylan still had big eyes. It was so funny! Needless to say, I don't know if he will like the vacuum any more after tonight!

The pics I promised.

Okay, so finally, the water skiing pictures from the 4th that I promised. And since there are lots of people that will be looking at this, I'll explain who everyone is. Rachel is my sister, and her husband is Rob. Chelsey and Ty are married and they are friends of ours and Katie is Nick's sister.

So first we had to get the ropes untangled. We didn't all get up on the very first try, so we spend a lot of time getting it all figured out.
We are ready!
Woo Hoo, we made it! From L to R: me on a wakeboard, Chelsey on skis, Rachel on skis, and Katie on a wakeboard.

This picture is cute because Katie doesn't ride the wakeboard very much and she almost fell going over the wake, so we caught her mid-scream. But she did great!
Me, Chelsey, and Rach.
Rach and Chelsey crossing.
L to R: Nick on the wakeboard, Ty on skis, Rob on skis
Nick and Rob.
Ty and Nick crossing.
Ty spraying Rob.
Okay, little background before the next ones. Ty used to be on a ski team so Ty and Nick decided to try a trick. Ty was going to get on Nick's shoulders while skiing, but they first had to be on the same pair of skis. So the following are of Ty trying to stand behind Nick on the skis.


And then they fell.
So, the trick didn't work, but it was fun to watch them try though!

One of the many loons on the lake. It's so cool to hear their call in the morning.
Rob and Rachel's gorgeous girl, Sylvie. She and Ace LOVE to play!

And what would a post be without one of my sweet babe!

Just Playin'

Rylan's favorite past-time: playing with rocks!


Hanging out with Dad and getting licked by Ace.

We have a genius!!!!!

We've been working on animal sounds with Rylan and he seemed to have the cow down pat. We've been asking him, "what does a cow say," and he replies, "moooooooooooooo". It includes the chin-up, neck stretched, and lips puckered out. So cute! This morning I found him in his room with a book about animal sounds turned to the cow page and he was mooing at it! He's brilliant! Later we were at the mall and we stopped to look at the puppies and he started mooing at them. So, I guess we still have some work to do. (In his defense though, the puppy was black and white!)

Videos

Here are some videos of my little man.

Rylan teasing Grandpa with goldfish crackers. He would hold one out for Randy and then take it back and stick it in his mouth and giggle. He knew he was being funny!



Swimming in the lake with Daddy and Ace. If you look carefully, you can see his legs kicking.



Climbing in/around his pool.

Dad's are the Best!

Just a little story. We got home from the lake tonight and Nick and I started watching a movie (The Pursuit of Happyness) while Rylan played in the living room. Rylan was being so sweet, just playing, jabbering, and giggling. When it was time for a bath, Nick took Rylan into the bathroom. While I was cleaning, I could hear the shower running and Nick is singing this to Rylan: "Scrub, scrub, scrub, a shower in the tub, scrub, scrub, scrub, a bath in the waterless tub" I guess you had to be here, but it was just so cute! Nick hadn't bothered to fill the tub with water, he was just giving Rylan a shower instead. I just love to catch them in their little bonding moments!

Weekends of Rylan

Here are some pictures from the last 2 weekends and the 4th!

Playing in his pool - he loves this thing!

Hey, that's my pool!

Swimming in the lake.

My handsome hubby!


4th of July biker boy.

Our new (used) stroller we got for the lake.
We love walks!
Mom and Rylan with crazy lake hair!
Playing on the sailboat with Grandpa.




On the new boat, notice Rylan waving!

Ace waiting patiently for us to throw something he can fetch in the water.