Billings Montucky

Last week Josh, JJ, his fiance Lynn and myself took a road trip down to Billings Montana for a couple of days. Josh and his family grew up in Billings and he hadn't been back since before his mission. His moms parents whom I have never met a long with a couple other relatives live down there. It is about a ten hour drive. We left on thursday around 3:00 p.m and returned sunday so it was a pretty quick trip. We had a lot of fun. Josh's Aunt lives in a huge house on the edge of town which is where we stayed. We loved staying with them. They were super nice and hospitable. It was like staying in a bed and breakfast. They had the most amazing view off their balcony overlooking all of these beautiful green, rolling hills. There were a few little farms with horses and fields. I wish we could have stayed longer.

We spent the two days we were there visiting with different family members and driving around to different places that Josh and JJ remembered. We stayed up late playing pool in the evenings and wet for walks to different horse pastures in the morning. Man... I could live there. It was so nice. (The horses were my favorite part I think).

Here are some pictures from the trip:

It was stormy on the way there but it was a beautiful drive. We didn't reach Aunt Deena's house until about 1:30 a.m.

This is the house Josh lived in from about Kindergarden to Junior high. (He was born in Great Falls Montana).

He lived in this house from Junior high until his mission. His parents moved to Utah right around the time he went into the MTC.

These are Josh's Eagle Scout projects

So cute. I know. :)

The infamous Taco treat. Good memories for the boys.

Josh was nice and mowed Uncle Dicks lawn in the morning.

Horses!!

They were so cute and friendly.

"Gimme a kiss!"

This one loved to give kisses. He scared me a little bit. We both leaned in, he touched my nose and we both jumped. It was funny.

Josh had a job taking care of several horses growing up, he loves them so he was right at home.

Best Pizza i've ever eaten. A bit spendy but good.

The infamous Softies ice cream stand.

A huge tree in Pioneer Park

This is the view from Uncle Dicks balcony.

Cousin Justin and Uncle Dicks delicious bbq dinner.

What we have been up to

Wow. So I just realized how far behind I am on my blog. I don't want to wait any longer or I will never catch up.

So to fill you in here are a few things that we've been up to.

I have a new fetish with side-walk chalk...

Josh's drawing

My drawing

Bobo likes to sit on our pictures haha.

My wonderful husband. Isn't he cute?

Josh and I finally bought equipment to put up a slack line. We had done it before with friends and finally decided to buy our own. It is basically like tight-rope walking only its a little bit loose. You hook it up between two trees as low or as high as you want. It is actually a really popular sport here in Utah and we've gotten pretty good at it. We can both make it from one end to the other and have recently started upping the level of difficulty by raising it and stretching it further between trees. Some people do the extreme and hook them up across canyons and ravines (they use harnesses of course) but.... I think we would both like to stay closer to the ground. (no worries mom!)

It is pretty addictive and we've spent hours at a time doing this. (Josh especially loves it).It is surprisingly very fun. You can buy pre-made slack lining kits but they are typically over priced. All you need is: At least 50 feet of flat webbing and two ten feet pieces. 4 carabiners, 2 belay rings and 2 pieces of carpet to protect the trees. We bought everything for barely $50. Josh's parents had some leftover carpet. There are several different ways to do it using crank systems but we've found this way to be the best. We watched a few youtube videos to figure out how to do everything. Try it sometime!

Bird watching??

We have been really lucky this year to have two different birds nests right outside our windows. (I am slightly animal obsessive so this was a real treat for me). In a small treat right beside my in-laws house, about 8 feet up was a big robins nest. We could sit in the living room and have a perfect view out the front window of all the comings and goings in this nest. We watched the mom in the nest for a long time until the babies hatched. It was amazing! You could see all of the little babies every time she would come back to feed them, and it was pretty cool to watch the male and the female switch off every couple of minutes. They grew so fast! It only took about two weeks for them to start hopping out of the nest and learn to fly. They are gone now but I really enjoyed watching them grow.

Well even more recently Josh and I discovered a little humming birds nest right outside our bedroom window (on the 3rd floor). It is only a couple of feet away. The bird is so tiny. I read a little bit online and found out that they only build nests to lay their eggs just like bigger birds. That and the fact that she sits in it 24/7 was a big enough hint that she is protecting something. No babies yet but it is fun to peek out the window and watch her. She also recently discovered us so we have to be careful not to scare her away when we open the blinds or the window. She is pretty cute. She always sits so that she can see the window now which we got a kick out of. I think she has figured out by now that we are not a threat.

Josh decided to name her Mrs.Gone-again. It has become a daily event that one of us will walk by the window and say "she's gone again" or "she's back again" and we always know what the other person is talking about.

Sorry the pictures are blury but I did my best to get a few shots out the window.