another day on the river...

 

We have spent many evenings playing on the Missouri River this summer.  We have the perfect setup...  we live on the river and our friends bring the "toys."  Willa is learning to surf behind a jet ski in these pictures.  I didn't grow up wake boarding or jet skiing.  It actually makes me nervous.  Matt learned how to surf behind the jet ski on his first try.  He and Mike (our neighbor in these pictures) take turns pulling each other so they can wakeboard and surf up and down the river.  I haven't tried it yet... maybe next summer.

 

 

 

Random thought - We live 10 minutes out of the city and when we moved out here, there weren't any other little kids living in our neighborhood.  I was sad my kids wouldn't have neighborhood friends to play with.  But several families have moved out here now with little kids.  Yeah!!  All three of my kids have a friend or two their same age and gender.  Here are my boys with the neighbor boys eating ice cream sandwiches.  CUTE KIDS!

 

 

 SUPER MABEL

 

We love Super Mabel!  Now that is a good time!  Jonas visited the USA from Japan for two weeks.  He drove up from Utah to see us for a few days with Marcia.  Of course we spent an evening playing on the river.

 

Matt, the kids and his brother, Jonas, riding "Super Mabel"

 Willa is brave in all things.  She'll try anything.  Clark is much  more timid.  A slow ride on Super Mabel is about all he can handle.  Oliver is still a little young to try much.  He loves riding behind the jet ski.

 

Whitefish Lake

 

On one of our nights in Whitefish, we drove down the mountain into town for ice cream.  The downtown is darling.  Afterwards, we stopped by Whitefish Lake to check it out.  We ended up staying several hours.  It was beautiful.

 

 

The kids played, Oliver went skinny dipping, and we watched the sunset. 

We will definitely return to Whitefish.

Whtefish Mountain

This is our first full summer in Montana.  We moved here last summer, but with moving and setting up life and trying to get to know the city, we didn't have a lot of extra time to explore the state.  I am starting to understand Montana and love it.  Our whole marriage Matt has talked about and swooned over Montana (since he grew up here), but I never really understood it.  I never wanted to live here because of the cold winters.  But after living here a year, I think I really like it here.  If it were only closer to my family, then it might actually be perfect.  Montana is beautiful.  We have taken a lot of little weekend trips and camping trips and rafting trips this summer... and everywhere has just been gorgeous and quiet.

 

My parents came to visit in July.  While they were here we (sans Matt) stayed at a friend's condo in Whitefish, MT for a few nights.  We loved Whitefish.  We spent one of the days exploring the mountain.  I've never been to a ski resort in the summer.  Wow.  It was so fun and gorgeous.

 

 

We rode down the alpine slides.  Even my Dad did a run.  Willa rode with me the first time and then by herself the second time.  My mom and I were timid the first time, but went faster the second time and wanted to go a third time to really let loose.  Maybe next summer...

  

 

We rode the chairlift. 

Clark made me a little nervous.  Oliver rode with  my parents so I'm not sure how he did.  Clark wanted to stand up and look at my parents behind us. 

 

 

JoJo and Oliver

 

 

Then we rode the gondola to the top of the mountain to see the views, do a little hiking, and eat lunch at the café at the top.

 

 

they couldn't get their jumps timed together

 

It was such a fun day.  So many memories.  So much laughter.  And so very different than Florida.