Denise comes to Bozeman

I just started work this week at my new job in Belgrade as a Behavior Interventionist for Heck/Quaw Elementary School-K-3 graders (it is the biggest K-3 school in Montana...over 500 kids). That basically means that when a teacher cannot handle the behavior of a kid in class they call me and I get to deal with it. I am the person the kids don't want to see. :) My partner in this and I are called the "Hammer Twins" because we have to "bring down the hammer". So I think I will have stories to share. I have already been super busy getting kids out of class and we have had three days of school. I will keep you posted!

Anyway....this week has been a busy one so it has taken me all week to post this....sorry.
Denise brought the kids up for the weekend to good ole Montana. We went to the park, Hylite Canyon Lake, went to the potato festival in Manhattan (yes....a potato festival in Montana) played around, watched movies, etc. The twins liked it a lot because they had rocks and water to play with. It was really fun. Thanks Denise for coming up! I hope to see you again soon. I loved having you here!

Cole and Carter loved to climb the ropes until they got stuck.

We walked around the lakes at the Dinosaur Park and Cole wanted to pick up every rock he saw.

Jason put up the little swimming pool in the backyard for the kids.

Katie and Macey playing at the Dinosaur Park.

The twins LOVED throwing rocks into Hylite Canyon Lake.

Las Vegas

This past weekend Jason and I went to Las Vegas while Katie was on vacation with her mom. We took the cheap flight out of Bozeman to Vegas on Friday and flew back home on Monday. We stayed at the Imperial Palace Hotel that is in the middle of the strip so we could walk or take the Monorail everywhere. It was 109 degrees during the day....HOT! I thought I would melt at times walking from air conditioned hotel to air conditioned hotel. We just stayed inside as much as we could. We had a good time! I took over 200 pictures so I just picked a few to share.

As you can see....everyone else had the same idea we had for the weekend....it was crowded!

This "wall" was in the new Palazzo hotel....some call it art I guess. ????

Here are a few of my favorite pics of the beautiful decorations in the hotels.
Cesar's Palace....

In Mandalay Bay Hotel....

Luxor....

This was a cool light fixture in Planet Hollywood. Each crystal is on its own wire....I thought it was cool.

Bellagio....

A cool pic of part of the strip at night.....like the BIG picture of the lady half dressed? Gotta love Las Vegas. :)

We are in front of the Mirage Hotel on our way to the show we saw. (self portrait) :)

I got tickets to Mystere....of course not allowed to take pics inside the theater....

The show was AMAZING....we loved it.

Went to the Coke store for Jason.

Had lunch at Hard Rock Cafe on the strip

Me on a Hog at the Harley Davidson Cafe on the strip. I look good on a Hog...maybe I should get one?! :)

We went to the Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay Hotel....it was a bunch of cool aquariums full of sharks, fish, turtles, etc.

Me at the Paris Hotel

Jason in a Pimp Daddy Hat we saw at a gift shop. He didn't want to buy it though.... :)

We went to the four story M&M World Store....it was pretty cool.

We went to see "Bodies" at the Luxor. I couldn't take pictures in the exhibit but it was really fascinating. Actual bodies and other parts of the body to look at.

Our Hotel

The casino in our hotel where we lost $20 bucks. That is all we allowed ourselves.

Our view from the 18 floor room we had. Not too great because most of the view was a big wall.

In front of the Bellagio for the cool water show.

Katie's 8th Birthday Party!

August 7th was Katie's 8th Birthday. The night before we had the Grafel family over to our house for pizza dinner. We all played RockBand which was a huge hit....we had a blast. Then Katie opened presents and we had Lynette Grafel's special chocolate cake....requested by the birthday girl!

Jason and I got Katie a little digital camera.

We also got her a couple of Webkinz (stuffed animals). Here she is with her favorite....Lucy the Pomeranian! It is as big as my Theo! :)

Jason helping Erik with the guitar...but Erik caught on really fast and away he went!

The fam playing RockBand.

Tayloe and Laura had fun singing "Thunderstruck" by ACDC. It was entertaining!

Katie's Swimming Lessons

Katie took swimming lessons from the city for two weeks. She overcame some of her fears like diving into the water and going down to the bottom (9 feet deep) with help of this pole. I guess I have become one of those step-moms that takes pics at all the kid's events. :)

Camping Trip

Last week we went camping with Jason's family up the canyon from where we live. We found a cool campsite right next to the lake. The weather and scenery were amazing. We had fun. Jason had to work but came up for dinner...the rest of us hung out together.

My boys LOVE camping.....

We asked the kids (Katie with cousins Erik, and Emma) to get sticks for marshmallow roasting....this is what they came back with. :)

The view from our campsite!

The sunset with cool trees.

Tayloe (Jason's sister-in-law) with Katie.

The kids loved the lake....don't you love Emma's little bum?

The kids love Jason and kept hanging on him.