June 2019 - Oh Canada!!!

We had a general authority come and speak to us in Kalispell. Elder Rasband came and gave us an amazing conference. He spoke all about missionary work and thanked us for all we are doing here to help the gospel grow. He also had great advice on what we could be improving on. I took lots of notes and sent them to Carter. It was great stuff. We sat in the very back row up on the stage...definite nose bleed situation. Fun to see all of the Latter-Day Saints gathered to hear from an apostle of the Lord.

Tournament in Kalispell this weekend and this little on rescued a baby Killdeer from the busy street. Set it back with it's parents and they ran off on their way. Good job Ally. Some lady got mad at her for touching it but it was in serious danger of being ran over.

The turtles are out and Ally is the best turtle hunter there is. She's bringing me cute ones all the time so I can see whose the smallest or who has the brightest colored shell. The fun never ends.

This is the 2006 United team with their medals on after placing in the tournament this weekend.

A bit of soccer in the yard as well because you can never have too much soccer can you?

Trombone concert tonight for Tyler. He's sporting his jazz club tie and looking handsome. I seriously love listening to the Jazz Band, they are by far the best.

Sweet Peaks treat after the concert. Celebrating our first day over 80 degrees and Tyler's concert. They happened on the same day. It took until June to hit 80 this year. I have a hard time waiting for the warmth.

We spotted a robins nest in the tree right by our stairway. Ally is getting a closer look with the binoculars. Lets hope nobody falls off the railing this year while bird watching. There are three little babies in this nest.

Speaking of nests I found this killdeer nest out under one of my grape vines in the garden. It takes 28 days for them to hatch out, Ally is a quick researcher. She knew what species they were by glancing at them and then she found out how long they gestate and all sorts of other information. Hopefully the cat or raccoons won't find them first.

My Mom came to town and she and Tyler are playing her favorite card game. Garbage rummy. She's pretty fierce and will crush you if you let your guard down.

Ally and her girlfriends have Olive all situated and are hoping for a happy outcome this year.

Ally put a stuffed cat in with olive to give her company. She loves her perch. She is also eating which is the first time we've had a duckling eat and drink. That's got to be a good sign!

Ally is a good mama and watches over her animals with great affection and loves them deeply.

We went to the Woodland Park to do some research and see if we could spot any other ducklings that look like Olive. This turtle doesn't look like Olive....Ally just couldn't resist catching it.

We had no luck finding a duckling match but we enjoyed the sweet baby ducklings regardless.

Young women hike and lesson. Ally's friend Sophie joined us. The girls had a good time and we ate popsicles. Win!

My mom did just fine getting around our place on Blueberry. Her hip hasn't really healed up well from her surgery last year. She wanted to come and see Ally play in a soccer tournament though so she did. She's a pretty big sports fan and loves to see Ally playing soccer. A few of the games were freezing though and she watched from the car window. Luckily we could get the car parked right where she could see the field. 

We had to take my Mom to Whitefish and out for amazing crepes because she loves Whitefish and Ally loves amazing crepes. I like hanging  out with the both of them so am happy to go wherever they want.

The water is still pretty chilly. We are going to need more days over 80 degrees please!!

So while my Mom was in town I took the opportunity to go check out a new antique store I had scoped out driving through Columbia Falls. It's called Station Eight I think. While there I became quite smitten with this garden arch in the photo below but it was quite a bit above my price range. Lucky for me my mom lives above my price range and purchased it for my garden. I am laying bricks and reorganizing a harden I have hated and it has become my new favorite garden in my yard. Ally and Penny were out in the yard helping me with the digging and removing of some turf. We had to grow the garden to fix the ugly shape it had previously. It is going to be amazing!!! I planted two wisteria plants at the base of the arch and my kids can have their wedding at my house and stand under an arch of weeping purple flowers that smell heavenly and all will be well in the world. Nobody's engaged yet but I will be ready.  Gardening is like painting as you get to create beautiful things that you imagine but then they are real and they grow and change and get more beautiful with time.

We spray painted the grass blue where we needed to remove turf.

We unearthed a few toads while working. This girl is a fan of the toads. She has two propped on her feet in the photo above and three scrambling around in her hands below.

My moms last day in town and we needed a trip to Sweet Peaks to celebrate her trip. It's so fun when she gets to come up and play with us. Ally's duck Olive was doing great and then suddenly died last night. She gave it a little float around in the bathtub, it ate some scrambled eggs and then she put her to bed. When she came back upstairs she had died. We were all shocked and Ally cried her eyes out. We had just built her a little duck playground with a fence near the pond so she could swim in and out of the pond. Ally even planted soft moss for her to nest on. She cried and then grandma cried and then I cried. Seriously the saddest thing ever. We buried Olive under the new arch in the garden that grandma just bought us. It is a beautiful location for a beautiful little duckling to rest in peace. Sweet Olive was only with us for a week but she will be missed. That was a week of pure joy for Ally. Ice cream makes everything better though.

How does the garden grow? I finally stole the third vegetable bed and filled it with dirt and planted it out this year. Byron kept saying he wanted to plant it out and do the Mittleider system but I gave him an entire year and he never got it done so I have taken it over, it is mine now. I planted corn and red onions, tomatoes, tomatillo and a section of asparagus. Everything has come up and is looking great.

I put in another strawberry square box this year and the added the arch for squash or pumpkins to grow up and over. The strawberries in the first square box are a year old now and we should get good fruit off them this season.

The bathroom remodel saga continues.........

I purchased a few flowers at the farmers market in town this morning and am going to work on planting it out. I got red yellow and blue flowers. I am in love with this garden arch.

Byron was going for a ride around while I worked on the garden. He bought this new Honda Trail 110 this spring through the Gardners auction site. Now we have a matching pair. Carters is named Smokey and Byron named his Bandit.

I've been salvaging the stepping stones from another location in the yard and installing them here to give the arch a firm support. There will be a little step down between the two levels.

Byron went on a float with Ben, Craig and Tyler. They have a good time floating and fly fishing. Tyler's rod got broken by Byron last time they went out so he is borrowing my rod which belonged to my grandfather Smith. I am a little nervous lending it out but hopefully it will bring him good luck. My grandpa was an excellent fisherman.

Ally and her school mates met at Volunteer Park for a little sunshine. Kenzie, Clara, Ally and Sophie. They ran into some other friends while there and had a great time swimming and chatting while I sat and read a book. It's nice to just sit and relax.

Julie needed a little help this spring so I convinced Ally to come and help me. She had a good time entertaining the babies while Julie and I gave them their spring shots.

There is nothing sweeter than a brand new little lamb.

Byron and I missed out Friday night date this week but Ally helped us out and cooked us dinner, made us lemonade, sliced us up pieces of pie and decorated the table. It's called the Horseshoe Cafe. Then she went up to her room and played the trumpet for our dinner music. It was perfect. What a sweet little gesture from our darling teenager. Are teenagers supposed to be this kind?

Those are purple uniforms you see....we have changed clubs for some summer soccer practice this year. Coach Patty wanted to offer summer training for our girls and United doesn't provide this as an option so we changed over to NSC. This is a tournament in Great Falls I think. Ally's achilles has been killing her since she ran track and played soccer during the same season. About six months now. We took her into a chiropractor for some healing support and she got all taped up for the tournament games. Hopefully the chiropractic care will do the trick.

All taped up and ready for play soccer this weekend. This girl is determined to keep playing regardless.

We went to the local fun house and played laser tag and the girls rode go-carts after their games on Saturday. Patty took first place in the laser tag but surprising the crowd, I took second place. Who knew I had such a deadly shot.

Olivia tagged along with Ally and I for this tournament since her parents weren't able to make it. The girls had fun shopping and buying many bouncy balls at Old Navy. They wanted any pattern but the one that kept coming out of the machine. It was pretty funny. I think they went home with eight or nine each.

Minnow hunting down at the dock. Ally is a quick scooper. She can get many minnows with her net or her hands. Doesn't really make a difference.

So after piano lessons one night Ally thought it would be fun to try and watch me play the trumpet. She gave me a lesson and I am really glad I chose the piano for my instrument. All that blowing gives me a headache. We did make it through a few songs though and they sounded close to what they should have. Not bad I would say. Don't tell Carter we broke out his trumpet to make this activity happen.

The Weymouth's cat had kittens again this spring. There is nothing better than a bundle of kittens.

The lavender harvest has begun. Let the cutting and drying commence. Ally is holding the Melissa variety in the photo. She also just got out of bed and has crazy hair....she's always gorgeous though regardless of what her beautiful red locks are doing.

The youth took a trip up to the Cardston Alberta Temple and then we went into Waterton for ice cream after. Byron and I went along as chaperones. It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed our time in the temple with the youth very much.

We went up to the hotel on the hill and got blown away by the gale force winds. It was comical.

Anybody have a hair tie? I think they call this the Prince of Whales Hotel. Such a cool old building.

As fate would have it we drove back home and packed up for our family vacation which was starting the very next day in the same place...Waterton. This time Tyler was able to come with us though. We toured around the town and enjoyed an evening First Peoples Dance concert. The town is really cute and we got the lay of the land so we were ready for the big hike the next morning.

Hopefully this kid will get his Eagle before the year is wrapped up. He's got a good idea percolating and just needs to get approvals going. He wants to run a bike drive and donate kids bikes to the local women shelter.

Trailhead for our Crypt hike. It is an eleven mile hike up to Crypt lake. You ferry over to the trailhead and then hike up to the lake. You must be back down in time to catch your ferry back to Waterton or you get to walk the extra 9 miles back to town.  This hike is ranked in National Geographic as top ten in the world.

They were not kidding. It was a gorgeous hike. Long and hard, lots of switch backs and my feet were just about dead by the time we made it to the top.

The wildflowers were spectacular. So many new varieties, I could hardly walk along without stopping for another photo. This little orchard is called a lady slipper. I have never seen anything like it before. We saw wild clematis and loads of glacier lilies. All the usuals as well. Columbine, Indian Paintbrush, Lupine....

Carter and one of the other elders in his mission. I just love getting photos of this sweet elder of mine.

Those peonies smelled divine. Seriously heavenly. I brought bunches of them inside and for once in my life my home didn't smell like a wet dog. It smells like wet dog in here a lot with two dogs a river and a pond. They are inevitably always coming into the house wet.