A Helper

Today is a yucky, rainy and cold day (55 degrees..yuck!). This is what I found in the kitchen..."A Helper!" Well...maybe...sort of?


"Mom, this is going to look so great when I'm done!" It will probably take me a very long time to find what I'm looking for in here :)

Pompeys Pillar

On Saturday Chris and I packed up the kids and headed 28 miles east of Billings to visit Pompeys Pillar National Monument. The monuments' most notable visitor was Captain William Clark (of the Lewis and Clark expedition). Calark arrived at Pomepys Pillar on July 25, 1806 on his return trip from the Pacific coast. Clark maked his presence by engraving his name on the rock. This inscription is the only remaining on-site physical evidence of Lewis and Clark's journey. Clark named this rock Pompy's Tower. It was renamed Pomepys Pillar in 1814 when the Lewis and Clark journals were published. Pompy was Clark's nickname for Jean Baptiste Charbonneau whose mother, Sacagawea was the party's interpreter. Pomp means "little chief" in the Shoshoni language.



Inside the visitor center. Caroline loved this the best; she was fascinated with everything and even sat though a movie about Clark. We had a really great conversation about how they made buffalo skin boats :)

Caroline and Sacagawea!

Connor and his friend Layne lead our group up the rock!

Here is the landing where you can see Clark's name~everyone needed a picture.

Wm. Clark July 25th 1806.

This is the view from the top of the rock. Simply spectacular with the Yellowstone River below.

After we hiked back down we took the path that lead down to the river. On the way we spotted these dugout boats. All this kids thought these were just "awesome!"

4th Grade

Today was the first day of school..I can't believe that I have a 4th grader! He was all smiles before school and all smiles after school~here's hoping for a wonderful year!

Winding Down

School starts next week so we have been enjoying our last few days of summer vacation. Yesterday we met up with some friends at the lake!


Yes...that is a HUGE dead catfish on the beach. The girls were truly disgusted and the boys thought it was the coolest thing they had ever seen!

Caroline, Meghan and Kinsey making sandcastles.

We have been seeing LOTS of these fellas this summer. This guy was huge..take your breath away huge. After the initial shock of stumbling upon Mr. Grasshopper, Caroline and I got a good look at him and decided he was "pretty cute."

Watering the plants for Dad.

Guess What We've Been Up To??

Headbands! Connor was busy with friends yesterday which left some time just for Caroline and me. Of course Caroline wanted to do a craft. While she was cutting and gluing I decided to try and make some pretty flowered headbands that she could wear to school. We LOVE them!

An Update!

Here is just a little video of Caroline riding her bike without training wheels! It only took 2 days and a lot of determination.

Never Say Never...

Well, this is something that we never thought that we would do... The Great American Hill Climb took place this weekend and we had tickets :) It was crazy to watch these guys race up a (vertical) hill and try to beat each other's time. It was noisy, smelly and crowded but so much fun!




Oh, and it was H-O-T. Good thing we spotted these...

I guess we'll just consider this event another Montana experience!