Back to Life, Back to Reality...

We are back from our holiday trip to Montana. As always it was filled with family, friends, and more than enough laughter to last us a couple of months. Below you will find a virtual photo frenzy of our 12 day trip. I know there are a lot of pictures and I could dole them out over the next few days, but I also know you all have been waiting with breath that is baited over the last week or so and I wouldn't want to deprive you any longer!!! Enjoy...

Lena listening intently to the phone call from Chester the Elf. He is Santa's chief tracking elf and just wanted to double check our whereabouts as we left a day ahead of schedule...

Opening presents on Christmas morning. Waking up at Nana and Papa's on the 25th was soooo much better than waking up in a hotel room and fighting over the waffle maker in the continental breakfast room...

Displaying their Animal Life Rescue pets. These were the main presents they asked Santa for and it only took us a day to find the "OFF" switch on the annoying Barbie voice..."a polar bear is an endangered animal, a polar bear is an endangered animal"! Seriously Barbie...didn't you read the post about me sleeping through the Al Gore movie?...

Lena and Annika received two tea sets from my parent's friends. They were the hit of Christmas. Everyday we were treated to a beverage of some sort. Below is Lena's hot chocolate creation...I am thinking that she is spending a little too much time at Starbucks with Daddy...

Christmas Day in Pendroy, MT before we gorged ourselves on delicious prime rib...ymmmm meat (said in my best Homer Simpson voice)...

Christmas Day with Nana and Papa. Annika is enjoying herself even though it looks like she is trying to escape Nana's grasp...

Four generations of women...pretty special...

Playing with cousin Aundra...quite possibly the cutest little baby in the west...

Gramma Joyce and her granddaughters (Stacey, Kirsten, and Kendra...they are sisters) and great-granddaughters (Lena, Annika, and Aundra...Kirsten's daughter)...

When we made it over to Whitefish, MT we found boatloads of snow. Jason had the great idea to get the girls some snowshoes and they were a hit. They went out on a couple of occasions. Jason and his snow bunnies played in the snow almost every day...

Winter walkin' with Lena. One afternoon she ventured out for over 2 hours in the snow and cold, up hills and down...

Annika especially liked trekking to a snowed-in swamp and collecting cat tails...

On New Year's Eve my childhood friends Mara, Molly (and her husband Allen), and Ashley (and her husband Rylan), Mom (Dad couldn't make it over that day due to a storm), and our cousins Carla and Lyle celebrated the evening. Mara and I hosted the Tapas (fancy schmancy appetizers) Party...spending the day whipping up our concoctions. It was a fabulous evening filled with the afore mentioned laughter. Unfortunately (and that is a good thing), I don't have any pictures to document the part of the evening where we ventured down to the bars (and, no Mara, you do not need to send the pics from your camera. Let's just say there was a party hat involved in a series of pictures and Mommy had quite the headache the next day!)...

The cabin fairy left the girls a stuffed dog and a care bear on their beds. The following four days were spent making paper clothes for the animals. It was bordering on obsession. However, the good thing about having a bunch of people around is that you can just pawn the "help me" requests off..."Oh Godmamma Mara (pictured) is a super artist" or "Nana is really handy with the scissors" or "I know Allen can create an ice skate out of notebook paper"...

A couple of years ago we were camping and I took my wedding band (not the diamond one thankfully) off to put sunscreen on the girls. I realized later I wasn't wearing it. After much looking (a metal detector was involved) I resigned to the fact that it was lost. We bought a new one, but I always felt a little sad that it hadn't gone through a wedding ceremony. Flash forward to present day...our friend Molly is a Lutheran pastor and we went cross country skiing with them. We picked a quiet little spot in the woods and she did a ring blessing ceremony. It was really sweet and beautiful and we even had a "reception" of cheese, crackers, and chocolate covered prune pieces...so much like the original reception it was scary!...

The blessing of the rings...

Molly and Allen in front of Allen's makeshift cross...

Remember the boatloads of snow I previously mentioned? On our last day we went out snow shoeing and came across many of these arches. The snow is so abundant that it weighs the trees down into anatural arch...very beautiful. The dogs loved the three mile hike as well. Ringo has even lost a little weight from all the exercise...he really got a jump start on his New Year's resolution!!...