And Now It's August

Wow, I haven't updated this since June. I guess I've been distracted by Facebook.

Anyways, we've been having a good summer. We've been floating on the Madison River several times now and the kids love it. It's a nice way to spend a Saturday morning. We recently went huckleberry picking and came home with a gallon of beautiful berries. I made a cobbler last night that was unbelievably yummy. The girls had their birthdays...Faith is now 2 and Kailey is 3. Where did the time go?? My pregnancy is going well. I think I'm destined to have hyper babies. We're planning on moving home middle of October, probably without Sky since he'll need to finish the month out here. I am so looking forward to seeing everyone again!

I posted some pics of the last few weeks so those of you who don't have Facebook can see what we've been up to.

Hailstorm!!!!

We had an incredible hailstorm this afternoon. I've never seen anything like it. It was about 90 degrees when the wind hit at about 60 mph. Then the hail started. We couldn't hear each other speak it was so loud. It sounded like a train was coming through the roof. Here's some pics of the storm and aftermath.

Our garden didn't survive. Maybe these tomatoe plants will perk up later.

The hailstones you see clearly are bouncing off the ground; that's how hard they were hitting.

It did this for a very long 15 minutes. The girls were a little scared because it was so loud. We stood on the covered back porch watching in amazement. By the time it was over, the ground was littered in hail, leaves, broken branches, and debris that had been blown from who knows where. Kailey in awe told me, "Mommy, the ice came out of the sky!" They really know how to do storms in Montana.

Made Some New Friends and Other Stuff

So we've finally found a church, made new friends, and forgotton all you guys back home. Ha, just kidding! :) We did find a really great little community church nearby that we like. It's small, about 50 members in a service, and the people are very friendly. The small home group that we joined is full of couples our age and lots of kids. During the summer, they don't do regular Bible studies but instead get together and do fun stuff. We went to a game night at one of their houses on Friday and had such a good time! Both Sky and I felt very loved and accepted even though they didn't know us from Adam. The girls so enjoyed playing with other kids. I feel like they've been people-deprived. This Sunday we're goin to a BBQ and next month we'll be floating the Madison river. I can't wait! I've never floated a river before.

Sky's job isn't doing as well as we'd hoped. Apparently this has been the wettest year in a very long time. Sky hauls oil for the asphalt layers and they can't lay road when it's raining. He and Joel got sent to Missoula for most of last week since there weren't any jobs around here. Please pray for better weather so Sky can stay local and come home every night. We didn't move this far away from everyone just to be separated for most of the week.

Mom and Julie are coming to visit this week and Dad and Daniel will be coming for the 4th so we're really excited! It'll be so good to see them again. Sky even mentioned plans to take everyone to the Roadkill Cafe one night. Yeah, that Roadkill Cafe.....

Our House

Here's a picture of the house we're renting, in case anyone's interested. It's a three bedroom log home. We've decided that it's a pretty cool summer house but we wouldn't want to live in it during the winter. It needs a little work. But we like it. It's a God-thing that we even got this house. It sits on three acres, most of which is horse-pasture. We'd like to get our horses here since they'd go crazy in the knee-legth grass, but we'll have to wait and see. There are views of really big mountains on all sides and I can see the trees that border the Gallatin River. The house is full, inside and out, of old cowboy stuff. (The owner is a rodeo cowboy.) Oh, and we just found out that we're sitting at 4995 feet elevation. And we wondered why it's been snowing for 2 days.

Some pics

Digging in the back yard




Palasades Falls




Hyalite Lake





Lewis and Clarck Caverns

The view from our front porch

Hello from Beautiful Bozeman

Hello, all the people I love!!! I decided to start yet another blog so that all you wonderful friends and family members who are sooooo interested in our life can see what we're up to.

Bozeman is gorgeous. It's growing on me more than I thought it would. I feel strangely at home. Don't worry, we're still coming back in October sometime. Just don't be suprised if we announce we're moving for good sometime in the future. I promise you'll have more warning than we gave you all at church when we took off this time.

The kids are doing well. They love playing outside in the yard all the time and are turning into tanned, tow-headed litle girls. We're only 15 minutes from town so they enjoy shopping, going to the park, and playing at McDonalds. I'm afraid they're getting spoiled. They're also enjoying hiking, swimming, and exploring the endless mountains, lakes, waterfalls, rivers, and ghost towns.

You can see Kailey in the picture I posted...it was 90 degrees that day. It's snowing right now. :^P The weather is rather unpredictable and I'm longing for more summer. So don't anyone tell me about how beautiful it's been at home and how you've all been to the lake numerous times already because I don't want to hear it. They say it'll be 100 degrees in July and August. They had better be right.

I miss every one of you. We're still visiting churches and trying to find one we fit in. I'm afraid our expectations are high considering the church we're from. But we're trying not to unfairly compare. Pastor Sonny, you have a gift that not every preacher has and we miss you. Rob, Daniel, Isaac, Cherish, Vern, Josh, Jeff, Jake, and Kaila....I had no idea that our little worship team was so talented! I so miss being a part of lifting hearts to God with you! We are very blessed in tiny Springdale and don't any of you forget it. To the rest of you, we miss seeing your faces every Sunday and hearing your laughter and listening to Pastor Sonny telling everyone to pipe down so he can preach. Ah, the joy of going to a church where people like each other. :^) God bless you all.