Other pics

Here are some more random pictures from our trip back to Great Falls.

I shopped almost every day. Here are just the food items I brought back to Norway. We ended up with about 250 lbs worth of stuff and maybe 50 lbs of it was stuff I brought over and back. Walmart was my best friend the first week or so until I remembered why I hated it when I lived in the States. It was so fun picking and choosing items that we either couldn't get over here or are crazy expensive. I also did online shopping for months before our return, shipping clothes to my parents for us to bring back. It was a ton of fun and I suspect I'll be doing it again when we come back for Christmas.
Jeff's Grandma's yard. He spent a lot of time playing here as a kid so it was fun to watch Avery play in it too.
My friend Stephanie and her new baby boy Jack. Such a cute and sweet baby oh and he looks just like his Mama.
Jill, me and Steph, friends since highschool.
The drive to Missoula from Great Falls was beautiful. I've driven this road hundreds of times but never really appreciated it as much as on this trip.
Avery sacked out in the hotel room after a hard days play.
These are not in order. This is playing with Ronnie and Rhiannon at Carys park on our first day in Missoula. It was great to see Chris and Tonya. Later Teresa, Jeff and Lucas showed up. We also got to go to dinner with our good friends Robin, Trev and their adorable little one Jake and our friend Tyler from Butte drove over to eat with us. We ate at the Mustard Seed and it was perfect.
Jeff, Teresa and Lucas drove over one day to hang out with me at my parent's house. The kids had a blast swimming and I had a blast catching up with my good friends.

Ave getting her hair cut. We are trying to grow out her bangs. She wasn't too happy about sitting still for a half hour but in the end it was well worth it.
Playing with cousin Hayden in my parent's back yard.
Cousin Hayden at Cousin London's birthday party. Love those big blue eyes.
Avery at London's birthday party.
Four generations hanging out at Krisit's wedding shower.
Swimming with cousin Michael.

Avery got a ton of cousin time which was awesome. She loved having friends to play with every day. We had a wonderful trip to Missoula, a town that still feels like home. The wedding was pretty consuming but made for some fun nights. I had a blast at the batchlorette party and at the wedding shower. It was also fun hanging out with Kristi and talking about the big day. I also really enjoyed going to the gym with my brother and new sister in law. Wish I could stay so motivated over here. We also had a wonderful bar-b-que at Jeff's Dad's that I forgot to bring my camera to and a great bar-b-que at Jeff's Mom's where our friend Ryan from Butte showed up and we got to see Pauline who drove down from Missoula. What a wonderful trip we had, it was so nice to be home for a few weeks and enjoy all the people we love!

4th of July

It was so great being back in the States for the 4th. I think I would have been totally depressed hanging out in another country on that day. We woke up that day after a night at Jeff's Mom's house where we stayed up late hanging out with friend's and family. After a great brunch we headed over to my families house were we got ready to go to the parade. The parade was fantastic as always and this year was great since so many of my family made it downtown. After that we went back to my parent's house for a bar-b-que. Unfortunately that is where our fun ended because Avery was deathly afraid of fireworks. My family went to Big Bear to light thiers off and watch the big fireworks, we stayed behind to watch movies with the small one. We did manage to get her out on my parents deck to watch some of the big fireworks and she thought those were beautiful. So maybe by next year she'll actually enjoy watching them go off

Hating the loud muskets at the parade.
The jet flyover. The men in the family's favorite part of the parade.
Aunt Lynn and Hayden.
The family minus Brady and Kristi who showed up later.
Hanging with cousin Ryley.

Averyisms

The small one talks about her toes as if they are people. The other day she was fidgeting them in bed and said, "Mom the toes are just moving." Then today she told me that, "the toes don't like this movie." Also when she gets in trouble, she likes to blame it on the toes.

When we were back in Great Falls we were outside one night and she looked up pointed at a star and said, "Oh Mommy wish a star." Since she hasn't seen stars in Norway yet (due to the lightness) I'm thinking she remembered this from Princess Frog.

When asked how she liked the fireworks on the fourth she said, "they are beautiful and loud."

When referring to body parts she says boys have a peanut and girls have a little peanut.

At my brother's wedding Ave fell off her chair. From then on Grandma Darleen kept telling her to sit down every time she stood up. Finally Ave put her arm around Grandma and said, "honey, don't say that again."

The other day I asked her if she wanted to go to the store. She said, "mmm no thanks."

When Nana and Avery were trying to get the wand out of a bottle of bubbles and neither could get it out, Avery says, "I suspect we need a knife."

We bought Ave some small sports bras back in the states and Dave's sister Merrie gave her more. She is now wearing one every day under her shirt, just like Mommy.

Brady and Kristi's Wedding

We planned our trip back to the US to coincide with my little brother's wedding. He got married at Ryan Dam outside of Great Falls and it was beautiful. Brady and Kristi have been dating it seems like forever so we were all very excited that they finally got married. It was a beautiful wedding filled with family and friends. We had a great time.

At the rehearsal. Jeff's cousin Shawna performed the ceremony and her son Ryley tagged along. Ave and Ryley had a great time playing together.
My new sister in law. Avery just saw this picture and said, "I love Kristi Mom."
My awesome little brother.

Ryan Dam was beautiful.
Ave with Cousin Yoshi having a blast.


With my Mom at the Max after the reception was over!

Trip to Montana

We just spent three weeks back in Montana and we had a blast. While we were there we attended my brother's wedding, made a trip to Missoula to see family and friends and relaxed at home with family. It was wonderful. One thing that moving away has taught me is to appreciate what we had in Montana. Living there my entire life I had become somewhat immune to it's beauty. While we drove to Missoula it was like seeing the landscape for the first time. What a beautiful state. Here are a few glimpses of the drive. I'll post more pictures of the other things we did back home in the days to come.