Longview Texas comes to Montana: Rotzler/Venables Edition

So they day The Hemphills left, our next round of visitors came.  2 of our great friends packed their junk and suffered through the stress of flying with young children all the way from Longview to see us! The Rotzlers showed up first...Hilliard, Rebekah, Chandler, and Meg.  Meg is Jaylie's almost twin. She was born the day after Jaylie in the same hospital. 

Then came the Venables....Andy, Addie, Mabry, Allie, and Beau.  (Bonus info: Addie and Rebekah are sisters...so we get to be surrogate cousins with their kids!) 

Meg, Kanyon, Chandler, and Q the first night....SO EXCITED to be together.  We were excited the restaurant had tables outside so we didn't have to try to keep these monkeys quiet.  

Nothin beats waking up and eating breakfast with your buddy Chandler! 

Meg and Jaylie headed to the park. 

Thursday we went up to some of our friend's place with a little pond for fishing.  It was ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL.  I'd never been up there and I just couldn't stop gawking at the view. It was breathtaking.   Rebekah braved the back seat with Mabry and Q (and her eardrums were only temporarily injured).  Meg is even cute when she's picking her nose. 

Q really likes to fish.  He was a little impatient this time, but still had fun.  I think he's been spoiled fishing out of my parents pond where the perch basically jump up on to your hook.  

klp and KLP reeling one in.  

What a view! 

Andy was the big winner that night.  Not only did he catch this good sized trout, but he caught several others too.  

The Mamas.  Love these girls a whole whole whole bunch.  Its been a huge blessing to have kids all at the same time and share the ups and downs of motherhood, friendship, family life, etc.  with them.  They're pretty great.  They are also my favorite people to text.  We have a constant running group text and they keep me laughing every day! 

Mr. Andy with a lap full.  

Mabry, klp, jjp throwing rocks in the creek. 

We went out to the ranch one afternoon.  Tye was gone so he was nice to let us have the run of his house while he was gone.  Mabry reading to June.

Quinn helping Allie across the cattle guard like any good gentleman would do.  

Just seeing how many people we can cram in the Ranger.

This is what happens when you play at the ranch all day with your friends.....

Mud pies by Jaylie June , Meg, and Beau

Mabry and klp

This is what happens when you have more company that you have chairs.  Hilliard snagged a kid chair.  haha! 

The whole crew up on The Butte.  

Rotzlers

Phillips Pham

Venables

Meg was always finding someone else's shoes to put on.  Here she is in Quinn's boots.  

Just a sweet hug from the future  Mr. and Mrs.  

Kids on a fence always makes a cute picture.  I happen to love klp in the corner headed to the fence! 

They loved feeding the horses. 

It came a nice rain, so the kids watched some TV at Uncle Tye's.  Chandler and Q were so cute all snuggled up with each other.  

Meanwhile, Meg and Beau were doing some light reading on top of the kitchen table. 

Andy and his prized woodchucks.  

Bea got some lovin' from all the girls.  

Bekah lovin' on Jaylie June.  I think Juney probably misses Addie and Rebekah because if she cries to be picked up, I ignore her but they run to her rescue.  Its been a tough go for her since they've been gone.  

Out of order pics from the Butte.  Hilliard was setting up the camera and I'm sure Kanyon hanging on his back was just what he needed.  

Q wasn't at his finest that evening on the butte....needless to say Mr. Andy came to the rescue and carried klp so Dad could carry Quinn.  

Photo cred: Mabry!  Love these people so much.  It means so much for people to go through so much trouble to come see us.  It also helps that they're super low maintenance and flexible when it comes to cramming 14 people in one house!  They're the best! 

and what a great bunch of kids.  They really did great all week! They slept good, played well, and did good getting yanked all over the place with no naps, late nights, and all sorts of craziness.  

On the last day with everyone there, we drove up to Crystal Lake.  It was 37 degrees and sleeting so we spent most of the time in the car.  It finally stopped sleeting long enough to enjoy a little time at the lake.  Thanks to WINTER weather, the day didn't go quite as we planned, but it was still a blast. 

The Dads.  

Throwing rocks is endless fun! 

The Rotzler crew headed back to Bozeman after Crystal Lake so they could catch an early flight the next morning, but we enjoyed another day with the Venables crew.  

NINJA TURTLES! 

It was a great week to say the very least.  So thankful for such awesome friends.  We had a few days to regroup and prepare for our next round of visitors! Stay tuned...Phillips Phamily Summer continues!!!!