Cousins are Here!

Clint, Rachel, Ro, Nolan, and Marion came to Montana by train! They rode the train 24 hours from Chicago to Glacier National Park! We loved hearing about the train experience, sleeper cars and all! They all gave it 2 enthusiastic thumbs up! My cousin Jay, also referred to in our extended Spencer family as Baby Jay (he was the last of the cousins and it was a way to differentiate between my Dad Jay and Baby Jay), had made plans several months ago to come visit us this week.  So when his time overlapped with Clint's crew, he decided to join them in Glacier.  So Jay flew in and  took our Suburban to meet the others at Glacier.  They spent a couple of days seeing the Park and then drove to our house.  We were counting down the minutes til there were finally here! Its sort of torture knowing they're *so* close! 

There were Beanie Boos for all!!!! If you come all this way,t he least I can do is provide some "party favors!" 

It was Fair Week in our town, so we got to enjoy the parade! I always love parades! 

The amount of candy thrown out was remarkable!  They loaded up their shirts full of it!

Some friends of ours have a pond up in the mountains, so we went there to try to do a little fishing.  It turned out to be more of a tiny bit of fishing, then zip lining, then paddle boating.  So while we didn't catch any fish, we had a lot of fun in an absolutely GORGEOUS setting! 

The "big" cousins! 

Ro and Quinn made rafts out of cat tails and watched them float across the pond. 

We dined on gourmet hot dogs roasted over the fire. Or just hot dogs over a fire probably semi coated in ashes.  As you can see, Juney didn't seem to mind! 

Group GoPro selfie! 

Its hard to beat sitting around a fire on a summer night. 

I can't make this picture turn around but Jaylie managed to do this "looking for her Kangaroo book".  To make matters worse, Baby Jay was staying in her room....we kept getting on to him for junking out his room! :) 

As always, Jay was generous with the children ALL over him all. the. time.  He's a gem.  

We went to the fair one afternoon to check out the animals and such.  How can you NOT go to rabbit agility when you get the chance.  It was hot and I parked in the wrong place, but we still had fun.  Kinda.  Baby Jay was teaching Jaylie to skip.  

There were a couple of free "rides" there so we let the kids do this one where they get in big plastic balls and roll all around in a pool.  The line moved INCREDIBLY slow, but there was no turning back once we started.  So we waited FOREVER and they all finally got a chance to do it.  The kids said it was worth the wait.  Glad they think so.  

Y'all Travis Tritt played the concert this year!!!! And you better believe we went! We found a very  brave babysitter to watch all the kids and we enjoyed a trip back to the mid-late 90s.  It was pretty much a sing along and it was so fun! We were dying at his dance moves.  He's pretty unbelievable....thats the best way to describe it.  I'm not saying his dance moves were unbelievably GOOD, just unbelievable.  We had blast! Its the first concert Rachel has ever stayed awake for!! Now THAT'S saying something! 

Not sure when this was, but we went hard all day every day and way too late at night. The kids were SO tired, but couldn't stop the fun! 

Its so handy to have cousins who will read to you (and let you play with their hair at the same time).

Our city pool got "upgraded" this summer so we were excited to take the cousins to it.  It was a blast for all of us...slides races! synchronized diving board tricks! Wohooo! 

It can get a little chilly if the wind blows at all, so the best way to warm up is to lay on the warm concrete.  So we did that like a bunch of cold blooded reptiles.  You know how I mentioned we ran the kids ragged the whole week? Ro fell asleep on the concrete. Out like a light.  Complete with a puddle of drool.  

On our last full day we floated the creek and despite the tubes loosing air and the over all tricky-ness of keeping kids together and on the same tube as us, it was a great adventure! But no pictures cuz our phones would've totally gotten ruined. 

The whirlwind week came to an end, documented by a porch picture of course.  Clint and Rachel's visits each summer have become the highlights of our summers! 

We got a few extra days with Baby Jay so that was extra fun! We were SO GLAD he wanted to spend some of his short break with us.  We love him SO SO SO SO SO much! 

When we took him to the airport, this was Jaylie watching him walk in.  We all shared the feeling. We hated to see him go. 

He kept telling the kids he'd be back to see us again, so on the way home from the airport, Juney drew this map and dictated this message for him.  Can't wait til next time!