Vacation to Montana

The Bride! (My youngest Sister Sara)

We're back after a long trip to Montana and Oregon. We went because my sister was getting married and you cant miss a sisters wedding. We went up a week before the wedding to help with the prep. Unfortunately I was not of much help.

The first day we were there Little D got sick with a fever and a little cough. It only lasted a day but then Little A got sick. Still no big deal. Then I got sick and it was no 24 hr fever thing. Apparently I had Strep Throat. For about 3 or 4 days I had a fever that would come and go. A sore throat and fever so bad one day that my parents even almost took me to the hospital. I could barely talk. My Dad gave me a blessing and sent me to bed. The next morning I felt much better but still wasn't 100 percent. But my throat was better and that was the worst part. I felt bad for my Mom because in the midst of planning a wedding she had to take care of me and my 3 kids. But she was able to pull it off and everything was fine.

Here they come as we threw rice in their faces!

I didn't think that Big J would be able to make it since he was over in Washington for work, but his job got done just in time and on Thursday he caught the train and rode through the night. He was only in Montana for a short time he got there on Friday and flew back to Bakersfield on Monday. But I was glad he was able to come.

The bride looked so beautiful! The reception at the church was decorated so well. 2 of my Moms sisters came a few days before the wedding to help and Oh man! Things would have been so bad had they not been there to help. With me sick and Mom overwhelmed it was so good of them to come and help. I hope they at least were able to enjoy themselves a little.

After the wedding was over and we had all somewhat re cooperated the kids and I went over to Portland with Mom. We stayed there for about 5 days and then Mom traveled home with us. It was a long drive but we mad it. It was nice to have my Mom here even if it was only for 2 days. She got all her Christmas shopping done for the kids so now she wont have to mail them down. Now I just have to store them until Christmas. It made me want to get all my Christmas shopping done right then. It would be so nice to have it all done by Thanksgiving.

Well sorry there isn't more about our trip but at least I blogged something. I'm still trying to get back to normal from being gone and being sick. Now I can blog about more fun things. Like funny things that kids say. Stay tuned.....

P.S. It was fun to see all our family and friends while we were up there! I hope that it wont be too long before we can come up again. But you know.... you can come down here too! :)

The Zip Line

We went Zip lining! It was so much fun. They only down side to this was that it was raining and when it wasn't raining it was windy. So we were wet and cold about the whole time. On the last line down we were all saying how our fingers were numb. But it was fun just the same.

Here we are getting ready.... Some of us needed more help than others!

Here we are all excited and ready to go.

This was like the "Bunny Hill" of zip lines. You were not that high off the ground and it wasn't very long so you didn't go too fast. So no one was too nervous.

This is a picture of the second line we went on. BIG jump from the Bunny Line! By this line it was raining.

This is me way back there! (If you click on the picture you might be able to actually see me) I was going so fast and I was too scared to let go to do the starfish to slow down. You have to put your arms and legs out to the sides. I could only do the legs cause I was to scared to let go. Oh and I SCREAMED the whole way down!

Here I am safely at the bottom. The rain was pelting my face on the way down. They said that I came in super fast. They were all saying that I was a speed demon. I just said, "Nope just too scared to let go!" Everyone over 200lbs was required to wear a little parachute so that they wouldn't get going too fast. After this one I was like, "I think I need a parachute" They told me that this was probably the fastest one, so I didn't end up getting one.

They made us show them the landing position every time we were hooked up to the line. Here is Mrs. Moss on her trip down line 2, doing an excellent landing position. Some people were crazy and would wait until the last second to tuck! I was always tucking early. Better early than not at all I think.

Here we all are at the top of line 3. All of us that is except for the 2 (you know who you are) that were too chicken to go.


Big J and I looking on line 2. Waiting for line 3.

First Moss Family Reunion

Well this was the first moss reunion. It was a lot of fun too! On the first day we went up to Mr. Moss' cabin in the woods and stayed over night.

While there we did a little bit of wood chopping so that we could have some fire wood.

Grandpa Boss Moss cooked us a great dinner made in dutch ovens by the camp fire. (All I need to say is that If we ever have to live without electricity I want to live wherever he is.) After dinner we sat around the campfire and made "smoles" as Little Eddy would say, and told stories. Grandpa told us the story about Carl Raff and how many many years ago he buried all his money up in those hills, then died unexpectedly. The next morning the children helped uncover the clues that good old Carl Raff left leading to his treasure!

Here they are ready to go treasure hunting. They all split the money they found of course. The rest of the morning on the second day was spent shooting guns, riding the six wheeler.

This is me after my first turn with the gun. Jeremy then felt that a gun safety lesson was in order. Here he is schooling Samurai Mom.

Here we are after our lesson. Feeling "Angel"ish.

Then quickly packing up in order to make it to the Big Mountain in time for ...... THIS!!! See next post.

Road Trip

Well my plans for leaving at 4 failed miserably. I was however up at 3:45 am on Saturday morning. I showered and got dressed. Big J was still not out of bed so I decided to load the car. Once I was done with that Big J finally came out and we were almost ready when he decided that he needed to get pictures off the computer and put them on a USB drive to take to his family. So by the time everyone was in the car it was 5:30 am. Then the car wouldn't start! We didn't have Big J's work truck at the house either. Luckily we have a battery charger. So we waited for the battery to charge enough. We didn't leave Bakersfield until 6 am.

It seemed like the closer we got to SLC that first day the slower Big J was going. I was about to scream! But not wanting to start another argument I resisted the urge.

The rest of the trip was OK. Minus stopping just about every hour to change Little C's diaper, I don't know what his problem was but I'm glad we are finally here so that we don't have to drive anymore.

Big Sky Country

School is out and swimming lessons are over (for now) so.... We're off to the Big Sky Country! Its the best time of year when we get to go to Montana. The only down side is that we have to drive and it takes us 2 days to get there. We never seem to get there fast enough. But we get to go, non the less, so I am grateful.

Today was spent washing and packing clothes, cleaning the house, packing the car and convincing Big J that we really need to leave at 4 am. I told him that we have to try it at least once and if it didn't work out we could go back to "his way" which is getting out the door if we are lucky by 9am. Its funny because you would think that any sane person would want to opt for the later time but I was raised to have everything packed in the car the night before so that all you had to do was throw the kids in the car and go.

Above is a picture of my brother Mr. Moss and the view from the "hike" they took last time we were in Montana. I say "Hike" because it was more like rock climbing than hiking. Below is a picture of the steep cliff they climbed to get that picture.


Yep that part on the right is what they climbed. At first Big J thought that Mr. Moss was joking about climbing it. But my brother is a little bit of crazy! Big J says that he just about died trying to get up that. I told him that he should be in better shape when he is to go "hiking" with Mr. Moss.