We've got some catching up to do.

Last Friday Kate, Alex and I went to the county fair. While it turned out to be small beans, our two favorite things were the baby llamas and the horse vaulting. Very cool stuff!

On the way back to the car, Alex fell asleep in her stroller like this. The whole time at the fair she refused to lean back in the stroller, and when she got tired she just slumped forward and let her head rest on her toes!
Tyler got back in town on Friday night, and on Saturday we went with Ben and Kate to the Mayan. I've always wanted to go and see the people dive while you ate, so in the spirit of "do everything you have always wanted to and never have done" we went. It was so much fun!

Before Tyler left for work, about a month ago, he picked up his new fancy boots. These ones are 16 inches tall! Other than being super cool, they keep his legs from getting scratched up by all the underbrush and such. Here is Tyler on an average day.
This fire was up in Idaho I believe. Don't know exactly where.

Susan was going through her hope chest and found this cute little outfit that Kara (Alex's aunt and where her middle name came from) had worn when she was a little baby. This this is 20 years old and still in near perfect condition. So Alex wore it to church, complete with cute little red shoes. I even tried to put her hair in a little pony tail on top of her head, but you can barely tell.
Alex hanging out with Grandpa before church.
Saturday night Kate and I held our long awaited "chocolate night"! We ate chocolate fondue, watched the movie 'Chocolate' and even did chocolate facials!
Alex was very intrigued by the red shoes strapped to her feet. This poor child has never really experienced socks, let alone shoes.

This month has just been so much fun! let me give you a mini outline of the outragiousness....

August-

1-3- Ben, Kate, Alex, Kristen visit Kara and Devin at Bear lake

6- Ben's birthday dinner

7- Kate's baby shower

9- Tie Dye onsies

10- Watch Bollywood "lagoon" with Ben and Kate

11- Family Olympics

12- Visit Rachelle and Megan and Mushu, movie night with Devin, Kara, Ben, Kate, Pat, Susan

13- Go to color me mine with the Brady (and Gagon) girls

14- Shriners apointment. Find out Alex's hips are doing great, don't have to go back for 6 months!

15- County fair with Kate. Tyler comes home

16- Temple and the Mayan with Tyler, Ben, Kate. Go to reception dinner at Thanksgiving point.

17- Play homemade deal or no deal. Win dinner at Tucano's!

18- Dinner at Tucano's with Tyler and Alex! Visit bookstore.

19- Bollywood night. Eat curry and watch a Bollywood

20- move into small bedroom

21- Paint big bedroom

22- Movie with Ben, Kate, and Susan.

23- Ben and Kate move into big bedroom. Go to Farmers market and hit the jackpot on vintage fabric. Chocolate night

24- play games, eat leftover chocolate, watch Olympic closing show.

photoshop, tie dye, and cute baby

Alex in her dancing shoes. One of the few times this summer she has worn clothes, and one of the first times in her life she has ever worn shoes.

Kate and I planned a family Olympics and so on a Monday night we had the competition. It was a BLAST! Above you can see Pat (my father in law) who had a bit of trouble with the "spin your head on the bat 5 times and then walk down the line in the cement with a glass of water" portion of our obstical course. On the right you can see Susan (my mother in law) doing an outstanding job of it. Below you can see Kate, Danielle and Pat doing their thing with the bean bag toss. Quite the intense game.
We added all the points and events together and Danielle (the one none Brady there) got the Gold, I got Silver and Ben won the Bronze.
I feel the need to take pictures of Alex every time she is wearing clothes. I feel it is too hot for clothes in the summer, and I wouldnt wear them if I didnt have to.

Not my best work, but i think i did pretty good for spending 10 minutes on this one. GO ALEX!
she has started playing with her tongue alot.
Kate and I tie dyed baby clothes on Saturday. It was fantastic.

Sikorksy S-16

Before Tyler went out and began actually working on fires this summer, he was able to take a few classes that got him certifications so in the future he can get better jobs working on fire. Unfortunately for him, I don't plan on letting him get any job where these certifications would come in handy.

In one of these classes they handed out a packet that was 30 pages long, and all about the many different ways that wildland firefighters can die. It listed most common ways and being burned to death wasn't even in the top 3! Aircraft accidents was #1, vehicle accidents was #2, and surprise, heart attacks were #3 (although the article stated that volunteer firefighters were the ones to die of those). Falling rocks and trees was #5 and electrocution, lightning, falls, smokejumper training, and murder didn't really got a percentage but were lumped together.

Since reading this article I have tried NOT to think about it, but yesterday a helicopter carrying 11 firefighters crashed in the Shasta trinity national forest. That is exactly where Tyler was on his last tour, and he was shuttled around a few times by a helicopter. Every time I hear about him getting in a plane or a helicopter I get so nervous. I am so grateful that he has been safe so far this year, and I pray daily that the Lord will continue to keep an eye on him. I feel awful for the families of the 9 firefighters who died in this crash. I don't know what I would do if anything ever happened to Tyler, he is my best friend, my everything.

Bear Lake

This month is what Kate and I have dubbed the "month of fun". We have decided to do all the fun things we always wanted to but never got around to doing. We kicked the weekend off by heading up to Bear Lake to visit Devin and Kara who are managing the Motor Lodge up there.
It was a ton of fun. We went swimming and skim boarding, made sand castles, ate ice cream, pizza and fries, watched movies and played games. I finally understand what all the ado is about Bear Lake. It wouldn't have been near as fun without Ben, Kate, Devin and Kara. They were all so great at helping with Alexandria and making sure I was able to have fun.

Here we are on the private beach Devin had access to.
Alex discovered her toes and was pretty content to lay on the bed playing with them. Devin and Kara taught us all how to skim board.
Including Alex.

Alex got a great opportunity to bond with everyone, Devin and Ben especially. Ben generously hauled her around everywhere for me and paced the floor more than once while she was screaming. Devin got her to smile and goo at him while the girls finished our fantastic sand castle.

Don't remember what exactly we were doing here.

Kara, Kate (and Archie) and Kristen up to their lower calves in fun!
This was one of my favorite moments at Bear Lake, hard to explain why, but there was lots of laughing involved.

The sweetest sand castle ever. It looked only slightly more awesome before the moat started corroding the outer walls.

Hot and Happy in Utah.

Alot has changed in the last week. My mom found a great deal on a plane ticket to Salt Lake, so Saturday Alex and I boarded and flew back to SLC. Then Tyler came back from California on Monday and so we have been able to spend the last 2.5 days with him! It's been great!

Tuesday we ran errands and went to Grandma Jake's house to visit. Afterwards Ben, Kate, Tyler and I went and saw Handcock. About half way through Kate got feeling pretty sick so Ben took her home. About 10 minutes later I started feeling like I was going to throw up, and by the end of the movie Tyler felt the same. I think it was a mixture of how close we sat to the screen, and the jiggly, up close non focuses cinematography. Interesting movie though. Crazy ending.

Wednesday we went swimming with Alexandria and Ben and Kate. It was a lot of fun playing with baby in the water. Although we can't wait for her to be a bit more exciting. We were all so exhausted afterwards we came home and crashed. Alex's new thing is sticking as many of her fingers as she can in her mouth and sucking. Usually she just ends up with two from each hand. Very cute.

I don't have a picture of them right now, but Tyler ordered a new pair of firefighting boots about 3 months ago. They are custom made and very nice. His old pair are falling apart so he needed new ones about 2 months ago. These fancy ones are very stylish, and 16 inches tall!!!!! They have a function though, they protect his legs from all the brush and branches while out in the woods.

Alex is sleeping in a crib now, with more room to wiggle she is sleeping better at night. During the day she has become very "needy", always crying to be held. This is unusual for her, she wasn't like this at all in Montana and i'm wondering if it is a new stage, or just her reaction to being moved to a completely new place for the 4th time in her short life.

Thank goodness for Grandma's, Grandpa's, Aunts and Uncles!

As for me I'm doing pretty good. Grandma Jake keeps pointing out how much weight I seem to have lost. I looked at the scales and I'm down a good 10 lbs in the last month! Life is good, I've learned how to deal with my baby, I'm starting to look and feel like a normal person again (first time in a year), and I have my husband for however short a time!

Jewel of Markels Fantasia Ace

This morning I was woken up at 7 am to the news that Julie had been hit by a car during the night and died. We all got up and went across the creek to dig a grave a bury her.
I don't remember especially liking Julie, and I went off to college just a few years after we got her, so I wasn't as close to her as everyone else, but it was still very sad. She was 7 years old and finally to the non-chewing, barking or jumping stage of her life. We had finally taught her not to chew on the lambs ears or attack the chickens or chase the cats. She was better at catching mice than any of the cats, and was very jelous when I brought the baby home.
She was one of the prettiest dog's I have every seen. I already miss her and the way she would sit on your lap if you sat on the ground.
It's funny because Grandpa received her as payment for some veternary work he did. He didn't want the dog and so he gave it to us. Brought it up on Mom's birthday which irked her because she never wanted a dog in the first place. Julie was a purebred Australian Shepard but no matter how many times we tried to breed her, she just wouldnt. Grandpa said she thought she was a human.
She was such a goofball. Yesterday Alexandria and I went out to feed the chickens stale cheerio's. Everytime I would throw a handfull out for the chickens, Julie would walk over, chase the chickens away and search out every single cheerio from the grass and eat it. I think she ate just about the whole box.
Well, Tyler is out in California finally. we have sporadic communication but it sounds like his crew isn't getting the chance to do much, but at least they are out doing something. Yesterday he mentioned that one of his bosses I think, was driving a 4-wheeler to check out the fire, up the steep side of a mountian, and the 4-wheeler rolled on him and broke his shoulder. Then that same day a bulldozer drove off a cliff. I don't have many details about that one.
Alexandria has started using every pitch her voice will allow and will sit and talk to herself for 20 minutes at a time. It is very cute.

The best laid plans of mice and men........

As a preemptive strike against boredom, Alexandria and I decided to come to Billings to visit my family while Tyler is out firefighting. The original plan was to move here as soon as possible, but with Alex's hips and doctor appointments and such we just get to come visit for awhile.
I thought we had it planned perfect, Tyler got home from California after a 2 week work stretch, we had 2 fun days together and then he got sent out right away on another fire, this time in Utah. Alex and I packed up and left, picked up Gwen in Logan and got to Worland Wyoming just in time for a fun 4th of July family reunion. It was great, everything was fun, except that Tyler's fire didn't last.
Now here I am in Billing's with my family, and Tyler is sitting in Provo with his family after a 41/2 day weekend and no fire yet. I was so sure that he was going to be gone on fire for the next 2 weeks that we didn't even think of sticking around just to make sure. Don't get me wrong, I am having a great time in Billing's, but I just know that by the time I return to Utah in a month, Tyler will be long gone. Sigh.
Well, you would think it would be cooler up north but that is not the case, it is so HOT here. Alexandria is having a great time hanging out with her Asay family, and I have realized that I really shouldn't ever play RISK because no matter who I play against, i am a very sore loser.