Free Range Family

I didn't know exactly how to title this in the beginning and honestly, I am still not satisfied with the end product. But I am just picky… :) Sorry I haven't posted the past few days!  Monday was a rough day for the kids and I, we were involved in a car accident. I have never been in an accident that was my fault but it was my fault this time, by technicality. My brake line snapped on the way to a new park we were going to check out and I slammed into the person in front of me. Everything else afterwards was a blur for me. I tried to follow the person I had hit to a parking lot, my brakes were toast and I almost hit oncoming traffic several times before making it into the parking lot. The kids screamed and screamed in the back seat, but I had to park before I could tend to them. I had to coast to a stop every time because pushing on the actual brake did nothing. I just started sobbing, everything went so fast! Then the police came, my husband showed up, after that the insura

My summer classes are officially over! Yay! It was a wonderful summer, I loved all of my classes and my camps. But it is nice to have this upcoming week off of dance and gymnastics, so that I can prepare Alan for his last year of Preschool and get in some fun family time before he off and leaves us three days a week. He starts school September 3, so we have the whole week off next week to get in some summer fun! I plan on taking Alan and Anna to go swimming, to the library, to as many parks as we can fit in and somewhere else fun too, maybe the zoo or the art museum? Not sure yet! Saturday was my last showcase for the summer, it was my lovely hip hoppers performance! We performed three dances: a breakdancing dance to one of my favorite Incubus songs, a "follow the lyrics" type dance called Born to Move, and of course the YMCA for our finale dance. It was a wonderful performance, we had a decent turnout and all of my kids danced really well! Alan came along to watch his

What a week, wow! We finished our last performance from theatre camp last night. We performed our show twice, once for our ABT guests at the Bair and once for our members at the YMCA Youth Commons Area. Both performances were amazing, the kids worked so hard this week! Dr. William was telling us all before the show that it usually takes up to 4 weeks for actors to learn their lines and songs in a show, not one week! We learned five songs, three dances and speaking lines in only 5 days! Dang! Those kids sure do rock! :D During the dress rehearsal The theme of this year's show was American Musical Theatre. We talked about the composers of American Musical Theatre, the differences in songs between American music and British music. We even discussed the time periods of each musical. The songs that we performed were Oklahoma, He is an Englishman, One Singular Sensation, The March of the Siamese Children and Camelot. My favorite was obviously One Singular Sensation, I absolutely

This weekend we have quite a bit to do, on top of all the busy-ness this week brings us. I am in the middle of helping teach Theatre Camp at the YMCA. This weekend is also the showcase for my hip hop classes. And the same day is Kelton's birthday party, they are having the Power Rangers make an appearance. So cool! Then on Sunday, we are having our family pictures taken up at Zimmerman Park. Its been almost a year since our last family pictures, so it was due time lol! But I would love to have one slow weekend before Alan starts up school again. Okay, that will probably never happen. So I am already almost two books behind on my reviews, so I figured since I had a moment to breath (not really, we started Theatre Camp this week with the Y) I would post another book review, this one a sequel to one of my favorite King novels! Here is my book review of Doctor Sleep by Stephen King! Doctor Sleep by Stephen King So let me be clear on something before I start this review, I rea

The Montana Fair was in town this past week; Lon and I went once to the Train concert, the kids and I went three times. Rather then post four separate posts, I figured that I would combine all four times into one massive fair post. It shall be full of photos too, you have been warned. :P We had quite a great run there this year, and apparently so did the rest of the county lol. Almost everyone was there! We ran into so many people we knew! Even some from out of town lol! Gotta love the state fair for that reason! Train was a pretty good concert, except it seemed like the lead singer, Mister Patrick Monahan, was drunk off his gourd. And that's me being nice. Everyone else I have mentioned this too disagrees with me, saying it was such an amazing concert. But I was quite upset when he messed up several sets of lyrics from several of my favorite songs. One was a Zeppelin song that I think even Alan knows the words to but if he didn't know all the lyrics to the song, he should ha

I have been a total ball of stress this past month. In just August, I have had over six different performances, ranging from my gymnastics to cheer to theatre to hip hop. I had three gymnastics performances this week alone. It has been wild! To put it frankly, I am exhausted. So I will leave you all with some photos from our performances. These kids are beasts! They worked so hard, I am so proud of them! Tumble 1 6:30 class I forgot to take photos of my 5:30 class but here are my older kids. These kids worked so hard! I passed all five of them to Tumble 2! Great job guys! :D This session we did something different, instead of just doing a beam routine and a floor routine, we also did a vault routine too. It was a change, but I definitely like it. So I think we may keep it in our program showcase! Tumble 2  My Tumble 2 kids did wonderful as well. I made the executive decision to keep them in Tumble 2, to better perfect their skills. This level is much harder then t

Today I started the Cheer and Dance Camp with the YMCA. I have 14 great girls that are already some hard workers! Wow! Today we learned a cheer, several cheer positions and how to project your voice. :) We practice at Pioneer Park and will be having a performance this Friday for their parents. Last Saturday, we had Alan's last soccer game of the summer season and last game for sometime too probably. With fall coming up and with that gymnastics and preschool, Alan would be out of Y sports probably until winter season. With that being noted, this game was a big deal for Mom and for Alan. :) Here are some photos from that day! Alan was on the Red Team this weekend, they had cute little jerseys for him to wear. He was excited to be on the same time as his friend Aiden from school, so was Mommy lol. Mister Aiden is quite a hard worker, especially in the game of soccer, I wanted Alan to be pushed by him in the game. My hopes were correct too, Alan became quite the Go-Getter too! T

Our last day of vacation was full of driving, car repairs and rest areas. It was another stressful, long trip but we tried our best to enjoy the scenery and each other's company. We were definitely happy to be back at home lol! There are no pictures for this post, so bear with me lol! We were too distracted by the car to take any! Day Five: Driving Back Home We started out the morning at a decent time, the kids woke up with the sun, once again. We took turns showering while the kids bounced on the beds and watched Disney Junior. Then we packed up and went looking for breakfast. After checking out, we discovered that this hotel only had a continental breakfast that ran only until 10:30, a half hour after we had checked out. So breakfast at the hotel was not an option. We drove to the closest gas station, grabbing muffins and donuts that would have to suffice. Then we were on the road again. We made good time, hitting Bozeman before lunchtime. Around Bozeman, I received a text

Next week is a wild week for me. Actually, if you really want to get technical, starting Saturday is just craziness for us… probably not slowing done at all until school starts up in September. Gah! Benton is still in town with us, Natalie has surgery tomorrow and will be heading to town Sunday most likely. Saturday Lon and I have the Train concert to go to, Sunday we will be headed to the fair with Aunt Natalie and Benton. Monday I start Cheer and Dance Camp, Tuesday and Thursday I have my gymnastics class showcases. So crazy! I may not post that much next week because of how busy we are, but stay tuned because I will do my best! As for our vacation, let's catch up on the last two days! Day Four: Enjoying Flathead Lake We were all exhausted from the big celebrations last night, so Sunday we had a calm day. We woke up late, had a breakfast of steak and eggs, and cleaned up camp some. Lon and I decided that we would be leaving that night for Butte, due to the car's problems

I don't have too much to say about this day, except for it was one of the best days of my life. I do, however, have a bunch of photos to show everyone all the love and beauty that made this day so special. I love my sister more then words can explain, I love my nephew to pieces and I love my new brother-in-law. I am so very happy for them to begin this journey of marriage, it will definitely be a wild ride for them! But they both have a great love for wild rides and dirt bikes, so that is right up their alley. Love you Aunt Natalie, Uncle Jake and Benton! Day Three: Natalie and Jake's Wedding Day My sister and her husband were married at Mission Mountain Resort, just a shot away from Flathead Lake. It was a cute, small little resort ran by a elderly couple. There were so many different trails leading off everywhere, we went on several throughout the whole day but I don't think we ever covered half of the many trails! The resort was snuggled up into the Mission Moun