Free Range Family

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...

We usually go to the Montana Fair a lot more in the summer, at least two times in the week that its here, but not this year. We were busy with Diversity's Summer Intensive and with work. The only time we really went was Saturday night with my parents and Aunt Nat and Uncle Jake. Lon and I did not get to spend that much time at the fair though because of the Offspring concert. I was very glad that my mom and Aunt April invited us to go with them Saturday night. The original plan was to go to the Wreckingclowns performance and rodeo first, then the rides and everything else. The Wreckingclowns are a local hip hop dance crew I have been following online recently led by a great teacher, Mister Jeff. Most of his students come from low income families and from hard lives, yet they use hip hop dance as their escape. And let me tell you, these kids are AMAZING! I have never seen a more dedicated group of dancers, these kids are so respectful and passionate. Jeff, you truly are doing gre...

We had one of the best weekends ever this past weekend! My sister and her family came down from Missoula for the Montana Fair and to visit family. My mom and I threw her and Benton a Welcoming Shower on Saturday too. I also helped babysit him for the first time ever and loved every minute of it! Alan and Anna love their new baby cousin too! Even Lon was able to meet him! It was a good weekend for us. Saturday, we had two of the three grandparents on my side of the family over at my parent's house for Benton's Welcoming Shower. My mom made pulled pork and pulled chicken sandwiches for lunch and we made sure to take lots of family photos. Both sets of great grandparents met Benton for the first time, it was such a special moment for everyone. Plus, they were able to also enjoy Alan and Anna's company. They were all very happy about it! Anna was quite shy the whole time, and had to snuggle with Mama or Aunt April. She eventually started warming up to everyone bu...

Aunt Natalie, Uncle Jake an Benton came into town yesterday from Missoula! We were so excited to finally meet Baby Benton! I was especially excited to help babysit Benton with my mom while Nat and Jake went on their anniversary date. We had a great night! Alan and his robot finger are ready to meet Benton! Anna was quite excited to go meet Benton too! However, she admittedly was more excited to get out of her stuffy car seat lol. I loved holding him and giving his sweet forehead kisses and talking to him and telling him stories and feeding him a bottle and showing him to my own children. I am so "that Aunt" and just enjoyed loving everything about him. He is still so tiny but is soooooooooo adorable. He reminds me a lot of Alan but I can definitely tell that he is my sister's kid. And he looks just like his dad. Oh I love him so much already! It took some time for him to warm up to Benton, but Alan eventually was his best big buddy. He would sit wi...

This NBC post has been popping up all over my Facebook and Blogger newsfeed all week. Since my family lives in the third best place on the list, I figured that I might as well give into the trend and write a post about it myself. You know, since I have like, personal experience on it and whatnot. If you want to see the full article and countdown, check out the link above. But for now, here is the top 10 Best and Worst Places to Live, courtesy of the Today Show and Best Life Magazine. Top 10 Best Places to Raise a Family in the US 1 Honolulu, Hawaii 2 Virginia Beach, Virginia 3 Billings, Montana 4 Columbus, Georgia 5 San Diego, California 6 Des Moines, Iowa 7 Minneapolis, Minnesota 8 Madison, Wisconsin 9 Colorado Springs, Colorado 10 Santa Rosa, California Top 10 Worst Places to Raise a Family in the US 10  Springfield, Missouri 9 Dayton, Ohio 8 Corpus Christi, Texas 7 Flint, Michigan 6 Columbia, South Carolina 5 Waco, Texas 4 ...

The fair ended this Saturday. Thursday night we went with Grandma Melanie, Uncle Kalvin and his friend Kale. It was rodeo night there so they once again had buy one get one free wristbands for rides. Upon arriving, we ate a quick dinner. The boys all had cheese pizza and I had a foot long corn dog with homemade french fries. They were beyond delicious but really greasy lol! I still loved them! :) Then the boys took us exploring around the fair. We found some cool rocks to climb on, went to this little side show thing they had and went to look at the army firetrucks. Here's the funny thing too- while we were looking at these firetrucks, our tour guide person was Uncle Aaron! Alan and I hadn't seen him in a very long time and he had never met Anna, so we were all pretty excited! Uncle Aaron showed us the truck and told us all the cool information about it. Alan loved it, he was so interested in the truck. Then we introduced Anna to Uncle Aaron and he fawned over her lol. He could...

Happy Friday everyone! Last night, my mom and I took the kids to the Fair again. Alan went on several rides with Uncle Kalvin, his friend Kale and I while Anna snuggled with Grandma Melanie. We got to see several people that we know and we had a great time. I will post more about that later because we might be going again for the rodeo tonight. Be sure to also keep an eye out for my post about my new job position I recieved! :D So excited and can't wait to start! Aunt Natalie and Jake went home yesterday but they will be back later this month for Alan's birthday party. We will miss you guys! :) A super special shout out to Mama M's son Hambone. He turns seven today. :) Happy birthday Hambone! Have a wonderful day with your fabulous family! And finally, here is this week's Five Question Friday! What's the one thing you buy every time you walk into the store? Besides other basics like milk and water, everytime I walk into a store I have to buy Tru Moo ...