Merry Montana

Happy New Year! We've had a pretty busy last two weeks of 2009, so there's lots to catch you up on. I will start with the pictures of some of our adventures in Montana over Christmas, and apologize in advance for the length of this post!

The weather was pretty warm when we first got there, so Zach and Scott ventured outside to use the heavy, wet snow to create some snowdeer (apparently there were plenty of deer antlers for use in decorating snow creations). Zach's favorite, however, was throwing snowballs, preferably at grandpa - they'd developed quite the teasing relationship in just a few days.

We also visited the Museum of the Rockies, a great place to check out dinosaurs and other fun exhibits. Zach, as you can see, is still into his running phase - here he is in motion at the museum. The children's area was a bit hit - balls to throw and dinosaurs to crawl on!

As you may have noticed in the picture of Zach and Scott in the backyard, the view from G&G Willard's home isn't bad. I managed to control myself and not take too many shots of the mountains, but the early morning fog one day, and the sunset another, lured me out into the cold with my camera.

We had a few days of relative quiet with Grandma and Grandpa before Scott's sister Mandy and her family arrived. In addition to the adventures above, Zach took the opportunity to teach his grandparents all about Cars, and did some exploring through the boxes of toys in the basement. Check out Scott's old Oilers helmet!

Zach was delighted to see his cousins, despite the fact that it had been over a year and a half since he last saw them! They had a great time playing together; as I think I already mentioned, Maryn (5) was endlessly patient and willing to play cars when the rest of us claimed exhaustion (yes, and boredom). From Bryn (7) he learned to wrestle, which was hilarious to watch. To this point, whenever he saw friends, usually siblings, wrestle, he'd turn to me with this confused look on his face and say "what are they doing???" Well, he discovered the answer, and often wanted to wrestle long after Bryn was tired of the game.

Zach also learned to play Uno, a game we would never have thought he was ready for, but since then have played many, many times (along with the Cars domino game he got for Xmas from some friends). It's been fun to get into playing real games, instead of the usual imaginary stuff! Bryn also taught him the lyrics to the alternate version of Jingle Bells; you know, the one that involves a certain superhero and his odor...

And then it was Christmas Eve! We split up into the customary kids' table and big kids' table, and ate what was just one of many, many delicious meals.

Once we were all uncomfortably full, we headed for the gift pile. See my last post for details on the kids' varying reactions to the present-opening; needless to say, it was fun chaos. And baby Zill (as we now call him, since Zach has decided HE wants to be Lightning McQueen) got his first Christmas present!

Christmas morning, with the adults decked out in our his-and-hers matching pajamas, the kids opened a few gifts from Santa and checked out the contents of their stockings. Afterwards the men braved the outdoors to create a little sledding opportunity for the kids in the backyard. Then, kids being kids, they decided it would be most fun to play in the snow/ice-filled pool!

After a few more days of yummy meals, movies, card-playing, cars-playing, shopping and relaxing, we had to say goodbye. When Grandpa told Zach that he'd miss him, Zach said: "do you know what I'll really miss? Teasing you!"