Sunday~Time to say Good Bye~until next time....

Riding on the Luggage Cart

On our drive back to SPO to catch our flight we stopped for a picnic at Kootenai Falls Park. We hiked back in to see the waterfalls & walk on the swinging bridge. The River Wild was filmed here & The Kootenai Indians believe this is a place to go for visions or meditation.  

SAT~Flathead Lake by Bigfork, MT





The water was beautiful at Flathead Lake & shallow for a long way. K didn't like the waves so Tara and I built him a barrier out of logs. He threw rocks for hours.

K met a friend. "My name is Gabriella, but you can call me Gabriel or Gabri, but you can't call me Gaby because my mom doesn't like it" She was a Gaby if I ever saw one, but the most sharing child I've ever met.

The Boys fished.

Since we were in the Wild, Wild, West we had to hit Moose's Saloon (open since 1957) and have some pizza & beer. I think we got out of there right before the bar brawl hit.



When K was going to sleep I asked him how it made his tummy feel being thrown up in the air and he told me "Proud".
He also pointed to the curly telephone cord & was saying ZEBRA TAIL. Tara and I are looking at each other like What? Then she realized he had never seen a telephone cord before.



Glacier Nat'l Park with 3 of our favorite people.




I love this picture as it show 3 generations of Tom McCarty's with this beautiful scenery. Oddly enough I snapped it with my cell phone.

 



Heart shaped snow just for us.



Throwing snowballs.

Will you tie my shoes?

Group Shot

Looking for heart shaped rocks.



As we were leaving the park we saw this beauty taking an afternoon swim with his big old paws doing the dog paddle.



THURS~



We started off our morning meeting Leasa & her son Caleb at a little coffee shop in downtown Couer d'Alene. We then hiked Tubbs Hill by the lake. It was beautiful.

While in the coffee shop, a hippy guy sitting next to us and apparently eavesdropping, suggested we stop at Quinns Hot Springs Resort in Paradise, MT on our way to Kalispell. So we did and it was wonderful.

Our day ended with seeing this little guy and marching back to the room after swimming. He spent the night with us. The next morning when he woke up he asked for his musical thing. (I bought him a harmonica) He said he wanted to play a song for Papa.  Good Morning Papa, what a nice way to wake up.



WED ~ DOWNTOWN SPOKANE ~ RIVERFRONT PARK ~

When I showed Killian the picture of Mimi & Papa sliding down the slide in the giant wagon he said "Yee Haw!"

Tommy & the Joy of Running Sculptures.

We met my cousin Leasa in Coeur D Alene, ID. We shopped the cute little shops, walked on the worlds longest floating boardwalk by the lake, and went to dinner with her employers.  

Climbing the Rocky Mountain

I will be gone next week "climbing the Rocky Mountains" with Killian.  However I promise to return with hundreds of pictures.

Getting ready for Kindergarten

Not sure who was more nervous, Chelsea or Gavin for school.
 Friday night they got to go to a meet & greet to be introduced to his teacher & see where his desk was.  It helped so much & when he left he told Chels he wasn't afraid anymore & he loved his teacher. Hopefully his whole year will be this good.  I remember Chelsea's first day of kindergarten. She had the same teacher as Clay had the year before. When I dropped her off Miss Stokes said something about my babies were both in school now & I started crying & bawled all the way home. What was I thinking? ha

Brandi Carlile for the 3rd year in a row.

   Three yrs ago I went with my girlfriends & Chels to see the Indigo Girls. The opening act was Brandi Carlile and she stole the show. We bought her CD & Tom loved it so last year we took Tom & Gavin with us. This year we went again and she didn't disapoint us.
   Since Chelsea's accident I keep a mental note of anything positive that is happening because of it. Tonight we found one more thing.  The venue where the concerts are held are general seating. So you get there early, you rush in, put down your blankets & chair & claim your spot. There were people waiting in line since 7AM. We arrived right on time, pulled out our TEMP handicapped sticker, got rock star parking, put Chels & her friend in the handicapped line with our blanket & chair, we walked, and walked and walked up the hill and to the end of the line. Before our line was moving Chels called & said they were in~front & center.  Even tho I would rather be in the nose bleed section & park a mile away than her having an accident, we will take anything positive we can get.

After spending the day at the water park we thought Gavin would sleep all the way home & into the night. Wrong ~ the minute we got home he wanted to fish.

Gavins last Mimi Day before Kindergarten Starts.

Carole, Missy, Chelsea, Tom and I went with seven kids to Cowabunga Bay Water Park.
It was 93 degrees, so a perfect day to the end of summer activities.

Books~One of my favorite things.

Last night I finished reading: THE SHACK

The Shack tells the story of Mackenzie Philips and how he recovers his faith in God after the abduction and murder of his youngest daughter.  I normally don't like books about murders, because sometimes I dream about the characters when I read before bedtime. This was a little slow in the middle, but the end was very good. It was alot about forgiveness, which we all need to learn to do.

The book before that one was Heaven Is for Real and the true story of a four-year old son of a small town Nebraska pastor who during emergency surgery slips from consciousness and enters heaven. I mailed it to Mom and Dad  & the same day their friend Elaine mailed the exact same book. It was light hearted, in familiar area geographically, and it made me happy reading it.

The next book on my nightstand is called THE HELP. The movie came out this week and the reviews said to make sure you read the book before seeing the movie, so that's what I'm doing.

It is about African American maids working in white households in Jackson, Mississippi during the early 1960s.

I decided since this blog is my photo journal I needed to add things I love and things that make me happy. I can't imagine life without a good book beside my bed.

Boo's First Minor League Baseball Game.

Somedays are better than others but today was one of those days when being kind really does pay off. We pulled in the parking lot to go to the Bees game and parking was $6.00. One of Chelsea's friends was behind us & had sent home dinner the night before so Tom told the attendent he'd like to pay for the car behind us also, then added "Is today buy one get one free day?". The attendent said "Sounds good to me" and only charged us for one. Then we went to get tickets and Chelsea's friend recognized somone selling their tickets and we got tickets, 7 rows up for $10.00 each. Next Tom went to get us a water and the guy said here's a free one for you. And there's more. The groundskeeper grabbed a foul ball & threw it right to Boo. The game was tied until the last inning when our team hit  the first walk-off homerun of the season and we won. Yep it was one of those days when being kind really does pay off.

Papa and his buddy. I'm sure this converstaion consisted of "Papa will you take me frog hunting tonight?"



Frog Hunting is Boo's favorite thing to do.