Monday October 12 2009 by Leland.

One of the most important things we do each time we spend time in Billings is to get photos of the grand kids.  You saw the grouping at Michael’s Birthday Party in an earlier post.  Well this week we stopped over to Stacey’s to get a bunch there.  I’ll put this batch in thumbnail and you can click on the ones you want to see a larger view.

This is the process.  Of course you don’t see the dozen or two photos where Aaron squinched his eyes or Brittany closed hers.  Of course then, there are the ones where grandma was frowning because of squinched or closed eyes but we did finally get the job done.

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Monday October 12 2009 by Leland.

It’s mid October and we’re still in Billings waiting on things from the VA.  In the meantime the weather gods aren’t waiting for anything.  As you saw in yesterday’s post, there is snow on the ground.  YIKES.

With temps dropping into the teens overnight we are sorta hunkering down as you can Cinnamon doing in this photo. 

We have a good enough system going that the Motor Home is surviving well.  We have 75 watt light bulbs in the critical water bays for heat and we have the furnace set so that warm cabin air is circulated throughout.  We have covered all windows with stretch film “storm window” plastic and we hang blankets over them to insulate us a little better.  You just gotta know that with walls only 2 inches thick these things aren’t polar climate rigs.

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Sunday October 11 2009 by Leland.

After the portrait sessions it’s time for a little tickle session on the stairs with Dad. 

Aaron has been a Hockey NUT since he could walk.  He watches games and has an pile of hockey sticks that he plays in the living room with.  Now he is taking skating and hockey lessons.  This is his pads and uniform.  Big sis helps him get into everything.  It’s quite a process.

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Saturday October 10 2009 by Leland.

On the 10th we picked up Stacey, her kids and Betty and drove up to Ronda’s to celebrate Michael’s birthday.  We had a good meal, cake and ice cream and a great visit.  Lots of photos.  Here are some of them.

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Sunday September 27 2009 by Leland.

This is a back fill Post.  In September we had returned from Oregon and Washington and were soaking up the grand kids again.  The children’s choir was performing at the church and Aaron was in the little one.  As you can see from the photos above (click on them for bigger view) he has mixed feelings about the whole thing.  It was precious. 

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Saturday September 26 2009 by Leland.

It was a pretty, if not a little hot day.  Brittany’s dance class was performing at the park so we had to go.  It was a great day.  In the photos above, Mom gets her ready in costume and stage makup.  We’re in our seats and the performers are on stage.  After we all hear the praise of her teacher (on the left). 

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Thursday August 13 2009 by Leland.

It was mid August and the weather was perfect.  Not too hot, just right.  We went to the Fair and watched Brittany’s dance school perform and then walked the midway for a bit.  Cathy and I left early but Dave, Stacey, Aaron and Brittany enjoyed a whole day of fun.  I did eat a fried cheese pieces.  Wow, $.015 worth of cheese for $5.  Maybe that’s why we left so early.  Broke.

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Tuesday June 16 2009 by Leland.

Each year about this time, Brittany’s Dance Class has their Recital or show or whatever it is.  Brittany has been taking Dance here for several years and has progressed so much.  This year she was in two numbers and was front row center in both of them. 

We had pretty good seats at the Alberta Bair Theater although through the camera the stage seemed pretty darn small.

In this first number I got more blurr and motion but a few turned out.

In the second number more turned up good and then afterwards with her flowers and all the crowd she was the star, basking.  She did SOOO good.  When we got it all over with we went up to Applebees and had a desert.  A great evening.

BUT my camera has a pretty darn good zoom and I got quite a few good isolations. 

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Sunday June 7 2009 by Leland.

Ok, so after checking his papers half a dozen times, we agreed that Sunday was the real bus time and the alarm went off right at 3:30 a.m.  Michael had made that case that his mom took almost an hour to get there and he sure didn’t want to be late.  I guess he gets that from me as I am almost always early if not the first one on site.  We left and arrived with half an hour to sit in the dark in the parking lot waiting for those who have more confidence to arrive.

Finally the pickup with the Uhaul for luggage showed up and then the bus pulled out from back in the bus yard.  Michael disappeared into the sea of teen age boys and was gone.  As I drove home I marveled at how many business’ werent’ open at this time of day and how many houses were still dark with people still sleeping in on Sunday morning………

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Saturday June 6 2009 by Leland.

On Friday of this week, Michael had to catch a bus in Billings for Helena and his Boys State activity.  More on that later.  Michael and his mom came into town Thursday afternoon, stayed overnight at Stacey’s and were at the bus yard at the appointed 5 a.m.  The only issue here was that instead of Friday 5 a.m. it was supposed to be Sunday 5 a.m.  Michael had read the paper wrong.  After his mom made re-entry into earth’s atmosphere and became coherent again it was decided that Michael could come out and stay with us and we would put him on the bus Sunday.  Cool, we get Michael for two whole days!

Well we had a good day Friday doing some chores, some shopping and all.  Saturday we decided to explore

Pompey’s Pillar National Monument with him.  It was a blast. 

Michael dressed up in the buckskins they have and we got these photos of him.  The first is him hanging out with his buddy Captain Clark.  The second is him admiring little Pomp’s activity with Sacageweah.

Outside Michael and I climbed up the Pillar to where the famous signature is.  Michael and I then climbed on up to the top and enjoyed the view and the imagination of seeing it all 200 years ago.  I could go and do this every week.  and I might.

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