A Surprise in Montana

On April 28th my baby sister Heather turned 30. The same day my oldest child turned 6. 30 is one of the big ones. One that you can earn an extra special day or surprise in this case. I know my 30th birthday was the best birthday of my adulthood. I had the best day doing exactly what "I" wanted to do.
Heather lives in the faraway town of Kalispell, Montana. Away from many friends and all family. She really hoped that someone would come for a visit for her birthday. So I was just waiting for the call from Jason to get the go ahead to buy my ticket! I left all three boys home with Jeremy (for 3 nights and 4 days!) and took the all night train ride to Montana. I surprised Heather right as she was getting up for the day by knocking on her front door. She was groggy, but surprised, but not so surprised that she hadn't washed the sheets on the guest bed "just in case" she got a visitor :)

One of the perks of my trip was getting to spend some time with these cuties! It was really weird being there without my kids. I have never been there without them before. But it was nice to have the time to spend with them without taking care of my own cuties.

I loved getting to dress a little girl for a change!

Talea Marie is 20 months. Isn't she just beautiful?!

Titus Miles just turned 5. Exactly 13 months between both of my oldest boys. So handsome.

I just love striped tights!

Heather & Jason

Surprise birthday dinner for Heather.

Two birthday desserts in one night!

Lookin' pretty good for 30! You could pass for 23!
(just you wait all the signs of aging start to kick in during your early 30's)

It was so nice to get to meet Heather's sweet friends. Our day started out with pedicures with her friends (which I forgot to take pictures!) Then Heather and I had lunch, saw a movie, went shopping, surprise birthday dinner, then dessert at her friends beautiful home.

Auntie Jenny with her baby girl. I just loved getting my girly fix!

It doesn't get much sweeter then this! I just want to squeeze her and kiss those cheeks!

Talea showing me her dance moves.

Titus, aka: Spiderman!

Check out that bling!

Thanks for having me Heather! Can't wait to see you all again this summer!

Great Wolf Lodge

At the end of April we took the big boys to Great Wolf Lodge in Grand Mound, Wa. for the first time. We left Jordan at home with Jeremy's parents. Being around so much water we really did not want to be outnumbered. We have been wanting to go ever since they opened a couple years ago. We finally decided to do it when I realized it was less then half the price to stay over on a Sunday night! We brought Kevin and Ashton to celebrate both their birthdays which are only a couple months apart (April 28 & June 19). Close enough that I actually leave some of the Kevin's party decor up all the way until Ashton's birthday. We had a great time! We stayed one night but it was definitely worth coming back for two nights.

Pulling up to the lodge.

The clock tower where they have a little show and story time at night.

The main lobby looking into the water park.

Ashton by the characters from the 'show'.

The main lobby.

Looking down on the lobby. You can see the water park through the windows.

The boys in the video arcade.

The ice cream themed spa. A little girls dream!

Whats sleeping in a hotel room if you can't jump on the beds!

Slushy!

I brought an early birthday present for each of them.

The super fun water park! You just walk from your room, in your swimsuit, down the hall to get there.

The wave pool was so fun! and crazy.

The little kid area. One of these kids doesn't look so little...

There are lots of tube slides on the other side of this structure.
See that bucket on the top that says 'Great Wolf Lodge'?....

It dumps over a thousand gallons of water every 10 minutes!

Mom & Dad look pooped!

The Great Wolf mascot after story time in jammies.