Montana Vacation

Even with a newborn we were still able to take a family vacation this summer. My parents recently purchased a home on Ashley Lake in Montana so we decided to be brave, pack up our three kids, and fly to Montana to spend a week at the new cabin. My mom was sweet enough to fly with us so each child had their own adult on the airplane. All the traveling went much better than expected and we all arrived in Montana in one piece. We were all a little tired, but we made it!!

 The cabin is absolutely wonderful and the views are stunning!! Spencer kept saying all week how much he loved being there! It was fun to spend the week with my parents, brother, and sister-in-law.

We spent the week catching up on sleep, swimming, boating, playing outside, running, working out, riding quads, eating grandpa's homemade ice cream, enjoying all of Allison's delicious cooking, watching "New Girl" on netflicks, and just enjoying being together as a family. The kids had a blast and were just exhausted every night at bedtime. Our little family of 5 actually all slept in the same room together and I have to say that it was kind of fun being all together!

 

Here is my parent's cabin. Picture is taken standing on the dock in front of the house. Can't believe that we can come here every summer if we want!

Like I said, the views were spectacular!

The kids spent hours outside collecting rocks and filling their buckets with water. It's crazy how much these buckets my mom bought the kids kept them so occupied!

Hanging out on the floatie Cody and Allison bought. The kids loved being out there with their grandma.

For being so little, Preston did great all week. We had one rough night of sleep, but other than that he did awesome. It was nice for me to have so many people willing to hold Preston and help take care of him.

It was so fun being able to hop on the quads any time we wanted and go for a ride right around the house. We enjoyed riding up to the top of the mountain so we could look out at the entire lake.

Both Owen and Audrey got to go for rides. It's so fun getting to do these things with my kids that I got to do when I was younger.

One day Spencer caught a frog and the kids took turns letting it sit on their shoulder. I'm not a fan of frogs, but they both loved it and were sad when they had to let the frog go.

Being out on the boat was by far my favorite thing to do. I love sharing the things I loved doing as a child with my family. We had a blast riding the giant "sofa." Hopefully next year Preston will be out there with us.

The water was a little on the cold side and Owen wasn't a fan of getting out there and swimming. In this picture I made him get in the water and swim with me. Can you tell how excited he was about it?

About 10 seconds after the above picture was taken, Owen started crying hysterically and got out of the water because he was too cold. I was thrilled when Audrey decided to get in with me and swim. I love this brave little girl so much. She swam pretty far with me and didn't complain about being cold at all!!

I will admit that I did complain about the cold water a couple times too....the proof is in this face!!

We loved being out on the boat and skiing. Spencer and I haven't skied in close to 5 years, so we were both pretty impressed with ourselves when we got right up and skied around the lake. So much fun!!

My mom is a pro!!

Cody

Spencer

 Me

 We had an amazing week in Montana. I have the best memories of going to my grandma's house in Montana as a kid and now my kids get to make similar memories!! The plane ride home went well and we actually flew home on mine and Spencer's 9th anniversary. We are just so excited to make lots of Montana memories in the future!!