BUSY MUCH?

People, this building a house business is crazy. I am so grateful, but getting ready to move is pretty consuming for me and I hope to never do it again.
 

ANYHOOO...I squeezed in a little trip to Helena/Great Falls last week (Thursday 8/8-Friday 8/9) to see my sister Lisa (visiting from Phoenix) and her sons, and her teeny tiny grandson who is incubating at the hospital in Great Falls. It was my first trip to Great Falls and I liked it.

Kamrie (the mama), Lisa (the Grandma), and Cody (the dad)

Here is a picture of tiny Zecklin with his daddy's hand.
 For perspective, that little hand is the size of a quarter.

He looks so much like Cody (my nephew, his dad).

Here we are saying goodbye after lunch at Café Rio.
Me, Laura, Lisa
I had to hurry home for Heidi's play that night.

Silly Twins

I think we are laughing at Cody pretending to be a fashion photographer.

Kamrie, Cody, & Tyler

My silly nephews

Lisa & her family

***

[insert long drive here--I drove from 2-6 home from Great Falls]

Friday night, August 9th, the Yellowstone Gateway Museum opened a Park County Veterans exhibit. Rich's grandpas and his dad are featured in the exhibit.

Sorry about the flash! If you click on this, you can read about Rich's Dad,
our Grandpa Melin, in Vietnam.

 

***

 

Heidi attended a 2-week Young Actors Workshop at the Shane Center this summer. The workshop culminates in a play, and this year's production was "The Phantom Tollbooth."

I didn't get any good pictures because I don't know how to run my camera in the dark,
but Heidi played Side One  (1 of 12) of a dodecahedron.

You can see her there in the middle with her hands on her hips...

and with her hands in the air.

Our friend Caleb stole the show as Toc the Dog.
(yeah, he's 17 and 6'5" and all the kids LOVED him).
 

While I was at the play, my fireplace got finished! Thanks, Uncle Mikey!

***
Heidi had two more shows on Saturday, but first we went to a baby shower for Kim Triplett. She was a Mia Maid (15) when I moved here, and now she is a returned missionary (Brazil), a wife and mom. She's expecting a baby girl end of September/ early October, so it was really fun to buy presents!

Heidi holding Kim's niece Naomi

Kim had lots of help opening presents.

Nancy, Erin, Terin, Michaela, Jennifer

Pinky, Angie, Kimberly, Kim, Autumn (with Steph & Heidi in the foreground)



Kim's Grandma Anita and Shawna

***

What isn't in these pictures is our flooded basement at the rental. The water main sprung a leak and filled the basement with a foot of water. We don't use the basement, so we didn't notice until our water heater was out. We had no hot water Tuesday night, discovered the flood on Wednesday, and stayed with Rich's parents til Sunday, but didn't have hot water until Monday night (8/12). NICE. I am about a week behind on pictures, because our California Melins were in town all last week, so we did some fun cousin things, had a huge Melin Reunion on Saturday afternoon at the ranch,  as well as lots of work on the house. The upstairs is DONE, we got our certificate of occupancy on Friday, 8/16. Meanwhile, the taper just textured the basement walls and Rich took tomorrow off to paint them. After a couple of days painting, they will install the bathroom and laundry room and trim out the other rooms, then carpet comes on the 28th. Then all our stuff and finally US, on Labor Day weekend. I set up the kitchen on Saturday night...wooweee, that was FUN. More photos SOON!