Last week I missed a few pictures of all the fun we were having.
James, Addie, and Heidi wearing the "Space Chimps" masks I brought them from Vancouver.
Heidi, Sariah, Addie, Liana, and James at the cousin slumber party (8/14)...Addie and Liana did their own makeup and they were so proud.
The girls "camped out" in the basement and watched Looney Tunes on DVD courtesy of Uncle Rich.
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On Monday, I took the kids to the splash park again with Mom Melin and Elena, while all the Melin Boys had thier own slumber party (well, they call it a campout, but whatever).
Apparently, the adventure began at the Old Saloon in Emigrant, MT (a few miles past the ranch)...
There they are...Mark, Jess, Mike and Rich, tossing back some hard water.
Heading up to Mission Creek
Jess, Mike, and Mark head up the singed trail to Passage Falls, which burned up two years ago.
(if you wanna see where they went, google map "Montanapolis Springs")
Ta-da! They made it!
Rich, Mike, Mark, and Jess at Passage Falls
Flowers on the trail.
The boys ended up camping at the ranch Monday night while I did laundry, watched "The Hills" (so lame), and slept in my bed with my girls.
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Last night (my only other night off this week), Rich went ot the movies with Jess and Mike in Bozeman. They left right after work and got home at 10:30pm. We had a wicked rain storm and it got really cold (the house was 58 degrees when we woke up cuz I left the windows open as usual in the summer), so it was the perfect night to put the kids down and snuggle up with a pay-per-view movie (after folding two loads of laundry, that is).
So I ordered "P.S. I Love You" which I wasn't all that excited about. But it turned out to be a pretty good movie. I loved the soundtrack! Two of my all-time favorite songs (
Fairytale of New York by the Pogues and
If I Ever Leave This World Alive by Flogging Molly) played a big role in the movie. I liked that it was made by one sister (Molly Smith, daughter of the FedEx founder) in memory of another sister (Windland Smith) who died at 34 of a heart defect. Apparently Molly read the book right after Windland died and it comforted her a lot. I can see how that could happen--it's such a sweet story. Did anybody else read the book? Does Holly stay in Ireland with Billy? Cuz I would...my lands, that man was lovely. And he sings Pogues songs! Also on my mind were the Clark sisters...
cjane's blog post today made me so thankful for sisters!!! Anyway, that was a pleasant surprise, and Rich came home right as the movie was ending.
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Another thing that has been on my mind: Russia is so incredibly lame. I do wish Georgia would just give the rebel provinces back to Russia instead of trying to force them to want to be in a democracy--it doesn't work that way! Still, I am so mad about the invasion of Georgia, but mostly I am mad at us. I am mad that when a freedom-loving country like Georgia calls for help, our hands are tied because of the muck-up in Iraq. I wish there were an easy way to get out of there and get back on our feet. And have you heard
the President of Georgia speak? He is an inspired man and deserves our support.
Yet another thing on my mind: is it just me, or do the two candidates for president seem VASTLY unqualified for what lies ahead of them? Seriously, neither of them seems remotely able to deal with the bag of goodies Bush is handing down. Glenn Beck echoed my sentiments perfectly Wednesday night in his opening bit. Here's what he said:
BECK: Hello, America.
Have you ever had one of those nights where you -- you know, you flip on the TV and two of your favorite shows are on at exactly the same time, and you`re like, "Aw." Or better yet. You know when you`re going to go to the movie and you walk up to the concession stand and you can`t decide between Raisinettes and the Goobers. And then you realize, 'Hey, my wife`s not here. I`m going to buy them both.'
Well, you take that feeling of overwhelming joy. Then you douse it with gasoline, light it on fire, run it through a wood chipper, bury it in your backyard, and then you start to come close to the understanding of how little excitement I feel for either of the two presidential candidates.
Here is "The Point" tonight. I have truly never, ever cared more about our country than I do right now. But I have also never cared less about our choices for who should be running it. And here`s how I got there.
I think most of us would all agree that we`re in a pivotal time in our country`s history. You know, and you see it on television every single night. I think most Americans feel it in their gut. They just know something is fundamentally wrong.
But what we can`t seem to agree on is which way to pivot. I mean, we`ve got some great choices, don`t we? One candidate is especially a socialist while the other one I would call a conservative socialist. He`s pro-life, but pro-global warming. He wants to keep the troops in Iraq but also keep our borders open. He wants to drill offshore, but not in Alaska. What the -- what? That leaves me not only without any candidate, but also without any excitement whatsoever. It`s kind of like being back at the concession stand and they`re out of the Raisinettes and the Goobers, and your wife is with you, and all they`ve got there in the counter is raw eggplant and tofu.
So America, here is what you need to know tonight. If you feel like I do about this election, we are not alone. A new Zogby poll asked people to rank their excitement about our choices on a scale of one to five with one being not at all excited and five being -- the average answer, a very ambivalent three, which not coincidentally, is slightly less than the number of spokes on these pitchforks that I keep here in my studio. (He goes on to chat with Penn Jillette, who's a wild libertarian).
Heaven help us.
And have a great weekend!
Addie, Me and Heidi with our balloons.
Addie, Me and Heidi with our balloons.
"Ready, Set...
...there they go!" 
As we let them go, Addie watched hers for a long time, and then said, "Maybe mine will fly to Nana's house, because we want her to get better, too!" I smiled and my heart swelled up a little thinking about (a) what a sweet and thoughtful girl Addie is, and (b) how every family has a heartache, and NONE of us are exempt from the need for The Comforter and The Great Healer. One wonderful thing I am learning through the blogosphere is how far-reaching, how necessary, how touching, how infinite the atonement of Christ really is. Just think how crushing some of these burdens would be without Him, and then think about that night in Gethsemane...all of the heartache, all of the pain of all the world AT THE SAME TIME. 
