Speed Limit on Time

 Sometimes I wish there was a lever I could pull to slow down life. How can it be nearly August already? I feel like we've hardly experienced summer so far, and yet it's been so busy. There must have been an unspoken declaration that this would be an excellent summer to come to Montana because for us it's been one friend/family member after another visiting. 


First it was Erik's sister Ded from Nevada and aunt Sherry from South Dakota that came to the lake to visit his folks. We headed there to spent almost a week after our Glacier camp trip. It was great to see Ded and to finally meet Sherry. We explored that area of Montana a little with them and even went to a musical in Big Fork, Music Man, which was awesome. It was a great time.

Then, after we'd been home just a day, my beautiful niece Joey arrived from Germany with her family. We did as much as we could with her, her Mom and other extended family while they were here. She lives so far away that any time with her is precious. So, we shopped all over Missoula, had bbq's, played a lot in Grandma's swim spa....

Lindz and her cousin Amari

Kera and Joey

all four cousins

And generally just goofed around.

Lindz 10, Joey 3 (almost 4), Kera 8, Amari 4

They were here nearly two weeks, so we spent a good portion of that time with them. Halfway through their visit, our dear friend Bob from Scotland arrived in Missoula. He stayed with us, so it was easy to get some time in with him. Besides swimming at the splash pool with the girls, we played games, ate a lot and even took him camping with some other friends. Only our second camp trip of the summer we spent up at Twin Lakes campground. We swam in the lake and hiked up to Mud Lake.

Kera and I at the second lake ready to hike to Mud Lake

Kera with Samantha, one of her best friends, ready to hike!

Erik, Bob and Lindsay hung out at the lake while the rest of us hiked. Erik fished off his pontoon boat and I caught this picture of him as we ended our hike. This is him totally in his element. I love it!

It's been great to see them all, and will be great to see some more (since we aren't done yet, Erik's other sister is coming next week), but to be honest, it's exhausting. I'm exhausted and starting to feel frantic that summer is nearly over and we haven't done half of what we wanted to. Sure, we've done a lot of fun stuff and most if it we wanted to do, but there's a certain amount of being selfless when it comes to entertaining company. It's been a lesson that the girls have definitely learned this summer as well. So, I kinda wish I could just slow down time so we could fit a few more fun things in the next month because school will be starting before you know it. Oh yeah, and I guess you know now why I've been pretty absent around here, and why I'll probably continue to be absent.... I'm out milking summer for all it's worth! You should be to!