July-in Summary

I am WAY behind on the blog again...so I decided to just do one post to kind of summarize our month of July. It was a crazy busy month of traveling, but we had lots of fun times! Here are some photos:

It started out with a trip to Carrollton to celebrate the 4th of July. Luke's cousins have a pool at their house & had a "pool party" (as Molly would say) on the 4th. Let me tell you-it was kid craziness in the pool! There were SO many kids there and the pool was full, but it was SO much fun! Molly loved the slide and must of gone down it 100 times.

Matt, Emily, Scarlett, Molly & I at the pool party.

Shortly after this, we headed to Yellowstone Park via Nebraska for Luke's company meeting & trip. While Luke was in meetings all day, Molly & I discovered the Lincoln Children's Zoo and enjoyed the day there. They had lots of animals, a playground, lots of kids and a park, so it was ideal for Molly.

I didn't even show her how to do this. Somehow she just knew you were supposed to put your head through to get your picture taken.

After that, it was off to Big Sky, Montana for the company vacation. The first day we were there, we took a bus tour through Yellowstone Park. I hadn't been there for years, and really enjoyed it.

Checking out the hot pots and geysers.

 We also went on a hayride/cookout up at Big Sky with Cedar Creek Corrals. It turned out being a bit more western than we were expecting, but we all survived.

The cookout location. So pretty!

On the way back to Missouri, we made a quick stop in Billings to visit some of my best friends & then stayed in Rapid City, SD for the night. We were home the next night. After the almost 3,000 mile roadtrip, we were so thankful to be home! We did make one more trip to Carrollton in the month of July, but tried to stay home as much as possible.

Berry Family Reunion-Branson

The end of June we went to the annual Berry Family Reunion in Branson and had a good time as usual.

Debbie, Mom, Grandma Thelma, Molly, Luke & I (representing Thelma's side of the family).

Mom, Luke & I saw Merle Haggard in concert and let's just say the Hag's still got it!

The Hag

Molly really enjoyed the fish hatchery and loved watching the giant trout swim by.

Mesmerized

Luke took it upon himself (with a little peer pressure) to try the extreme zip-lining from the Shepard of the Hill's Tower. Crazy. He said he enjoyed it though. Molly & I watched from below & she kept saying "Daddy swing!".

Just leaving the tower. Luke is on the far right accompanied by his relatives, Gary, Shelly & Caitlin.

We also did a lot of swimming, visiting, shopping, eating & well, eating (it was the Berry Reunion).

Father's Day

 There isn't anything much cuter than a daddy fishing with his daughter!

Especially when you get to have delicious bass for dinner!

(I'm almost caught up on June!)

Tennessee Part II

There were lots of hiking trails in the Big South Fork Recreation Area, but the one we decided to go on was to the Charit Creek Lodge. The trail was 0.8 miles, all downhill on the way there and all uphill on the way back. It was a really neat trail with lots of big rock cliffs, trees growing right out of the rocks and even a swinging bridge over Charit Creek.

Crossing the swinging bridge.

The lodge was really neat-and really old. You can hike or horseback ride into it and either camp or stay in a cabin there. The main house was built by one of the Hatfields that had moved there to avoid the Hatfield/McCoy rivalry.

Charit Creek Lodge

Luke & Matt checking out the place.

Gravestone of William Hatfield-the original owner of the place.

After touring around the lodge area & grabbing a drink, we started the hike back to the car. It was really hot by this time in the day and like I said, it was all uphill on the way back. Good thing it was such a short trail or we may not have made it!

Debbie was quite the hiker & beat all the "kids" back up the hill.

After leaving the trailhead, Matt spotted a black bear in the road up ahead of us and we caught up to it (in the car) and got a good look at it before it headed into the woods. We had heard that they were around but hadn't seen one until then. Glad we were in the car & not hiking at the time!

Tennessee Part 1

After we had been home from Montana for a few days and had a birthday party for Molly (oh, and did I mention my Mom came back with us too), it was off for another vacation. This time to Tennessee. With Tennessee being a central location for all of Luke's family, we met at the Bandy Creek Campground in the Big South Fork National Recreation Area!

We had two campsites reserved at the end of the campground & it worked really well. One spot we used for all the tents and the other spot we set up the campfire, picnic tables & all the food.

Our tent site.

It was a really nice campground and even had a playground and pool-good times for Molly & Emma!

Molly copy-catting her older cousin Emma at the playground.

Luke & Molly in the pool.

Molly's Rainbow Party

I can't hardly believe Molly is 2 years old (and that I've been a Mom for 2 years)! It has been a wonderful, life-changing 2 years and we have a lot to be thankful for!

We had a rainbow themed birthday party for Molly this year. Luke BBQ'ed and I made lots of "rainbowish" sides, with most of my ideas coming from Pinterest. Molly was much more involved this year and really liked eating cake, opening presents & playing with her cousins. She got some really cool presents too!

Ready for the party!

Birthday girl with her Mom & Dad.

Is it time to open presents yet?

Hiking in GNP

The majority of Glacier Park was closed while we were in Montana, but Matt & I did make the hike to Avalanche Lake one rainy day. An avalanche had come through earlier in the year & we checked out the damage along the trail.

Matt checking out all the broken trees.

The lake was so pretty and there was so much snow still:

Avalanche Lake in Glacier Park

We even saw a fairly fresh bear track and bear scat right on the trail just before you get to the lake-yikes!

Grizzly track.