Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all our friends and family. We love you and miss you.

Here are some photos from the holiday season.


The kitties always want to go outside but then they realize it's cold and snowy.


Waiting for Justin to come home from alert to start the holiday weekend.



The pathetic looking tree that the kitties DID NOT knock over!



Swirly enjoying one of her presents.




Fatty likes it too.



Swirly trying to eat the tree...



Enjoying the wrapping paper.



Another kitty present.




We hope you all had a lovely Christmas :)

Happy Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday to my Grammie in Arizona! Have a wonderful day! We love you and miss you!

Winter Is Upon Us

i learned today that i can blog from my phone which is neat since i can post pictures i took with my phone.

More Birthdays

Happy Birthday to my Grandma Cooper!

and also

Happy Birthday to Justin's not so little brother Jared! (It's hard to believe he was only 6 years old when Justin and I started dating)

We love you and miss you both. Have a wonderful day :)

Happy Birthday...

to my Grandpa! We love you and miss you and hope you have a great day :)

Memorial Falls

This past weekend was absolutely gorgeous. Sunny, low 70s, slight breeze. We had to take advantage of the nice weather because, being Montana, it could snow tomorrow. On Sunday we drove out to Memorial Falls, which is less than an hour away.




This is how I like my snow: hiding in the rocks, trying to escape the melting power of the sun.



Some pictures on the hike up to the falls.




I took this picture then walked around the rock and found someone crouching in wall, waiting to scare me.


Creeper.



The lower part of the falls.



Justin.


Likes to make rock piles.



After I almost fell. Wet rocks are slippery.






Upper part of the falls.








Hiking past the falls, the path sort of disappeared and we had to cross the stream multiple times.






On the way back I made Justin stop here.



The 10th Missile Squadron at Malmstrom had the first ICBM stuck in the ground. Since Justin was wearing his 10th t-shirt, it made a good picture opportunity.

It's Just a Jump to the Left

and then a step to the right.


Halloween weekend this year was infinitely better than last year when Justin was on alert.

Friday night we went out to dinner with some friends and met their new puppy. He's a great dane, about 7 weeks old, and the most adorable thing I have seen in a really long time. On Saturday night we went to a party at the squadron commander's house. It was a lot of fun to see everyone from the squadron since Justin is in OGV now and doesn't necessarily see people from the 10th all the time. I volunteered for some stuff in the squadron to be more involved. On Sunday morning we drove across town to this amazing bakery we found only to discover it is closed on Sundays. That was disappointing but we still got donuts, from the commissary, so it wasn't a total bust. We also picked up some candy for the base trick-or-treating.



This candy was gone in 45 minutes. I was hoping for leftovers so we could have some, but as you might expect, military families reproduce at an alarming rate and there were a million children out trick-or-treating. Next year we're going to get double the amount of candy. We saw a bunch of people we knew out with their kids. It was fun to see all the costumes. This year, Buzz Lightyear seemed to be the popular costume choice. To end our Halloween weekend, we watched the Rocky Horror Picture Show. Overall, it was a great weekend.


This is entirely random, but Justin was entertained and wanted a picture so I'll post it here. They say you learn something new everyday. Well on Saturday we learned that squirrels eat birds. It's kind of hard to tell, but there is a dead bird in the squirrel's hands and he's munching away at it.




Every time I open the dishwasher Swirly meows and runs around all excited. I'm not sure why, but she does. The other day I went to collect cereal bowls from upstairs and I came back down and she was in the dishwasher.



I have to end with a precious picture of my baby sleeping to make up for her being mischievous and climbing in places she doesn't belong.

It Looks Like A House

My parents' house is coming along! Hopefully they will be able to move in next month.


Most of the siding is done.



What will eventually be a screened in porch area. The trees behind their house are part of a wildlife refuge type place on protected land, so it will remain undeveloped.



Crown molding and walls!



I can't wait to visit.

I Want to Ride My Bicycle

A few weeks ago we decided to get an exercise bike so we would have a way to stay in shape during the long, cold winter when it's hard to even leave the house. We ordered one off Amazon and it got delivered right to our front door. Anytime something new enters the house, the cats get really excited, especially if that something new comes in a box.




Swirly reading the directions to Justin.


Our new bike...


...which turned into her new sleeping spot.




My precious babies.

Autumn in Montana

After it snowed last week, I was convinced that winter had come to Montana. However, this state appears to be bipolar in terms of weather so I was super excited that it was 80 and sunny this past weekend. On Saturday we went to Missoula, which is about 2.5 hours away. The drive there is really nice, mountainous, very pretty. All the trees are changing color, my favorite part of autumn.



On the way back, we stopped at the continental divide.



We hiked a short way up the path, which didn't seem to be ending.



View from the overlook.



Fall foliage.



Justin likes to make rock piles when we go hiking.



Wild berries that could have been food had we gotten lost or could have been the cause of our slow death from dehydration and dysentery.



It was homecoming weekend for the University of Montana so Missoula was packed. We had lunch at Red Robin (a real restaurant, gasp), went to the used bookstore, walked around the mall, and ended our trip at Best Buy. We went a little overboard on shopping, but that usually happens when we are back in civilization. We got 10 or so books at the bookstore, I got 2 pairs of jeans that actually fit, Justin got a new headset for his computer gaming, and we got the first 5 seasons of The Office on dvd because they were on sale cheaper than we have ever seen them.


Yesterday it was still gorgeous outside so went down to Giant Springs in the afternoon for a nice walk along the river. Here are some pictures from our walk.




Where's Justin?!








Shoes.





Hopefully that snow was a freak occurrence and it stays nice at least until Halloween.