more on our trip to Montana...

Jed's conference was in Big Sky, Montana, two hours from Billings.  His dad, JT (his friend from residency), and he did some of this:

 (attending classes in Big Sky)

 And a bunch of this:

 (this is a shot coming down from the jump)

They had a lot of fun goofing off together.... and learning, too. :)

When we were in Billings all together, we went on a walk on the rims surrounding the city.  It was a super cool view from up there!

Two of the most awesome guys ever. Seriously. They define COOL.

While Jed and Ben were acting studly and macho on the rock, they suddenly slipped and fell! I was scared out of my wits! So I raced over to them, and took a few pictures in case I never saw them alive again.  (I had to take a couple shots just to make sure I got a good one. You know how that is.)

Luckily, through sheer will-power, and a little muscle strength, they pulled themselves back up to safety. I'm happy to say that they are still with us, and came away tougher from their brush with death.
I'm not sure that Eliza, Michel, or Sammy noticed...

 We visited Jed's sister, Emily, and her family in Wyoming while we were visiting Montana.  Michel rented a big blow up toy for the afternoon and we had a BLAST chasing each other around in that thing!

Sam got some sweet thrills from his older brother. 

We went back to Emily's house and we played in the water for awhile. Very fun!

 (Emily and Michel. Emily is going to have a second boy in a few weeks!)

Earlier in the week, on two different days, Jed, JT, Ryan and I had played on a super fun frisbee golf course that takes you along (and up) the rims as you go through the course. We covered some serious elevation by the end! And we had to search among the boulders and sagebrush for our frisbees sometimes. It was a challenging course, and so fun!
We decided to take all the kids to Pioneer Park to play a low-key game of frisbee golf on the course they have set up there in the grass, and we all had a great time. Afterwards, Jed and his dad recognized an opportunity for some friendly competition. They are always doing funny competitions like this. They see a bar and simultaneously blurt out, "Let's see who can hang on the longest."  :)

(Jed's motto: When it comes to winning, you gotta do whatcha gotta do.)

Jed's cousins from Idaho were visiting for the weekend. We got a picture with the girls: Camille, me, Laura, Anna, and Michel. (They have two brothers who were also visiting: Kent and Brenden.)  They were all so sweet! I absolutely loved getting to know them and hanging out with them. I wish I could see them more often. Jenna, Jed's niece, was there too, but I don't know where she was at the time of the photo. I loved getting to spend time with her and Shane and Kiersten too!

My kids absolutely adored all their cousins. And the older kids were really sweet with my little ones. Kent towed Eliza around the house (see pic). Laura let Eliza sit on her lap all through Primary. Camille and Anna played with Sammy and Eliza a ton. And Ben had a blast hanging out with his cool older cousins and playing the Wii with the boys. :)