Montana Trip

Ben's Grandma, Jewell Steele, celebrated her 80th birthday on September 8th. She lives in Hamilton, Montana, which is in the Bitterroot Valley with the Rocky Mountains surrounding it. Ben and I flew up there 6 years ago before his Grandpa passed away so we were excited about going back.

We left on Aug 30th and the kids did great on the long plane ride. Thankfully we had Ben's laptop to play videos on. :) We stayed with Ben's Grandma for 9 days and had a blast. Ben's mom was there, too, and we enjoyed spending time with her. The boys loved the beautiful outdoors, meeting their aunts and uncles, and being together as a family. Since Ben's mom's family lives so far away we don't get the chance to see them often, so it was a real treat to spend some quality time with them all. Hudson loved playing football with his Uncle Shawn and cousin Brian, sword fighting with cousin Mick, playing with Aunt Esther, riding horses with Uncle Bruce and being silly with cousin Justin. Landon loved being held and charming all his girl cousins and aunts. :) We were able to do lots of fun outdoors stuff which of course made me think about Daddy. I had wanted to bring him and mom to Montana, but we just never did it. He would have loved the great hiking, the beautiful scenery, and the fly fishing.

Grandma's 80th bday party was incredible. They estimated about 200 people that came and it was a beautiful tribute to her. We were so glad that we were able to be there for her.

If you click on the link below it will take you to 2 albums with all of our trip pictures on it. There are a lot of pics, but they're worth it. :)

http://picasaweb.google.com/brothermclain